Chapter One Language Learning and Teaching SLA questions

Chapter One: Language, Learning and Teaching

SLA questions /issues

Define Language • Within your group, read your definition of language and discuss how your definition is different from your friends’.

Read on page 6 • There are 8 definitions of language and 8 matching areas. Read number 1 from the definitions and then 1 from the possible areas, read 2 from the definition then 2 from the possible areas……etc.

Learning & Teaching

Learning & Teaching • Learning is “acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by study, experience , or instruction”. • Teaching is “showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding and providing knowledge, causing to know or understand”.

Schools of Thought in SLA • linguistics and psychology

Structural Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology • • Structural Linguistics: When? 1940 s and 1950 s Advocates? Bloomfield, Sapir and Fries What do structuralists believe? “only publically observable responses could be subject to investigation”. Their task is to describe human languages and identify the structural characteristics.

Structural Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology • Behavioral Psychology • Who? Skinner • Ignore the mind. . Focus on the speaker not the cause. • Behavioral psychologists focused on publically observable responses that can be recorded and measured.

Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology • When? 1960 s • Generative- transformational linguistics emerged through the influence of Noam Chomsky. • Chomsky: language cannot be examined in terms of observable stimuli and responses.

Noam Chomsky • Born December 7, 1928, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • In 1945 he began to study philosophy and linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania

Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology • Linguists are not only interested in describing language but also in arriving at an explanatory level that is a “principled basis” for the selection of grammar “ independent of any particular language”

Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology • On the side of psychology, cognitive psychologists asserted that meaning, understanding and knowing were important data/information for their study.

Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology • Instead of focusing on stimulusresponse, cognitive psychologists focused on organization and functioning. They also, like generative linguists, tried to discover underlying motivations and deeper structures of human behavior.

Constructivism: A Multidisciplinary Approach • • Constructivism is a new school of thought. Who? Piaget and Vygotsky A mix of psychology, sociology and linguistics. Emphasis on social interaction and the construction of meaning.

Constructivism How is it different? (cognitive and social) Cognitive Constructivism • Emphasis on the importance of learners building their own knowledge. • Piaget: learning is a developmental process that involves change and construction building on prior knowledge. Social constructivism • Emphasis on social interaction and cooperative learning. • Vygotsky : “children’s thinking and meaningmaking is socially constructed and emerges out of their social interactions. ”

Schools of Thought • All three of the historical positionsstructural/behavioral, generative/cognitive and constructivemust be seen as important in creating balanced descriptions of second language acquisition. • P. 15

19 Centuries of Language Teaching • • Before the 20 th C. The Grammar-Translation Method. Mother toungue, little L 2 Lists of words Elaborate explanation of grammar Reading of difficult classical texts Occasional drills in translating from L 1 to L 2 Little or no attention to pronunciation

Language Teaching in the 20 th C • Audiolingual Method • Direct Method • Communicative Language Teaching

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