MENTALISM

Language is internal, rulegoverned, and abstract. The human organism has an innate predisposition toward language acquisition, being in a sense "programmed" for language.

Greater emphasis needs to be put on the student's "COMPETENCE" as opposed to his "performance. Competence is what you actually know about a language,

Performance is how you actually use it.

Major principle of Mentalism Language Acquisition

Everybody learns a language, not because they are subjected to a similar conditioning process, but because they possess an inborn capacity which permits them to acquire a language as normal Maturational Process" (D.A. Wilkins, 1972: 168).

Mentalist Theories Influenced Ideas about L1 and L2 Acquisition

Language Acquisition Device (LAD) * Innate mental organ * Used in L1 and L2 acquisition * Evolved to search for patterns in the input and formulate rules of grammar Lead to the Active Construction of a Grammar theory in L1 acquisition *Children were searching out patterns *Lead to the construction of an underlying grammar Lead to the idea of an interlanguage in L2 acquisition * Learners of L2 followed fairly consistent sequence of acquisition * Commonalities due to factors beyond L1 characteristics * L2 learners using LAD to form new underlying grammars

THE COGNITIVE APPROACH

(a) the concepts behind language i.e. to traditional grammar. (b) language as an operation - sets of communicative functions.

y Joint Attention is the process of sharing ones experience of observing

an object or event, by following gaze or pointing gestures. It is critical for social development, language acquisition, cognitive development

CONCLUSION
y A specific contribution of Mentalism language learning theory is that it has given a

strong emphasis on human language learning behavior.

y Mentalism has stressed that a meaningful learning presupposes a deep study of the

meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. Though the mentalists evade no explanations as to how meaning should be taught.
y A new discovery in language teaching is generated by Mentalism. This is the

concept that not only the mental activities of the language learner himself but the impact of the external factors such as imitation, frequency of some reinforcement,
y Cognitivists consider how human memory works to promote learning. For example,

the physiological processes of sorting and encoding information and events into short term memory and long term memory are important to educators working under the cognitive theory.
y Aspects of cognitivism can be found in learning how to learn, social role acquisition,

intelligence, learning, and memory as related to age.