LANGUAGE, LEARNING AND TEACHING

I. CONCEPTS A. Language

Joanne Abellar, Aicel Alvarez__ __

Different definitions of Language: 1. Concise Columbia Encyclopedia:systematic communication by vocal symbols 2. Pinkers The language Instinct: Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously without 3. A consolidation of a number of possible definitions yields: Language is systematic possibly a generative system. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols. Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may be visual. The symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer. Language is used for communication. Language operates in a speech community or culture. Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans. Language is acquired by all people in much the same way language and learning both have universal characteristics.

B. Learning
1. American Heritage Dictionary: To gain knowledge, comprehension, or mastery through study 2. Kimble and Garmezy: Learning is relatively permanent change in a behavioral tendency and is the result of reinforced practice. 3. The domains of learning: Learning is acquisition or getting. Learning is retention of information or skill. Retention implies storage systems, memory, and cognitive organization. Learning involves active, conscious focus on acting upon events outside orinside the organism. Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting. Learning involves some form of practice. Learning is a change in behavior.

C. Teaching
1. American Heritage Dictionary: to impart knowledge or skill to someone 2. Brown: Showing or helping someone to learn how to dosomething, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand

II. SCHOOLS of THOUGHT in SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (SLA) A. Structuralism/Behaviorism

Time Frame: Early 1900s &1940s & 1950s Also known as structural or descriptive and empiricist school of linguistics Advocates: Leonard Bloomfield, Edward Sapir, Charles Hockett, Charles Fries, and others Characteristics: 1. Learning as behavior change through habit formation. 2. Language learning was seen as being similar to any other kind of learning. 3. Describe and explain behaviors using an SR-model= stimulus (S) and the organisms response (R) to the stimulus. 4. Concepts as consciousness and intuition were regarded as mentalistic or illegitimate domains of inquiry. 5. Only the publicly observable responses could be subject to investigation 6. Everything adhered to scientific methods 7. Language could be dismantled into units and these units could be described scientifically, contrasted, and added up again to form the whole.

Skinner (1957) experiment /Skinners Box: (First Language Acquisition) 1. Defined the notion of reinforcement (Positive Reinforcement & Negative Reinforcement) 2. First and second language acquisition apply the basic principles: imitation, practice, reinforcement/feedback and habitformation

B. Rationalism/Cognitive Approach
Time frame: 1960s &1970s Also known as generative-transformational school of linguistics Advocate: Noam Chomsky Characteristics: 1. Human language cannot be scrutinized simply in terms of observable stimuli and responses or raw data 2. Interested in the explanatory level of adequacy in the study of language 3. Formalist view: the child is programmed for acquiring language through Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and Universal Grammar 4. Interested in both performance & competence (Chomsky) or Parole & Langue (Ferdinand de Saussure). Performance/Parole= Using a language. Competence/Langue= The linguistic system underlying second language grammars and its constructions.

C. Constructivism
Time frame: 1980s,1990s & early 2000 Advocates: Jean Piaget & Lev Vygotsky Characteristics: 1. Humans construct their own version of reality, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences 2. Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity is helping them gain understanding 3. The learning process focuses on primary concepts, not isolated facts 4. The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the right answers and regurgitate someone elses meaning. Jean Piget importance of individual cognitive development as a relatively solitary act. Biological timetables and stages of development were basic; social interaction was claimed only to trigger development as the right moment in time Lev Vygotsky social interaction was foundational in cognitive development and rejected the notion of predetermined stages.

III. Language Teaching Methodology

Since 1970s: Psychologists studied interpersonal relationships, value of group work, use of self-help strategies for attaining goals. Linguists studied the nature of communicative competence and interactive process of language. 2000: Teacher is called on to develop a sound overall approach to various language classrooms. Different Types of Teaching Approaches

A. Grammar-Translation Method
Characteristics: 1. Focus on grammatical rules 2. Memorization of vocabulary and of various declensions and conjugations 3. Translation of texts 4. Doing written exercises Criticism: 1. Low on communicative ability 2. Remembered with distaste by thousands of school learners, for memorizing endless lists of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary and attempting to produce perfect translation of stilted or literary prose.

3. It has no advocates. 4. It is a method of which there is no theory. 5. There is no literature that offers a rationale or justification for it or that attempt to relate it to issues in linguistic, psychology, or educational theory.

B. Direct Method
-refrains from using the learners native language and uses only the target language -established in Germnay and France around 1900. Characteristics: 1. Teaching vocabulary through pantomiming, real-life objects and other visual materials 2. Teaching grammar by using an inductive approach (i.e. having learners find out rules through the presentation of adequate linguistic forms in the target language) 3. Centrality of spoken language (including a native-like pronunciation) 4. Focus on question-answer patterns 5. Teacher-centering

C. Audiolingual Method (ALM)

-developed in the 1950s based on behaviorist psychology with the idea that language is habit forming process -focus is on oral discussion and very little on grammar rules -repetition of phrases orally until a pattern is established Characteristics: 1. Contrastive analysis is used for sequencing structures. 2. Structural patterns are taught by repetitive drills. 3. The explanation about grammar is not important. 4. The use of L1 in the classroom is strictly prohibited. 5. Listening and speaking is more important than reading and writing.

D. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)/ Communicative Approach

-based on the idea that the goal of learning the second language is to gain communicative competency -focuses on the use of language in everyday situations or functional aspects of language, and less on the formal structures Characteristics: 1. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language. 2. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation. 3. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on the language but also on the learning process itself. 4. An enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning. 5. An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom.

References:
Douglas-Brown (1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Ellis, R. (1988) The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford: OUP http://chris1066.tripod.com/methods.html http://www.englishraven.com/method_communicative.html