ACQUISITION AND LEARNING

DR. MARY GRACE Z. AGBAS

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHEASTERN PHILIPPINES
 OUTLINE FOR TODAY

 The acquisition-learning hypothesis

 The natural order hypothesis
 The monitor hypothesis
 The input hypothesis
 The affective filter hypothesis
 EFFECTING VARIABLES
 Comprehensible input (causative)
 Strength of the filter (causative)
 Language teaching
 Exposure variable
 Age
 Acculturation
ACQUISITION VS. LEARNING
 THE ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

 Acquisition = subconsciously picking up

 Learning = conscious
 Error correction
 Explicit instruction
 Children acquire language better than adults
LEARNING

 is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a

conscious
 process which results in conscious knowledge 'about' the
 language, for example knowledge of grammar rules.
ACQUISITION

 the product of a subconscious process very similar to the

process
 children undergo when they acquire their first language. It
 requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural
 communication - in which speakers are concentrated not in the
 form of their utterances, but in the communicative act.
 “
”
'LEARNING' IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN
'ACQUISITION'. STEPHEN KRASHEN

It is clear that as teachers, we want to maximize our student's

opportunities to acquire language. Consequently, if we accept the
hypothesis then we need to spend more time using real language
with our students as opposed to teaching them explicit grammar
rules.
LANGUAGE LEARNING

 It is the result of direct instruction in the rules of language

 It certainly is not an age-appropriate activity for young learners.
 In language learning, students have conscious knowledge of the
new language and can talk about that knowledge.
 They can fill in the blanks on a grammar page.
LEARNING AT SCHOOL
 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

 Children acquire language through a subconscious process during which

they are unaware of grammatical rules.
 They readily acquire the language to communicate with friends.
 In order to acquire language, the learner needs a source of natural
communication. The emphasis is on the text of the communication and
not on the form.
 Young students who are in the process of acquiring English get plenty of
“on the job” practice.
ACQUISITION
 THREE POSITIONS
OF FIRST LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
BEHAVIORISTIC POSITION

 Individuals are born without built-in mental content and their knowledge
comes from experience and perception(tabula rasa).
 Assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental
stimuli.
 Behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement or negative
reinforcement.
 Consider effective language behavior to be the production of correct
responses to stimuli. If a particular response is reinforced, it then
becomes habitual, or conditioned.
BEHAVIORIST LEARNING THEORY

 is a process of forming habits; the teacher controls the learning

environment and learners are empty vessels into which the
teacher pours knowledge.
NATIVIST

 We have an innate predisposition to learn language, and

learning is in our genetics.
 According to Chomsky, this innate knowledge is embodied in a
¨little black box¨ of sorts, a language acquisition device (LAD).
 All human beings are genetically equipped with the ability that
enables them to acquire language. (a system of universal
linguistic rules or Universal Grammar)
COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY

 emphasized the learner´s cognitive ability, involving

reasoning and mental processes rather than habit
formation.
FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES

 Two emphases emerged

1. Researchers began to realize that language was a cognitive and affective
ability to communicate with all the things including the self.
2. They dealt with the forms of language, not the deeper functional levels.
COGNITION AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
 Bloom found three possible underlying relationships: agent
action, agent-object, and possessor-possessed.
 In addition, he concluded that children learn underlying
structures, not superficial word order.
 Piaget insisted that what children learn about language is
determined by what they already know about the world.
 Dan Slobin demonstrated that semantic learning depends on
cognitive development.
SOCIAL INTERACTION AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

 Social constructivist emphasized on the function of language in

discourse.
 Discourse has a special meaning in that language is used for
interactive communication.
THE FUNCTIONAL CONTEXT APPROACH TO LEARNING
 stresses the importance of making learning relevant to the
experience of learners and their work context.
 The learning of new information is facilitated by making it
possible for the learner to relate it to knowledge already
possessed and transform old knowledge into new knowledge.
 By using materials that the learner will use after training,
transfer of learning from the classroom to the "real world" will
be enhanced.
 ISSUES IN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE

COMPETENCE:

 Refers to one´s underlying knowledge of a system, event, or

fact.
 It is the non-observable ability to do something, to perform
something.
 Competence & Language: it is one´s knowledge of the system of
a language (rules of grammar, vocabulary)-all the pieces of
language and how they fit together.
PERFORMANCE

 It is the overtly observable and concrete manifestation or

realization of competence.
 It is the actual production (speaking, writing) or the
comprehension (listening, reading) of linguistic events.
 COMPREHENSION AND PRODUCTION

 They are both aspects of competence and performance.

 Children seem to understand more than they actually produce
like adults do.
NATURE OR NURTURE?

 Even if Nativists insist that a child is born with an innate

knowledge toward language, there are a number of problems.
 The innateness is important, but we should not ignore the
environmental factors.
 Language is both acquired and learned
UNIVERSALS
 Children go through similar Universal Language Acquisition stages regardless of
cultural and social circumstances.
 Language is universally acquired in the same manner, and the deep structure of
language at its deepest level may be common to all languages.
 According to Maratsos (1988), universal linguistic categories such as word order,
morphological marking tone, agreement, reduced reference of nouns and noun,
clauses, verbs and verb classes, predication, negation and question formation are
common to all languages.
 There are principles and parameters which specify some limited possibilities of
variation.
 Parameters determines ways in which languages can vary.
LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

 Piaget claimed that cognitive development affects language.

 On the other hand, others claimed that language has an effect
on thought.
 The truth is that language and thought are closely related.
IMITATION

 One of the most important strategies a child uses in language learning is

imitation.
 Behaviorists assume one type of imitation, but a deeper level of imitation
is much more important in the process of language acquisition.
 When children imitate the surface structure of the language, they are not
able to understand what they are imitating.
PRACTICE
 A behavioristic model of first language acquisition would claim that
practice - repetition and association – is the key to the formation of
habits by operant conditioning.
 Practice is usually regarded as referring to speaking only. But we can also
think about comprehension practice.
 The child learns not only how to initiate a conversation but how to
respond to another’s initiating utterance and recognize the function of
the discourse.
INPUT

 The role of input in the child’s acquisition of language is very important.

 Children can speak what they hear.
 Adult and peer input to the child is far more crucial that nativists earlier
thought.
 Adult input shapes the child’s acquisition and the interaction patterns
between child and parent change according to the increasing language
skill of the child.
KRASHEN'S THEORY OF SECOND LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION CONSISTS OF FIVE MAIN
HYPOTHESES
KRASHEN'S THEORY

1. Acquisition-Learning hypothesis,
2. Monitor hypothesis,
3. Input hypothesis,
4. Natural Order hypothesis,
5. Affective Filter hypothesis.
 ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

 The Acquisition-Learning distinction is the most important

of all the hypotheses in Krashen's theory and the most widely
known and influential among linguists and language
practitioners.
ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

 According to Krashen there are two independent systems of second

language performance: 'the acquired system' and 'the learned system'. The
'acquired system' or 'acquisition' is the product of a subconscious
process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire
their first language.
 The 'learned system' or 'learning' is the product of formal instruction
and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious
knowledge
 THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS

 the acquisition system is the utterance initiator, while the

learning system performs the role of the 'monitor' or 'editor.'
The monitor helps a person polish their speech or writing and
may be over-used (ex, heavy concern about mistakes). Usually
extroverts are under-users of the monitor, while introverts and
perfectionists are over-users.
 NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS

 For any given language, some grammatical structures tend to be acquired

early while others late. This does not mean teachers should delay
introducing those language structures because students will not reliably
reproduce them until later (perhaps much later). Students need more
repeated exposure to natural sounding language input over a longer time
to acquire these elements of the target language.
 INPUT HYPOTHESIS

The learner progresses along the 'natural order' as he/she

receives second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her
current linguistic competence. If a learner already has acquired
language competence ‘i,’ they will acquire more language through
exposure to comprehensible input ‘i + 1.’ Krashen believes natural
communicative input will provide all learners with ‘i + 1’ regardless
of each learner’s current level of competence.
 AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS

Krashen claims that learners with low motivation, low self-

esteem, and/or debilitating anxiety can 'raise' the affective filter
and form a 'mental block’ to their progress. Teachers will want to
plan lessons that reduce these hindrances by providing
interesting, even compelling, content (from the learners’
perspective, not the teacher’s) and by not shaming learners for
errors or overusing correction techniques that cause anxiety.
 THE NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS

 Grammar structures are acquired in a predictable order

 L2 learning order is different from L1 order
 L2 learning adults and children show similar order
THE ORDER FOR L2 LEARNERS (KRASHEN, 1977)
 THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS
 Acquisition has the central role
 Learning functions as a Monitor
 3 conditions needed to use Monitor
 Time
 Focus on form
 Know the rule
 When Monitor is not used, errors are natural
 Pedagogically: study of grammar has a place, but a limited one
 THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS

 We acquire by comprehensible input (i) + 1

 Input Hypothesis relates to acquisition, not learning
 Focus not on structure but on understanding the message
 Do not teach structure deliberately; i+1 is provided naturally when input is
understood
 Production ability emerges. It’s not taught directly
 THE AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS

 Motivation
 Self-confidence
 Anxiety
 Lower affective filter will go further
THE AFFECTIVE FILTER
THANK YOU!!