Theories of Second
Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
• A change in external behavior achieved through a
large amount of repetition of desired actions.
• The reward of good habits and the discouragement
of bad habits.
In the classroom This view of learning
lead us to
• A great deal of repetitive actions.
• Praise for correct outcomes and
immediate corrections of mistakes.
In the field of language learning this type of
teaching was called the audio-lingual method.
The whole class using choral chanting of key
phrases, dialogues and immediate correction.
Nativism
• In The field of psychology, nativism is that certain
skills or abilities are native or hardwired in to the
brain at birth.
• This is in contrast to the view Which states “brain
has inborn capabilities for learning from the
environment.”
Researches on the human capacity for language
provides strong support for a nativism view.
• No human society has ever been discovered that doesn’t employ a
language
• All medically intact children acquire at last one language in early
childhood.
• Universal grammar (UG) that is used for the innate properties of
human brain that are responsible for children’s rapid and
successful acquisition of a native language, without any obvious
effort during the first five years of life.
Cognitivism
• A cognivitism theory of learning sees second
language acquisition as a conscious and reasoned
thinking process, involving the deliberate use of
language strategies.
• Learning strategies are special ways of processing
information that enhance comprehension, learning and
or retention of information.
• This explanation of language learning contrast strongly
with the behaviorism which sees language learning as an
unconscious, automatic process.
• Cognitive theory promotes the constructive
nature of the learning process.
• Not the accumulation of facts. But
constructing personal meaning from
experience.
Social Interactions
• This theory emphasize the role of social interaction between the developing
child and linguistically knowledgeable adults.
• Language, according to social interactionists, develop through interaction
with other human biengs.
• Social interactionists climes that no critical period for language acquisition
exist as the process of information is not dependent on biological or
cognitive development.
Worksheet
Popular ideas about language learning:
Match the following statements to the four
major approaches to language learning.
• I best learn things when I repeat them over and over.
• I only learn something when I first understand it.
• When I work on my own I learn much better.
• I believe language learning capacity is God-given.
• If I want to learn something well, I put the information
into different categories.
• I usually prefer to work in groups of people at my age in
order to learn something complex.
• I expect people around to correct me whenever I make a
mistake.
• A second language is learnt in the same order the first
language is acquired.
• When I share something I’ve learnt with others I
make it stronger in my mind.
• I always have a plan to start, keep, and finalize my
studies.
• I learn something best when I can use it in my real
life.
• I don’t believe in formal instruction. I think
language should be picked up naturally.