Language, Learning, and Teaching
By: Marisol Barraza
Source: Brown, D. Principles of Language
Learning and Teaching.
Learning a Second Language
•
•
•
•
•
Learning a new language
Learning a new culture
A new way of thinking
A new way of feeling
A new way of acting
Sucess Sending & Receiving
Messages in a L2
Commitment
Physical
Involvement
Response
Total
Emotional
Intellectual
Response
Response
L2 LEARNING COURSES
• Inadequate on their own
• Facilitate learning a L2
• Success is possible:
Teachers know what/how/ why variables
affect learning a L2.
Group Discussion
• At the beginning of this chapter, a
Number of categories of questions
About L2 acquisition are described, with
numerous specific questions in each
category.
• In small groups, try to generate some
possible answers to selected questions.
• To personalize your responses, include
examples from the learning experiences of
members of your group.
The L2 Teacher
• Needs to understand the principles of language learning and
teaching.
• Needs to understand the many aspects of the process of L2
learning.
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
Understanding of how learners learn, determines:
Teaching style
Approach
Methods
Classroom techniques
DEFINITIONS
Teaching style
• Individual teachers' distinctive or
characteristic manners of teaching.
DEFINITIONS
Approach
•
•
Theoretical positions and beliefs
about the nature of language, the
nature of language learning, and the
applicability of both to pedagogical
settings.
Describes how people acquire their
knowledge of the language and
makes statements about the
conditions which will promote
successful language learning.
DEFINITIONS
Methods
•
A generalized set of classroom
specifications for accomplishing linguistic
objectives.
•
Method is an overall plan for the orderly
presentation of language material.
DEFINITIONS
Classroom techniques
•
Any of a wide variety of exercises,
activities, or devices used in the
language classroom for realizing lesson
objectives.
•
Techniques must be consistent with a
method, and therefore in harmony with
an approach as well
Their Relationship
For approach, method, and technique,
which determines which?
•‡
Approach determines method
•Method determines technique
•The organizational key is that
techniques carry out a method which is
consistent with an
approach
LANGUAGE
What is LANGUAGE?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Language is systematic
Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.
Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also
be visual.
The symbols have conventionalized meaning 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 language learning both
have universal characteristics.
L2 TEACHER
• Understanding of the components of language
determine how you will teach a language
1. Language and cognition
2. Writing systems
3. Nonverbal communication
4. Sociolinguistics
5. First language acquisition
LEARNING
What is LEARNING?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Learning is acquisition or ¨getting¨.
Learning is retention of information or skill.
Retention implies storage systems, memory,
cognitive organization.
Learning involves active, conscious focus on
and acting upon events outside or inside the
organism.
Learning is relatively permanent but subject to
forgetting.
Learning involves some form of practice,
perhaps reinforced practice.
Learning is a change in behavior.
TEACHING
What is TEACHING?
•
•
•
•
Guides learning
Facilitates learning
Enables the learner to learn
Sets the conditions for learning
THEORY OF TEACHING
• Integrated with your understanding of the
learner and the subject will allow you to
choose the best procedure for the learners
and context.
Schools of Thought in Second
Language Learning
Source: Brown, D. Principles of Language Learning and
Teaching. (p.p.9-15)
Trends in Linguistics and
Psychology
• Psychology
– 1940’s-1950’s:
• Behaviorism/
Neobehaviorism
-1960’s:
Cognitive Psychology
• Linguistics
– 1940’s-1950’s:
• Structural Linguistics
-1960’s:
TransformationalGenerative School
1940’s-1950’s
• Behaviorism
-It focused only on
publicly observable
behaviors
• Structural Linguistics
-Only observable linguistic
behaviors can be
studied.
-Language could be
dismantled into small
pieces or units,
described scientifically,
contrasted, then added
up again to form the
whole.
Cont’d
Behaviorism
• -Notions such as
intuition, memory,
thinking, or any
mental processes
were ignored.
Structural Linguistics
-Notions such as
meaning or thought
were completely
ignored.
Cont’d
Behaviorism
-Learning a behavior:
through conditioning
‘organisms’ to respond
in desired ways to
stimuli --} Practice/
drilling is important.
Structural Ling.
-Learning language:
conditioning learners to
make the right
connection between
stimuli and the desired
responses
Drilling in the language
classroom was a
dominant method.
Cont’d
Behaviorism
Structural Ling.
-Reinforcement
-Positive/ negative
(Positive or negative)
reinforcement play a
plays an important
significant role in
role in learning.
language learning.
The 1960’s - 1980’s
• Cognitive Psychology
-Meaning,
understanding, and
knowing are
important
psychological data.
• TransformationalGenerative Linguistics
-They broke away from
the structuralists’
insistence on only
studying observable
language (performance)
Cont’d
Cognitive Psychology
-Cognitivists sought to
discover underlying
motivation and deeper
structures of human
behavior.
TransformationalGenerative Linguistics
-Linguistics goes beyond
mere description of the
surface structure of
language.
Cont’d
Cognitive Psychology
-Instead of focusing on the
mechanical stimulusresponse connections,
cognitivists tried to
focus on psychological
principles of
organization and
functioning.
Transformational-Generative
Linguistics
-Studying competence reveals
the hidden level of meaning
and thought (deep
structure) that generates
the observable
performance.
-learning language: language is
species-specific; it is innate:
human beings are born with
the ability to learn
language.
The 1980’s – 2000’s
Constructivism
• It involves the integration of linguistic,
psychological, and sociological paradigms.
• The active role of the learner is emphasized.
A. Cognitive constructivism: emphasizes the role
of the learner in constructing his/her own
representation of reality:
Constructivism
-Learners must transform complex information
to make it their own.
• A more active role for students in their
learning.
Piaget argues that, “learning is a developmental
process that involves change, self-generation,
and construction, each building on prior
experiences.” (in Kaufman, 2004).
Constructivism
• Social Constructivism: emphasizes the
importance of social interaction and
cooperative learning in constructing cognitive
and emotional images of reality.
• Language learning is a result of thinking and
meaning-making that is “socially constructed
and emerges out of [learners’] social
interactions with the environment.” (Brown, p.
13)
What is the Best Theory?
• No single theory is right or wrong all the way!
GROUP DISCUSSION
• Looking back at the three schools of thought
described in this chapter, in a small group,
suggest some examples of activities in the
language classroom that would be derived
from each of the perspectives.
Language Teaching
Before the 20th century
• Goal: Reading in a foreign language
• Classical Method was adopted for teaching
foreign languages (Grammar Translation
Method)
• Focus on grammar rules, memorization of
vocabulary, conjugations, translation and
written exercises.
GRAMMAR TRANSLATION
METHOD
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
CHARACTERISTICS
Classes taught in L1; little use of L2
Vocabulary taught in lists and isolated
Grammar explanation, memorization
Reading classical text early
Grammar analysis of text
Translation
0 attention to pronunciation
20th CENTURY
Methods
• Grammar Translation Method
• Direct Method
• The Audiolingual Method
• Community Language Teaching
• The Silent Way
• Suggestopedia
• Total Physical Response
• The Natural Approach
http://www.englishraven.com/methodology.html
21 Century
•
•
•
•
Method –Approach
Communicative Language Teaching (approach)
Eclectical blend of previous methods
Teaching students to communicate genuinely,
spontaneously, and meaningfully in the L2
http://www.englishraven.com/method_commu
nicative.html
GROUP DISCUSSION
• At the end of the chapter, twentieth-century
language teaching methodology is described
as one that evolved into an approach rather
than a specific accepted method, with the
Direct Method and Audiolingual Method cited
as examples of the latter.
• What is the difference between approach and
method?