Schools of Thoughts in Second Language Acquisition
What is School of Thought?
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Structural linguistics is, observable, can be
perceive by human. If it is perceivable therefore, is it
easy to study.
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A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is
the perspective of a group of people who share common
characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy,
discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural
movement, or art movement.
Advocates of structural linguistics
Leonard Bloomfield
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Promote physicalism wherein it states that
linguistics should avoid mentalism (process of mind) and
School of Thought Vs. Theory
concentrate upon the directly observable.
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Edward Sapir
A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking
about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking.
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The process of contemplative and rational
thinking is often associated with such processes as
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Classified indigenous language and determine
how culture affects the languages.
Charles Hockett
observational study or research.
First Language
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A person‘s native language.
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A language spoken in addition to one‘s first
language.
Second Language Acquisition
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Second language acquisition, or sequential
language acquisition, is learning a second language after
a first language is already established.
1. Structural Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology
STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS
Differentiate human language for non-human
languages and determine its features.
Charles Fries
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Explored grammar as a tool for communication
meaning.
This structural linguistic theory has been opposed by
Freeman Twaddell (1935) as he stated that this principle
in perhaps its most extreme terms:
―Whatever our attitude toward mind, spirit, soul, etc. as,
realities, we must agree that the scientist proceeds as
though there were no such things, as though there were
acquired through processes of his physiological nervous
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Define as the study of language based on the
system. Insofar as he occupies himself with psychical,
theory that language is a structured system of formal
nonmaterial forces, the scientist is not a scientist. The
units such as grammar, sentence, and syntax.
scientific method is quite simply the convention that
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mind does not exist.‖
An application of scientific observations of
human languages
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Only ―publicly observable responses‖ could be
BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY
Behavioral
the subject to investigation.
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The way in which one acts or conducts oneself,
especially toward others.
Psychology
Audiolingualism
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The scientific study of mind and behavior. This
includes the study of conscious and unconscious
phenomena, including feelings and thoughts.
Behavioral Psychology
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A behavioral paradigm also focused on publicly
Aims to promote mechanical habit-formation
through repetition of basic patterns.
Behavioral Models
1.
Operant Conditioning
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In which modern behaviorism is based.
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Defined as the shaping of future acts based on
observable responses—those that can be objectively
perceived, recorded, and measured.
past rewards or punishments.
John B. Watson
2.
Classical Conditioning
should focus on the observable behavior of individuals,
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Defined as the association of a conditioned
rather than the invisible, inner workings of their minds.
stimulus (such as food), with a neutral stimulus (such as
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In 1913, Watson proposed that psychologist
a bell).
Behaviorism gave birth to stimulus–response (S–R)
theory which strives to explain L2 learning as the
Classical Conditioning Definitions
acquisition of a set of structures through the process of
Unconditioned Stimulus
habit formation (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk, 2016).
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An unconditioned stimulus is a stimulus or
B.F Skinner
trigger that leads to an automatic response.
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Developed the behavioral psychology.
Neutral Stimulus
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One of the most important psychologists of 20th
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A neutral stimulus is a stimulus that doesn't
century in the process.
initially trigger a response on its own.
Skinner’s Theory
Conditioned Stimulus
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Positive Consequences = Postive Feedback
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Negative Consequences = Negative Feedback
once neutral (didn't trigger a response) but now leads to
A conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that was
a response.
"Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything." - B.F
Skinner
Unconditioned Response
B.F Skinner’s Verbal Behavior (1957)
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An unconditioned response is an automatic
response or a response that occurs without thought when
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A method of teaching language that focuses on
the idea that a meaning of a word is found in their
functions.
an unconditioned stimulus is present.
Conditioned Response
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Disadvantage of Rote Learning
A conditioned response is a learned response or
a response that is created where no response existed
Helps develop foundational knowledge.
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Can be repetitive.
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Easy to lose focus.
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Doesn‘t allow for a deeper understanding of a
before.
How Classical Conditioning Works
PHASE 1: Before Conditioning
PHASE 2: During Conditioning
PHASE 3: After Conditioning
subject.
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Doesn‘t encourage the use of social skills.
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No connection between new and previous
Key Principles of Classical Conditioning
knowledge
Acquisition - the initial stage of learning, when a
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response is first established and gradually strengthened.
understanding a concept.
Once the response has been established, you can
May result in wrong impression or
4.
Discrimination Learning
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If two (or more) different stimuli are
gradually reinforce the response to make sure the
behavior is well learned.
simultaneously presented to the organism, and only one
Extinction - Extinction is when the occurrences of a
conditioned response decrease or disappear.
Spontaneous Recovery - Sometimes a learned response
can suddenly reemerge, even after a period of extinction.
of them is associated with reinforcement regardless of
position, the organism will learn to select the reinforced
stimulus on future occasions.
"Language is not a habit structure. Ordinary linguistic
Generalization - The tendency for a conditioned
behaviour characteristically involves innovation,
stimulus to evoke similar responses after the response
formation of new sentences and patterns in accordance
has been conditioned.
with rules of great abstractness and intricacy." –
Discrimination - The ability to differentiate between a
Chomsky, 2003
conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not
2. GENERATIVE LINGUISTICS AND COGNITVE
been paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
PSYCHOLOGY
3.
Rote Verbal Learning
GENERATIVE LINGUISTICS
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Examples of rote learning include memorizing
According to Chomsky
the alphabet, numbers, and multiplication tables. Some
consider rote learning to be a necessary step in learning
certain subjects.
Advantages of Rote Learning
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Ability to quickly recall basic facts.
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Human cannot be scrutinized simply in terms of
observable stimuli and responses, or the volumes of raw
data gathered by field linguists.
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The generative linguist was interested not only
in describing language but also in arriving at an
explanatory level of adequacy in the study of language.
Ferdinand De Saussure (1916)
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Claim that there was a difference between Parole
(what Skinner "observes" and what Chomsky called
"performance") also the Langue (related to the concept
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The field of Cognitive Psychology is both broad
and diverse,
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There are numerous practical applications it,
such as providing help coping with memory disorders,
making better decisions, recovering from brain injury,
treating learning disorders, and structuring educational
curricula to enhance learning.
of competence or our underlying and unobservable
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language ability).
professionals approach the treatment of mental illness,
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
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How scientist study the mind
The study of how people think and process
information.
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Helps researchers understand the human brain.
Brief history of Cognitive Psychology
Although it is a relatively young branch of psychology,
it has quickly grown to become one of the most popular
subfields. Cognitive psychology grew into prominence
between the 1950s and 1970s.
Prior to this time, behaviorism was the dominant
perspective in psychology. This theory holds that we
learn all our behaviors from interacting with our
environment.2 It focuses strictly on observable behavior,
not thought and emotion. Then, researchers became
more interested in the internal processes that affect
Cognitive psychology helps play a role in how
traumatic brain injury, and degenerative brain diseases.
Cognitive psychologists explore a wide variety of topics
related to thinking processes. Some of these include:
Attention or our ability to process information in
the environment while tuning out irrelevant details.
Choice-based behavior, these actions driven by a
choice among other possibilities.
Decision-making and Problem-solving, it is how
we decide to solve the unknown.
Forgetting and Memory, it answers on how we
sometimes remember and forget details.
Information processing, how we understand
when there is an input from the outside.
Language acquisition--how we learn to read,
write, and express ourselves.
behavior instead of just the behavior itself.
Speech perception-how we process what others
This shift is often referred to as the cognitive revolution
are saying.
in psychology. During this time, a great deal of research
on topics including memory, attention, and language
Visual perception--how we see the physical
acquisition began to emerge.
world around us.
In 1967, the psychologist Ulric Neisser introduced the
Before the 1970s, many mental health treatments were
term cognitive psychology, which he defined as the
focused more on psychoanalytic, behavioral, and
study of the processes behind the perception,
humanistic approaches.
transformation, storage, and recovery of information.
The so-called "cognitive revolution" put a greater
it in the future individuals are to be formed who are
emphasis on understanding the way people process
capable of production and creativity and not simply
information and how thinking patterns might contribute
repetition.
to psychological distress.
New approaches to treatment were developed to help
treat depression, anxiety, phobias, and other
psychological disorders.
3. CONSTRUCTIVISM: A MULTI DISCIPLINARY
APPROACH
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A philosophy of learning that says we create our
Focuses on the interaction of experiences and ideas in
the creation of new knowledge.
Explores the importance of learning alongside with peers
and how culture affects the accommodation and
assimilation of knowledge.
Innovation within our hands are ways to create new
learnings. Social interaction develops our confidence and
own knowledge by reflecting on our own experiences
still used as a tool to show everyone that we are capable
and building our prior knowledge.
of it. We explore our life through experiences we
Constructivism in Teaching
encounter. With language, we share this multidisciplinary approach has developed ourselves inside the
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Invents our own concepts and ideas linked to
classroom. We have gained so many things through
what we already know.
constructivist learning and teaching. We have discovered
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how a constructivist classroom became active and
Knowledge is constructed by learners through an
active and mental process of development.
participative acquired by all students and also it teaches
us to do learning by doing, we are not just learning from
The Constructivist Classroom
our lessons but we are training ourselves to become
The Hallmark of a constructivist classroom is the use of
independent and competitive inside the classroom.
active techniques of learning. (Explanation: like
Constructivism teach us analyze information within our
experiments, solving real life problems, reflection and
own, in research and in discovery.
discussion.)
The students are encouraged to ask questions, discuss,
and then reflect.
Constructivist Learning
It is based on the idea that learners should have an active
role in classroom‘s problem solving.
Constructivists focus on the instrumental and practical
function of theory and knowledge.
Piaget‘s Contribution
SIMILARITIES
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Both constructivism and cognitivism are concerned with
To discover, or understand is to reconstruct by
rediscovery, and such conditions must be complied with
meanings.
Constructivism promotes students' active
engagement with knowledge to extract meaning from it,
DIFFERENCES
Comparison of the three language acquisitions
whereas cognitivism emphasizes providing information
to the students so they can understand a lesson's meaning
more thoroughly.
Both behaviorism and constructivism emphasize the
importance of experience in the learning process.
Constructivism maintains that students develop and
construct their own knowledge through their learning
experiences in their schools or homes. While
behaviorism tries to prove that students learn from
experiences, reinforcement, imitating their surroundings,
and observing the behaviors of others by listening to or
seeing the actual process they see or hear.
Constructivism learning states that learners use
prior knowledge, meanwhile cognitivism is an internal
processing of information.
Cognitivism‘s environment requires an
environment where thinking activities and processes take
place.
Constructivism‘s environment facilitates an
active learning environment.
Constructivism uses interactive strategies like
group activities.
Cognitivism uses note taking activities.
Although the goal of those acquiring a first
language and those learning in a classroom are
essentially the same - ‗to map form and function to
Both cognitivism and behaviorism think that the
produce meaningful utterances based upon their
environment can affect learning.
language experiences‘ (Chenu and Jisa 2009:18)
With cognitivism and behaviorism, students are
more eager to learn effectively when the concepts that
are presented to them are clearly and easily understood.
The environment can affect the learning of the students
because if you have a good environment, you can adopt
The three language acquisitions in the classroom:
Behaviorism in the classroom gives students
stimulus, positive conditioning like praise will motivate
the student while negative conditioning like scolding
will result in a stimulus response. (negative)
their good behavior, and if your environment is not good
for your learning, you should stay away from it.
Cognitivism is all about interactive activities that
activate students‘ thinking potential.
Behaviorism and constructivism are similar because
they both involve in action.
Activities like demonstrating a concept, reciting,
and retaining poetry, giving them hands-on problems,
In behaviorism, students adjust their behavior in
the hope of achieving the intended results, but in
and interactive discussions are some ways that enforce
cognitive. learning inside the classrooms.
constructivism, students perform actions in order to
achieve the desired results more successfully. They are
Constructivism allows the students to utilize
similar in both actions because the students want to learn
their own understanding and experience to gain unique
more effectively and doing such an action is the best
insights on different subjects. Students have freedom of
thing to accomplish those goals.
interpretation, this way of learning treats knowledge as a
process solely existing inside the mind. Some activities
The similarities of the three schools of thought are that it
involves the student‘s participation and engagement in
the classroom and develop prior knowledge.
are discussions, debates, and the sharing of knowledge
between peers.