1-Schools of Thought in Second Language Learning.ppt

second language learning

1. Schools of Thought in
Second Language Learning
(1940’s -2000’s)
Source: Brown, D. Principles of Language
Learning and Teaching. (p.p.9-15)

2. 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:
Transformational-
Generative School

3. 1940’s-1950’s
Behaviorism
-It focused onlyon
publicly observable
behaviors
Structural Linguistics
-Onlyobservable
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.

4. 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.

5. 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
connectionbetween
stimuli and the
desired responses --}
Drilling in the language
classroom was a
dominant method.

6. Cont’d
Behaviorism
-Reinforcement
(Positive or
negative) plays an
important role in
learning.
Structural Ling.
-Positive/ negative
reinforcement play
a significant role in
language learning.

7. The 1960’s -1980’s
Cognitive Psychology
-Meaning,
understanding, and
knowing are
important
psychological data.
Transformational-
Generative Linguistics
-They broke away from
the structuralists’
insistence on only
studying observable
language
(performance)

8. Cont’d
Cognitive Psychology
-Cognitivists sought to
discover underlying
motivation and
deeper structures of
human behavior.
Transformational-
Generative Linguistics
-Linguistics goes beyond
mere description of
the surface structure
of language.

9. Cont’d
Cog. Psych.
-Instead of focusing on
the mechanical
stimulus-response
connections,
cognitivists tried to
focus on
psychological
principles of
organization and
functioning.
T-G Linguistics
-Studying competence
reveals the hidden level
of meaningand 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.

10. 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:

11. 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).

12. Constructivism
B. Social Constructivism:emphasizes the
importance ofsocial interactionand
cooperative learningin 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)

13. What is the Best Theory?
No single theory is right or wrong all the
way!
“Some truth can be found in every critical
approach to the study of reality.”(Brown,
p. 14)