1. Differences between acquisition and learning
Acquisition: Children acquire language through a subconscious process when they are unaware of grammatical rules. This is similar to the way they acquire their first language. They get a feel for what is and what isn’t correct. 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.
Learning: Language learning, on the other hand, is not communicative. It is the result of direct instruction in the rules of language. And it certainly is not an age-appropriate activity for your 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.
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' 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. According to Krashen 'learning' is less important than 'acquisition.
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2. Stages in language acquisition
From the educational point of view it’s necessary to distinguish 4 basic stages in language acquisition:
1.Pre-school stage
-Ss learn by imitation and their learning must be often reinforced
-learning is more effective if children are not constantly corrected.
2.Primary/elementary school stage
-students are gradually acquainted with some grammar and rules.
-It’s possible to describe, explain, and practice some formal terms and concepts with reference to language structure and operation.
3.secondary/high school stage
-physiologically they can be defined as adults because they share many common features with those from university stage and adults.
-Their level of knowledge allows the application of variety of approaches, methods, and techniques during the teaching/learning process
4. college/ university students and other adults stage
-adults have richer experience in many domains of life including mother tongue acquisition or foreign language studies than secondary/high school stage.
-They use in classroom an array of sophisticated approaches and methods aimed at language mastery.
Each stage is characteristic of its own type of the learner. Therefore, the following individual features must be taken into consideration:
(a)age;
(b)intellectual capability;
(c)experience;
(d)family background;
(e)the level of the mother tongue acquired so far;
(f)environment;
(g)interests;
(h)the way in which language is acquired/studied: individual or group work. It’s connected with personality.
3. Behaviorism vs. Cognitivism.
Behaviorists: Pavlov, Skinner
The core of behaviorism is learning through reinforcement.
Behaviorism is the idea that psychology is basically a study of external human behavior rather than mental. Behaviorism deals with the way in which we behave in different environments. The primary concern in behaviorism is the ability of humans and animals to learn. Both human beings and animals are tabula rasa at birth.
The best known classical behaviorist is Ivan Pavlov. He conducted a series of experiments in which he trained a dog to salivate to the tone of a bell through a procedure that has come to be labeled CLASSICAL CONDITIONING. For Pavlov the learning process consisted of the formation of associations between stimuli and reflexive responses.
Skinner’s operant conditioning attempt to account for most of human learning and behaviour. OPERANT BEHAVIOUR is behavior in which one “operates” on the environment. So the importance of stimuli is deemphasized. We need not to be concerned about stimulus but we should be concerned about the consequences-the stimuli that follows the response.
Cognitivist: Ausubel
Cognitivism deals with the actual methods of studying and that relies on the experiences that studies internal mental processes, such as creativity, perception, thinking, problem solving, memory, and language. This area of study applies to how people deal and solve problems, also in what mental processes that the mind goes thru between stimulus and response
Ausubel was influenced by the teachings of Jean Piaget. Ausubel related this to his explanation of how people acquire knowledge. Ausubel theorized that people acquire knowledge primarily by being exposed directly to it rather than through discovery.
4. Krashen contribution to language pedagogy
The natural approach
Was aimed at the goal of basic interpersonal communication skills, that is everyday language situations-conversation.
1) Learners are rarely corrected.
2) In natural communicative interactions, the learner will be exposed to a wide variety of vocabulary and structures.
3) The learner should be surrounded by the language for many hours each day.
4) The learner usually encounters a number of different people who use the target language proficiently.
5) The learners should observe or participate in many types of language events: brief greetings, commercial transactions, exchanges of information, arguments, instructions at school or in the workplace.
6) Learners must often use their limited second language ability to respond to questions, get information. In these situations they focus on the meaning and the more proficient peer or speaker should be tolerant of errors that don't interfere with meaning.
5. Biological Aspects of language
1.HOLOPHRASTIC-(about twelve month) children come to understand that specific sound sequences having meaning. These are simple, at first. Encouraged by adults they mater more such sequences, treating them as full sentences
2.JOINING STAGE- (From about twenty four month) children build sentences of two or more distinct words. Sentences like “doll pretty”, “want ball”, and “puppy sleep” exemplify this stage. Such words are spoken individually, without articles, auxiliaries, and other function words
3.CONNECTIVE STAGE- children acquire connective-function words. They deal with language through rules rather than as individual memorized items of two or more words. The plural “-s” may be added to words like “sheep”, “man The errors indicate that the child has come to understand how language works.
Noam Chomsky claimed that human beings are born with an innate ability for acquiring language (LAD).
Universal Grammar (UG) - describes the basic set of abstract principles that this biological mechanism is believed to contain.
In the end Linguists in the tradition of Noam Chomsky think of language as having a universal core from which individual languages select out a particular configuration of features, parameters, and settings.
APHASIA Disturbance in formulation and comprehension of language. This class of language disorder ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write. Aphasia is usually linked to brain damage.
6. B.F Skinner, N. Chomsky, J. Piaget, and J. Bruner as contributors to language acquisition and learning
Skinner's behavior learning approach relies on the components of classical, which involves unconditioned and conditioned stimuli, and operant conditioning but particularly the elements of operational conditioning. Operational conditioning refers to a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Behavior operates on the environment to bring about favorable consequences or avoid adverse ones.
The linguist Noam Chomsky believed that all people had an innate knowledge of the grammar of their native language. This means that no one had to specifically teach you the grammar of your native language; when you began speaking as an infant, you automatically produced utterances that were grammatical in your native language
J.Piaget Believed that children’s thinking passed through four separate stages and changed qualitatively in each of these stages. He emphasized the importance of maturation and the provision of a stimulating environment for children to explore. He believed children were active learners.
Jerome Bruner elaborated and revised the details of the theory over a number of years and also introduced the term Language Acquisition Support System (LASS), which refers to the child`s immediate adult entourage but in the fuller sense points to the child`s culture as a whole in which they are born.
7. Integrating the four skills.
Integrating the four skills. 1.listening 2.speaking 3.reading 4,writing. 1)Content-Based language teaching integrates the learning of some specific subject-matter content with the learning of the second language. 2)Theme-based instruction provides an alternative to what would otherwise be traditional language classes by structuring a course around themes or topics. Both theme-based and content-based instructions are: the automaticity principle, the meaningful learning principle, the intristic motivation principle, the communicative competence principle. Here are some possible theme-based activities:1-use environmental statistics and facts for classroom reading, writing discussion,2conduct research and writing project 3 have students create their own environmental awareness material 4.conduct field trips that involve a pre-tip module of reading, researching and other fast finding and a post-tip module of summary and conclusions 5.introduce games, especially simulation games to resolve crucial problems of every-day class.