Cognitivism

In contrast to behaviorism’s emphasis on the learner’s outward performance, cognitivism shifts

the focus internal, to the learners’ processing of information, and their ability to relate new
information to preexisting knowledge. Significant emphasis is placed on the learners’
organization of information. The instructor’s role is viewed more as a guide; they are tasked to
not only help students adequately structure their knowledge for better recall and application, but
also to understand the importance of what they are learning. “[T]he learner must believe that the
knowledge is useful in a given situation before he or she will activate it” (Ertmer & Newby, 2013,
p. 52).
Constructivism
Constructivism focuses even more on what the individual brings to the topic being learned.
Focusing on preexisting knowledge and the unique backgrounds of each individual learner,
constructivists believe that learners apply new knowledge to their own realities, and that
therefore they will construct their own meaning from the knowledge being acquired. In
constructivist thinking, meaning is constantly evolving, and one’s knowledge of a particular
concept takes on new meanings every time it is applied in a new situation or perspective;
therefore “it is critical that learning occur in realistic settings and that the selected learning tasks
be relevant to the students’ lived experiences” (Ertmer & Newby, p. 56).

Neo-Firthian Theory

The NEO-Firthian school of thought abides by the same tenets of Firthian theory, and exists as
a reaction to alternative methods of language study. Some theorists believe that language
should be studied using very controlled variables in order to see certain patterns manifest. This
strategy of language study is called probabilistic. Those who believe in this research model
contend that language should be studied under a quantitative research style.

This being said, the quantitative research model proposed by "probabilistic" methods include:

a. That patterns in language usage must be studied using a variety of text samples (corpora),
and that this corpora should encompass a number of genres.
b. That the size of each corpus must be monitored
c. That there has to be a monitoring system in place to predict the way in which language is
used, so that correlations can be made.

What is an author?

In ‘What is an author?’ Foucault uses the term ‘author function’ – a concept that replaces the
idea of the author as a person, and instead refers to the ‘discourse’ that surrounds an author or
body of work. It starts with the recognition that authorship and the different values and meanings
associated with it are cultural products that vary widely from time to time and place to place.
Scientific texts, for example, are valued more for their content rather than their ‘authorship’,
while in the case of literary texts authorship becomes the most interesting aspect of the work.
Orientalism.
Orientalism, Western scholarly discipline of the 18th and 19th centuries that encompassed the
study of the languages, literatures, religions, philosophies, histories, art, and laws of Asian
societies, especially ancient ones. Such scholarship also inspired broader intellectual and
artistic circles in Europe and North America, and so Orientalism may also denote the general
enthusiasm for things Asian or “Oriental.” Orientalism was also a school of thought among a
group of British colonial administrators and scholars who argued that India should be ruled
according to its own traditions and laws, thus opposing the “Anglicanism” of those who argued
that India should be ruled according to British traditions and laws. In the mid-20th century,
Orientalists began to favour the term Asian studies to describe their work, in an effort to
distance it from the colonial and neocolonial associations of Orientalism. More recently, mainly
through the work of the Palestinian American scholar Edward Said, the term has been used
disparagingly to refer to the allegedly simplistic, stereotyped, and demeaning conceptions of
Arab and Asian cultures gener

Bricolage

"patchup" or "do it yourself " in English. This term has been used as a metaphor to designate
the combining of a variety of religious practices and representations found in certain oral
societies and, in a different form, in the most modern societies.

The French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, in The Savage Mind (1966), was the first to use
the term bricolage. From a structuralist perspective, bricolage is understood as a metaphor for
mythic thought. On the practical level, bricolage takes objects that have been used before and
reorganizes them within a new perspective. For example, one would take spare parts from old
automobiles to construct a new one. Similarly, on a theoretical level mythic thought takes bits
and pieces that have perhaps already been elaborated in previous myths and puts them
together to form a new narrative. Lévi-Strauss asserts that mythic images, like the materials of a
bricoleur (a person who does bricolage), have a dual characteristic: They have already been
used and they can be used again. According to structuralist theory, mythic bricolage is not
arbitrary: By necessity it takes into account the heterogeneous nature of the preformed
elements it uses. This is why the number of rearrangements of mythic elements is limited. Also,
mythic bricolage is not the product of individual caprice; it is guided by general structures of the
human mind of which individuals are not aware.