Reflection on Behaviorist Theory – Livia Rosi – 5º Period

The behaviorist theory is a theory of first language acquisition that has a

branch of linguistics and a branch of psychology. According to this theory,
behaviors are acquired through conditioning. There is a stimulus, a response
and a reinforcement, which leads to automatic.
American Structural Linguistics have revolutionized language teaching,
emphasizing the importance of repetition to learn the target language. Through
the association of familiar elements, contextualized experiences and the
impulse to communicate, language would be acquired. Many English schools
are based in this theory, with the audiolingual method, that consists of listening
and speaking before reading – focus on speaking with good models to imitate;
immediate reinforce after a response - so students know if they were
successful, and constant practice – the act of just listen and not practice doesn’t
lead to effective learning.
Many linguists believe that the behaviorist theory does not take into
account the intern mechanisms of the learner, what really matters is the
stimulus that the learning environment produces. Still, it has a huge influence in
language teaching.