TEMA 2: TEORÍAS GENERALES SOBRE EL APRENDIZAJE Y LA ADQUISICIÓN DE UNA LENGUA

EXTRANJERA. EL CONCEPTO DE INTERLENGUA. EL TRATAMIENTO DEL ERROR

Contents:

1. INTODUCTION
2. GENERAL THEORIES ON LEARNING AND ACQUISITION
2.1. Language description theories: behaviourism and cognitivism
2.2. Language learning and acquisition theories: acculturation model, Krashen’s
hypothesis and Constructivism.
3. INTERLANGUAGE
4. ERROR ANALYSIS
5. DIDACTIC APPLICATION
6. CONCLUSION
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. INTRODUCTION

There are numerous studies on learning and language acquisition but we do not know a lot
about it although some theories about how to teach have thrown some light on the factors
(motivation, attitude) that can favour learning.

There has always been an interest on learning languages. After the WWII there were many
economic and political changes that favoured the fact that learning languages became
important in education (both formal and informal). Even the European Union started to
recommend learning more than one foreign language and it still does today.

We need to take into account the differences between foreign and second language to deal
with this topic. Learning a foreign language is learning with purposes of daily communication,
for example in a classroom status (the case of studying English in Spain).

Second language learning is the use of language with purposes of communication, for example
English in British colonies. Perhaps it is not the official language, but it is used in politics or
economy.

Throughout this topic I will explain several theories on learning and acquisition and I will
discuss the concepts of Interlanguage and Error analysis.
 2. GENERAL THEORIES ABOUT LANGUAGE LEARNING AND ACQUISITION

First of all, it is important to remark that in this paper the concepts of learning and acquisition
will be treated as synonyms except the case of Krashen’s theory.

2.1. Language description theories

Behaviourism and cognitivism have been the two main theories on which language learning
approaches have based.

2.1.a. Behaviourism

It derives from Pavlov and Skinner’s psychological experiments with animals dealing with
stimulus and response. Skinner added the concept of reinforcement, the reward to strengthen
the probability of a response to a given stimulus. He based this idea in the fact that when
children learn their mother tongue they are either rewarded or corrected.

Behaviourism was a very popular teaching theory in the 1950’s and it influenced the Audio-
lingual method. The main features of this theory were:

A second language has to be taught from formal instruction, in the same way that the mother
tongue is acquired. As the first language is acquired by imitation and reinforcement, the
second language learner imitates sounds and utterances using memorising drills.

When the habits of the second language are established through transfer structures then we
would get a second language output.

The final aim of this theory is to get new linguistic habits by practice, eliminating errors in the
process. These errors are mainly provoked by L1 and L2 interferences and contrastive analysis.
These interferences with the mother tongue can be either positive or negative since when
learning by behaviourism, no tasks for learners are identified, there is no explanations on the
ways language behave and there is no identification of the learner’s aims and needs.

In conclusion, contrastive analysis of L1 and L2 only explains part of the target language.

2.1.b. Cognitivism

The key word of this theory is think, rather than repeat, as we saw in behaviourism.
Cognitivism was first explained by Noam Chomsky. He said that experiments with animals
could not be extrapolated to humans and developed his own model of communicative
competence and performance.

In his theory the defended that the main purpose when learning a languages is to acquire
communicative competence, to communicate in real situations, so in his lessons he used
authentic material.

Cognitivism leads students though a process of acquiring natural strategies for different stages
(interlanguage). Students can use their ability to create hypothesis and finally get L2 output.
Error analysis has had a central role in language teaching and errors have been accepted as an
integral part of the learning process. In order to decide where the errors come from and how
important they are, teachers need to take learner’s aims and needs into account.

Finally, Grammar is a pivot, the by-product of communication in cognitivism.

Nowadays, cognitivism is the most followed language description. Now we are going to discuss
some of the language learning theories that have used cognitivism as their starting point.

2.2. Language learning theories

It is not clear how languages are acquired, but some theories have tried to give explanations.
In this topic I will pinpoint three of these theories.

2.2.a. Acculturation model: it is the process of acquiring cultural peculiarities or social patterns
of another people. There has been some discussion on whether or not cultural aspects should
be taught in second language teaching. There are many social and psychological factors that
make students be far away from British and American culture and societies, therefore if
teachers can make culture and students come closer there are more possibilities of successful
learning. The key words of this model are motivation and identification.

2.2.b. Krashen’s theoretical model

It is one of the most influential in second languages teaching and is based on the natural
approach. Is divided in 5 hypotheses:

-Acquistition-learning hypothesis: there are two ways of developing competence in a second

language. The first is acquisition, which is a subconscious use of a language for real
communication. We have an implicit knowledge of the language that is not had by formal or
traditional teaching. We are not aware of rules but we know what is right or wrong, what is an
error.

Learning is formal and conscious knowledge of a language. Learners have an explicit

knowledge of rules or at least are aware of those rules. Up to now, teaching was aimed to
learning, now to it is to acquisition.

Parents do that with children in L1, they correct the meaning, not the form. Brown’s reports
(examples of error-corrections in L1) “Her curl my hair” was not corrected but “Disney comes
in TV on Tuesdays” was corrected, since it came on Wednesday.

-Natural Order Hypothesis: grammatical structures are acquired in a predictable order, some
are learned earlier, some later, for example British children acquire –ing, plural and to be
before the progressive auxiliary, articles and before Irregular pasts.

-Monitor Hypothesis: consciously learning the system of rules or grammar structures has a
very limited function in the second language performance, so it is only used as a monitor. If we
only focus on communication we will understand errors as part of it. Conscious learning is an
element to be taken into account when making learning creative. Hutchinson saw grammar as
a pivot, a material to be used at the same time that vocabulary and pronunciation.
-Input hypothesis: we acquire language by understanding input that is a little beyond our level
of knowledge thanks to context and visual aids. Students can understand input they haven’t
acquired yet since subconsciously they have built a net with their previous knowledge and new
input, so they can advance to the next stage.

-Affective filter hypothesis: some attitudinal variables that affect acquisition. If there is a low
affective filter in the classroom, acquisition goes faster. Some aspects to take into account are
the prejudices against target language culture or people.

In conclusion, natural approach has two main goals: supply a good comprehensible input a
little beyond our student’s knowledge and provide the appropriate situation for our students’
acquisition.

2.2.c. Constructivism: constructivist or meaningful learning deals with the fact that when we
establish a relation between our previous knowledge and what we are acquiring we give
meaning to the new piece of learning. It means a constructivist action on the part of the
students and there are some conditions to fulfil to achieve meaningful learning:

The contents must be meaningful from two points of view, the formal and logic structure of
the language and from the student’s psychological development.

Students must have a positive attitude and be motivated. If they are, they will build broad and
precise meanings. Meaningful learning consists of two main features: it implies a
comprehensive memorisation and it must be functional (what is learned must be useful to go
on with new concepts and to deal successfully with new situations).

Constructivism changes the vision on teaching-learning since students become the essential
part of the process and some facts need to be taken into account such as the student’s
previous knowledge, psychological processes of our students, student’s attitudes and beliefs
and affective aspects.

To sum up, meaningful learning allows students to learn how to learn.

3. INTERLANGUAGE

Interlanguage is a concept also called approximative system or transitional competence. It is

the structured system that learners build at a point in their learning development. Chomsky
called it gradual development and Cognitivism was the first theory that introduced this name.
Interlanguage is an individual step towards the acquisition of the target language, is not
institutionalised and it does not develop norms to be used. Each learner has his own
interlanguage and tries to transform the knowledge of his own language into the structure of
the target language by creating new hypothesis. In general, it roughly coincides at the same
stage.

In general, the resemblance between L1 and L2 is syntactical since with phonetics and
phonology most learners tend to be closer to their mother tongue. The phonetic system of the
L1 produces an interference with the one of L2 so learners create a syntax which develops
faster to L1 than phonetics does.
Selinker stated that sometimes a foreign language learner does not reach L2 competences; he
does not reach the end of the interlanguage process because of fossilisation, or the result of
the lack of hypothesis testing beyond a certain level.

4. ERROR

First of all, we need to make clear that an error is not the same as a mistake. An error is the
faulty internalisation of a rule, for example ‘goed’ due to competence. Errors show that the
student does not know the rule yet. On the other hand mistakes are slips in the performance
(due to tiredness, stress or complexity of the task). The theories of language learning have
treated errors from behaviourism and cognitivism.

Behaviourist school: errors are made because of inference between L1 and L2 habits. They see
error as undesirable, furthermore if the learning habits are established, they could be
impossible to eradicate.

Their proposal is to use a contrastive analysis to find a list of possible problems. Their main aim
is the prevention of error but that still does not identify the task or explain the way learners
behave, it only explains a small part of the problem with the target language. For this reason,
Chomsky criticised Behaviourists. He actually sees errors as an essential part of the acquisition
process since learners are trying to communicate. The identification of errors is as important
as their prevention.

Cognitivism: error analysis theory has two functions, a theoretical one and a practical one.
The theoretical finds out the learning processes and why the errors have been made; the
practical provides for remedial teaching.

It is not easy to identify students’ errors, for example “My father work” (is working? Works?
Worked?) We need to look back at context. Once identified, we need to know why it has been
produced. Has it been interference between L1 and L2 or has it been due to phonetics? Due to
vocabulary (false friends), literal translation, overgeneralization, repetition of subject...?

Some teachers, students and material induce errors difficult to eradicate, especially when
there is a continuous contact with the source of the errors.

In order to be able to move to the practical function we need to take students’ aims and needs
into account when wondering where the error comes from and how important it is for
communication.
 5. DIDACTIC APPLICATION

As we have just seen, in class teachers need to take the students aims and needs into
consideration. There is a myth and misconception about error that lead to think that every
error had to be corrected. Actually there is a degree of error that can be acceptable since
students can cope with communication in spite of them. For example, when using language in
a particular situation we must evaluate their errors as an integral part of the learning process.

The teacher should therefore relate decisions about correction to the objectives of the lesson,
and should control activities so that these activities will help learners to avoid making further
errors. That is why the identification and evaluation phases are so important. What is more, by
means of hypotheses and testing, students will improve their stage of interlanguage and will
finally reach L2 competence.

6. CONCLUSION

General theories about language acquisition and learning have varied throughout history and
have examined the reality of the process of language teaching-learning from different
perspectives. We have seen some of the most important theories that have affected how
languages are taught nowadays, however there has been a shift in language teaching in the
last ten years that studies will have to take into account. That shift is the use of technologies
by our students and how this can have affected their process of information, from a linear to a
multiple-focus one. However, error analysis and the process of interlanguage will still help
teachers guess the possible problems their students may have in order to plan their
approaches ahead.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Corder, S.P. Error Analysis and Interlanguage, Oxford: OUP, 1981

Krashen, S.D. Principles and Practice in second language acquisition, Oxford: Pergamon Press,
1982