JASTINE CHAED H.

SANCHEZ
Eng 302 Teaching English as a Second Language
7:30 – 10:30 C

English is an international language which is used officially all around the world.
Anybody who wants to make connections with the world we live in should learn English.
(Learning English as a Second Language - ResearchGate”) According to Folse 2004, the ultimate goal
of learning the language is to understand (read and listen) and communicate (write and speak)
with little difficulty and the lack of sufficient vocabulary may be the constraint of such goal.
(“My Experience In Learning English As A Second Language”) Language learning can be a bit
difficult but through the theories and studies that serves as our guiding light, teaching and
learning English can be a lot easier.
During our discussion on language learning and theories on how to acquire it, I have
learned that on Plato’s Innate Knowledge, human beings already have the knowledge within us
from the beginning, also known as a priori knowledge. An example of this theory is a
preschooler without any formal education may have the capacity to understand more complex
concepts than we give them credit for, such as complicated rules for operating a toy or going
through our phones and navigating the applications without being taught. Another theory is
Noam Chomsky’s Universal Grammar where he believes that the human brain contains an
innate mental grammar that helps humans acquire language that I think is patterned with the
former theory. An example of this is when students hear a certain sentence for the first time
and although they are not familiar with all of the words and their grammatical functions they
can somehow come up with a certain level of understanding, which is particularly true in their
native language. Next theory is the Empiricist Theory which states that our knowledge is
acquired from sensory experience and Tabula Rasa where humans are born a black mind. Both
are theories of John Locke. A classroom scenario of these theories is, students come to school
without knowledge about a certain topic but will eventually gain them after the teacher gives
meaningful activities that they can experience. In Schumann’s Acculturation Model Theory,
social and psychological aspects influence our success in language learning. In this theory there
should be more interaction of the language learner and the community he/she is currently in.
Lastly, Krashen’s Monitor Model suggest that we should both strive to increase our second
language inputs and make sure we receive proper error correction in one form or another. In a
classroom where students are given the chance to express themselves by sharing their ideas
tend to learn better that those who don’t.
On my level of understanding, that some of it are highly theoretical and complex and is
most relevant to scholars of the field. Other parts are extremely zoomed in and tell us highly
specific details about how to learn a language. (“The Search for a Unified Theory of Language
Learning”) Regardless, it’s all connected. By understanding more bits and pieces of it all, we’ll
gradually begin to understand language learning process better than ever before.