ENG 150 Principles and Theories of Language Learning and Acquisition

EDU 150: Principles and Theories of Language Acquisition and Learning
Topic 1: Theories on the Origin of Human Language

The Bow-Wow Theory
According to this theory, language began when our ancestors started imitating the natural sounds around
them. The first speech was onomatopoeic—marked by echoic words such as moo, meow, splash,
cuckoo, and bang.
What is wrong with Bow-Wow theory: Relatively few words are onomatopoeic, and these words vary
from one language to another. For instance, a dog's bark is heard as au au in Brazil, ham ham in Albania,
and wang, wang in China.
The Ding-Dong Theory

This theory, favored by Plato and Pythagoras, maintains that speech arose in response to the
essential qualities of objects in the environment. The original sounds people made were
supposedly in harmony with the world around them. Examples include words such as boom,
crash, and oink.
What is wrong with Ding-Dong theory: There is no persuasive evidence, in any language, of an innate
connection between sound and meaning.
The La-La Theory

The Danish linguist Otto Jespersen suggested that language may have developed from sounds
associated with love, play, and (especially) song. The idea that speech emerged from the sounds
of inspired playfulness, love, poetic sensibility, and song.
What is wrong with La-La theory: This theory still fails to account for "... the gap between the emotional
and the rational aspects of speech expression.
The Pooh-Pooh Theory

This theory holds that speech began with interjections—spontaneous cries of pain ("Ouch!"),
surprise ("Oh!"), and other emotions ("Yabba dabba do!").
What is wrong with Pooh-Pooh theory: No language contains very many interjections. "The clicks, intakes
of breath, and other noises which are used in this way bear little relationship to the vowels and
consonants found in phonology.”
The Yo-He-Ho Theory

According to this theory, language evolved from the grunts, groans, and snorts evoked by heavy
physical labor.
What is wrong with Pooh-Pooh theory: Though this notion may account for some of the rhythmic
features of the language, it doesn't go very far in explaining where words come from.
Lesson 2: Acquiring vs. Learning, First Language vs. Second

Language Acquisition
Acquiring vs. Learning

Children acquire language through a subconscious process during which they are unaware of
grammatical rules. This happens especially when they acquire their first language. They repeat
what is said to them and get a feel for what is and what is not correct. In order to acquire a
language, they need a source of natural communication, which is usually the mother, the father,
or the caregiver.
Acquisition is seen as an implicit and subconscious process whereby the learner is exposed to
Primary Linguistic Data (PLD) in informal situations such as homes and social gatherings.
Acquisition depends on the learner's attitude, and the order of acquisition is stable.
Language learning
Language learning is the result of direct instruction in the rules of language. Language learning is
not an age-appropriate activity for very young children as learning presupposes that learners
have a conscious knowledge of the new language and can talk about that knowledge.
Language acquisition happens when we start being schooled in this language, when we learn to
read and write. We need to learn that signs (letters and letter combinations), represent a sound,
and that their combination, have a meaning that conveys our thoughts. We learn that there are
rules for each language, concerning the position of the words in a sentence, that intonation can
vary and change the meaning of a word and a sentence, that one word can have many different
meanings, depending on the context.
Unlike acquisition, learning depends on aptitude and simple grammatical structures are learned
before complex structures are internalized.
Any curriculum that aims to develop students' communicative abilities in a second language
must simulate natural language acquisition.
First Language vs. Second Language Acquisition

A first language is the mother tongue or native language of a person while a second language is a
language a person learns in order to communicate with the native speaker of that language. A
child cannot start learning the second language without being fully efficient in the first language.
First Language Second Language

Instinct, triggered by birth, and developed by A personal choice
being exposed to it.
There is no other alternative. can choose a second language among other
languages.
Acquiring process is very rapid Learning process can vary from language to
language and from person to person, but can
never be as rapid as the first language
acquisition.
Completely acquired with 100% proficiency can never be learned as efficiently as a first
within 6 years from the birth. language; though good competence can be
achieved in the second language; the process
is slow.
always natural and there is no need for not natural and it needs continuous guidance
instruction in acquiring it. and instruction.
begins with telegraphic speech (two-word begins with a full sentence.
utterance e.g., “mom see”, “dad go”
a natural part of a person’s everyday life. a new aspect of the person’s life if s/he
chooses it to be.
Some factors of difference for the first language and the second language.
Age - most important factor that makes a second language totally different from the first
language. Children of the age of 6 who have already acquired full proficiency in their first
language are most capable of learning a second language. Adults usually find it difficult to learn a
new language when they become too accustomed to their first/native language.
Personality - In the second language learning process, the learners with an introvert personality
usually make slow progress than the learners with an extrovert personality. Personality has no
effect on first language acquisition.
Culture - The first language is one of the most important factors of a person’s culture. But a second
language is not that important in anyone’s culture.
Motivation - It is an important factor for the second language learning. A learner with good
motivation to learn a second language is likely to learn that language faster. But the acquisition of
the first language does not require any motivation because it is a natural phenomenon.
Mother Tongue - The first language is the mother tongue of a person. The second language
learning depends a lot on the structures of the first language. If the structure of the first language
is similar to the second language, it will be easy and fast for the learners to internalize it.
Topic 3: Schools of Thought in Second Language Acquisition
Structural Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology

In the 1900s and 1950s, the structural, or descriptive, school of linguistics, with its advocates—
Leonard Bloomfield, Edward Sapir, Charles Hockett, Charles Fries, and others—prided itself in a
rigorous application of scientific observations of human languages. Only "publicly observable
responses" could be subject to investigation. The linguist's task, according to the structuralist, was
to describe human languages and to identify the structural characteristics of those languages.
Structural linguists examine only overtly observable data, and ignore the "mind" insofar as the
latter represented a mentalistic approach that gave credence to unobservable guesses, hunches,
and intuition. Of further importance to the structural or descriptive linguist was the notion that
language could be dismantled into small pieces or units and that these units could be described
scientifically, contrasted, and added up again to form the whole.
Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology

In the decade of the 1960s, generative-transformational linguistics emerged through the
influence of Noam Chomsky and a number of his followers. The generative linguist was interested
not only in describing language (achieving the level of descriptive adequacy) but also in arriving at
an explanatory level of adequacy in the study of language, that is, a "principled basis, independent
of any particular language, for the selection of the descriptively adequate grammar of each
language" (Chomsky, 1964, p. 63).
Similarly, cognitive psychologists asserted that meaning, understanding, and knowing were
significant data for psychological study. Instead of focusing rather mechanistically on stimulus-
response connections, cognitivists tried to discover psychological principles of organization and
functioning, David Ausubel (1965. p. 4)
Both the structural linguist and the behavioral psychologist were interested in description, in
answering what questions about human behavior; objective measurement of behavior in
controlled circumstances. The generative linguist and cognitive psychologist were, to be sure,
interested in the what question; but they were far more interested in a more ultimate question,
why: what underlying factors-innate, psychological, social, or environmental circumstances—
caused a particular behavior in a human being?
Constructivism: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Constructivism is hardly a new school of thought. Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, names often
associated with constructivism, are not by any means new to the scene of language studies. A
refreshing characteristic of constructivism is its integration of linguistic, psychological, and
sociological paradigms, in contrast to the professional chasms that often divided those disciplines
in the previous century. Now, with its emphasis on social interaction and the discovery, or
construction, of meaning, die three disciplines have much more common ground.
Two branches of constructivism:

1. In the Cognitive version of constructivism, emphasis is placed on the importance of
learners constructing their own representation of reality.
2. Social constructivism emphasizes the importance of social interaction and cooperative
learning in constructing both cognitive and emotional images of reality.
Topic 4: Language and the Brain and

Stages of Language Development
Language and the Brain

The study of the relationship between language and the brain is called neurolinguistics.
Broca’s Area
Paul Broca, a French surgeon, reported in the 1860s that damage to this specific part of the brain
was related to extreme difficulty in producing speech. It was noted that damage to the
corresponding area on the right hemisphere had no such effect. This finding was first used to
argue that language ability must be located in the left hemisphere and since then has been
treated as an indication that Broca’s area is crucially involved in the production of speech.
Wernicke’s Area
Carl Wernicke was a German doctor who, in the 1870s, reported that damage to this part of the
brain was found among patients who had speech comprehension difficulties. This finding
confirmed the left hemisphere location of language ability and led to the view that Wernicke’s
area is part of the brain crucially involved in the understanding of speech.
The motor cortex and the arcuate fasciculus

Close to Broca’s area is the part of the motor cortex that controls the articulatory muscles of the
face, jaw, tongue and larynx. Evidence that this area is involved in the physical articulation of
speech comes from work reported in the 1950s by two neurosurgeons, Penfield and Roberts
(1959).
The localization view

Having identified these four components, it is tempting to conclude that specific aspects of
language ability can be accorded specific locations in the brain. This is called the localization view
and it has been used to suggest that the brain activity involved in hearing a word, understanding
it, then saying it, would follow a definite pattern. The word is heard and comprehended via
Wernicke’s area. This signal is then transferred via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area where
preparations are made to produce it. A signal is then sent to part of the motor cortex to physically
articulate the word.
In a sense, we are forced to use metaphors mainly because we cannot obtain direct physical
evidence of linguistic processes in the brain.
Tongue tips and slips
● The tip of the tongue phenomenon
The tip of the tongue phenomenon in which we feel that some word is just eluding us, that we
know the word, but it just won’t come to the surface. It suggests that our “word-storage” system
may be partially organized on the basis of some phonological information and that some words in
the store are more easily retrieved than others.
● Slips of the tongue

Another type of speech error is commonly described as a slip of the tongue. This produces
expressions such as make a long shory stort (instead of “make a long story short”), use the door
to open the key, and a fifty-pound dog of bag food. Slips of this type are sometimes called
spoonerisms after William Spooner, an Anglican clergyman at Oxford University, who was
renowned for his tongue-slips.
Aphasia
Aphasia is defined as an impairment of language function due to localized brain damage that leads
to difficulty in understanding and/or producing linguistic forms.
● Broca’s Aphasia
The serious language disorder known as Broca’s aphasia (also called “motor aphasia”) is
characterized by a substantially reduced amount of speech, distorted articulation and slow, often
effortful speech.
● Wernicke’s Aphasia
The type of language disorder that results in difficulties in auditory comprehension is sometimes
called “sensory aphasia,” but is more commonly known as Wernicke’s aphasia. Someone suffering
from this disorder can actually produce very fluent speech which is, however, often difficult to
make sense of.
● Conduction Aphasia
One other, much less common, type of aphasia has been associated with damage to the arcuate
fasciculus and is called conduction aphasia. Individuals suffering from this disorder sometimes
mispronounce words, but typically do not have articulation problems. They are fluent, but may
have disrupted rhythm because of pauses and hesitations.
Stages of Language Development

The prelinguistic stage

During the first year of life the child is in a pre-speech stage. Developmental aspects related
to speech would include the development of gestures, making adequate eye contact, sound
repartee between infant and caregiver, cooing, babbling and crying. Examples of such pre-speech
sounds would be dadadada, mamamama and waaaah.
The holophrase or one-word sentence

The child usually reaches this phase between the age of 10 and 13 months. Although the child
tends to utter a single word at a time, its meaning is also supplemented by the context in which it
takes place, as well as by nonverbal cues. An example of such a one-word sentence would be a
child leaning over the edge of his cot and pointing to his bottle while laughing and saying “botty”
in a commanding way.
The two-word sentence

By 18 months the child reaches this stage. His or her “sentences” now usually comprise a noun or
a verb plus a modifier. This enables the child to formulate a sentence which may be either
declarative, negative, imperative or interrogative. Examples of such “sentences” are:
“Doggy big” (declarative)

“Where ball” (interrogative)
“Not egg” (negative)
“More sugar!” (imperative)
Multiple-word sentences
The child reaches this stage between the age of two and two and a half. Grammatical morphemes
in the form of prefixes or suffices are used when changing meanings or tenses. Furthermore, the
child can now form sentences with a subject and a predicate. Using the examples which were listed
in the previous stage, the sentences could now be the following:
“I want more sugar”

“I catched it”
“I falling”
More complex grammatical structures

Children reach this stage roughly between two and half and three years of age. They use more
intricate and complex grammatical structures, elements are added (conjunction), embedded and
permuted within sentences and prepositions are used. Wood gives the following examples in this
regard:
“Read it, my book” (conjunction)

“Where is Daddy?” (embedding)
“I can’t play” (permutation)

“Take me to the shop” (uses preposition of place)
Adult-like language structures

The five to six-year-old child reaches this developmental level. Complex structural
distinctions can now be made, such as by using the concepts “ask/tell” and “promise” and
changing the word order in the sentence accordingly. Examples are:
“Ask her what time it is.”

“He promised to help her.”
Topic 5: Behavioral, Nativist, and Functional Approach in

Behavioral Approach in Language Acquisition

Do you think that language can be learned like the way we learn other behaviors?
The behavioral approach focused on the immediately perceptible aspects of linguistic behavior—
the publicly observable responses—and the relationships or associations between those
responses and events in the world surrounding them. If a particular response is reinforced, it
then becomes habitual, or conditioned. Thus, children produce linguistic responses that are
reinforced. One learns to comprehend an utterance by responding appropriately to it and by
being reinforced for that response.
Famous Behaviorists
Edward Thorndike – believes that learning is the establishment of associations and particular
behavior and consequences of that behavior. He is famous for his connectionism theory which
states that learning is a product of stimulus and response. According to him, learning is a process
of practice. A learner must interact with the environment using trial and error until a successful
result is obtained.
B. F. Skinner - One of the best-known attempts to construct a behavioral model of linguistic
behavior was embodied in B. F. Skinner's classic, Verbal Behavior. Skinner defined verbal behavior
generically as “behavior shaped and maintained by mediated consequences”. Skinner's theory of
verbal behavior was an extension of his general theory of learning by operant conditioning.
According to Skinner, verbal behavior, like other behavior, is controlled by its consequences.
When consequences are rewarding, behavior is maintained and is increased in strength and
perhaps frequency. When consequences are punishing, or when there is a total lack of
reinforcement, the behavior is weakened and eventually extinguished.
Nativist Approach in Language Acquisition

The term nativist is derived from the fundamental assertion that language acquisition is innately
determined, that we are born with a genetic capacity that predisposes us to a systematic
perception of language around us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of
language.
Eric Lenneberg (1967) proposed that language is a "species-specific" behavior and that certain
modes of perception, categorizing abilities, and other language-related mechanisms are
biologically determined.
Noam Chomsky (1965) similarly claimed the existence of innate properties of language to
explain the child's mastery of a native language in such a short time despite the highly abstract
nature of the rules of language. This innate knowledge, according to Chomsky, was embodied in
a metaphorical "little black box" in the brain, a language acquisition device (LAD).
LAD four innate linguistic properties according to McNeill (1966)

1. The ability to distinguish speech sounds from other sounds in the environment
2. The ability to organize linguistic data into various classes that can later be refined
3. Knowledge that only a certain kind of linguistic system is possible and that other kinds are not
4. The ability to engage in constant evaluation of the developing linguistic system
Universal Grammar (UG)

Assuming that all human beings are genetically equipped with abilities that enable them to
acquire language, researchers expanded the LAD notion by positing a system of universal
linguistic rules that went well beyond what was originally proposed for the LAD.
Universal Grammar (UG) research attempts to discover what it is that all children, regardless of
their environmental stimuli (the languages they hear around them) bring to the language
acquisition process.
Research has shown that the child's language, at any given point, is a legitimate system in its own
right. The child's linguistic development is not a process of developing fewer and fewer "
incorrect" structures—not a language in which earlier stages have more "mistakes" than later
stages. Rather, the child's language at any stage is systematic in that the child is
constantly forming hypotheses on the basis of the input received and then testing those
hypotheses in speech (and comprehension). As the child's language develops, those hypotheses
are continually revised, reshaped, or sometimes abandoned.
Functional Approach in Language Acquisition

Functional approaches in language acquisition are functions that are meaningful, interactive
purposes within a social (pragmatic) context that we accomplish with the forms. Examples of
forms of language are morphemes, words, sentences, and the rules that govern them.
Cognition and Language Development

Lois Bloom (1971) cogently illustrated the first issue in her criticism of pivot grammar when she
pointed out that the relationships in which words occur in telegraphic utterances are only
superficially similar. For example, in the utterance "Mommy sock," which nativists would
describe as a sentence consisting of a pivot word and an open word, Bloom found at least three
possible underlying relations: agent-action (Mommy is putting the sock on), agent-object
(Mommy sees the sock), and possessor-possessed (Mommy's sock), by examining data in
reference to contexts, Bloom concluded that children learn underlying structures, and not
superficial word order. Thus, depending on the social context, "Mommy sock" could mean a
number of different things to a child. Those varied meanings were inadequately captured in a
pivot grammar approach.
Piaget - described overall development as the result of children's interaction with their
environment, with an interaction between their developing perceptual cognitive capacities and
their linguistic experience.
Dan Slobin, among others, demonstrated that in all languages, semantic learning depends on
cognitive development and that sequences of development are determined more by semantic
complexity than by structural complexity.
Social Interaction and Language Development

Holzman (1984, p. 119), in her "reciprocal model" of language development, proposed that "a
reciprocal behavioral system operates between the language-developing infant-child and “the
competent adult language user in a socializing-teaching-nurturing role"
Since language is used for interactive communication, it is only fitting that one study the
communicative functions of language: What do children know and learn about talking with
others? About connected pieces of discourse (relations between sentences)? The interaction
between hearer and speaker? Conversational cues? Within such a perspective, the very heart of
language—its communicative and pragmatic function—is being tackled in all its variability.
Functions of Language by Jakobson

Referential function – to show things or facts (ex. “Water boils at 100 degrees.”)
Emotive function – express our emotions without speaking to give an information. For example,
we use interjections to express sudden surprise, pleasure or annoyance such as: “Bah!”, “Oh!”,
“Yuck!” “Ouch!”
Conative function – make people do something; includes orders and prayers. Example: “Go
away!”, “Drink!”
Phatic function – establishes, prolongs or discontinues communication; to maintain contact with

the person we are talking to. Example: “Hello!”, “Are you still listening?”
Metalingual function – when the language is used to speak about language. Example: “What do
you mean by ‘krill’? “What is plucked?”.
Poetic function – puts the focus on the message for its own sake. Example: Smurf
Topic 6: Learning and Training

PAVLOV’S CLASSICAL BEHAVIORISM
For Pavlov, the learning process consisted of the formation of associations between stimuli and
reflexive responses. All of us are aware that certain stimuli automatically produce or elicit rather
specific responses or reflexes, and we have also observed that sometimes that reflex occurs in
response to stimuli that appear to be indirectly related to the reflex.
Drawing on Pavlov's findings, John B. Watson (1913) coined the term behaviorism. Watson
contended that human behavior should be studied objectively, rejecting mentalistic notions of
innateness and instinct. He adopted the classical conditioning theory as the explanation for all
learning. Later, EL Thorndike expanded on classical conditioning models by showing that stimuli
that occurred after a behavior had an influence on future behaviors.
SKINNER'S OPERANT CONDITIONING
Thorndike's Law of Effect paved the way for another psychologist, B. F Skinner, to modify our
understanding of human learning. Skinner's operant conditioning attempted to account for most
of human learning and behavior. Operant behavior is behavior in which one "operates" on the
environment; within this model the importance of stimuli is emphasized.
According to Skinner, the events or stimuli—the reinforcers—that follow a response and that
tend to strengthen behavior or increase the probability of a recurrence. Operants are classes of
responses. Crying, sitting down, walking, and batting a baseball are operants. They are sets of responses
that are emitted and governed by the consequences they produce. In contrast, respondents are sets of
responses that are elicited by identifiable stimuli.
AUSUBEL'S SUBSUMPTION THEORY

David Ausubel contended that learning takes place in the human organism through a meaningful
process of relating new events or items to already existing cognitive concepts or propositions. It
is this relatability that, according to Ausubel, accounts for a number of phenomena: the
acquisition of new meanings (knowledge), retention, the psychological organization of
knowledge as a hierarchical structure, and the eventual occurrence of forgetting.
The Subsumption Learning theory focuses on how individuals acquire and learn large chunks of
information through visual means or text materials.
Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

Rote learning refers to the things that can be, or memorized, usually by continued repetition, and
does not require/involve understanding.
Meaningful learning refers to learning with understanding attached; it is the ability to relate new
information to prior knowledge.
SYSTEMATIC FORGETTING
Ausubel provided a plausible explanation for the universal nature of forgetting. Since rotely
learned materials do not interact with cognitive structure in a substantive fashion, they are
learned in conformity with the laws of association, and their retention is influenced primarily by
the interfering effects of similar rote materials learned immediately before or after the learning
task. It is this second stage of subsumption that operates through what cognitive pruning
procedures (Brown, 1972). Pruning is the elimination of unnecessary clutter and a clearing of
the way for more material to enter the cognitive field.
ROGERS'S HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
Rogers's humanistic psychology has more of an affective focus than a cognitive one, and so it
may be said to fall into the perspective of a constructivist view of learning. In his classic work
Client-Centered Therapy (1951), Rogers carefully analyzed human behavior in general, including
the learning process, by means of the presentation of 19 formal principles of human behavior.
Rogers studied the "whole person" as a physical and cognitive, but primarily emotional, being.
Given a nonthreatening environment, a person will form a picture of reality that is indeed
congruent with reality and will grow and learn, fully functioning persons. According to Rogers,
live at peace with all of their feelings and reactions, they are able to reach their full potential.
Roger’s focus is away from "teaching" and toward "learning" is put in more recent terms,
"transformative pedagogy" (O'Hara, 2003, p. 64). The goal of education is the facilitation of
change and learning. Learning how to learn is more important than being taught something from
the "superior" vantage point of a teacher who unilaterally decides what shall be taught.
Topic 7: Issues in First Language Acquisition and

First Language Acquisition Insights Applied to Language Teaching
Issues in First Language Acquisition

Competence and Performance
Chomsky separates competence and performance; he describes 'competence' as an idealized
capacity that is located as a psychological or mental property or function and ‘performance’ as
the production of actual utterances. In short, competence involves “knowing” the language and
performance involves “doing” something with the language.
Comprehension and Production

Comprehension is the words and word combinations that children understand. Production is the
words and word combinations that children use.
Nature or Nurture?
Nature is how we develop as a result of genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture
is the acquisition of traits through experience and learning after we are conceived.
Universals
The Universal Grammar (UG) hypothesis—the idea that human languages, as superficially diverse
as they are, share some fundamental similarities, and that these are attributable to innate
principles unique to language: that deep down, there is only one human language (Chomsky,
2000a, p. 7).
Systematicity and Variability

One of the assumptions of a good deal of current research on child language is the systematicity
of the process of acquisition. From pivot grammar to three- and four-word utterances, and to full
sentences of almost indeterminate length, children exhibit a remarkable ability to infer the
phonological, structural, lexical, and semantic system of language.
But in the midst of all this systematicity, there is an equally remarkable amount of variability in
the process of learning. Researchers do not agree on how to define various "stages" of language
acquisition, even in English. Certain "typical" patterns appear in child language.
Imitation
It is a common informal observation that children are good imitators. We think of children
typically as imitators, and then conclude that imitation is one of the important strategies a child
uses in the acquisition of language. That conclusion is not inaccurate on a global level.
Behaviorists assume one type of imitation, but a deeper level of imitation is far more important
in the process of language acquisition.
Types of Imitation
1. Surface-structure imitation - In foreign language classes, rote pattern drills often evoke
surface imitation: a repetition of sounds by the student without the vaguest
understanding of what the sounds might possibly mean.
2. Deep structure imitation - children perceive the importance of the semantic level of
language, they attend to a greater extent to that meaningful semantic level.
Practice and Frequency

It is common to observe children and conclude that they "practice" language constantly,
especially in the early stages of single-word and two-word utterances. A behavioral model of first
language acquisition would claim that practice—repetition and association — is the key to the
formation of habits by operant conditioning. Children's practice seems to be a key to language
acquisition.
Practice is usually thought of as referring to speaking only. But one can also think in terms of
comprehension practice, which is often considered under the rubric of the frequency of linguistic
input to the child. Frequency of occurrence of a linguistic item in the speech of mothers was an
overwhelmingly strong predictor of the order of emergence of those items in their children's
speech.
Input
The role of input in the child's acquisition of language is undeniably crucial. Whatever one's
position is on the innateness of language, the speech that young children hear is primarily the
speech heard in the home, and much of that speech is parental speech or the speech of older
siblings.
Discourse
While parental input is a significant part of the child's development of conversational rules, it is
only one aspect, as the child also interacts with peers and, of course, with other adults. in order
for successful, first language acquisition to take place, interaction, rather than exposure, is
required; children do not learn language from overhearing the conversations of others or from
listening to the radio, and must, instead, acquire it in the context of being spoken to.
First Language Acquisition Insights Applied to Language Teaching

Grammar Translation Method
In grammar-translation classes, students learn grammatical rules and then apply those rules by
translating sentences between the target language and the native language. Advanced students
may be required to translate whole texts word-for-word.
Direct Method
The basic premise of direct method was that second language learning should be more like first
language learning: lots of active oral interaction, spontaneous use of the language, no translation
between first and second languages, and little or no analysis of grammatical rules.
Audiolingual Method
The emphasis was not on the understanding of words, but rather on the acquisition of structures
and patterns in common everyday dialogue.
These patterns are elicited, repeated and tested until the responses given by the student in the
foreign language are automatic.
Gouin and the Series Method

Francois Gouin went to Hamburg to learn German purely through memorization, reading, and
translation. However, he was repeatedly frustrated by his inability to speak and comprehend the
language. Upon returning to his native France, he began to consider how children acquire their
native language. He developed the Series Method to teach directly, without translation, series of
connected sentences related to a task or activity (Brown & Lee, 2015).
Topic 8: Learning Styles

Learning Styles
• Visual Learners - Usually enjoy reading and prefer to see the words that they are learning.
They also like to learn by looking at pictures and flashcards.
• Auditory Learners - Prefer to learn by listening. They enjoy conversations and the chance
for interactions with others.
• Tactile Learners - Learn by touching and manipulating objects - this is known as “hands-
on” work.
• Kinesthetic Learners - Like movement and need frequent breaks in desk activities.
• Field-independent Learners (also called analytic learners) - Like to concentrate on the
details of language, such as grammar rules, and enjoy taking apart words and sentences.
They are sometimes unable to see the “big picture” because of their attention to its
parts.
• Field-dependent learners (also known as global learners) - Focus on the whole picture
and do not care so much about the details. For example, they are more interested in
conveying an idea than worrying about whether it is grammatically correct.
• Reflective Learners - Like to think about language and how to convey their message
accurately. They tend not to make so many mistakes because they take time in
formulating what they want to say.
• Impulsive Learners - Take risks with the language. They are more concerned with
speaking fluently than speaking accurately, and so make more mistakes.
Topic 9: Learning Strategies

Three main categories of learning strategies:
1. metacognitive involve planning for learning, thinking about the learning process as it is taking
place, monitoring of one's production or comprehension, and evaluating learning after an activity
is completed.
2. Cognitive strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks and involve more direct
manipulation of the learning material itself.
3. Socio-affective strategies have to do with social-mediating activity and interacting with others.
Metacognitive Strategies Description

Advance organizers Making a general but comprehensive preview of the
organizing
concept or principle in an anticipated learning activity
Directed attention Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task
and to ignore irrelevant detractors
Selective attention Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of language
input or situational details that will cue the retention of
language input
Self-management Understanding the conditions that help one learn and
arranging for the presence of those conditions
Functional planning Planning for and rehearsing linguistic components necessary
to carry out an upcoming language task
Self-monitoring Correcting one's speech for accuracy in pronunciation,
grammar, vocabulary, or tor appropriateness related to the
setting or to the people who are present
Delayed production Consciously deciding to postpone speaking in order to learn
initially through listening comprehension
Self-evaluation Checking the outcomes of one's own language learning
against an internal measure of completeness and accuracy
Socio-affective Strategies Description

Cooperation Working with one or more peers to obtain feedback, pool
informal ion, or model a language activity
Question for clarification Asking a teacher or other native speaker for repetition,
paraphrasing, explanation, and/or examples
Cognitive Strategies Description

Repetition Imitating a language model, including overt practice and
silent rehearsal
Resourcing Using target language reference materials
Translation Using the first language as a base for understanding and/or

producing the second language
Grouping Imitating a language model, including overt practice and
silent rehearsal
Note taking Using target language reference materials
Deduction Using the first language as a base for understanding and/or

producing the second language
Recombination Constructing a meaningful sentence or larger language
sequence by combining known elements in a new way
Imagery Relating new information to visual concepts in memory via
familiar, easily retrievable visualizations, phrases
Auditory representation Retention or the sound or a similar sound (on a word, phrase,
or longer language sequence
Keyword Remembering a new word in the second language by
(1) identifying a familiar word in the first language that
sounds like or otherwise resembles the new word and
(2) generating easily recalled images of some relationship
between the new word and the familiar word
Contextualization Placing a word or phrase in a meaningful language sequence
Elaboration Relating new informal information to other concepts in memory
Transfer Using previously acquired linguistic and/or conceptual

knowledge to facilitate a new language learning task
Inferencing Using available information to guess meanings of new items,
predict outcomes, or fill in missing information
Topic 10: Affective Factors in Second Language Acquisition

The affective domain is the emotional side of human behavior.
BLOOM’A LEVELS OF AFFECTIVITY

1. Receiving - Persons must be aware of the environment surrounding them and be
conscious of situations, phenomena, people, objects
2. Responding - committing themselves in at least some small measure to a phenomenon or
a person.
3. Valuing - placing worth on a thing, a behavior, or a person.
4. Organizing - determining interrelationships among them, and establishing a hierarchy of values
within the system.
5. Value Systems - individuals act consistently in accordance with the values they have internalized
and integrate beliefs, ideas, and attitudes into a total philosophy or world view.
SELF ESTEEM
Self-esteem reflect a person’s overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. Self-
esteem encompasses beliefs (for example, "I am competent" or "I am incompetent") and
emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame. A person's self-esteem may be reflected in
their behavior, such as in assertiveness, shyness, confidence or caution.
ATTRIBUTION THEORY and SELF-EFFICACY
Attribution theory (Weiner, 1980, 1992) incorporates behavior modification in the sense that it
emphasizes the idea that learners are strongly motivated by the pleasant outcome of being able
to feel good about themselves. It incorporates self-efficacy theory in the sense that it
emphasizes that learners' current self-perceptions will strongly influence the ways in which they
will interpret the success or failure of their current efforts
According to attribution theory, the explanations that people tend to make to explain success or
failure can be analyzed in terms of three sets of characteristics:
1. the cause of the success or failure may be internal or external
2. the cause of the success or failure may be either stable or unstable
3. the cause of the success or failure may be either controllable or uncontrollable
Four factors related to attribution theory that influence motivation in education
1. Ability - is a relatively internal and stable factor over which the learner does not exercise
much direct control.
2. Task difficulty - is an external and stable factor that is largely beyond the learner's control.
3. Effort - is an internal and unstable factor over which the learner can exercise a great deal
of control.
4. Luck - is an external and unstable factor over which the learner exercises very little
control.
WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE
In SLA, willingness to communicate (WTC) refers to the idea that language students (language
learners) who are willing to communicate in the second language (L2) actually look for chances
to communicate; and furthermore, these learners actually do communicate in the L2.
Pyramid Model
A pyramid model has been established that describes learners' use of the L2. As the learner
moves up the pyramid, the learner has more control over the act of communicating in the target
language.
The model, with six layers, has a total of twelve constructs. The layers, from top to bottom, are:
• communication behaviour
• behavioural intention
• situated antecedents
• motivational propensities
• affective-cognitive context
• social and individual context
INHIBITION
Inhibition is closely related to self-esteem: the weaker the self-esteem; the stronger the inhibition to
protect the weak ego. Ehrman(1993), suggests that students with thick, perfectionist boundaries find
language learning more difficult than those learners with thin boundaries who favor attitudes of
openness and the tolerance of ambiguity.
RISK-TAKING
Linguists defined risk-taking as an ability of being eager to try out new information intelligently
regardless of embarrassment in linguistics. Risk-taking is not only the third affective domain in
personality factors but also one of the important parts in learning second language.
ANXIETY
Any task that involves a certain degree of challenge can expose the learner to feelings of self-
doubt, uneasiness or fear. Behind these emotions lies the question: shall I succeed? As second
language learning is a highly demanding task, it is very likely to raise anxiety in the learner.
Anxiety can be considered a negative factor in language learning, and several teaching
methodologies in modern approaches indicate that anxiety should be kept as low as possible.
EMPATHY
Empathy, the ability to put oneself in another's shoes, is also predicted to be relevant to
acquisition in that the empathic person may be the one who is able to identify more easily with
speakers of a target language and thus accept their input as intake for language acquisition
(lowered affective filter). Empathy appears to interact with other attitudinal factors.
EXTROVERSION/INTROVERSION
To some extent, extroversion-introversion dimension of learners’ personality indeed affects the
oral performance of their second language. The effect of the extraversion-introversion
dimension on second language learners is obvious and remains stable over time.
Topic 11: The Role of Motivation

Motivation, as the name suggests, is what ‘moves’ us. It is the reason we do anything at all. For
teachers, a lack of motivation has long been one of the most frustrating obstacles to student
learning.
Theories of Motivation from Different Perspectives
1. From a behavioral perspective, motivation is seen in very matter of fact terms. It is quite
simply the anticipation of reward. Driven to acquire positive reinforcement, and driven by
previous experiences of reward for behavior, we act accordingly to achieve further
reinforcement. Skinner, Pavlov, and Thorndike put motivation at the center of their
theories of human behavior.
2. In cognitive terms, motivation places much more emphasis on the individual's decisions,
"the choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid,
and the degree of effort they will exert in that respect" (Keller, 1983, p. 389). Some
cognitive psychologists see underlying needs or drives as the compelling force behind our
decisions.
Ausubel identified six needs undergirding the construct of motivation:
A. The need for exploration, for probing the unknown
B. The need for manipulation, for operating—on the environment and causing change
C. The need for activity, for movement and exercise, both physical and mental
D. The need for stimulation, the need to be stimulated by the environment
E. The need for knowledge, the need to process and internalize the results
F. The need for ego enhancement, for the self to be known and to be accepted and
approved of by others
3. A constructivist view of motivation places even further emphasis on social context as well
as individual personal choices. Each person is motivated differently, and will therefore act
on his or her environment in ways that are unique. But these unique acts are always
carried out within a cultural and social milieu and cannot be completely separated from
that context. Motivation, in a constructivist view, is derived as much from our
interactions with others as it is from one’s self-determination.
Types of Motivation
Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation, or the use of external rewards or punishments to encourage student work
completion, is generally painted in education as the enemy of good instruction. The student is
motivated to learn or achieve not by personal interest or desire for growth, but from a desire to
please others by meeting expectations set by parents, teachers, or factors like a desired GPA.
External motivation can also involve punishment and reward.
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is the act of doing an activity purely for the joy of doing it, and it is frankly
very rare in school and work contexts. It is characterized by a deep-seated interest in a topic and
an understanding of its relevance. Students desire to learn not just to achieve a grade or earn a
reward, but because they want to expand their knowledge.
Intrinsic motivation can be difficult to foster in students since it stems from individual desires
that vary from person to person. However, many teachers and parents use extrinsic motivation
initially in the hopes that it will turn into intrinsic motivation.
How do we cultivate motivation?

Practice growth mindset
Students who feel like they will improve through hard work will exert more effort than those
who believe that their success is based on intelligence. Teaching students to use the phrase ‘yet’
when explaining their gaps in knowledge helps to move them away from this deterministic
orientation.
Encourage self-efficacy
Students who are paralyzed by low academic self-confidence will struggle to drive their own
motivation. A sense of competence is enhanced through optimal challenges.
Normalize the struggle
Students may give up because they falsely believe that, if they were going to succeed, it would
be easy. Teachers can disentangle this misconception by providing examples of failures that well-
known individuals overcame along their journey towards success.
Create quiet space
Despite the popular idea that fidgets or music support student focus, brains generally need quiet
or ambient noise to stay engaged. Higher level brain functions such as creativity and critical
thinking are inextricably linked to a state of flow, so students who are constantly interrupted will
never be able to reach this level of highly motivated thinking.
Topic 12: Communicative Competence in the Classroom:

Communicative Language Teaching and Task-Based Instruction
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
CLT is best understood as an approach, rather than a method (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). It is
therefore a unified but broadly-based theoretical position about the nature of language and of
language learning and teaching.
Interconnected characteristics as a definition of CLT
1. Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of components and not restricted
to grammatical or linguistic competence.
2. Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic,
functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Organizational language forms are
not the central focus but rather aspects of language that enable the learner to
accomplish those purposes.
3. Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative
techniques.
4. In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language,
productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts.
Task-Based Instruction (TBI)

Task-Based Instruction is an approach in which learning revolves around the completion of
meaningful tasks. In the TBI approach, the main focus is the authentic use of language for
genuine communication.
According to Willis, tasks can be real-life situations or have a pedagogical purpose. In both cases,
a task should:
• provide opportunities for students to exchange information
• have a clear purpose
• result in an outcome that can be shared with more people;
• relate to real world activities.
Phases of a Task-Based Instruction

TBI is usually composed of the following phases:
Pre-task: The pre-task phase of a TBI is the moment when the teacher sets the task,
contextualizes the topic of the lesson, raises students’ interest and prepares learners to perform
the task.
Task: In this stage, learners perform the task proposed. They are supposed to perform the task in
small groups or pairs, and use their existing knowledge of language to express themselves in a
spontaneous way. As the focus is communication, the teacher is not supposed to carry out
extensive error correction at this stage, but should monitor and provide support.
Post-task: The post-task stage is when students evaluate their performance. This might be done
by comparing the outcome of their task to that of a proficient user of the language. It can also
involve feedback provided by the teacher and subsequent practice of language items that
emerged from the task.
Topic 13: Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication is the transfer of information through the use of body language including eye
contact, facial expressions, gestures and more. Everyone uses nonverbal communication all the time
whether they know it or not. Nonverbal communication is dependent on seeing and analyzing physical
movements as opposed to verbal communication, or the use of language to transfer information
through written text, speaking or sign language.
Types of Nonverbal Communication

Kinesics
Every culture and language use body language, or kinesics, in unique but clearly interpretable
ways—when you fold your arms, cross your legs, stand, walk, move your eyes and mouth, and
so on. Sometimes they are not the same in another language and culture. And sometimes a
gesture that is appropriate in one culture is obscene or insulting in another.
Eye Contact
Cultures differ widely in this particular visual modality of nonverbal communication. In
American culture it is permissible, for example, for two participants of unequal status to
maintain prolonged eye contact. In fact, an American might interpret lack of eye contact as
discourteous lack of attention, while in Japanese culture eye contact might be considered rude.
Intercultural interference in this nonverbal category can lead to misunderstanding. Moreover,
eyes can signal interest, boredom, empathy, hostility, attraction, understanding,
misunderstanding, and other messages.
Proxemics
Physical proximity, or proxemics, is also a significant communicative category. Cultures vary
widely in acceptable distances for conversation. Edward Hall (1966) calculated acceptable
distances for public, social-consultative, personal, and intimate discourse. He noted, for
example, that Americans feel that a certain personal space "bubble" has been violated if a
stranger stands closer than 20 to 24 inches away unless space is restricted, such as in a subway
or an elevator. However, a typical member of a Latin American culture would feel that such a
physical distance would be too great.
Sometimes objects—desks, counters, other furniture—serve to maintain certain physical
distances. Such objects tend to establish both the overall style and relationship of participants.
Thus, a counter between two people maintains a consultative mood.
Artifacts
The nonverbal messages of artifacts such as clothing and ornamentation are also important
aspects of communication. Clothes often signal a person's sense of self-esteem, socioeconomic
class, and general character. Jewelry also conveys certain messages.
Kinesthetics
Touching, sometimes referred to as kinesthetics, is another culturally loaded aspect of
nonverbal communication. How we touch others and where we touch them is sometimes the
most misunderstood aspect of nonverbal communication.
Olfactory Dimensions
Our noses also receive sensory nonverbal messages. The twentieth century has created in most
technological societies a penchant for perfumes, lotions, creams, and powders as acceptable
and even necessary; natural human odors, especially perspiration, are thought to be
undesirable.
Topic 14: From the Traditional to the Contemporary in Second

Language Teaching and Learning
SYLLABUS DESIGN
A syllabus consists of list of content to be taught through a course of study. Syllabus design has to
do with selecting and sequencing content, methodology with selecting and sequencing
appropriate learning experiences, and evaluation with appraising learners and determining the
effectiveness of the curriculum as a whole.
APPROACH TO TEACHING
In traditional language classrooms, learners are taught chiefly about language and its rules. They
learn facts about language rather than how to use it communicatively. The primary role of the
learner is as a relatively passive recipient of knowledge. The teacher's role is to provide that
knowledge.
• High-structure vs. Low-structure Teaching

High-structure teaching situations are those in which the teacher is very much in control of
the instructional process. In these situations, learners have relatively little power or control
over either the content or process of learning. Low-structure situations, on the other hand
provide learners with numerous options in a great deal of autonomy.
ROLE OF LEARNERS
• Passive vs. Active Language Roles
Learners in classrooms characterized by a transmission model of learning are cast in relative
passive role. They are passengers, being carried forward in the learning experience by the
teacher. Rather learning how to use language creatively themselves, they spend most learning
time copying and reproducing language written down by others.
• Encouraging Creative Language Use

In classrooms and textbooks in which the creativity principle is activated, learners are given
structured opportunities to use the language that they have been practicing in new and
unexpected ways. They are provided with the language that they will need to take part in
genuine communicative tasks, and they are given opportunities to respond appropriately in new
situations outside the classroom.
APPROACH TO LANGUAGE
• Shortcomings of Grammar-Translation and Audiolingualism
Grammar-translation and audiolingualism adopted very different approaches to the treatment of
grammar. Grammar-translation uses excessively deductive approach to the teaching of grammar.
Audiolingual methodology was based on an inductive approach in which rules were “caught”
rather than “taught”. Despite their marked differences, they both separated the teaching of
grammatical form from communicative meaning.
• Teaching Grammar Communicatively

In a teaching methodology that reflects what we currently know about second language
acquisition, grammar and vocabulary are taught communicatively. Grammatical Patterns are
matched to particular communicative meanings so excellent so that learners can see the
connection between form and function.
CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION
• Teacher-fronted vs. Small Group Classrooms
It is the traditional mode of classroom organization was a teacher-fronted one, with learners
sitting in rows facing the teacher. They spent most of their time repeating and manipulating
models provided by the teacher.
Experiential learning was based on a constructivists approach to education. Such a philosophy is
realized at the classroom level by cooperative, task-based learning, with learners working in
small groups and pairs. Students Become skilled at cooperating with others, and express their
own opinions, ideas, and feelings, guided by the teacher.
Topic 15: Errors and Feedback

Points to Remember about Errors
• Spelling errors are troublesome for beginners and intermediate learners. Advanced
learners may make spelling errors as well, but they are much less frequent.
• Beginners make more errors at the word level than at the sentence or discourse levels.
• Intermediate learners make errors spanning word, sentence, and discourse levels, but
they make a majority of their errors at the word and sentence level.
• Advanced learners make more sentence and discourse errors, with a majority of their
errors falling in the range of complex sentences and sentence relationships.
• Related words are a problem for learners. These words share the same root or word
family origins, but have different meanings.
• kindly; easy/easily; to grow/growing).
• The number of errors decrease as proficiency increases.
• More errors are likely when languages are more closely related (Spanish-English) in
comparison to more distantly related languages (Japanese-English).
Effective and Appropriate Feedback
Targeted
Effective feedback is targeted, which means it is goal-referenced and consistent. When they
receive feedback tied to the goals and objectives, it will inform them of their progress and the
need for adjustment.
It is important to make goals and learning objectives clear at the onset of the activity and remind
our students about them throughout the task to help them see a clear trajectory in mind. This
enables students to self-assess if they are completing the task successfully and adjust as
necessary.
Specific
Effective feedback is specific, which means it is tangible and transparent, actionable, and user
friendly. Tangible and transparent feedback ensures that the direction students receive is
substantial and concrete enough and that they understand what it means. Feedback also needs
to be actionable, which means it leads to action. It must be descriptive enough that the student
understands what they should do to correct the error and what they need to do differently in
the future.
Timely
Effective feedback is timely, meaning it is well-timed, prompt, and ongoing. Effective feedback
must be given while the learning is still happening so that the students do not develop
misconceptions and will remain invested in the subject matter.
Balanced
Balanced feedback builds on targeted feedback in a way that we recognize that the goal is to
consistently balance attention to form, meaning, and appropriateness. Providing balanced
feedback also means attending to the sociocultural appropriateness of the learner’s language as
it may have the biggest social impact on the learner.
Differentiated
Differentiated feedback builds on specific feedback and is related to the term differentiated
instruction. In the context of feedback, differentiated means we determine if the error is
content-related or language-related so we can adjust the feedback accordingly. With language
learners, errors occur on two levels—content and language. Students may understand the
underlying concepts and ideas but might not use correct language to express it. We need to be
specific and provide differentiated feedback by making clear that their understanding is correct
and at the same time helping them adjust their language to represent the correct form.
Supportive
Supportive feedback relates to issues of timely feedback in a sense that it needs to be prompt,
ongoing, consistent, and provided in the right time as judged by the teacher based on the
character of the task and student needs. Additionally, feedback that is supportive for English
learners is provided in the right time considering unique needs of language learners. When the
goal of the task is to communicate, we need to focus on providing feedback on the ability to
communicate.

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EDU 150: Principles and Theories of Language Acquisition and Learning

Topic 1: Theories on the Origin of Human Language

The Ding-Dong Theory

The La-La Theory

The Pooh-Pooh Theory

The Yo-He-Ho Theory

Lesson 2: Acquiring vs. Learning, First Language vs. Second

Acquiring vs. Learning

First Language vs. Second Language Acquisition

First Language Second Language

Topic 3: Schools of Thought in Second Language Acquisition

Structural Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology

Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology

Constructivism: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Two branches of constructivism:

Topic 4: Language and the Brain and

Language and the Brain

The motor cortex and the arcuate fasciculus

The localization view

● Slips of the tongue

Stages of Language Development

The prelinguistic stage

The holophrase or one-word sentence

The two-word sentence

“Doggy big” (declarative)

“I want more sugar”

More complex grammatical structures

“Read it, my book” (conjunction)

“I can’t play” (permutation)

Adult-like language structures

“Ask her what time it is.”

Topic 5: Behavioral, Nativist, and Functional Approach in

Behavioral Approach in Language Acquisition

Nativist Approach in Language Acquisition

LAD four innate linguistic properties according to McNeill (1966)

Universal Grammar (UG)

Functional Approach in Language Acquisition

Cognition and Language Development

Social Interaction and Language Development

Functions of Language by Jakobson

Phatic function – establishes, prolongs or discontinues communication; to maintain contact with

Topic 6: Learning and Training

AUSUBEL'S SUBSUMPTION THEORY

Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

ROGERS'S HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

Topic 7: Issues in First Language Acquisition and

Issues in First Language Acquisition

Comprehension and Production

Systematicity and Variability

Practice and Frequency

First Language Acquisition Insights Applied to Language Teaching

Gouin and the Series Method

Topic 8: Learning Styles

Topic 9: Learning Strategies

Metacognitive Strategies Description

Socio-affective Strategies Description

Cognitive Strategies Description

Translation Using the first language as a base for understanding and/or

Deduction Using the first language as a base for understanding and/or

Elaboration Relating new informal information to other concepts in memory

Transfer Using previously acquired linguistic and/or conceptual

Topic 10: Affective Factors in Second Language Acquisition

BLOOM’A LEVELS OF AFFECTIVITY