ENG 150

Theory Definition Drawbacks

The Bow-wow Theory Language arose from our
ancestors by imitating the
sounds that are naturally
occurring.
The Pooh-Pooh Theory Language begins
from the automatic vocal
responses to fear, pain, surprise,
and other emotions.
Ding-Dong Theory - favored by Plato and
Pythagoras.
- accordance with the idea
that language reflects some
mystical resonance or
harmony connected with
things in the world.
Yo-He-Ho Theory. The idea of language started
from grunts, snort, and groans
stimulated by heavy physical
labor.
Ta-Ta Theory In accordance with the idea that
language evolved from the
mimic of manual gesture with
the use of mouth and tongue.
The La-La Theory Language originated from
the sounds of play, singing, and
love.
Since a minority of things, we
talk about have characteristic
sounds
associated with them, and not
many onomatopoeic words are
derived from natural
sounds.
Animals also produce these
sounds, and they did not
develop language. Also, Crystal
indicated that, “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.”
Nonetheless, it’s unclear how
one could probe this. No
language demonstrates any
indication of an underlying
relationship
between sound and meaning.
But there’s a big difference
between this notion and what
people do naturally with the
language.
However, many things people
talk about do not have
characteristic gestures affiliated
with them, not to mention
gestures humans can imitate
with the tongue and mouth.
This one is equally as plausible
as the others, and it’s rather
nice.

ACQUIRING LEARNING
- Implicit and subconscious process - Is a result of direct instruction in the rules of
- Repeat what is said and get a feel for what is language.
and what is not correct. - Explicit and conscious process
- Need a source of natural communication. - Not age-appropriate activity for very young
- Has a tacit knowledge of grammar. children.
- Uses grammatical “feel” - Uses grammatical rules
- Depends on attitude. - Depends on aptitude
- Stable order of acquisition. - simple to complex order of learning.

FIRST LANGUAGE SECOND LANGUAGE

- Mother tongue or native language - A person learns in order to communicate with
- Instinct the native speaker of that language.
- A person cannot decide their first language. - Personal choice of a person.
- Process is very rapid. - Always fixed by the person. Have alternatives.
- Acquired. - Process can be varied from language to
ENG 150
- Competent. language and from person to person, but can
- Begins with telegraphic speech. never be as rapid as the first language
- Natural part of a person’s everyday life. acquisition.
- Learned.
- Not as competent as the first language.
- Begins with a full sentence.
- New aspect of the person’s life if s/he
chooses it to be.
FACTORS OF DIFFERENCE FOR FLA AND SLA
- Age
- Personality
- Culture
- Motivation
- Mother Tongue

Language Acquisition Learned

- the process by which human acquire the - To gain knowledge or skills by study,
capacity to perceive and comprehend instruction, or experience.
language, as well as to produce and use
words and sentences to communicate.
Acquired
- To come into possession or ownership of.
ENG 150
I. Schools of Thought in Second Language Acquisition
A. Structural Linguistics/Behavioral Psychology
1. Structural Linguistics
a) Descriptive
b) Linguist’s job is to describe human languages and identify their structural
characteristics.
c) Only interested in overtly observable data, ignoring the “mind” (meaning and
thought)
d) Language can be broken down into small units, which can be added up to form the
whole.
2. Behavioral Psychology
a) Empirical
b) Focusing on responses that are objectively perceived, recorded, and measured.
c) Notions such as intuition, memory, and thinking are ignored.
d) Learning a behavior; conditioning organisms to respond in desired ways through
reinforcement (positive or negative).
3. Language Learning
a) Conditioning learners with positive/negative reinforcement to make the right
connection between stimuli and the desired response.
b) Drilling language in the classroom was a dominant method.
c) Stimuli—Response—Reinforcement—Habit formation
B. Generative linguistics/Cognitive Psychology (1960s, 1970s, 1980s)
1. Generative linguistics
a) By Noam Chomsky
b) Linguist’s job is to go beyond mere description of the surface structure of language.
c) Parole/performance vs. Langue/competence
(1) Parole: Performance, and Surface structure.
(2) Langue: Competence, and Deep structure.
d) Studying competence reveals the hidden level of meaning and thought (deep
structure) that generates the observable performance.
2. Cognitive Psychology
a) Seeking to discover underlying motivations and deeper structures of human behavior.
b) Meaning, understanding, and knowing as legitimate data for psychology.
c) Rational approach using logic, reason, inference to explain human behavior.
3. Language Learning
a) Language is species-specific.
b) Language is innate: human beings are born with the ability to acquire language.
4. Structural Linguistics/Behavioral Psychology vs. Generative linguistics/Cognitive
Psychology
a) SL/BP: observable, empirical, descriptive, what.
b) GL/CP: hidden, rational, explanatory, why.
C. Constructivism (1980s, 1990s, ad 2000s)
1. Post-structuralist
2. Linguistic, psychological and sociological paradigms integrated.
3. The active role of learner is emphasized
4. Two branches: cognitive vs. social
a) Cognitive Constructivism
ENG 150
(1) By Jean Piaget
(2) Emphasizes the role of the learner in constructing his/her own representation
of reality.
(3) Learner must discover and transform complex information to make it their
own (scheme, assimilation, accommodation)
(4) Development as a precondition for learning.
(5) A solitary act.
(6) Biological timetables and stages of development.
b) Social Constructivism
(1) By lev Vygotsky, Mikhail Bakhtin
(2) Emphasizes the role of social interaction and cooperative learning in
constructing both cognitive and emotional images of reality.
(3) Language learning is a result of thinking and meaning-making that is
“socially constructed and emerges out of their social interactions and their
environment.”
(4) Unity of learning and development.
(5) Social interaction as foundation for cognitive development.
(6) No predetermined stages of development.
c) Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development
(1) The zone between a child’s level of independent and assisted performance.
(2) Level of independent performance <- ZPD -> Level of assisted performance
(3) What a child can do alone and what he or she can do with support.
(4) Often applied to ESL/EFL/ contexts
d) Language is “immersed in a social and cultural context, and its central function is to
serve a medium of communication.
ENG 150
The localization view:

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 a part of
the motor cortex to physically articulate the word.

Tongue tips and slips

Refer to errors or mistakes that occur in speech production,

specifically related to the movement and positioning of the tongue.
These slips can involve mispronunciations, substitutions, or other deviations from the intended speech sounds.

THE TIP OF THE TONGUE PHENOMENON SLIPS OF THE TONGUE

Which we feel that some words are just eluding us, that Produces expressions such as make a long shory stort
we know the word, but it just won’t come to the (make a long story short). Sometimes called
surface. “spoonerisms”

Aphasia

- An impairment of language function due to localized brain damage that leads to difficulty in understanding
and/or producing linguistic forms.
- Language disorder.

Broca’s Aphasia

- A type of communication disorder characterized by difficulties in speech production.

- People with Broca's aphasia may have limited speech output, with slow and effortful speech characterized by
short and fragmented phrases. They often struggle with finding words (anomia) and have difficulty with
grammatical structures and sentence formation. However, their comprehension of language is relatively
preserved, allowing them to understand the speech of others to a certain extent.

Wernicke’s Aphasia

- A type of language disorder that results in difficulties in auditory comprehension.

- Individuals with Wernicke's aphasia exhibit fluent and well-articulated speech, but the content of their speech is
often nonsensical and lacks meaningful or coherent meaning. They may use incorrect words, produce jumbled
sentences, and have difficulty comprehending spoken and written language. Their speech may appear normal in
terms of grammar and syntax, but the words may be unrelated or have incorrect word choices.
- Due to their impaired comprehension, individuals with Wernicke's aphasia may not fully understand what others
are saying to them, and they may struggle to follow conversations or read written text. However, they may not be
aware of their language deficits and may display reduced insight into their own speech difficulties.

Conduction Aphasia

- A type of aphasia that has been associated with damage to the arcuate fasciculus.
- 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.
ENG 150
STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
STAGE
Prelinguistic stage
Holophrase or one-word sentence
Two-word or Telegraphic sentence
Multiple-word sentences
More complex grammatical
structures
Adult-like language structure
DEFINITION EXAMPLE
- Occur around the child’s first - Dadadada
year of life. - Mamamama
- Developmental aspects related - Waaaaaah
to speech would include the - Graaahh
development of gestures, - Abooo
making adequate eye contact,
sound repartee between, infant
and caregiver, babbling, and
crying.
- Ages 10 to 13 months. - Milk
- Although the child tends to - Up
utter a single word at a time, its - Mama
meaning is also supplemented - Dada
by the context in which it takes - Nomnom
place, as well as by nonverbal - Dede
cues.
- 18 months - Doggy big
- His/her “sentences” now usually - Where ball
comprise a noun or a verb plus a - Not egg
modifier. - More milk!
- This enables the child to
formulate a sentence which may
be either declarative, negative,
imperative, interrogative.
- Supported by the situation.
- 2 and 2 half years old - Doggy is big
- Grammatical morphemes in the - Where is ball
form of prefixes or suffices are - That is not egg
used when changing meanings - I want more milk
or tenses. - I falling
- The child can now form
sentences with subject and a
predicate.
- 2 and half to 3 years of age. - Read it, my book (conjunction)
- They use more intricate and - Where is daddy? (embedding)
complex grammatical - I can’t play (permutation)
structures, elements are added - Take me to the shop (uses
(conjunction), embedded and preposition of place)
permuted within sentences and
prepositions are used.
- 5-6 years old - Ask her what time it is.
- Complex structural distinctions - He promised to help her.
can now be made, such as by
using the concepts “ask/tell”
and “promise” and changing the
word order in the sentence
accordingly.