Chapter 4 Brown (p.

86-114)
 Entry behavior

Goal formulation

Method of training

Evaluation
procedures
Steps how
training would go
Learning Theories based on 4 Psychologists

Behavioral
Cognitive stance
viewpoint
(Ausubel)
(Pavlov&Skinner)

A constructivist
school of thought
(Rogers)
Pavlov’s Classical Behaviorism

A dog – a bell – salivation

Stimulus?
Conditioned response?
Drawing on Pavlov’s Finding, John B. Watson (1913) coined
the term behaviorism  rejecting mentalistic notions of
innateness and instinct.

Later, E.L Thorndike expanded the theory and came up with

the Thorndike’s Law of Effect (paved a way for B.F. Skinner)
 Skinner vs Pavlov
Skinner
Operant Conditioning
one ‘operates’ on the
environment
Deemphasizing stimuli 
concern more on the
consequences
Reponses emitted and governed
by the consequences they
produce
Rely on reinforces to strengthen
the behavior
Pavlov
Respondent Conditioning 
concern on responded behavior
elicited by preceding stimulus
Emphasizing the stimuli
Responses elicited by identifiable
stimuli
Merely rely on the association of
a prior stimulus with a following
response
 Discussion:
How might behaviorism take
place in a foreign language
classroom?
 Ausubel’s Subsumption Theory

Subsumption a process of relating and

anchoring new material to relevant established
entities in cognitive structure
 Rote learning vs meaningful learning

Rote Learning
Meaningful Learning
 Process of acquiring
 As new material enters the
material as discrete and
cognitive field, it interacts
isolated entities
with and subsumed under
 Not permitting the
a more inclusive
establishment of
conceptual system
meaningful relationship
 Dealing with retention and
 e.g learning necessary
long term memory
phone numbers
 Systematic Forgetting Ausubel

 Cognitive pruning procedure  the elimination of

unnecessary clutter for more necessary material to enter the
cognitive field.
 Language attrition  the loss of second language skills is
possible. (possible in bilingualism)

Do you think language attrition might

be beneficial?
Have you ever experienced a language
attrition?
 Rogers’s Humanistic Psychology

 Has more of an affective focus than a cognitive one

 Highlighting the social and interactive nature of learning just like
Vygotsky
 His idea is in contrast to Skinner’s
 Rogers studied the “whole person” as a physical and cognitive,
but a primarily emotional being
 Flaws valuable time is lost in the process of allowing students
to discover facts and principles for themselves, a nonthreatening
environment might omit the classroom tension needed for
learning.
8 Types of Learning from Gagne (1965, p.58-59)

1. Signal learning
2. Stimulus-response learning
3. Chaining
4. Verbal association
5. Multiple discrimination
6. Concept learning
7. Principle learning
8. Problem solving
Transfer, Interference, and Overgeneralization

Positive Transfer (prior knowledge

benefits the learning the learning
task)
Transfer
Negative Transfer (previously
learned material interferes with
subsequent material) 
interference

Overgeneralization
e.g. walk-walk, open-opened,
fly-flied
 Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Grammar Translation Method vs Communicative

Language Teaching
 Language Aptitude

Is there an ability or ‘talent’ that we can call

foreign language aptitude?
Is so, what is it, and is it innate or
environmentally “nurtured”?