Behaviorist Theory - Language Learning and Principles Instructional Materials

Editor's Notes

• #4: Behaviorism believes that a learner is able to make a connection with the consequences associated with his/her behavior through positive and negative reinforcement and punishments.
• #5: Positive reinforcement – Negative reinforcement –. Punishment – Classical Conditioning is a natural reflex that occurs in response to the stimulus. The techniques of this type of conditioning is often a treatment for phobias and anxiety. It also helps us understand how our responses to one situation becomes attached to new situations.
• #8: According to behaviorism theory by BF Skinner, the process of language learning is influenced by conditionings (operant conditioning). It is based on the concept of stimulus and response.
• #9: Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding. For example, if a mother always gives money for allowance after completing his son homework, the son will more likely repeat his behavior towards completing his assignment in the future.   Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience. For example, a student doesn’t finish his homework and he got scolded by a teacher. So next time, he will finish his homework to avoid getting scolded by the teacher thus strengthening the behavior of finishing his homework.
• #10: Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding. For example, if a mother always gives money for allowance after completing his son homework, the son will more likely repeat his behavior towards completing his assignment in the future.   Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience. For example, a student doesn’t finish his homework and he got scolded by a teacher. So next time, he will finish his homework to avoid getting scolded by the teacher thus strengthening the behavior of finishing his homework.
• #11: Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding. For example, if a mother always gives money for allowance after completing his son homework, the son will more likely repeat his behavior towards completing his assignment in the future.   Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience. For example, a student doesn’t finish his homework and he got scolded by a teacher. So next time, he will finish his homework to avoid getting scolded by the teacher thus strengthening the behavior of finishing his homework.
• #12: As conclusion, the response given to a stimuli will be reinforced if successful then the desired outcome will be achieved (doing negative reinforcement). Repetitive reinforcements to a certain stimulus will give a same response time and again will become a habit (doing positive reinforcement).
• #13: For first language learning, learners set new habits as they learn to respond to stimulus in their environment. In this stage of learning, an individual learn through imitations. Wherein, learners learn to speak by copying the words and sounds heard around them and by having their responses strengthened by the repetitions, corrections and other reactions that adults provide.
• #14:   For second language learning, the learner’s learning process will become complicated due to external factors. This will result to interference in learning the second language and learners may develop variations in using structures that have been previously learned.
• #16: Repertoire – collection Learning is therefore a formation of habit.
• #17: Motivation is usually defined as an internal state that arouses, directs and maintains behaviors
• #18: In other words, experiences shape our learning
• #20: Give the learner immediate feedback ·    Break down the tasks into small tasks ·    Repeat the directions as many times as possible ·    Work from the most simple to the most complex tasks ·    Give positive reinforcement
• #22: States that whenever two or more sensations occur together, close in time, they will become associated. reinforcement (any means of increasing likelihood that an event will be repeated) are central to explaining the learning process.
• #23: Repetition – The more frequent the stimulus-response the more likely is the desired outcome Variation – generalizes the response
• #24: Intermittent reinforcement – Not rewarding the response every time is found to be more effective than constant reward. (keep them guessing) • Extinction – the association will die if the stimulus-response bond is not reinforced
• #25: Gagne created a nine-step process called the events of instruction which correlate to and address the conditions of learning
• #30: Methods: Present vocabulary Provide examples Present multiple versions of the same content Use a variety of media to address different learning preferences Organize and chunk content in a meaningful way. Provide explanations after demonstrations.
• #33: Elicit student activities – ask deep-learning questions, make reference to what students already know or have students collaborate with their peers Elicit recall strategies – ask students to recite, revisit, or reiterate information they have learned Facilitate student elaborations – ask students to elaborate or explain details and provide more complexity to their responses Help students integrate new knowledge – provide content in a context-rich way (use real-world examples)
• #34: Elicit student activities – ask deep-learning questions, make reference to what students already know or have students collaborate with their peers Elicit recall strategies – ask students to recite, revisit, or reiterate information they have learned Facilitate student elaborations – ask students to elaborate or explain details and provide more complexity to their responses Help students integrate new knowledge – provide content in a context-rich way (use real-world examples)
• #35: Confirmatory feedback – Informs the student they did what he or she were supposed to do Corrective and remedial feedback – informs the student the accuracy of their performance or response
• #36: Remedial feedback – Directs students in the right direction to find the correct answer but does not provide the correct answer Informative feedback – Provides information (new, different, additions, suggestions) to a student and confirms that you have been actively listening – this information allows sharing between two people Analytical feedback – Provides the student with suggestions, recommendations, and information for them to correct their performance
• #37: Remedial feedback – Directs students in the right direction to find the correct answer but does not provide the correct answer Informative feedback – Provides information (new, different, additions, suggestions) to a student and confirms that you have been actively listening – this information allows sharing between two people Analytical feedback – Provides the student with suggestions, recommendations, and information for them to correct their performance
• #38: Pretest for mastery of prerequisites Use a pretest for endpoint knowledge or skills Conduct a post-test to check for mastery of content or skills Embed questions throughout instruction through oral questioning and/or quizzes
• #39: Embed questions throughout instruction through oral questioning and/or quizzes Include objective or criterion-referenced performances which measure how well a student has learned a topic Identify normative-referenced performances which compares one student to another student
• #40: Paraphrase content Use metaphors Generating examples Create concept maps or outlines Create job-aids, references, templates, or wizards
• #41: The role of the teacher is to control the environment in an effort to encourage the desired behavioral changes
• #43: Instructional Design (ID) have direct implications to specific assumptions and principles of the Behaviorist theory in Learning (Ertmer & Newby, 1993).
• #44: Specific assumptions that have direct relevance to instructional design include the following
• #46: Stimulus- Praise the efforts of your students Response- Good compliments is positive effect for students, which shows appreciation to their efforts and through that, the students enhances their own self-confidence. Learning- The eagerness of students to receive compliments, the eagerness they want to learn without distractions during their learning process and its gives a long term process of learning. 
• #47: Stimulus- Giving extra credit to students who excels in class Response- It reduces student anxiety, it builds confidence and it helps students learn to be creative during the learning process. Learning- Students enjoy their learning process and it gives additional learning opportunities while allowing them a means to increase their grade which is a good impact to students.
• #50: Analyze the situation. Sets a goal. (Learning Objectives) Tasks are broken down The behaviorist learning theory focused mainly on objectively observable behaviors and, consequently, discounts mental activities. This approach emphasized the “acquisition of new behavior” (Bednar, Cunningham, Duffy, & Perry, 1992).
• #51: Behaviorist theory aids the design of instruction by the notion of eliciting the desired response from the learner who is presented with a target stimulus. The design of instruction and the designer are the one who controls the environment by using praise and feedback as punishment and reward. Furthermore, the learner’s role is not only to be seen as passive but also active in such a way that it participates in doing, and trial and error to further facilitate learning. Evaluation and the frequency of feedback are important parts of the design because behaviorism emphasizes that only measurable behavior changes can confirm that learning has taken place. Finally, it should also be taken into consideration the situation, performance, goals, and the learners before framing the instruction on a certain theory.