Language Theories based on language development

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THE NATURE OF
LANGUAGE,
THE NATURE OF
LEARNING AND
LANGUAGE LEARNING&
Acquisition
theories of second
language acquisition

 Three different views of The nature of language
 Definition of learning and Acquisition
 Theory of language learning
 BUILDING A THEORY OF SLA
1. Domains and Generalizations

The Structural view of language
• The structural view of language is that language is a
system of structurally related elements for the
transmission of meaning. (SILL International, 1999)
• These elements are usually described as
Phonological
Unit
• Phonemes
Grammatical
Unit
• Phrase, clauses, sentences
Grammatical
operation
• Adding, shifting, joining, or transforming elements
Lexical items • Functional words and structural words

• Main tenets
1)Language has a structure
2)Language is a system of sings
3)Language operates at two levels: langue and parole
Ferdinand de Saussure
1857 - 1913

Main tenets
Linguistics is a descriptive science.
1) The primary form of language is the spoken one.
2) Every language is a system on its own right.
3) Language is a system in which smaller units
arrange systematically to form larger ones.
4) Meaning should not be part of linguistic analysis.
5) The procedures to determine the units in
language should be objective and rigorous.
6) Language is observable speech, not knowledge.
Leonard
Bloomfield
1887-1949

The Communicative view of language
• The communicative, or functional view of language is the view
that language is a vehicle for the expression of functional
meaning. The semantic and communicative dimensions of
language are more emphasized than the grammatical
characteristics, although these are also included.
Language is meaningful
• It is principally through the acquisition of language that the
child becomes an effective member of the community, and
the leaders in a community preserve and advance their
leadership largely through their ability to communicate with
people through language.

The Interactional view of language
• The interactional view of language sees language primarily as
the means for establishing and maintaining interpersonal
relationships and for performing social transactional between
individuals.
• The development of interactional approach to language
learning includes interactional analysis, conversational
analysis, and ethnomethodology.
• The target of language learning is to initiate and maintain
conversations with other people.
• It sees language as a vehicle for the realization of
interpersonal relations and for the performance of social
transactions between individuals.

• Trevor Pateman (1987), claimed five definitions for what is a language?
Three or four of them have some currency in contemporary linguistics and
philosophy of language. These five definitions are
(I) A language is a natural kind. (NATURALISM)
(II) A language is an abstract object. (PLATONISM)
(III) A language is a name given to a set of objects (for example, a set of
grammars, or idiolects, characteristically taken to be properties of
individual speakers). (NOMINALISM)
(IV) A language is a social fact, and that social fact is also a (or, in a stronger
version, the only) linguistic fact. (SOCIOLOGISM)
(V) A language is a social fact, but that social fact is not a linguistic fact.
(DUALISM, for want of a better word to indicate a view of reality as
stratified and with at least `weak' emergent properties).

1. A change in behavior as a result of experience or practice.
2. The acquisition of knowledge.
3. Knowledge gained through study.
4. To gain knowledge of , or skill in, through study, teaching,
instruction or experience.
5. The process of gaining knowledge.
6. A process by which behavior is changed, shaped, or
controlled.
7. The individual process of constructing understanding based
on experience from a wide range of sources.
(Alan Prichard 2009:2)

What is Theory of language learning?
• A theory of language learning is an account of the
psycholinguistic and cognitive processes involved in learning a
language and of the conditions that need to be met in order
for these processes to take place.
Types
• Process-oriented theories
• Habit-formation
• Induction
• Inferencing
• Hypothesis-testing
• Generalization
• Condition-oriented theories
condition-oriented language learning theories emphasize the human and
physical context in which language learning takes place.

• An explicit procedure or stratagem (crafty scheme)
used to accomplish a particular learning objective or
set of objectives.
Examples:
• Techniques for self-directed language learners for
descriptions of a variety of specific technique.

• SLA , among other things, not unlike first language
acquisition, is a subject of general human learning,
involves cognitive variations, is closely related to
one’s personality type, is interwoven with second
culture learning, and involves interference, the
creation of new linguistic systems, and the learning
of discourse and communicative functions of
language.
All of these categories and the many subcategories
subsumed under them form the basis for structuring
an integrated theory of SLA

Second Language Acquisition
Cognitive
variations
New
linguistic
system
Second
culture
learning
Communicative
functions

BUILDING A THEORY OF SLA
Second language learning is a complex process.
“Complexity means that there are so many separate but
interrelated factors within one intricate entity that it is
exceedingly difficult to bring order and simplicity to that
“chaos” (Larsen- Freeman, 1997)
Domains and Generalizations
* Classification of learners variables (Yorio,1976)
1) Age
2) Cognition
3) Native Language
4) Input
5) Affective Domains
6) Educational Background

1) A theory of SLA includes an understanding, in
general, of what language is, what learning is, and
for classroom contexts, what teaching is.
2) Knowledge of children’s learning of their first
language provides essential insight to an
understanding of SLA.
3) A number of important differences between adult
and child learning and between first and second
language acquisition must be carefully accounted
for.
SET OF DOMAINS OF CONSIDERATION IN A
THEORY OF SLA:

4) Second language learning is a part of and adheres to
general principles of human learning and
intelligence.
5) There is tremendous variation across learners in
cognitive style and within a learner in strategy
choice.
6) Personality, the way people view themselves and
reveal themselves in communication, will affect
both the quantity and quality of second language
learning.

7) Learning a second culture is often intricately
intertwined with learning a second language.
8) The linguistics contrast between the native and
target language form one source of difficulty in
learning a second language. But the creative
process of forming an inter-language system
involves the learners in utilizing many facilitative
sources and resources. Inevitable aspects of this
process are errors, from which learners and teachers
can gain further insight.

9) Communicative competence, with all of its sub-
categories, is the ultimate goal of learners as they
deal with function, discourse, register, and
nonverbal aspects of human interaction and
linguistic negotiation.
De Bot (1996) argued that “output serves an important
role in second languages acquisition … because it
generates highly specific input the cognitive system
needs to build up a coherent set of knowledge.”

• Behaviorism
• Cognitive
• Innateness / Nativist
• The Monitor Model
• Inter-language Theories
• Social Interaction Theory
• Vygotsky’s Sociocultural
• Multidimensional Model
• Acculturation/Pidginization Theory

• B.F Skinner (March 20,1904-August
18,1990) was an American Psychologist.
• B.F Skinner proposed this theory as an
explanation for Language acquisition in
human.
• B. F SKINNER’S entire system is based on
operant conditioning (learning a function of
change in overt behavior)
• “A child acquires verbal behavior when
relatively un-patterned vocalizations,
selectively reinforced, gradually assume
forms which produce appropriate
consequences in a given verbal community”
(Skinner 31)

 Traditional behaviorists believed that language learning is simply a matter
of imitation and habit formation.
 Children imitate the sounds and patterns which they hear around them
and receive positive reinforcement ( the form of praise or just successful
communication) for doing so.
 The quality and quantity of the language which the child hears, as well as
the consistency of the reinforcement offered by others in the
environment, should have an effect on the child’s success in language
learning.
 Behaviorism is a theory of learning focusing on observable behavior and
discounting any mental activity. Learning is defined simply as the
acquisition of new behavior. (Alan Prichard 2009:6)
 Behaviorism: Stimulus- Response- Reinforcement.- Drilling, exercise,
repetition.

• Language is based on a set of structures or rules,
which could not be worked out simply by imitating
individual utterances
• Children are often unable to repeat what an adult
says.
• It does not account for processes taking place in the
mind that cannot be observed.
• Advocates for passive student learning in a teacher-
centric environment.

• “Whatever 'behaviorism' may have served in the
past, it has become nothing more than a set of
arbitrary restrictions on 'legitimate' theory
construction . . . the kind of intellectual shackles that
physical scientists would surely not tolerate and that
condemns any intellectual pursuit to insignificance."
(Bjork, 1993, p.204)
 According to Chomsky, Children are biologically
programmed for language and language develops in
the child in just the same way that other biological
functions develop.

• The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-
1980) placed acquisition of language within
the context of a child’s mental or cognitive
development.
• Language is just one aspect of a child’s overall
intellectual development.
• A child acquired a language through
interaction between the child and
environment. (Jean Piaget).
• A child has to understand a concept before
he/she can acquire the particular language
from which expresses that concept.

• No need for a separate model of the language in the mind. Language learning is
explained within theories of learning.
• Information processing: Paying attention and practicing. Declarative knowledge
becomes Procedural knowledge. Language becomes automatic.
• The interaction hypothesis: Modified input, opportunity to interact.
Conversational modification
• Connectionism: The competition model: frequency of encountering certain
language features in the input allow learners to make connections.

• Posner & Snyder (1975) viewed cognitive theory, and they were in the
opinion that these sub-skills become automatic with practice. During this
process of automatization, the learner organizes and restructures new
information that is acquired.
• Berman’s 1987,point of view language acquisition is dependent “in both
content and developmental sequencing on prior cognitive abilities” and
language is viewed as a function of “more general nonlinguistic abilities.
• Constructivists view learning as the result of mental construction. That is,
learning takes place when new information is built into and added onto an
individual’s current structure of knowledge, understanding and skills. We
learn best when we actively construct our own understanding (Alan
Prichard 2009:17)

• Like Behaviorism, knowledge itself is given and
absolute.
• Input – Process – Output model is mechanistic and
deterministic.
• It does not account enough for individuality.
• It has little emphasis on affective characteristics.

The first time this term inter-language was used by
Selinker (1969)
a) Overgeneralization
b) Transfer of Training
c) Strategies of Second Language Learning
d) Strategies of Second Language Communication
e) Language Transfer.

• The second time this term inter-language was used by
Adjemian in 1976
• He differentiates between the learning strategies that
learners employ the linguistic rules that are “crucially
concerned in the actual form of the language system
• The properties of the learner’s grammar should be the
primary goal of linguistic research.
• The third approach to the description of interlanguage was
initiated by Tarone (1979, 1982).
• She describes interlanguage as a continuum of speech styles

Bruner
• Social interactive approach – puts forward idea that
interactions between child and carer are crucial to language
development and help children to develop important
abilities such as turn-taking.
• Importance of conversations, routines of social interaction,
• Must be LASS (support system) as well as LAD. Parents
provide ritualised scenarios – bath, meal, getting dressed –
phrases of interaction rapidly recognised and predicted
• But: not the case in all cultures – western mothers
particularly concerned with children acquiring language.
Africa – sitting up.

Vygotsky
• Social interaction plays important role
• Cognitive process develops through social
interaction
• Need to be able to talk about a problem in order to
understand it - language developed through need
to learn

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