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UNIT 6: CONTRIBUTIONS OF LINGUISTICS TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING. THE…

- - - - Reading and writing were the main focus.
      - Vocabulary was taught through bilingual word lists. Accuracy was emphasized.
      - Grammar was taught deductively.
      - Traslation was the distinctive feature of this method.
      - The goal was to learn a language in order to read its literature.
  - - - Language structures are learned through imitation, repetition and memorization. The learner should gain accuracy before striving for fluency.
      - Correct pronunciation and intonation are emphasized. The use of drills is a distinctive feature.
      - Language skills are taught in this order: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In the early stages, teaching must focus on oral skills.
      - Teach the language, not about the language.
      - Language is speech, not writing.
      - A language is what its speakers say.
      - It is the most widespread method based on structure-base principles.
      - It was criticized because students were often unable to traslate the skills acquired into real communication outside the classroom.
    - - He developed the conception of generative grammar
      - The most influential idea in FLT is the cognitive view of learning
        
        Learners have cognitive abilities for languages: learning a language is not a repetition of structures.
        
        Errors must be considered as normal in the learning process: errors provide evidence about the nature of the learning process.
      - Grammar is more then a description of utterances. Language is very creative.
    - - Functional approaches describe the complex interplay between language and social context, using formal linguistic procedures
      - Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics concerned with placing linguistics within the domain of communication theory.
      - He draws our attention towards the importance of the world and our relationship to it in the formation of the linguistic system. Languages are a social and cultural phenomenon.
      - Today FLT has incorporated the functional and communicative potential of language. Language teaching now focuses on communicative proficiency rather than on the mastery of structures.
      - The Council of Europe incorporated a communicative view into a set of specifications for a First Level Communicative Language Syllabus, called the thresold level. These thresold level specifications have had a strong influence on hte design of communicative language programs and textbooks in Europe.
        
        Students are expected to interact with one another
        
        Motivation will spring form an interest in what is being communicated.
        
        Effective communication is sought. Attempts to communicate are encouraged from the very beginning.
        
        Errors and mistakes are seen as normal.
        
        Language learning is learning to communicate
        
        Translations may be used where students need or benefit from it.
- - - - Children are born with an innate capacity form language development. When children are exposed to speech, certain general principles from structuring langauge autimatically begin to operate: Language Acquisition Device
      - Children use their innate linguistic knowledge about grammar to produce sentences. But a disctinction has to be drawn between knowledge about language and how that knowledge is used to construct sentences. Chomsky called these conceptes competence and performance.
    - - Language acquisition is related to a child´s intellectual development. The child will produce structures if he/she already has established a congnitive foundation. The most influential account comes from the model of cognitive development proposed by Piaget.
    - - Skinner applied the theory of conditioning to L1 learning. He considered language to be a process of imitation and reinforcement. This is a behaviourist view of language
      - This principle will not fully explain all facts of language acquisition. Grammaticla ability cannot be explained in this way. Two evidences support this:
        
        The kind of language children produce. Children assume grammar is regular and try out to work out what forms are regular. They could not have learnt these forms by imitation.
        
        Children seem unable to make exact imitations of adult speech. Language acquisition is more a matter of maturity than of imitation.
    - - Studies of motherese language showed that maternal input facilitates language acquisition in children. Some adaptations must be done:
        
        Clarity: mothers provide extra information. Sentences are paraphrased and repeated several times.
        
        Expressive use of diminutive or reduplicative words in common.
        
        Simplicity: maternal utterances are simplified.
- - - - Imitation alone does not provide the learning of all utterances in a language.
      - Errors are not always interferences between L1 and L2.
  - - - Interlanguage: the process of L2 learning proceeds in a series of transitional stages, as the learner acquire more knowledge of L2.
      - Error analysis: errors are seen as positive evidence of the learning process.