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THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - Coggle Diagram
THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
The Behaviourist Perspective
B.F. Skinner
exposure →
imitation →
practice →
feedback →
habit formation
Disproven: evidence suggests that children use language creatively; children acquire much more complex structures than those they're exposed to; communication focuses on meaning, not form.
Audiolingual methods of teaching
Making mistakes is VERY bad because this can lead to wrong habit formation
Contrastive analysis hypothesis
: the assumption that all mistakes in L2 are triggered by the interference of L1.
Disproven by the concept of
interlanguage
: learner's language is a mixture of the features typical of L1, L2 and the features universal to all language learnerning processes.
The Innatist Perspective
Noam Chomsky
All human languages are based on some innate uiversal principles.
Children are biologically programmed for language. Language develops in just the same way that other biological functions do.
Universal grammar
(UG): innate linguistic knowledge which consists of a set of principles universal to all languages (innate mechanism used exclusively for language acquisition).
Language acquisition is all about discovering and learning to apply this innate knowledge.
Input and encironment only trigger language acquisition.
The Critical Period Hypothesis
: the proposal that there is a limited period during which language acquisition can occur. Normally, until puberty.
Emphasis is placed on the final state - the competence of adult native speakers.
IN L2 LEARNING
UG is available for L2 learners too. The question is whether it has preserved the same nature or its nature has been altered by the acquisition of other languages.
IN L2 LEARNING
Instruction and feedback change only superficial aspects of language performance. They DO NOT affect the underlying systematic knowledge of the language.
The interaction with speakers of the language is sufficient to trigger the acquisition of the underlying structure of the language.
Researchers are interested are interested in whether the learners' use of L2 resembles the language performance of native speakers.
Krashen's Monitor Model
1. Acquisition / Learning Hypothesis
We
acquire
language as we are exposed to it with no conscious attention to form.
Learning
happens through conscious attention to form and rule learning.
Much more language is acquired than learned.
2. Monitor Hypothesis
L2 users draw on what they have acquired when they engage in communication.
They use rules that have been learned as an editor or monitor. This allows them to polish or edit what the acquired system has produced (time and knowledge of the rules needed).
With fossilized errors - switch on your monitor!
3. Natural Order Hypothesis
L2 acquisition unfolds in sequences. Language rules that are easiest to state (and so to learn) are not necessarily the first to be acquired.
4. Comprehensible Input Hypothesis
Acquisition occurs when one is exposed to language that is comprehensible and engaging.
Progress = i+1 (i=comprehensible; 1=a step forward)
5. Affective Filter Hypothesis
Affective filter prevents learners from acquiring language even under favourable conditions.
Affective = anxiety and negative attitudes. Such learners filter out input making it unavailable for acquisition.
A transition from structure-based approaches to a focus on meaning.
The sociocultural perspective
Interactionist Perspective
Vygotsky
Language develops from social interaction.
Thought is internalized speech. And speech emerged in social interaction. (Social interaction → speech → thought).
Interaction provides a child with
scaffolding
.
Scaffolding
: a supportive structure that helps to make the most of the existing knowledge and also to acquire new knowledge.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
: a metaphorical place in which learners are capable of a higher level of performance because there is support from interaction with an interlocutor.
Cognitive development, including language development, arises as a reult of social interactions.
Developmental Perspective
Piaget
Language = a symbol system used to express knowledge acquired through interaction with physical world (environment).
Speaking and thinking are tightly interwoven. Speaking and writing mediates mediates thinking.
People gain control over their mental processes as a consequence of internalizing of what others say to them and what they say to others. Internalizing occurs when an individual interacts with an interlocutor withing their ZPD.
Knowledge is internalized during social activity.
The Cognitive Perspective
developmental and cognitive psychologists
See no need to distinguish learning and acquisition as distinct mental processes.
Language acquisition draws on the processes of perception, memory, categorisation, and generalisation.
Infromation processing model
a psychological theory based on the idea that learners' cognitive resources are limited and they can't pay attention to everything at the same time. With repeated experience new things become automatical, leaving more resources to focus on something else.
Paying attention to new information
(using cognitive resources to process; is limited) →
practice and experience
→
automatization
→
resources to process new information
.
The lack of automatic access to meaning explains why L2 readers need more time to read a text, even if the do fully comprehend it eventually.
SLA = skill learning.
Declarative knowledge
(knowledge that we're aware of having) → practice →
procedural knowledge
(the ability to use knowledge) →
automatization
(we may forget about first learning sth as declarative knowledge)
Restructuring
: qualitative change in learner's knowledge.
Bursts of progress, when learners suddenly "put it all together" without having any further instruction.
Transfer-appropriate processing
a hypothesis that information is best retrieved in situations that are similar to those in which it was acquired.
When we learn sth our memory also records aspects of the context in which it was learned and even the cognitive processes involved in learning (hearing / reading).
Knowledge acquired in drilling is easier accessed on tests.
Provide more contexts for better flexibility!
Language is formed of formulaic units but not single words.
Usage-based learning
The Lexical Approach
Connectionism
: a theory of knowledge as a complex system of units that become interconnected in the mind as they are encountered together. Units are frequently encountered together → the presence of one leads to activation of the other.
Environment + language
Language units + language units
Language acquisition is possible because of children's cognitive capacities to make connections between the language they hear and what they experience in their environment.
Emphasis is on the frequency with which learners encounter specific language features in the input. NOT on the kind of declarative knowledge.
The more encounters - the stronger the network.
Language at least partly consists of formulaic units or chunks. Sentences aren't usually put together one word at a time.
The competition model
Takes into account not only language form but also language meaning and use.
Thorugh massive exposure learners come to understand how to use specific 'cues' to interpret specific functions.
Important in situations when meaning of a sentence is not immediately obvious.
Cognitive linguistics
highlights the view that language is but one of the complex knowledge systems that humans acquire.
Connected to general cognitive abilities and learning mechanisms (the abilities to learn from experience).
Language acquisition is similar to the acquisition of other kinds of skills and knowledge.
Children's cognitive development determines how they acquire language.
Complex Dynamic Systems Theory
A way of understanding systems – including language – that are complex (include many interactive parts) and dynamic (constantly changing).
Interconnectedness
: language and language learning consist of several components (e.g. vocabulary, pragmatics), and are embedded in social, cultural, and psychological realities.
Non-linearity
: language development does not evolve in a linear manner.
Dynamic
: development in one area of language involves restructuring of the entire system.