In this chapter I have to study about theories of Second Language Acquisition in the each era of language acquisition theories; starting from SLA theories by Behaviorists (1940s-1950s), Innatist (1960s-1970s) and Interactionists (1980s- present) respectively.
Behaviorism era
The educators in the behaviorism era are Pavlov(classical conditioning; stimulus and response) and Skinner(Operant condition: stimulus, response and reinforces), which influenced the Structural lisguistics.
The innatists such as Noam Chomsky believed that learning and acquiring a language is the innate ability that children could get from daily heard words without teaching. Kids learn language universal grammar through Language Acquisition Device(LAD). The great example of Innate ability is GENIE's case, locked into the room without interaction but she gets language.
The interactionists such as Vygosky(Social Constructivism; Zone of proximal development) and Mikhail Bakhtin(Languge serves as medium of communication) Krashen (i+1 Input hypothesis)believed that language learning need the interaction with others in the surrounding environments.
Figure shows i + 1 input hypothesis concept.
Ajarn Dr. Malinee assignment :
After reading this chapter, which language acquisition theory do you favor? Or do you favor a combination of the different views?
Do you think any one theory seems to account for all the variables in language acquisition.
Apiwat's answer:
Among 3 groups of linguistic educators, I prefer the interactionists especially the Krashen's hypothesis of language learning.
It's obviously true, In even Science, math, social studies or any other fields, if students feel
bored , tired, angry, frustrated, nervous, or un-motivated, they may not be receptive to input.
In other hands, they build the wall that block the in-coming content.....
So, it's vital that we have to destroy this barrier or what we call "Affective filter" first.
Then when I train my teachers, I ask them to practice motivations first so they have to find the way to break the ice in students' hearts before beginning their classes.
And as Dr. StephenKrashen indicated that
"Acquisition requires MEANINGFUL INTERACTION in the target language- natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the FORM of their utterances but with the messages they are conveyed and understanding."
According to the statement above there are more than 1 hypothesis concerning
, which we have to combine them together to make use the language acquisition in our language classes effectively.
There are :
1. The acquisition-learning hypothesis :
Students should acquire language subconsciously.
They have to use the language in the communicative act.
As a teacher, I have to provide learning activities that students could enjoy learning
or playing games but they don't know that they're learning language subconsciously.
----Not only acquire language subconsciously,
But also students have to study language in CONSCIOUS process in order to strengthen
knowledge of language for accurate use.
2. In sufficient time, language users always disposal the "MONITOR acts" for
Planning, Editing and correcting or focusing on form and correctness of language rule.
Sometimes this make them speak less fluent: By this way, the users are grouped into :
Three groups; "Over-user" (all the time think of rules and use language from what they LEARNED),
"Under-user" (They rarely think of GM and use utterances from what they've ACQUIRED),
"Optimal users" (They have balance between the use of language acquired and language earned)
So as language user, we have to balance well between the use of language acquired and language learned so that we could speak language Fluently and Accurately.
For me I don't think that language teacher could only use one of teaching approach from one group of language educators but but we have to mix them together to harmonize the class to make holistic language classroom; for example when we use the language in interactive context, we need the correct grammatical string and also we need the positive reinforcements for students.
for more information
Behaviorist era click here
Krashen hypothesis click here
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