INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Alimannao Hills, Peñablanca, Cagayan

INSTRUCTIONAL
LEARNING GUIDE

PRINCIPLES AND
THEORIES OF LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION AND
LEARNING (EL 103)
SECOND SEMESTER, F.Y. 2020-2021

Name: __________________________________ Course/Year/Section: __________________

Subject Teacher: __________________________
Prepared by:

SHIELA LAINE RACQUEL B. MAMARIL

English Language Instructor
General Education Department
Medical Colleges of Northern Philippines
International School of Asia and the Pacific

Reviewed by:

MYRNA A. PAGULAYAN, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Arts, Sciences and Teacher Education
International School of Asia and the Pacific
 PREFACE

Education in the New Normal

Someone once said, “Never stop learning because life never stops teaching.”

The “shake up” brought about by this global health crisis enabled everyone to adopt in the new
normal of human existence. Education, for instance, has been challenged by this trying time to
be distant, innovative and self-paced. Nevertheless, the role of learning institutions are still a
trend and a need because it is through education that we can raise awareness and take
responsibilities contributory to nation building. Hence, the people who have prepared this
Instructional Learning Guide worked hand in hand to facilitate learning among you, dear
students, that beyond the four corners of the classroom we can bring out the best from you as
a learner, because we are all in this together!

Though technology through internet access can make education feasible and easy for other
students, we still looked into your capacity as a student to undergo thorough learning through
the use of this module with the interference of several interactive instructional materials to
ensure quality education at home.

The collaborative effort of those people who have poured so much effort and passion in turning
this learning guide “worth-learning” is for you to be able to enrich your knowledge and
appreciate the value of language and learning in various contexts. Language makes us bold
about our culture, ideologies and views – its uniqueness, vastness and genuineness that will
make us feel forever at home to our native land. The use of it as an agent of change must be
also applied at this moment to empower each individual to speak about the truth and the best
that we can show the world about us.

Therefore, as a student, you have to carefully study this module to answer the activities
prepared for you and maximize your resources to study for more related topics which can help
you better understand your subject matter.

Always remember, “To make the world a better place, mind your language.” Education is at its
best when you know to help yourself because it’s just in your fingertips. Education made easy
brought to you by your beloved ISAP!
How to Use this Learning Guide?

1. This instructional material serves as a guide in the completion of the course. All lectures
and activities given in this material must be duly studied and accomplished. Take note
that before you can answer your worksheets and other activities, you must study the
concepts first.

2. Each chapter of the course content bears learning outcomes to ensure that you are
going to demonstrate these objectives, enhancing the knowledge and skills you will
learn after completing the said activities provided.

3. Lecture Notes or topic outlines are provided to further facilitate better comprehension of
the lessons you need to study. Teacher’s insights are also included to clarify concepts
which need appropriate examples or its implication to several contexts.

4. By carefully studying each lesson, you are also directed to watch various video titles
provided in the learning material to further intensify your comprehension to the concept
and for you to have basis on how you are going to deal with your activities.

5. Since this is a learning guide provided with several instructions, you may also have
additional related studies on some topics so that you can further widen and deepen your
understanding of the concepts.

6. Self-reflection questions are also given to evaluate your understanding and to assess
your findings during your course of study on the lessons presented. This self-reflection
activity will be included in your learning portfolio.

7. The instructional learning guide is purposefully made for a self-paced learning. Meaning,
you must DO IT YOURSELF (DIY). You might need assistance while studying the subject
matters at hand but never allow anyone to do it for you, especially for the activities
given. For you to be graded in your outputs, your teacher has provided rubrics for you
to be guided. Be sure to check on them in the appendices part of this module.

8. Moreover, though this is a self-paced learning module, you must also be conscious of
your time by diligently attending to the set schedule for you to study to avoid rushing
especially when deadlines are set for the submission of your activities. The result of your
activities will be outstanding if you have thoroughly poured out more time to study
rather than submitting for compliance’s sake.

9. By patiently reading the articles and watching the videos, you can also improve your
critical thinking and reading skills while acquiring new ideas reflected from the texts
included in the module.

10. In case there are questions, clarifications and suggestions need to be raised for your
teacher regarding your subject matter, you must contact him or her through his or her
phone number(s).
Features of the Instructional Learning Guide

 Learning Outcomes – These comprise the lesson objectives you must attain during the
course of study.

 Key Terms – Words which are necessary for better comprehension are included based on
the appropriate context of the term used.

 Lecture Outlines – To make learning easier and comprehensive, lessons are provided
with outlines, making it detailed to cater student’s level of understanding.

 Teacher’s Insights – As an aid to this learning guide, this portion allows an “imaginary”
classroom setup where the teacher discusses the concepts deeper and make clarifications
if there are confusing topics which hinder student’s comprehension.

 Worksheets – In this portion of the instructional material, you will thoroughly answer the
activities so as to evaluate your understanding on the subject matter.

 Self-Reflection Questions – This part is specially designed to look into your own learning
experience as a student, whether there are topics which affected your perception out of
studying the lessons or some weaknesses you witnessed which you need to conquer for
you to efficiently work on this module.

 Appendices – Summarizes the different resources used as bases to complete this learning
module and for student’s reference for further study on the related topics in this material.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRELIMINARIES

PRELIM COVERAGE
Intended Learning Outcomes

Chapter I – The Nature of Language and Learning

Lesson 1: Definition of Language
Lesson 2: Definition of Learning
Teacher’s Insights
Chapter End Activities

Chapter II – Theories of First Language (l1) Acquisition)

Lesson 1: The Behaviouristic Approach
Lesson 2: The Nativist Approach
Lesson 3: The Cognitive Theory
Lesson 4: The Functional Approaches
Lesson 5: Stages in Child Language Acquisition
Teacher’s Insights
Chapter End Activities

MIDTERM COVERAGE
Intended Learning Outcomes

Chapter III – School of Thought in Second Language Acquisition

Lesson 1: Structural Linguistics and Behavioural Psychology
Lesson 2: Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology
Lesson 3: Constructivism: A Multidisciplinary Approach
Teacher’s Insights
Chapter End Activities

Chapter IV – Theories of Second Language (L2) Acquisition)

Lesson 1: The Acquisition-Learning Distinction
Lesson 2: The Natural Order Hypothesis
Lesson 3: The Monitor Hypothesis
Lesson 4: The Input Hypothesis
Lesson 5: The Affective Filter Hypothesis
Teacher’s Insights
Chapter End Activities

SEMI-FINAL COVERAGE
Intended Learning Outcomes
Chapter V – The Causative Variables in Second Language Acquisition
Lesson 1: The Causative Variables
Lesson 2: Language Teaching: Does It Help?
Lesson 3: Exposure Variables
Lesson 4: Age
Lesson 5: Acculturation
Teacher’s Insights
Chapter End Activities

FINAL COVERAGE
Intended Learning Outcomes
Chapter VI – Approaches to Language Teaching
Lesson 1: Present-day Teaching Methods
Lesson 2: The Principles of Interactive Language Teaching
Teacher’s Insights
Chapter End Activities

APPENDICES
A. Rubrics
B. List of References
C. Acknowledgment and Disclaimer
PRELIMINARIES

Subject: EL 103 Units: 3 No. Of Class Hrs: 3 hrs lec/wk

Course: BSEd I (Major in English) Section: A Year Level: First

Subject Teacher: Shiela Mamaril Contact Number: 09552055508 / 09193048478

Consultation Time: Schedule:

Course Description

This course provides an avenue for the pre-service English teachers to examine and
demonstrate content knowledge on the principles, factors, and contexts of language acquisition
and learning based on theories and research findings. Moreover, this course enables them to
explore and analyze the relationship of language learning principles and theories to classroom
practice. They are expected to create a Language Acquisition Model/Framework integrating the
relationship of language acquisition and learning with the view of improving language
acquisition.

Course Outcomes

a. Examine the principles, factors, and contexts of language acquisition and learning
through various teaching/learning events/scenarios.
b. Demonstrate research-based knowledge on the relationship of language acquisition and
learning theories to classroom practice.

Methodology of Implementation

Distance learning as a mode of learning process in studying this material will be used to cater
academic needs of students. Using this strategy, the limitations of the face to face classroom
interaction will still be augmented through various learning resources provided hereafter. The
teacher will also use different ways to reach out to students such as social network like
messenger, online platform (LMS), text messaging, e-mails, and phone calls to facilitate
activities, provide guidance and clarify points regarding the course.

The people who prepared this learning guide have guidelines based on institutional policies to
ensure that students will be able to accomplish the different activities set for the course,
including for the desired competencies to be developed or acquired after studying the subject
matter.

Re-calibrated syllabus designed for online and offline learning has been aligned to the topics to
be studied. An ample time is also provided for students to accomplish thoroughly the set
activities. Formative and summative assessments are included to measure students’ learning
and to ensure that learning outcomes have been met. Rubrics are also included in this module
for grading students’ output.
In cases that there are some concerns which will arise during the implementation of the
learning process, students must communicate to the subject teacher involved so that these
concerns are to be addressed immediately with appropriate measures.

Subject matters to be studied are arranged sequentially, including the course materials and
references to further facilitate learning process with utmost quality and excellence.

Delivery Mode:
1. Printed Text Materials or saved in USB device
2. Audio / video materials
3. Downloaded links
 PRELIM COVERAGE

Intended Learning Outcomes

a. define language and learning according to different authorities

b. discuss how one’s understanding of language determine how
one teaches it
c. share their insights on how one’s understanding of the way a
learner learns determine one’s philosophy of education,
teaching style, approach, methods, and classroom techniques
d. explain the theories and stages of first language acquisition
e. examine different cases on how a child learns first language
f. cite scenarios on how parents, teachers, and the community
helped the development of a child’s L1

Specific Instructions in the Completion of this Prelim Coverage

1. You must read and understand the given list of Intended Learning Outcomes specified
above and use it as a checklist of acquired knowledge and skills after completing the entire
coverage. This shall be the basis of your teacher in designing the summative evaluation or
term exams that will be given soon.

2. You must carefully study the given lecture notes and take note of concepts that you did not
clearly understood so that you can communicate it to your teacher for clarification purpose
during his or her consultation time set for your class. Also, analyze the implication of the
concepts being applied in specific contexts to ensure comprehension.

3. Thoroughly understand the discussions presented, including your teacher’s insights to

better facilitate your comprehension on the subject matter being studied. Strictly follow the
instructions given in the learning guide and accomplish the given activities with utmost
diligence.

4. After comprehensively reading all the lessons and topics presented or accessing the videos
provided and searching additional references related to the topics, you are directed to
accomplish all the activities and self-reflection questions given hereafter. Always carefully read
and analyze the instructions before you start. Also, refer to the rubric as reference in
performing and grading all your activities in the appendices portion of your ILG.

5. Compile your outputs in your Learning Portfolio. Your teacher will inform you for the date of
the submission of your outputs.

6. If you have queries, always consult your teacher. Communicating to your teacher will make
your learning easier and enjoyable.
 Chapter I – The Nature of Language and Learning

Key Terms

language learning scholars linguists

conventional arbitrary

Lesson 1: Definition of Language

If you ask someone else what is the best way to communicate with yourself? Without
any hesitation or hindrance, he will reply to you ‘definitely language’. So language is the most
influential ways to communicate with each other. But many of us want to get the answer to the
question ‘what is the definition of language’? In fact, everybody is capable of attempting this
question and answering it somehow or other. Nonetheless, we are not able to find a single
definition of language that has completely explained the phenomenon in that particular question
and give us the satisfaction and stopped scholars, authors and linguists to define the exact
answer of that question.

However, language is a complex human phenomenon as all attempts to define it has

proved inadequate. In brief, we can say, language is an ‘original noise’ used in actual social
situations by human beings. Language is basically a system of conventional, spoken or written
symbols by means of which human beings are used to communicate with each other.

Let us now go through the definition of language delivered by different scholars,

linguists, authors and reference books.

Definition of Language by Different Scholars

1. Aristotle

Speech is the representation of the experience of the mind. That is according to

Aristotle, language is a speech sound produced by human beings in order to express their
ideas, emotions, thoughts, desires and feelings.

2. Saussure
 Language is an arbitrary system of signs constituted of the signifier and signified. In
other words, language is first a system based on no logic or reason; secondly, the system
covers both objects and expressions used for objects; and thirdly objects and expressions are
arbitrarily linked; and finally, expressions include sounds and graphemes used by humans for
generating speech and writing respectively for the purpose of communication.

3. Sapir

According to Sapir, language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of

communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced
sounds. The definition of Sapir expresses that language is mainly concerned with only human
beings and constituted a system of sounds produced by them for communication.

4. Bloomfield

The totality of the utterances that can be made in a speech community is the language
of that speech community. Bloomfield’s definition of language focuses on the utterances
produced by all the people of a community, and hence overlooks writing. Besides, he stresses
form, not meaning, as the basis of language.

5. Bloch and Trager

According to Bloch and Trager, a language is a system of arbitrary vocal sounds by

means of a social group cooperates. In their definition of language, they point out that,
language is an arbitrary system, vocal sounds, way of communication, and collectivity.

6. Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky says the language is the inherent capability of the native speakers to
understand and form grammatical sentences. A language is a set of (finite or infinite)
sentences, each finite length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. This definition of
language considers sentences as the basis of a language. Sentences may be limited or
unlimited in number, and are made up of only limited components.

7. Derbyshire

Derbyshire says the language is undoubtedly a kind of means of communication among

human beings. It consists primarily of vocal sounds. It is articulatory, systematic, symbolic and
arbitrary. This definition of Derbyshire clearly utters, language is the best source of
communication. It also portrays how human language is formed and what are the fundamental
principles of language.

8. Lyons

According to Lyons, languages are the principal systems of communication used by

particular groups of human beings within the particular society of which they are members.
Especially Lyons points out that, language is the best communicative system of human beings
by particular social groups.
9. Wardhaugh

A language is a system of arbitrary vocal sounds used for human communication. This
definition of language by Wardhaugh mainly insists on arbitrariness, vocal sounds, humans and
communication.

10. Patanjali

Indian linguist Patanjali utters, language is that human expression which is produced by
different speech organs of human beings. Through speech organs, humans produced several
expressions which are converted to language.

References:

Bloomfield Leonard (1914): An introduction to the study of language. New York: Henry Holt and
company.
Chomsky, Noam (2000): The Architecture of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lyons John (1981): Language and Linguistics: Cambridge University Press.
Encyclopedia Britannica: Language | Definition, Characteristics & Change

Source: https://englishfinders.com/definition-of-language-by-scholars/amp/

Lesson 2: Definition of Learning

Why is it important to know about the meaning of learning? It is important for a teacher
to know about learning, its concept and meaning because teaching is not complete without
learning. Both teaching and learning complement each other. A teacher must know about how
learners learn and this is the reason teacher gain knowledge about concept and meaning of
learning in education.
Concept of Learning

Concept of learning is of huge importance in human behavior. Human being goes on

learning from birth till death. Albert Einstein in one of his quotes said that “Once you stop
learning you start dying.”

Learning is a natural phenomenon which is natural to all organisms including both

humans and animals. Learning affects a child’s development. A child learns new habits only
through the process of learning and through imitated traditions and customs. Intellectual skills
are also developed through learning. The decision of right and wrong, the concepts of justice
and aesthetic sense, etc. develop through learning. This process of learning continues
throughout life. Learning is the basis of maturation. Learning affects our

 Language
 Customs and traditions
 Attitudes and beliefs
 Personalities
 Goals

In fact, it would not be wrong to say that learning affects all aspects of our life. Learning
is a key concept of Psychology. Learning phenomenon is very important for the development of
human beings. Various psychologists have explained learning from a different point of views.

According to behaviorists, “Learning is the modification of behavior as a result of

experience. The child brings changes in his behavior after gaining experiences from the
environment.”

Everything a learner does or thinks is learning. Learning is a relatively permanent

change in behavior of the learner. It even brings changes in the personality traits of the learner.

Meaning of Learning and Learning Definition in Education

Various psychologists and educationists have defined the concept and meaning of
learning in their own way. Some define as a process, some as a change in performance and
some define learning as acquisition and retention of knowledge.
According to:

Gestalt’s view, “The basis of learning is to gain knowledge after observing the whole
structure. Responding towards the entire situation is learning.”

Kurt Lewin has presented the field view of learning and explained “ The learning as the
direct cognitive organization of a situation. Motivation has a significant role & place in learning.”

According to:

Woodworth, “The process of acquiring new knowledge and new responses is the
process of learning.”
G.D. Boaz (1984) observes learning as a process. According to him “Learning is the
process by which the individuals acquires various habits, knowledge, and attitudes that are
necessary to meet the demands of life, in general”

According to:

Cronbach, “Leaning is shown by a change in behavior as a result of experience.”

Pavlov has said, “Learning is habit formation resulting from conditioning.”

According to:

Kingsley and Garry, “Learning is a process by which behavior is originated or change

through practice or training.”

In the words of:

C. E. Skinner, “Learning is the process of progressive behavior adoption.”

As a result of studying and analysis of the above-mentioned definitions of learning in

education, the following facts come to the light:

1. Learning is a modification in behavior.

2. Learning is the organization of behavior.
3. Learning is the confirmation of a new process.

Some other facts also come before us relating to the learning, such as:

(i) Learning is a process through which the behavior of the child changes or modifies.
(ii) Learning is predicted on the basis of changes in behavior.
(iii) These changes can be negative or positive.
(iv) The changes due to learning are permanent.
(v) Changes in the behavior are the results of experiences.
(vi) Learning can be termed as a mental process.
 Teacher’s Insights
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, language is a system of conventional or written
symbols by means of which human beings as members of social groups and participants in its
culture, communicate. In other words, it says the language is a system of communication of
which human beings express themselves.

Thus, we can say, language is a system of communication or arbitrary vocal sounds by

means of which human beings are used to communicate and interact with each other in their
everyday life. There are approximately 6,500 spoken languages available in the entire world
used by different kinds of social groups and cultures.

Learning is a broad term. Learning includes all activities which affect children. Along
with the growing process, the mental development of the child occurs. As a result, changes
take place in his behavior continuously. The child goes on learning through experiences.

From a psychological point of view, learning has been explained as a stimulus-response

process. According to the point of view, the establishment of the stimulus-response relationship
is known as leaning.
 CHAPTER END ACTIVITIES

Activity 1. You’re My Poetree

Directions: Write a 4-stanza tree-shape poem with an octosyllabic meter and abab rhyme. Place
your poem inside the tree illustrated below.
Activity 2. My Life’s Principle

Directions: Answer the given questions below. Be sure to make honest responses on what is
being asked.

1. What is you greatest principle in life?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

2. How were you able to arrive at believing and living onto this principle?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

3. In what way does this principle taught you lessons in life?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

4. If you will soon leave this place, what lesson would you like the future generations to learn?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
 REFLECTION MODE

Why language and learning are indispensable human activities?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Chapter II – Theories of First Language (L1) Acquisition

Key Terms

conditioning adoption acquisition universal grammar

language acquisition device pidgin creole

innateness morphology holophrastic heuristic

Lesson 1: The Behavioristic Approaches

One of the earliest scientific explanations of language acquisition was provided by

Skinner (1957). As one of the pioneers of Behaviorism, he accounted for language development
by means of environmental influence.

Skinner argued that children learn language based on behaviorist reinforcement

principles by associating words with meanings. Correct utterances are positively reinforced
when the child realizes the communicative value of words and phrases.
 For example, when the child says ‘milk’ and the mother will smile and give her some as
a result, the child will find this outcome rewarding, enhancing the child's language development
(Ambridge & Lieven, 2011).

In other sources, "language acquisition" refers to the process of learning a language,

although behaviorist ideas of language acquisition specifically seek to understand how people
learn their native language, while only being more generally applicable to foreign language
learning.

Because behaviorists frame language as a behavior, they argue that the process of
language acquisition, for an infant, is similar to the process of learning other behaviors. Infants
mimic the behaviors they see other people model, and correct imitation is rewarded by other
people in their environment, allowing for these successes to be identified and repeated. As a
child ages, punishments and corrections for incorrect language use will also be issued, helping
to nuance the language-learning process.

Behaviorists do not believe that learning is a process that involves active thought.
Rather, they see learning as a process of conditioning. So, to behaviorists, the rewards and
punishments that a language learner receives will determine their performance to acquire a
language.

Source:

https://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html#:~:text=Skinner%20argued%20that
%20children%20learn,value%20of%20words%20and%20phrases
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-is-language-learned-according-to-the-
144887#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20behaviorist%20theory%20of%20language
%20acquisition%2C%20children%20learn,correct%20and%20incorrect%20usage%2C
%20respectively.

Lesson 2: The N ativist Approach

Language acquisition is the study of the processes by which a person learns a language.
Nativist theories hypothesize that language is an innate fundamental part of the human genetic
make-up and that language acquisition occurs as a natural part of the human experience.

Nativist theorists argue that children are born with an innate ability to organize laws of
language, which enables children to easily learn a native language. They believe that children
have language-specific abilities that assist them as they work towards mastering a language.

Noam Chomsky is perhaps the best known and the most influential linguist of the
second half of the Twentieth Century. He has made a number of strong claims about language:
in particular, he suggests that language is an innate faculty - that is to say that we are born
with a set of rules about language in our heads which he refers to as the 'Universal Grammar'.
The universal grammar is the basis upon which all human languages build. If a Martian linguist
were to visit Earth, he would deduce from the evidence that there was only one language, with
a number of local variants. Chomsky gives a number of reasons why this should be so. Among
the most important of these reasons is the ease with which children acquire their mother
tongue. He claims that it would be little short of a miracle if children learnt their language in the
same way that they learn mathematics or how to ride a bicycle. This, he says, is because:

1. Children are exposed to very little correctly formed language. When people speak, they
constantly interrupt themselves, change their minds, and make slips of the tongue and
so on. Yet children manage to learn their language all the same.

2. Children do not simply copy the language that they hear around them. They deduce
rules from it, which they can then use to produce sentences that they have never heard
before. They do not learn a repertoire of phrases and sayings, as the behaviorists
believe, but a grammar that generates an infinity of new sentences.

Children are born, then, with the Universal Grammar wired into their brains. This
grammar offers a certain limited number of possibilities - for example, over the word order of a
typical sentence.

Some languages have a basic SVO structure:

The teacher gave a lecture.

S V O

75% of the world's languages use either this (English, French, Vietnamese) or SOV
(Japanese, Tibetan, Korean) - others prefer VSO (10 - 15% - Welsh) or VOS (Malagasy)

Some languages, such as Latin, appear to have free word order, but even here, SOV is
very common. OSV is very rare - but you will find an example in the speech of Yoda, in Star
Wars.

When the child begins to listen to his parents, he will unconsciously recognize which
kind of a language he is dealing with - and he will set his grammar to the correct one - this is
known as 'setting the parameters'.

It is as if the child were offered at birth a certain number of hypotheses, which he or

she then matches with what is happening around him. He knows intuitively that there are some
words that behave like verbs, and others like nouns, and that there is a limited set of
possibilities as to their ordering within the phrase. This is not information that he is taught
directly by the adults that surround him, but information that is given. It is as if the traveler
were provided at the beginning of his journey with a compass and an astrolabe.

This set of language learning tools, provided at birth, is referred to by Chomsky as the
Language Acquisition Device. (Notice that he uses the term "acquisition" rather than learning).

How did you learn to speak your native language? Notice, this shouldn't be such a
puzzling question. We often ask questions such as, do you remember when did you learned to
tie your shoes, ride a bike, and eat with a fork. Sometimes we can remember because a parent
helped us learn how to do these things. Now, since we always speak the language of our
parents, they must have helped us learn to speak our first language. But do you remember
when your mother taught you the past tense? When your father laid down the rules for passive
sentences? We don't remember these important moments of our childhood because they never
occurred.

Our parents didn't teach us how to walk and they didn't teach us how to talk. Yet we
learned from them. How can this be? Certainly there must have been a subtle, perhaps intuitive
teaching process that neither our parents nor we were aware of. We begin by imitating what
we hear our parents say as best we can, repeating random phrases. Our parents in subtle ways
punish us for the childish speech errors we make (by not responding, correcting the error, etc.)
and reward correct phrases (by responding positively). As our speech improves, our parents
respond more positively and less negatively. No?

First, let's examine the assumption that children begin speaking by trying to repeat what
they have heard their parents say. Have you ever heard a child say things like this:

Daddy go
He hitted me
No eat cake

Who did they hear utter such phrases? Daddy go is an attempt to express 'Daddy is
going'. But if the child were merely trying to repeat this common phrase, choosing random two-
word combinations, he or she would also occasionally say Daddy is or simply is going? Yet these
two phrases do not occur as normal speech errors of children while Daddy go is a common one.

Second, research shows that while mothers often respond to the semantic content of
what their children say ('No, that's not a doggie, it's a cow'), they very rarely respond to the
grammatical status of their children's phrases. Indeed, when parents do respond to speech
errors, they most often respond positively. Here are a few advanced errors from the history of
my family. What do you think our response was—correction or laughter (which I take to be a
positive response)?

Mama, mama, there's a tree-knocker in the back yard!

It's raining, where is the underbrella?
Give me the beach-lookers! (binoculars)

In fact, parents themselves make grammatical errors when they speak. Despite the fact
that children don't know when their parents are speaking grammatically and when they are
making errors, all children grow up knowing (if not always speaking) the language perfectly.

So how do we learn to speak? Take a look at example No. 1b above for a clue. Although
hitted is not a word children hear adults utter, it is wrong for an interesting reason: the verb, in
a sense, has the 'right' ending on it for the past tense. In other words, the only way a child
learning language could make such an error is that he or she is learning a rule that derives past
tense verbs from verb stems. What the child hasn't mastered at this stage is the exceptions to
the rule. Notice also that the words in the erroneous phrases are all in the correct order. No
child would say go Daddy for 'Daddy is going' cookie mommy for 'Mommy's cookie'. By the time
a child begins putting two words together, he or she has already mastered the basic rules of
syntax and applies them correctly even in their erroneous speech. It takes the child a little
longer to master the rules of morphology.

The evidence then indicates that children do, in fact, absorb a massive number of
sentences and phrases but rather than parrot them back, they abstract rules from them and
create their own grammar which they then apply to create new utterances they have never
heard before. Over the years from 2-7, when language is mastered, children constantly adjust
their grammar until it matches that of the adult speaker population.

This critical period between the ages of 2-7 suggests that (first) language learning, like
walking, is an innate capacity of human beings triggered by a level of development more than
feedback from the environment. That is, so long as a child hears a language-any language-
when they reach this critical period they will learn it perfectly. If this is true, any child not
hearing language during this period not only should not learn to speak but also should not be
able to learn to speak. The ethical implications of research on this question are obvious.
However, there have been a few tragic non-scientific bits of evidence that supports the
innateness + critical period hypothesis.

Pidgin

- reduced syntax and vocabulary

- often no fixed order of words, with considerable variation from one speaker to another
- used purely as a language of communication
- not lived in
- no one speaks a pidgin as a mother tongue

But a pidgin can become a language - Creole. How does this happen?

According to Derek Bickerton, who has reconstructed the process of creolisation in

Hawaii, it takes one generation.

When children begin to use a pidgin, they automatically enrich the vocabulary and the
syntax - it becomes a full language. The community of young children in Hawaii took the pidgin
used by their parents - workers from China, Japan, Korea, Portugal, the Philippines and Puerto
Rico - and created a language.

According to the followers of the American linguist, Noam Chomsky, this can stand as an
emblem for what the process of acquiring a language consists in - at least for a mother tongue.
The child does not learn the language, but creates it anew.

References:

1. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
2. McCain, J. (2000). Language acquisition and affective variables.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f00/web3/mccain3.html. Accessed 16 Nov 2009.

3. Moerk, E. L. (1994). Corrections in first language acquisition: Theoretical controversies and

factual evidence. International Journal of Psycholinguistics, 10, 33–58.

4. Pink, S. (1994). The language instinct: How the mind creates language. New York: Harper
Collins.

5. Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Copley Publishing Group.

6. Yang, C. (2006). The infinite gift: How children can learn and unlearn all the languages of
the world. New York: Scribner.

Sources:
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-0-387-79061-
9_1911#:~:text=Nativist%20theories%20hypothesize%20that%20language,part%20of%20the
%20human%20experience.&text=They%20believe%20that%20children%20have,work
%20towards%20mastering%20a%20language
https://www2.vobs.at/ludescher/Ludescher/LAcquisition/Nativist/nativist%20theory.htm

Lesson 3: Cognitive Theory

Cognitive Theory

It is impossible for the young child to voice concepts that are totally unknown to them.

Children learn about the world first, then map language onto their prior experience.

Example of Cognitive Theory

An infant experiences the house cat; they know that it meows, is furry, purrs, eats from
a bowl in the kitchen – hence, develops the concept of cat first then learns to map the word
“kitty” onto that concept

Early Life Experiences and their relationship to speech

Memory and the concept of time and space determine the use and understanding of
language (Piaget, 1926; Sinclair-deZwart, 1973)

Children's first words and first steps occur near their first birthday. For the cognitive
theorist, it is no coincidence that language and mobility are correlated because mobility better
allows the infant to experience the world and thus begin to map verbal concepts onto their
experiences.

From his research into children's language and thinking, Jean Piaget based his theory on
the idea that children do not think like adults. Piaget's theory describes the mental structures or
“schemas” of children as they develop from infants to adults. He concluded that through their
interactions with their environment, children actively construct their own understanding of the
world. Piaget's theory purports that children’s language reflects the development of their logical
thinking and reasoning skills in "periods" or stages, with each period having a specific name and
age reference.

Sensory-Motor Period

According to Piaget’s theory, children are born with basic “action schemas,” such as
sucking and grasping. He described the sensory-motor period (from birth to 2 years) as the
time when children use action schemas to "assimilate" information about the world. In his book
"The Language and Thought of the Child," Piaget describes two functions of children's
language: the "egocentric" and the "socialized." During the sensory-motor period, children's
language is "egocentric": they talk either for themselves or "for the pleasure of associating
anyone who happens to be there with the activity of the moment."

Pre-Operational Period

Piaget observed that during this period (between the ages of 2 and 7 years), children’s
language makes rapid progress. The development of their mental schemas lets them quickly
"accommodate" new words and situations. From using single words (for example, “milk”), they
begin to construct simple sentences (for example, “mommy go out”). Piaget's theory describes
children’s language as “symbolic,” allowing them to venture beyond the “here and now” and to
talk about such things as the past, the future, people, feelings and events. During this time,
children’s language often shows instances of what Piaget termed “animism” and “egocentrism.”

Animism and Egocentrism

“Animism” refers to young children's tendency to consider everything, including

inanimate objects, to be alive. Since they see things purely from their own perspective,
children's language also reflects their "egocentrism," whereby they attribute phenomena with
the same feelings and intentions as their own. Piaget’s theory also describes “moral realism” as
a characteristic of children’s language development at this stage, since young children tend to
focus on the extent of any damage caused by a person's actions, without taking into account
whether that person had good or bad intentions.

The Operational Period

Piaget’s theory divides this period into two parts: the “period of concrete operations” (7
to 11 years) and the “period of formal operations” (11 years to adulthood). According to Piaget,
children’s language development at this stage reveals the movement of their thinking from
immature to mature and from illogical to logical. Children's language also reflects their ability to
“de-centre,” or view things from a perspective other than their own. It is at this point that
children's language starts to become "socialized," showing characteristics such as questions,
answers, criticisms and commands.
Sources:
https://sites.google.com/a/students.colgate.edu/language-acquisition-development/home/
cognitive-theory
https://www.theclassroom.com/learning-theories-reading-development-7346958.html

Lesson 4: The Functional Approaches

Functionalism is an approach to language development that focuses on the relationship

between language form and social meaning. (Emmit et al. 2015) That is, language is not so
much a system of rules as posed by Chomsky, but a means of performing particular socially
communicative functions.

Functionalists believe that the communicative situation motivates, constrains, or

otherwise determines grammatical structure, meaning that the language choices a child makes
during development are heavily influenced by the functional purpose they serve.

The functionalist theory is based on the work of Michael Halliday, who observed the
ways his infant son Nigel attempted to communicate. He noticed that Nigel would use specific,
recognizable vocalizations to accomplish particular functions, long before anything resembling
words or sentences were used (Emmit et al. 2015). From this, he concluded that language is a
matter of learning the kinds of meanings that can be shared in particular situations, and that
children learn grammar based on meaningful choices rather than formal rules.

Another element of Halliday's functionalist theory are the "seven functions of language,"
which were designed to reflect the various conversational interactions that children develop
during language acquisition. They are listed below:

1. Instrumental - "I want"

2. Regulatory - "Do as I tell you"
3. Interactional - "Me and you"
4. Personal - "Here I come"
5. Heuristic - "Tell me why"
6. Imaginative - "Lets pretend"
7. Representational - "I've got something for you"
(Zhao, n.d)

Halliday believed that children when children realize the potential that these functions
serve, they will become more skilful in using them when communicating and expressing
meaning to others.

So what does this mean for teachers?

 According to Robin Hatfield, "the functional model of language teaching is applied when
language is used for meaningful purposes and to carry out authentic functions" (2011). In other
words, when adopting the functionalist perspective we are required to plan situations where
language is incorporated as a medium of interaction and communication within the classroom.
In doing so, we can foster the functional processes of communication in our students rather
than mastery of language forms. Each of the activities and ideas listed below can be used
within classroom lessons to encourage functional language development.

 Conversation and discussion sessions

 Dialogues and role play
 Debates
 Sharing of personal experiences or describing of events
 Playing and working in groups to complete tasks
 Students explain rules of games

Source:

http://315631605254846606.weebly.com/functionalism#:~:text=Functionalism%20is%20an
%20approach%20to,performing%20particular%20socially%20communicative%20functions.

Lesson 5: Stages in Child Language Acquisition

The following points highlight the five main stages involved in acquisition of language by
a child. The stages are: 1. Screaming 2. Babbling 3. Sound Imitation 4. Verbal Understanding 5.
Verbal Utterances.

Stage # 1. Screaming or Crying (0-6 months):

This stage begins with the birth cry which is purely a reflex activity due to the
mechanism of blood oxygenation. During the first few months of child’s sound produced are of
the nature of reflexes.

Crying occurs naturally and intensely at the beginning. But gradually crying decreases by
third and fourth month. The specific needs of the child cannot be ascertained from his cry in the
beginning. The child produces sounds of the nature of grunts, cries, gasps etc. In the
beginning, crying helps in respiration. Gradually in order to fulfil various physical, internal and
external needs the child cries. At the age of seven weeks usually the child’s cries when he feels
hungry.

The infant usually cries due to hunger, pain in respiration, stomach ache, strong sensory
stimulation and failure etc. Some parents say that they can explain cries and even birth cries of
children and attach meaning to it. But it is not the cry itself but the knowledge of the situation
that make them understand the cries.

From crying gradually language develops. So it is said to be the first stage of language
development. Till 7-8 months of birth the infant can’t speak any languages, he expresses his
needs, desires and demands through crying. During Crying some parts of the body are
activated.

When the child cries, immediate attention should be given to him and the needs should
be fulfilled. It has been observed that the vowel or vowel like sounds are made during the first
weeks of life and increase rapidly in variety during the first year. At these stages vowels are
more found than consonants. Consonants develop later and shortly afterwards consonant vowel
combinations occur.

Stage # 2. Babbling (3-9 months):

The child produces units of utterances called babbling that differ from one situation to
another. This is also called explosive sounds. In addition to cries some simple sounds are heard
during the first months of life. Analysis of early sounds indicate that vowels predominate in the
first years of life. These vowel sounds serve as a raw material to the development of language.
Babbling or explosive sounds are unlearned are universally found in all nationalities and races.

These explosive sounds are produced spontaneously. After teeth come out, consonants
start developing. With the development of speech muscles, the use of vowels in the sphere of
speech development of child gradually decreases. Babbling is more found when the child is
alone; he gets pleasure by hearing what he says. Sometimes he babbles to communicate with
others. Sometimes babbling accidentally becomes a meaningful word like Ba-Ba-Ma-Ma-Da-Da.
Babbling vocal sounds are universal responses during infancy.

Babbling starts from the third/fourth month when consonants are uttered for the first
time. The babbling stage is probably due to intra organic stimulation and occurs especially after
meals or after walking from sleep. By the second month, the child turns towards sounds. By the
six month the child distinguishes between friendly and unfriendly sounds. In the babbling stage
the child does not know the meaning of what he is saying and why he is saying so. Babbling
occurs usually when the child is excited by seeing or hearing something, speech requires
exposure to people who speak but language does not.

The baby’s sound stimulates him and he repeats those sounds he uttered. Thus, when
he utters Ba, and hears the same, he again says Ba. Thus it becomes BaBa. In this manner he
makes repetitive sounds like BaBa, DaDa, MaMa. Parents also reinforce certain patterns of
babbling. Babbling also helps in the exercise of neurological and motor mechanisms of speech.
The early babblings of babies who are deaf soon decrease in frequency and disappear
altogether because they do not get any reinforcement as normal children do.

Study of sound patterns of babies of different cultures show that babbling is common in
all cultures and the basic sound are present in all babblings of babies of all cultures are more or
less similar. The infants’ sound making is further reinforced by the talks of mother and
grandmother with the baby at different occasions like while changing his dresses, feeding him,
massaging oil on his body or while making him sleep.

In babe dada vowels are combined with consonants then with practice these sounds are
produced. Here he produces sounds at will using to his ability to control the flow of air in the
vocal cord. So babbling is a form of vocal gymnastics, voluntarily produced, but with no real
speech meaning or association value for the baby. Babbling occurs from 3-12 months with peak
around the eighth month.

However development of vocal mechanism determines the early development of speech

and the incentive given to him to speak. Hence there may be slight individual difference in the
timing of babbling. Babbling is a form of play speech where sounds are uttered for the mere
delight of uttering them.

From babbling normal speech develops through four processes:

(1) Pronunciation
(2) Comprehension
(3) Vocabulary
(4) Sentence Formation

i. Pronunciation:

The baby hears his babbling and talks of others and imitates them to pronounce words.
After the development of concepts the child makes pronunciation more accurately.

ii. Comprehension:

Comprehension includes the correct association of meanings with word symbol, the
selection of the correct meaning suggested by the context, the organization and retention of
meanings, the ability to reason one’s way through smaller ideas segments and the ability to
grasp, the meaning of a larger unitary idea.

Thorndike describes reading comprehension simply as thinking. For comprehension a

child needs to understand language patterns, to recognize the structural elements composing a
sentence and. to perceive syntactic inter relationship of these elements. In other words, the
pupil must understand syntax for the development of Comprehension.

Davis (1944, 1972) viewed that two general mental abilities underlie comprehension.
They are the ability to remember word meanings and the ability to research with concepts and
hence with words. Comprehension is a thinking process. It is a thinking through reading. It is
dependent upon the learner’s basic Cognitive and intellectual skills; upon his experience, upon
his language skills. Readers use their thinking and verbal rearing skill to read, get main idea for
details, for organization, for evaluation and for appreciation.

During the period of comprehension the concepts are developed. Hence pronunciation
becomes easy. The comprehension stage starts from 10-12 months and continues upto 18th
month. Whatever the child hears he does not understand. Even he does not know the meaning
of the words he pronounces.
iii. Development of Vocabulary:

Between 18 months to 24 months a normal child usually controls 250 to 300 words. But
an intelligent child is able to control and even speak more than double of these words. But a
subnormal child’s vocabulary is much less than a normal ones.

iv. Sentence Formation:

Up to the eighteenth months a normal child usually speaks one word sentence like
water, Mama, Eat, Papa, etc. Thereafter he speaks 2 and 3 words sentences such as Drink
water. Go home, sleep with Mama, where is Mama, where is elephant etc. Initially there may be
some mistakes in sentence formation but gradually it is rectified.

Gradually he is able to understand the meaning of different words. When a two year old
child is snubbed, he says “Mama I am angry with you.” So now he learns to apply the words
rightly. He also learns to understand the meaning of words by learning from the gestures and
postures of adults.

Stage # 3. Sound Initiation or Echo Reaction Stage:

The sound that occurs from babbling gradually increases in quantity. When the child is
8/9 months old, he not only initiates his own sounds, but also sounds of others. Thus he
repeats the same sound over and over again, the earlier initiation being that of his own words
produced by his organic conditions. By the 9th month children pay attention to some familiar
sentences. At the 10th month, the child produces the kinds of sounds. The circular reaction or
echoic sounds are produced because the child has learnt to make some kinds of sounds i.e.,
association of vowels with some consonants.

The child learns his own voice which comes as a stimulation to him for repeating the
sounds. By this procedure he is caught in his own trap unless the circular reaction is broken by
some external attraction. The first word that the child utters is earliest by 09 months and later
by 12 months. The first word here implies the word which the child utters after understand the
meaning and with his knowledge.

How can this be checked? If the child is making an appropriate response to a question
or making correct application of what he says, it will be understand that he has understood the
meaning of the words he is uttering. When you ask a baby “Where you want to go”? He
answers “To the Park”. Here he has understood the question and he knows what he is saying.

In the echo reaction stage hearing and speaking goes on in a circular manner. By this
methods the speech muscles develop. For efficient language development, this method is very
effective.

By the 10th month, the child imitates what his mother speaks.

Stage # 4. Verbal Understanding:

This stage starts at the end of the first year. In this stage the child begins to make
specific movements in response to sounds made by others. For instance if the parents say
‘Come’ when they want the child to come to them (or they may gesture by hand), the Child
understands the meaning of Coming. Thus this word ‘Comet becomes a signal for coming.
Similarly, when the child is laughing, if Mama says laugh, laugh, in course of time this word
becomes a signal for laughter.

The behavior of the child is reinforced by the utterances of parents and so he is

motivated to know that this means “Come”, this means “go”, this means ‘laugh’ etc. The child
imitates the person who stay with him, communicate and interact with him. If parents
pronounce any word inaccurately the child speaks the same.

A baby of 18 months who was being taken care by an illiterate rural woman in the
absence of his mother used to imitate all wrong and faulty pronunciations made by that
woman. Hence children should hear correct pronunciations. Otherwise their language will be
defective. Parents should see that nobody should make wrong and faulty pronunciations or
speak incorrect sentences, in front of the child.

Stage # 5. Verbal Utterances:

The Stage of verbal utterances is generally reached by the first half of the second year.
Hence the child acquires an active vocabulary not being contend with the imitation of other
people’s sound. The child says ‘BHO, BHO’, when he sees a dog.

Speech is acquired through association theory. Learning plays a major role here.
Stimulus variable, response variable and reinforcement variable play significant role in the
development of language.

Studies of children’s vocabulary development consistently reveal a general trend which

may be summarized as follows:

1. At the first year of life words are acquired by the baby rather slowly i.e., three words in
average.
2. 18 months—19 words used.
3. 19 months—22 words used.

Towards the end of the second year or beginning of the third year, rapid increase in
vocabulary takes place. In a study it increased from 22 words to 272 words only after seven
months.

Mother’s voice influences the language development of the child. The child comes to
associate certain sound patterns with various activities.

According to Lindzey and Aronson, the minimal criterion of language is twofold:

1. Language combines two or more representative gestures or noises purposefully for a

single effect.
2. It uses the same gestures in different combinations for different effects changing
readily with circumstances.

Menyuk (1971) has given the following stages of Language Development:

1. The fact period (0—6 months).
 2. The babbling Period (6—9 months).
3. The Jargon period (9 months)—Some initiation of general language like pattern can
be identified.
4. The quiet Period (9 months—1 year) There is decrease in vocalization but language
habits do continue to develop.
5. The hollophrastic stage (1—2 years) The child uses single words to indicate whole
phrase.
6. The spurt in word development (2 years)—There is a substantial increase in
vocabulary.
7. The Sentence Period—(3 years)—The child uses sentences containing grammatical
features that anticipate the adults use of language rules.
8. The child uses sentences of all types (3—5 years)
9. There is an increase in the use of Complex structures and variety in sentences. The
length of the sentence also increases.

All the above stages are distinct. While one stage regularly proceeds another for all
children, not all children reach each state at the same age. Children of all nationalities go
through the same stages of speech development.

A child cannot learn verbal responses until he is matured enough and learn them.
Maturation sets the pace in this regard.

Jersild (1946) holds that like other aspects of development there are discernible cyclic
variations in rate of speech development during which the child consolidating his gains and
periods in which other aspects of his total development presumably has pre-eminence.

Source:
https://www.psychologydiscussion.net/social-psychology-2/language/acquisition-of-language-
by-a-child-5-stages/1390

TEACHER’S INSIGHTS
After learning the different theories concerning first language acquisition, it is
important to note that these approaches are propositions concerning language
learning. They have their own strengths and weakness. Hence, it is necessary
language teachers to look into these approaches so that we can be able to
guide our students in their language development.

Meanwhile, the stages of language development given in the discussion above

 is a blueprint onto how children develop language and its various aspects.
Note that when we are going to teach children in their language acquisition,
We should see to it that the activities we give them is parallel to their capacity.

Chapter end activities

Activity 1: Clip Art

Directions: Referring to the Stages of Child Language Acquisition, gather pictures from
the internet or print materials depicting the different stages. Place your art work in a
long bond paper.

Activity 2: Concept Mapping

Directions: Fill in the illustration by providing important ideas in each theory or approach
to first language acquisition.

THEORIES OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

 REFLECTION MODE

What is the significance of these approaches to your future profession?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

MIDTERM COVERAGE
Intended Learning Outcomes

a. discuss the different theories of second language acquisition

b. explain the importance of adherence to and utilization of the
principles behind second language teaching and learning
c. give reactions to research findings where the principles of L2
teaching and learning create an impact to teacher’s and student’s
performance

Specific Instructions in the Completion of this Midterm Coverage

1. You must read and understand the given list of Intended Learning Outcomes specified
above and use it as a checklist of acquired knowledge and skills after completing the entire
coverage. This shall be the basis of your teacher in designing the summative evaluation or
term exams that will be given soon.

2. You must carefully study the given lecture notes and take note of concepts that you did not
clearly understood so that you can communicate it to your teacher for clarification purpose
during his or her consultation time set for your class. Also, analyze the implication of the
concepts being applied in specific contexts to ensure comprehension.

3. Thoroughly understand the discussions presented, including your teacher’s insights to

better facilitate your comprehension on the subject matter being studied. Strictly follow the
instructions given in the learning guide and accomplish the given activities with utmost
diligence.

4. After comprehensively reading all the lessons and topics presented or accessing the videos
provided and searching additional references related to the topics, you are directed to
accomplish all the activities and self-reflection questions given hereafter. Always carefully read
and analyze the instructions before you start. Also, refer to the rubric as reference in
performing and grading all your activities in the appendices portion of your ILG.

5. Compile your outputs in your Learning Portfolio. Your teacher will inform you for the date of
the submission of your outputs.

6. If you have queries, always consult your teacher. Communicating to your teacher will make
your learning easier and enjoyable.
 Chapter III – Schools of Thought in Second Language (L2) Acquisition

Key Terms

antecedents linguistics phonology syntax

diachronically synchronically signifier conditioning

reinforcements mentalism meditational constructivist

Lesson 1: Structural Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology

Structural Linguistics

Definition

- Language study based on the assumptions that a language is a coherent system of formal
units and that the task of linguistic study is to inquire into the nature of those units and
their peculiar systematic arrangement, without reference to historical antecedents or
comparison with other languages.
- Structural linguistics is defined as a study of language based on the theory that language
is a structured system of formal units such as sentences and syntax.
- A method of synchronic linguistic analysis employing structuralism, especially in
demonstrating contrasts between formal structures, such as different phonemes or
sentence structures, that make up systems, such as phonology or syntax.

Structural Linguistics

BY NASRULLAH MAMBROL ON DECEMBER 22, 2018

Structural linguistics was developed

by Ferdinand de Saussure between 1913 and 1915,
although his work wasn’t translated into English
and popularized until the late 1950s. Before
 Saussure, language was studied in terms of the
history of changes in individual words over time,
or diachronically, and it was assumed that words
somehow imitated the objects for which they
stood. Saussure realized that we need to
understand language, not as a collection of
individual words with individual histories but as a
structural system of relationships among words as
they are used at a given point in time,
or synchronically. This is the structuralists’ focus.
Structuralism doesn’t look for the causes or origins
of language (or of any other phenomenon). It looks
for the rules that underlie language and govern
how it functions: it looks for the structure.

In order to differentiate between the structure that governs language and the millions of
individual utterances that are its surface phenomena, Saussure called the structure of
language langue (the French word for language), and he called the individual utterances that
occur when we speak parole (the French word for speech). For the structuralists, of course,
langue is the proper object of study; parole is of interest only in that it reveals langue. And
these terms are used, as well, by structuralists who study literature: as we’ll see later,
structuralists’ critics look for the langue that structures individual literary works and that
structures the system of literature as a whole.

The components of a structure are not merely a collection of independent items: they
form a working unit because they exist in relation to one another. They interact. And we are
able to perceive those components, as Saussure noted in terms of the structure of language,
only because we perceive their difference from one another. Difference simply means that our
ability to identify an entity (such as an object, a concept, or a sound) is based on the difference
we perceive between it and all other entities. For example, if we believed that all objects were
the same color, we wouldn’t need the word red (or blue or green) at all. Red is red only
because we perceive it to be different from blue and green. According to structuralism, the
human mind perceives difference most readily in terms of opposites, which structuralists
call binary oppositions: two ideas, directly opposed, each of which we understand by means of
its opposition to the other. For example, we understand up as the opposite of down, female as
the opposite of male, good as the opposite of evil, black as the opposite of white, and so on.

Furthermore, unlike his predecessors, Saussure argued that words do not simply refer to
objects in the world for which they stand. Instead, a word is a linguistic sign consisting, like the
two sides of a coin, of two inseparable parts: signifier + signified. A signifier is a “sound-image”
(a mental imprint of a linguistic sound); the signified is the concept to which the signifier refers.
Thus, a word is not merely a sound-image (signifier), nor is it merely a concept (signified). A
sound image becomes a word only when it is linked with a concept. Furthermore, the
relationship between signifier and signified, Saussure observed, is arbitrary: there is no
necessary connection between a given sound-image and the concept to which it refers. There is
no reason why the concept of a tree should be rep- resented by the sound-image “tree” instead
of by the sound-image “arbre”; the concept of a book is just as well represented by the sound-
image “livre” as the sound-image “book.” The relationship between signifier and signified is
merely a matter of social convention: it’s whatever the community using it says it is.

The idea that signifiers, or linguistic sound-images, do not refer to things in the world
but to concepts in our mind is crucial for structuralism. As we noted earlier, structuralists
believe that our perceptions of the world result from the conceptual framework that is an innate
feature of human consciousness. We don’t discover the world; we “create” it according to
innate structures within the human mind. Given that language is the most fundamental of these
structures, and the one through which our beliefs are passed on from one generation to the
next, it makes sense that it is through language that we learn to conceive and perceive the
world the way we do. This is why learning a new language carries with it the potential to learn
to see the world in new ways.

If native speakers of English learn to speak an Eskimo language, for example, they may
learn to see snow quite differently, for they will learn that there are many different words for
what English calls snow, depending on the size and texture of the flake, the density of the
snowfall, the angle at which it falls, the direction from which the storm originates, and so on.
Similarly, if native speakers of English learn to speak Spanish, they may learn a new way to
view the idea of human existence, for they will learn that Spanish has two different verbs for
the English verb to be: ser and estar. Ser means “to be” in the sense of what one permanently
considers oneself. One uses ser to say “I am a human being,” “I am a woman,” “I am
Mexican,” and the like. One uses estar to make statements about one’s changeable state of
being, such as “I am at the supermarket” or “I am a cab driver.” And one uses
neither ser nor estar to say “I am hungry” or “I am sleepy,” for in Spanish these are not
considered states of being. In Spanish one has hunger or sleepiness— tengo hambre or tengo
sueño—but these are not states of being. Thus, when speaking a particular language, our
attention is drawn to particular aspects of our experience, or more precisely, particular
experiences are generated by that language. In other words, our language mediates our
experience of our world and ourselves: it determines what we see when we look around us and
when we look at ourselves.

The belief in the primacy of language in structuring human experience is of great

interest to many students of human culture. Before we examine structuralist approaches to
literature, let’s take a brief look at two related areas of cultural study in which structuralist
thought plays an important role: structural anthropology, which is the comparative study of
human cultures, and semiotics, which is the study of sign systems, especially as they apply to
the analysis of popular culture. Examples of structuralist activity in both these areas can help us
grasp the structuralist enterprise as a whole and prepare us to better understand its
applications to literature.

Behavioral Psychology

Behaviorism, also known as behavioral psychology, is a theory of learning based on the

idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning occurs
through interaction with the environment. Behaviorists believe that our responses to
environmental stimuli shape our actions.
According to this school of thought, behavior can be studied in a systematic and
observable manner regardless of internal mental states. According to this perspective, only
observable behavior should be considered—cognitions, emotions, and moods are far too
subjective.

Strict behaviorists believed that any person can potentially be trained to perform any
task, regardless of genetic background, personality traits, and internal thoughts (within the
limits of their physical capabilities). It only requires the right conditioning.

A Brief History of Behaviorism

Behaviorism was formally established with the 1913 publication of John B. Watson's
classic paper, "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It." It is best summed up by the following
quote from Watson, who is often considered the "father" of behaviorism:

"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring
them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of
specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and
thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his
ancestors."

Simply put, strict behaviorists believe that all behaviors are the result of experience. Any
person, regardless of his or her background, can be trained to act in a particular manner given
the right conditioning.

From about 1920 through the mid-1950s, behaviorism grew to become the dominant
school of thought in psychology. Some suggest that the popularity of behavioral psychology
grew out of the desire to establish psychology as an objective and measurable science.

At this time, researchers were interested in creating theories that could be clearly
described and empirically measured but also used to make contributions that might have an
influence on the fabric of everyday human lives.

Key Concepts

There are several principles that distinguish behavioral psychology from other
psychological approaches.

Two Types of Conditioning

According to behavioral psychology, there are two major types of conditioning, classical
conditioning and operant conditioning.

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is a technique frequently used in behavioral training in which a

neutral stimulus is paired with a naturally occurring stimulus. Eventually, the neutral stimulus
comes to evoke the same response as the naturally occurring stimulus, even without the
naturally occurring stimulus presenting itself.

Throughout the course of three distinct phases, the associated stimulus becomes known
as the conditioned stimulus and the learned behavior is known as the conditioned response.
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method
of learning that occurs through reinforcements and punishments. Through operant conditioning,
an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior.
When a desirable result follows an action, the behavior becomes more likely to occur
again in the future. Responses followed by adverse outcomes, on the other hand, become less
likely to happen again in the future.
Learning Through Association

The classical conditioning process works by developing an association between an

environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.

In physiologist Ivan Pavlov's classic experiments, dogs associated the presentation of

food (something that naturally and automatically triggers a salivation response) with the sound
of a bell, at first, and then the sight of a lab assistant's white coat. Eventually, the lab coat
alone elicited a salivation response from the dogs.
Conditioning Can Be Influenced
During the first part of the classical conditioning process, known as acquisition, a
response is established and strengthened. Factors such as the prominence of the stimuli and
the timing of presentation can play an important role in how quickly an association is formed.
When an association disappears, this is known as extinction, causing the behavior to
weaken gradually or vanish. Factors such as the strength of the original response can play a
role in how quickly extinction occurs. The longer a response has been conditioned, for example,
the longer it may take for it to become extinct. 7
Consequences Affect Learning
Behaviorist B. F. Skinner described operant conditioning as the process in which learning
can occur through reinforcement and punishment. More specifically, by forming an association
between a certain behavior and the consequences of that behavior, you learn.

For example, if a parent rewards their child with praise every time they pick up their
toys, the desired behavior is consistently reinforced. As a result, the child will become more
likely to clean up messes.

Timing Plays a Role

Reinforcement schedules are important in operant conditioning. This process seems

fairly straight forward—simply observe a behavior and then offer a reward or punishment.

However, Skinner discovered that the timing of these rewards and punishments has an
important influence on how quickly a new behavior is acquired and the strength of the
corresponding response.
  Continuous reinforcement involves rewarding every single instance of a behavior. It
is often utilized at the beginning of the operant conditioning process. But as the
behavior is learned, the schedule might switch to one of partial reinforcement.
 Partial reinforcement involves offering a reward after a number of responses or after
a period of time has elapsed. Sometimes, partial reinforcement occurs on a consistent or
fixed schedule. In other instances, a variable and an unpredictable number of responses
or time must occur before the reinforcement is delivered.

Strengths and Weaknesses

One of the major benefits of behaviorism is that it allowed researchers to investigate

observable behavior in a scientific and systematic manner. However, many thinkers believed it
fell short by neglecting some important influences on behavior.

Strengths

 Focuses on observable, measurable behaviors

 Scientific and replicable
 Useful for modifying behaviors in the real-world
 Useful applications in therapy, education, parenting, child care

Weaknesses
 Does not account for biological influences
 Does not consider moods, thoughts, or feelings
 Does not explain all learning
Strengths

One of the greatest strengths of behavioral psychology is the ability to clearly observe
and measure behaviors. Behaviorism is based on observable behaviors, so it is sometimes
easier to quantify and collect data when conducting research.

Effective therapeutic techniques such as intensive behavioral intervention, behavior

analysis, token economies, and discrete trial training are all rooted in behaviorism. These
approaches are often very useful in changing maladaptive or harmful behaviors in both children
and adults.
Weaknesses
Many critics argue that behaviorism is a one-dimensional approach to understanding
human behavior. Critics of behaviorism suggest that behavioral theories do not account for free
will and internal influences such as moods, thoughts, and feelings.
Freud, for example, felt that behaviorism failed by not accounting for the unconscious
mind's thoughts, feelings, and desires that influence people's actions. Other thinkers, such
as Carl Rogers and the other humanistic psychologists, believed that behaviorism was too rigid
and limited, failing to take into consideration personal agency.
More recently, biological psychology has emphasized the power of the brain and
genetics play in determining and influencing human actions. The cognitive approach to
psychology focuses on mental processes such as thinking, decision-making, language, and
problem-solving. In both cases, behaviorism neglects these processes and influences in favor of
studying just observable behaviors.
 Also, behavioral psychology does not account for other types of learning that occur
without the use of reinforcement and punishment. Moreover, people and animals can adapt
their behavior when new information is introduced even if that behavior was established
through reinforcement.

Influencers and Impact

Several thinkers influenced behavioral psychology. In addition to those already
mentioned, there are a number of prominent theorists and psychologists who left an indelible
mark on behavioral psychology. Among these are Edward Thorndike, a pioneering psychologist
who described the law of effect, and Clark Hull, who proposed the drive theory of learning.

There are a number of therapeutic techniques rooted in behavioral psychology. Though

behavioral psychology assumed more of a background position after 1950, its principles still
remain important.

Even today, behavior analysis is often used as a therapeutic technique to help children
with autism and developmental delays acquire new skills. It frequently involves processes such
as shaping (rewarding closer approximations to the desired behavior) and chaining (breaking a
task down into smaller parts and then teaching and chaining the subsequent steps together).

Other behavioral therapy techniques include aversion therapy, systematic

desensitization, token economies, modeling, and contingency management.

Sources:

https://www.verywellmind.com/behavioral-psychology-4157183

https://www.britannica.com/science/structuralism-linguistics

https://literariness.org/2018/12/22/structural-linguistics/

Lesson 2. Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology

Generative Linguistics

It is the cover term for the formalist linguistic theories that were developed by Noam A.
Chomsky, or inspired by his writings. The Minimalist Program, Government and Binding Theory
and Principles and Parameters are among its best-known representatives. Generative linguistics
is the natural opposite of structural-functional theories of language; its members share a belief
in mentalism as well as in the autonomy of syntax.
The term could also be applied in a more neutral sense, however, to classify theories
that prominently feature a formalized algorithm to "generate" linguistic structures. In that
sense, a number of functionalist theories can also be considered generative, in particular Role
and Reference Grammar and Functional Grammar.
What is generative grammar?

Linguists who work within the framework of generative grammar strive to develop a
general theory that reveals the rules and laws that govern the structure of particular languages,
and the general laws and principles governing all natural languages. The basic areas of study
include phonology (the study of the sound patterns of language), morphology (the study of the
structure and meaning of words), syntax (the study of the structure of sentences), and
semantics (the study of linguistic meaning).

A signature feature of generative grammar is the view that humans have an innate
"language faculty" and that the universal principles of human language reflect intrinsic
properties of this language faculty. In learning their native languages, children acquire specific
rules that determine the sound and meaning of utterances in the language. These rules interact
with each other in complex ways, and the entire system is learned in a relatively short time and
with little or no apparent conscious effort. The most plausible explanation for the success of
human language learners is that they have access to a highly restrictive set of principles which
does not require (or permit) them to consider many alternatives in order to account for a
particular construction, but instead limits them to a few possible rules from which a choice can
be made -- if necessary, without much further evidence. Since there is no evidence that the
principles that define the class of possible rules and systems of rules are learned, it is thought
that these principles serve as the preconditions for language learning, forming part of the
innate capacity of every normal child. Viewed in this light, the principles we are attempting to
discover are part of the genetic endowment of all humans. It follows that an understanding of
these principles is necessary to an understanding of the mental makeup of the human species.

Only after extensive parts of the grammars of different languages have been formulated
is it possible to ask questions concerning the ways in which various languages differ or the
ways in which all languages are the same. Consequently, a large part of our effort is devoted to
the study of linguistic detail (for example, the interpretation of English verb phrase ellipsis, the
morpho-semantics of the Greek perfect, the syntax of multiple questions, or prosodic phrasing
in Korean). The ultimate goal is not merely to understand these details, but to use them as a
bridge to understanding the human language faculty in general.
Cognitive Psychology
By Saul McLeod, updated 2020

Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the mind as an information processor.

Cognitive psychologists try to build up cognitive models of the information processing

that goes on inside people’s minds, including perception, attention, language, memory,
thinking, and consciousness.
 Cognitive psychology became of great importance in the mid-1950s. Several factors were
important in this:

1. Dissatisfaction with the behaviorist approach in its simple emphasis on external behavior
rather than internal processes.
2. The development of better experimental methods.
3. Comparison between human and computer processing of information.

The emphasis of psychology shifted away from the study of conditioned

behavior and psychoanalytical notions about the study of the mind, towards the understanding
of human information processing, using strict and rigorous laboratory investigation.

Basic Assumptions

 Mediational processes occur between stimulus and response:

 Behaviorists rejected the idea of studying the mind because internal mental processes
cannot be observed and objectively measured.
 However, cognitive psychologists regard it as essential to look at the mental processes
of an organism and how these influence behavior.
 Instead of the simple stimulus-response links proposed by Behaviorism, the mediational
processes of the organism are important to understand. Without this understanding,
psychologists cannot have a complete understanding of behavior.
 Psychology should be seen as a science:
 Cognitive psychologists follow the example of the behaviorists in preferring objective,
controlled, scientific methods for investigating behavior.
 They use the results of their investigations as the basis for making inferences about
mental processes.
 Humans are information processors:
  Information processing in humans resembles that in computers, and is based on based
on transforming information, storing information and retrieving information from
memory.
 Information processing models of cognitive processes such as memory and attention
assume that mental processes follow a clear sequence.

For example:

 Input processes are concerned with the analysis of the stimuli.

 Storage processes cover everything that happens to stimuli internally in the brain
and can include coding and manipulation of the stimuli.
 Output processes are responsible for preparing an appropriate response to a
stimulus.

Information Processing

The cognitive approach began to revolutionize psychology in the late 1950s and early
1960’s, to become the dominant approach (i.e., perspective) in psychology by the late 1970s.
Interest in mental processes had been gradually restored through the work
of Piaget and Tolman.

Tolman was a ‘soft behaviorist’. His book Purposive Behavior in Animals and Man in
1932 described research which behaviorism found difficult to explain. The behaviorists’ view
had been that learning took place as a result of associations between stimuli and responses.

However, Tolman suggested that learning was based on the relationships which formed
amongst stimuli. He referred to these relationships as cognitive maps.

But it was the arrival of the computer that gave cognitive psychology the terminology
and metaphor it needed to investigate the human mind.

The start of the use of computers allowed psychologists to try to understand the
complexities of human cognition by comparing it with something simpler and better understood,
i.e., an artificial system such as a computer.

The use of the computer as a tool for thinking how the human mind handles information
is known as the computer analogy. Essentially, a computer codes (i.e., changes) information,
stores information, uses information, and produces an output (retrieves info).

The idea of information processing was adopted by cognitive psychologists as a model

of how human thought works.

The information processing approach is based on a number of assumptions, including:

1. Information made available from the environment is processed by a series of processing

systems (e.g., attention, perception, short-term memory);
 2. These processing systems transform, or alter the information in systematic ways;
3. The aim of research is to specify the processes and structures that underlie cognitive
performance;
4. Information processing in humans resembles that in computers.

The Role of Schemas

 Cognitive processing can often be affected by schemas (a mental framework of beliefs

and expectations developed from experience). As you get older, these become more
detailed and sophisticated.
 A schema is a “packet of information” or cognitive framework that helps us organize
and interpret information. They are based on our previous experience.
 Schemas help us to interpret incoming information quickly and effectively, this
prevents us from being overwhelmed by the vast amount of information we perceive in
our environment.
 However it can also lead to distortion of this information as we select and interpret
environmental stimuli using schemas which might not be relevant.
 This could be the cause of inaccuracies in areas such as eyewitness testimony. It can
also explain some errors we make when perceiving optical illusions.

Mediational Processes

The behaviorists approach only studies external observable (stimulus and response)
behavior which can be objectively measured. They believe that internal behavior cannot be
studied because we cannot see what happens in a person’s mind (and therefore cannot
objectively measure it).

In comparison, the cognitive approach believes that internal mental behavior can be
scientifically studied using experiments. Cognitive psychology assumes that a mediational
process occurs between stimulus/input and response/output.

The mediational (i.e., mental) event could be memory, perception, attention or problem
solving, etc. These are known as mediational processes because they mediate (i.e., go-
between) between the stimulus and the response. They come after the stimulus and before the
response.
 Therefore, cognitive psychologists’ say if you want to understand behavior, you have to
understand these mediational processes.

History of Cognitive Psychology

 Kohler (1925) published a book called, The Mentality of Apes. In it he reported

observations which suggested that animals could show insightful behavior. He rejected
behaviorism in favour of an approach which became known as Gestalt psychology.
 Norbert Wiener (1948) published Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the
Animal and the Machine, introducing terms such as input and output.
 Tolman (1948) work on cognitive maps – training rats in mazes, showed that animals
had an internal representation of behavior.
 Birth of Cognitive Psychology often dated back to George Miller’s (1956) “ The Magical
Number 7 Plus or Minus 2.”
 Newell and Simon’s (1972) development of the General Problem Solver.
 In 1960, Miller founded the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard with the famous
cognitivist developmentalist, Jerome Bruner.
 Ulric Neisser (1967) publishes "Cognitive Psychology", which marks the official beginning
of the cognitive approach.
 Process models of memory Atkinson & Shiffrin’s (1968) Multi Store Model.
 The cognitive approach is highly influential in all areas of psychology (e.g., biological,
social, Behaviorism, developmental, etc.).

Strengths

 One strength of the cognitive approach is it has always employed highly controlled
and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive
processes at work.
 This has involved the use of lab experiments to produce reliable, objective data.
 The cognitive approach is probably the most dominant approach in psychology today
and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts.
 Combines easily with approaches: e.g. Behaviorism + cognitive psychology = social
learning theory; biology + cognitive psychology = evolutionary psychology.
Limitations

o Cognitive psychology has a narrow focus on mental processes.

o For example, the use of the computer analogy means that information processing
researchers focus mostly on the logical aspects of cognitive processing and less on
the emotional, creative and social aspects that also affect thinking
o Cognitive psychology has often relied on comparisons with how computers work as a
possible way the mind might work. Is this really how the brain works?
o The brain is infinitely more powerful and flexible than the most advanced computer.
o Machine Reductionism
Issues and Debates
Free will vs Determinism
 The position of the approach is unclear as it argues on one hand that we the way we
process information is determined by our past experience (schemas).

On the other hand, in the therapy derived from the approach (CBT) it argues that we
can change the way we think.
Nature vs Nurture

The cognitive approach takes an interactionist view of the debate as it argues that our
behavior is influenced by learning and experience (nurture), but also by some of our brains’
innate capacities as information processors e.g. language acquisition (nature).
Holism vs Reductionism

The cognitive approach tends to be reductionist as when studying a variable it isolates

processes such as memory from other cognitive processes.

However, in our normal life we would use many cognitive processes simultaneously, so
it lacks validity.
Idiographic vs Nomothetic

It is a nomothetic approach as it focuses on establishing theories on information

processing that apply to all people.
Are the research methods used scientific?

 The cognitive approach uses lab experiments which are highly controlled therefore
they are replicable.
 However, it measures non-observable behaviors; therefore it could be argued that it
is not as scientific as the behaviorist approach.

Critical Evaluation
 B.F. Skinner criticizes the cognitive approach as he believes that only external
stimulus-response behavior should be studied as this can be scientifically measured.
 Therefore, mediation processes (between stimulus and response) do not exist as
they cannot be seen and measured. Skinner continues to find problems with
cognitive research methods, namely introspection (as used by Wilhelm Wundt) due
to its subjective and unscientific nature.
 Humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers believes that the use of laboratory experiments
by cognitive psychology have low ecological validity and create an artificial
environment due to the control over variables. Rogers emphasizes a more holistic
approach to understanding behavior.
 The information processing paradigm of cognitive psychology views that minds in
terms of a computer when processing information. However, although there are
similarities between the human mind and the operations of a computer (inputs and
outputs, storage systems, the use of a central processor) the computer analogy has
been criticized by many.
 Such machine reductionism (simplicity) ignores the influence of human emotion and
motivation on the cognitive system and how this may affect our ability to process
information.
  Behaviorism assumes that people are born a blank slate (tabula rasa) and are not
born with cognitive functions like schemas, memory or perception.
 The cognitive approach does not always recognize physical (re: biological
psychology) and environmental (re: Behaviorism) factors in determining behavior.
 Cognitive psychology has influenced and integrated with many other approaches
and areas of study to produce, for example, social learning theory, cognitive
neuropsychology and artificial intelligence (AI).
 Another strength is that the research conducted in this area of psychology very
often has applications in the real world.
 For example, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been very effective for treating
depression (Hollon & Beck, 1994), and moderately effective for anxiety problems
(Beck, 1993). The basis of CBT is to change the way the persons processes their
thoughts to make them more rational or positive.

Sources:
http://www.glottopedia.org/index.php/Generative_linguistics
https://www.princeton.edu/~browning/gg.html
https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive.html

Lesson 3: Constructivism: A Multidisciplinary Approach

What is constructivism?

Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about

how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the
world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter
something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe
changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case,
we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and
assess what we know.

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of
different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students
to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge
and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is
changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and
guides the activity to address them and then build on them.

Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity is

helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in
the constructivist classroom ideally become "expert learners." This gives them ever-broadening
tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom environment, the students learn HOW TO
LEARN.
 You might look at it as a spiral. When they continuously reflect on their experiences,
students find their ideas gaining in complexity and power, and they develop increasingly strong
abilities to integrate new information. One of the teacher's main roles becomes to encourage
this learning and reflection process.

For example: Groups of students in a science class are discussing a problem in physics.
Though the teacher knows the "answer" to the problem, she focuses on helping students
restate their questions in useful ways. She prompts each student to reflect on and examine his
or her current knowledge. When one of the students comes up with the relevant concept, the
teacher seizes upon it, and indicates to the group that this might be a fruitful avenue for them
to explore. They design and perform relevant experiments. Afterward, the students and teacher
talk about what they have learned, and how their observations and experiments helped (or did
not help) them to better understand the concept.

Contrary to criticisms by some (conservative/traditional) educators, constructivism does

not dismiss the active role of the teacher or the value of expert knowledge. Constructivism
modifies that role, so that teachers help students to construct knowledge rather than to
reproduce a series of facts. The constructivist teacher provides tools such as problem-solving
and inquiry-based learning activities with which students formulate and test their ideas, draw
conclusions and inferences, and pool and convey their knowledge in a collaborative learning
environment. Constructivism transforms the student from a passive recipient of information to
an active participant in the learning process. Always guided by the teacher, students construct
their knowledge actively rather than just mechanically ingesting knowledge from the teacher or
the textbook.

Constructivism is also often misconstrued as a learning theory that compels students to

"reinvent the wheel." In fact, constructivism taps into and triggers the student's innate curiosity
about the world and how things work. Students do not reinvent the wheel but, rather, attempt
to understand how it turns, how it functions. They become engaged by applying their existing
knowledge and real-world experience, learning to hypothesize, testing their theories, and
ultimately drawing conclusions from their findings.

The best way for you to really understand what constructivism is and what it means in
your classroom is by seeing examples of it at work, speaking with others about it, and trying it
yourself. As you progress through each segment of this workshop, keep in mind questions or
ideas to share with your colleagues.

How does this theory differ from traditional ideas about teaching and learning?

As with many of the methods addressed in this series of workshops, in the constructivist
classroom, the focus tends to shift from the teacher to the students. The classroom is no longer
a place where the teacher ("expert") pours knowledge into passive students, who wait like
empty vessels to be filled. In the constructivist model, the students are urged to be actively
involved in their own process of learning. The teacher functions more as a facilitator who
coaches, mediates, prompts, and helps students develop and assess their understanding, and
thereby their learning. One of the teacher's biggest jobs becomes ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS.
 And, in the constructivist classroom, both teacher and students think of knowledge not
as inert factoids to be memorized, but as a dynamic, ever-changing view of the world we live in
and the ability to successfully stretch and explore that view.

The chart below compares the traditional classroom to the constructivist one. You can
see significant differences in basic assumptions about knowledge, students, and learning. (It's
important, however, to bear in mind that constructivists acknowledge that students are
constructing knowledge in traditional classrooms, too. It's really a matter of the emphasis being
on the student, not on the instructor.)

Curriculum begins with the parts of the whole. Curriculum emphasizes big concepts,
Emphasizes basic skills. beginning with the whole and expanding to
include the parts.

Strict adherence to fixed curriculum is highly Pursuit of student questions and interests is
valued. valued.

Materials are primarily textbooks and Materials include primary sources of material
workbooks. and manipulative materials.

Learning is based on repetition. Learning is interactive, building on what the

student already knows.

Teachers disseminate information to students; Teachers have a dialogue with students,

students are recipients of knowledge. helping students construct their own
knowledge.

Teacher's role is directive, rooted in authority. Teacher's role is interactive, rooted in

negotiation.

Assessment is through testing, correct Assessment includes student works,

answers. observations, and points of view, as well as
tests. Process is as important as product.

Knowledge is seen as inert. Knowledge is seen as dynamic, ever changing

with our experiences.

Students work primarily alone. Students work primarily in groups.

What does constructivism have to do with my classroom?

As is the case with many of the current/popular paradigms, you're probably already
using the constructivist approach to some degree. Constructivist teachers pose questions and
problems, then guide students to help them find their own answers. They use many techniques
in the teaching process. For example, they may:

 prompt students to formulate their own questions (inquiry)

 allow multiple interpretations and expressions of learning (multiple intelligences)
 encourage group work and the use of peers as resources (collaborative learning)
 More information on the above processes is covered in other workshops in this series. For
now, it's important to realize that the constructivist approach borrows from many other
practices in the pursuit of its primary goal: helping students learn HOW TO LEARN.

In a constructivist classroom, learning is . . .

Students are not blank slates upon which knowledge is etched. They come to learning
situations with already formulated knowledge, ideas, and understandings. This previous
knowledge is the raw material for the new knowledge they will create.

Example: An elementary school teacher presents a class problem to measure the length
of the "Mayflower." Rather than starting the problem by introducing the ruler, the teacher
allows students to reflect and to construct their own methods of measurement. One student
offers the knowledge that a doctor said he is four feet tall. Another says she knows horses are
measured in "hands." The students discuss these and other methods they have heard about,
and decide on one to apply to the problem.

The student is the person who creates new understanding for him/herself. The teacher
coaches, moderates, suggests, but allows the students room to experiment, ask questions, try
things that don't work. Learning activities require the students' full participation (like hands-on
experiments). An important part of the learning process is that students reflect on, and talk
about, their activities. Students also help set their own goals and means of assessment.

Examples: A middle-school language arts teacher sets aside time each week for a
writing lab. The emphasis is on content and getting ideas down rather than memorizing
grammatical rules, though one of the teacher's concerns is the ability of his students to express
themselves well through written language. The teacher provides opportunities for students to
examine the finished and earlier drafts of various authors. He allows students to select and
create projects within the general requirement of building a portfolio 1. Students serve as peer
editors who value originality and uniqueness rather than the best way to fulfill an assignment.

1. In a history class, asking students to read and think about different versions of and
perspectives on "history" can lead to interesting discussions. Is history as taught in textbooks
accurate? Are there different versions of the same history? Whose version of history is most
accurate? How do we know? From there, students can make their own judgments.

Students control their own learning process, and they lead the way by reflecting on their
experiences. This process makes them experts of their own learning. The teacher helps create
situations where the students feel safe questioning and reflecting on their own processes, either
privately or in group discussions. The teacher should also create activities that lead the student
to reflect on his or her prior knowledge and experiences. Talking about what was learned and
how it was learned is really important.

Example: Students keep journals in a writing class where they record how they felt
about the class projects, the visual and verbal reactions of others to the project, and how they
felt their own writing had changed. Periodically the teacher reads these journals and holds a
conference with the student where the two assess (1) what new knowledge the student has
created, (2) how the student learns best, and (3) the learning environment and the teacher's
role in it.

The constructivist classroom relies heavily on collaboration among students. There are
many reasons why collaboration contributes to learning. The main reason it is used so much in
constructivism is that students learn about learning not only from themselves, but also from
their peers. When students review and reflect on their learning processes together, they can
pick up strategies and methods from one another.

Example: In the course of studying ancient civilizations, students undertake an

archaeological dig. This may be something constructed in a large sandbox, or, as in the Dalton
School's "Archaeotype" software simulation, on a computer. As the students find different
objects, the teacher introduces classifying techniques. The students are encouraged to (1) set
up a group museum by developing criteria and choosing which objects should belong, and (2)
collaborate with other students who worked in different quadrants of the dig. Each group is
then asked to develop theories about the civilizations that inhabited the area.

The main activity in a constructivist classroom is solving problems. Students use inquiry
methods to ask questions, investigate a topic, and use a variety of resources to find solutions
and answers. As students explore the topic, they draw conclusions, and, as exploration
continues, they revisit those conclusions. Exploration of questions leads to more questions. (See
the CONCEPT TO CLASSROOM workshop Inquiry-based Learning)

Example: Sixth graders figuring out how to purify water investigate solutions ranging
from coffee-filter paper, to a stove-top distillation apparatus, to piles of charcoal, to an abstract
mathematical solution based on the size of a water molecule. Depending upon students'
responses, the teacher encourages abstract as well as concrete, poetic as well as practical,
creations of new knowledge.

Students have ideas that they may later see were invalid, incorrect, or insufficient to
explain new experiences. These ideas are temporary steps in the integration of knowledge. For
instance, a child may believe that all trees lose their leaves in the fall, until she visits an
evergreen forest. Constructivist teaching takes into account students' current conceptions and
builds from there.

What happens when a student gets a new piece of information? The constructivist
model says that the student compares the information to the knowledge and understanding
he/she already has, and one of three things can occur:

 The new information matches up with his previous knowledge pretty well (it's
consonant with the previous knowledge), so the student adds it to his understanding.
It may take some work, but it's just a matter of finding the right fit, as with a puzzle
piece.
 The information doesn't match previous knowledge (it's dissonant). The student has
to change her previous understanding to find a fit for the information. This can be
harder work.
 The information doesn't match previous knowledge, and it is ignored. Rejected bits of
information may just not be absorbed by the student. Or they may float around,
 waiting for the day when the student's understanding has developed and permits a
fit.

Interactivity

Example: An elementary teacher believes her students are ready to study gravity. She
creates an environment of discovery with objects of varying kinds. Students explore the
differences in weight among similarly sized blocks of Styrofoam, wood, and lead. Some students
hold the notion that heavier objects fall faster than light ones. The teacher provides materials
(stories, posters, and videos) about Galileo, Newton, etc. She leads a discussion on theories
about falling. The students then replicate Galileo's experiment by dropping objects of different
weights and measuring how fast they fall. They see that objects of different weights actually
usually fall at the same speed, although surface area and aerodynamic properties can affect the
rate of fall.

What is the history of constructivism, and how has it changed over time?

The concept of constructivism has roots in classical antiquity, going back to Socrates's
dialogues with his followers, in which he asked directed questions that led his students to
realize for themselves the weaknesses in their thinking. The Socratic dialogue is still an
important tool in the way constructivist educators assess their students' learning and plan new
learning experiences.

In this century, Jean Piaget and John Dewey developed theories of childhood
development and education, what we now call Progressive Education that led to the evolution
of constructivism.

Piaget believed that humans learn through the construction of one logical structure after
another. He also concluded that the logic of children and their modes of thinking are initially
entirely different from those of adults. The implications of this theory and how he applied them
have shaped the foundation for constructivist education.

Dewey called for education to be grounded in real experience. He wrote, "If you have
doubts about how learning happens, engage in sustained inquiry: study, ponder, consider
alternative possibilities and arrive at your belief grounded in evidence." Inquiry is a key part of
constructivist learning.

Among the educators, philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists who have added
new perspectives to constructivist learning theory and practice are Lev Vygotsky, Jerome
Bruner , and David Ausubel .
 Vygotsky introduced the social aspect of learning into constructivism. He defined the
"zone of proximal learning," according to which students solve problems beyond their actual
developmental level (but within their level of potential development) under adult guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers.

Bruner initiated curriculum change based on the notion that learning is an active, social
process in which students construct new ideas or concepts based on their current knowledge.

Seymour Papert's groundbreaking work in using computers to teach children has led
to the widespread use of computer and information technology in constructivist environments.

Modern educators who have studied, written about, and practiced constructivist
approaches to education include John D. Bransford, Ernst von Glasersfeld, Eleanor
Duckworth, George Forman, Roger Schank , Jacqueline Grennon Brooks, and Martin
G. Brooks.

What are some critical perspectives?

Constructivism has been criticized on various grounds. Some of the charges that critics level
against it are:

1. It's elitist. Critics say that constructivism and other "progressive" educational theories have
been most successful with children from privileged backgrounds who are fortunate in having
outstanding teachers, committed parents, and rich home environments. They argue that
disadvantaged children, lacking such resources, benefit more from more explicit instruction.

2. Social constructivism leads to "group think." Critics say the collaborative aspects of
constructivist classrooms tend to produce a "tyranny of the majority," in which a few students'
voices or interpretations dominate the group's conclusions, and dissenting students are forced
to conform to the emerging consensus.

3. There is little hard evidence that constructivist methods work. Critics say that constructivists,
by rejecting evaluation through testing and other external criteria, have made themselves
unaccountable for their students' progress. Critics also say that studies of various kinds of
instruction -- in particular Project Follow Through, a long-term government initiative -- have
found that students in constructivist classrooms lag behind those in more traditional classrooms
in basic skills.

Constructivists counter that in studies where children were compared on higher-order

thinking skills, constructivist students seemed to outperform their peers.
What are the benefits of constructivism?

1. Children learn more, and enjoy learning more when they are actively involved, rather than
passive listeners.

2. Education works best when it concentrates on thinking and understanding, rather than on
rote memorization. Constructivism concentrates on learning how to think and understand.

3. Constructivist learning is transferable. In constructivist classrooms, students create

organizing principles that they can take with them to other learning settings.

4. Constructivism gives students ownership of what they learn, since learning is based on
students' questions and explorations, and often the students have a hand in designing the
assessments as well. Constructivist assessment engages the students' initiatives and personal
investments in their journals, research reports, physical models, and artistic representations.
Engaging the creative instincts develops students' abilities to express knowledge through a
variety of ways. The students are also more likely to retain and transfer the new knowledge to
real life.

5. By grounding learning activities in an authentic, real-world context, constructivism stimulates

and engages students. Students in constructivist classrooms learn to question things and to
apply their natural curiosity to the world.

6. Constructivism promotes social and communication skills by creating a classroom

environment that emphasizes collaboration and exchange of ideas. Students must learn how to
articulate their ideas clearly as well as to collaborate on tasks effectively by sharing in group
projects. Students must therefore exchange ideas and so must learn to "negotiate" with others
and to evaluate their contributions in a socially acceptable manner. This is essential to success
in the real world, since they will always be exposed to a variety of experiences in which they
will have to cooperate and navigate among the ideas of others.

Source: https://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/

Teacher’s Insights
These school of thoughts in Second Language Acquisition are truly helpful in the
understanding of how language is acquired. Note that they may have differences, strengths and
weaknesses, but more importantly, they help language teachers to assist students in their
language development.
 CHAPTER END ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: What’s on your mind?

Directions: By filling in the Venn Diagram, identify the similarities and differences of:

a. Structural Linguistics vs. Behavior Psychology

b. Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology
Activity 2: My Teacher is Awesome!

Directions: Among the teachers you have had in your previous grade levels, who among them
do you think is a constructivist? Feature your teacher by making a short vlog about your
teacher.

REFLECTION MODE

If you will soon be a language teacher, what 3 great qualities should you possess? Justify.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Chapter IV – Theories of Second Language (L2) Acquisition

Key Terms

input monitor filter monitor

language appreciation introversion extraversion

Lesson 1: The Acquisition-Learning Distinction

 Stephen Krashen
Language acquisition does not require
extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and
does not require tedious drill.

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
conveying and understanding.
... 'comprehensible input' is the crucial and necessary ingredient for the acquisition of language.
The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety
situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force
early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready',
recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input,
and not from forcing and correcting production.
In the real world, conversations with sympathetic native speakers who are willing to
help the acquirer understand are very helpful.

Stephen Krashen (University of Southern California) is an expert in the field of

linguistics, specializing in theories of language acquisition and development. Much of his recent
research has involved the study of non-English and bilingual language acquisition. Since 1980,
he has published well over 100 books and articles and has been invited to deliver over 300
lectures at universities throughout the United States and Canada.

This is a brief description of Krashen's widely known and well-accepted theory of second
language acquisition, which has had a large impact in all areas of second language research
and teaching.

The Acquisition-Learning distinction is the most fundamental of the five hypotheses

in Krashen's theory and the most widely known among linguists and language teachers.
According to Krashen there are two independent systems of foreign language performance: 'the
acquired system' and 'the learned system'. The 'acquired system' or 'acquisition' is the product
of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire their
first language. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural
communication - in which speakers are concentrated not in the form of their utterances, but in
the communicative act.
 The "learned system" or "learning" is the product of formal instruction and it comprises
a conscious process which results in conscious knowledge 'about' the language, for example
knowledge of grammar rules. A deductive approach in a teacher-centered setting produces
"learning", while an inductive approach in a student-centered setting leads to "acquisition".
According to Krashen 'learning' is less important than 'acquisition'.

Note: Watch the video by accessing this site -

https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/acquisition-learning-hypothesis

Lesson 2: Natural Order Hypothesis

Natural Order hypothesis is based on research findings (Dulay & Burt, 1974; Fathman,
1975; Makino, 1980 cited in Krashen, 1987) which suggested that the acquisition of
grammatical structures follows a 'natural order' which is predictable. For a given language,
some grammatical structures tend to be acquired early while others late. This order seemed to
be independent of the learners' age, L1 background, conditions of exposure, and although the
agreement between individual acquirers was not always 100% in the studies, there were
statistically significant similarities that reinforced the existence of a Natural Order of language
acquisition. Krashen however points out that the implication of the natural order hypothesis is
not that a language program syllabus should be based on the order found in the studies. In
fact, he rejects grammatical sequencing when the goal is language acquisition.

Note Watch the video by accessing this site -

https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/natural-order-hypothesis

Lesson 3: The Monitor Hypothesis

The Monitor hypothesis explains the relationship between acquisition and learning and
defines the influence of the latter on the former. The monitoring function is the practical result
of the learned grammar. According to Krashen, the acquisition system is the utterance initiator,
while the learning system performs the role of the 'monitor' or the 'editor'. The 'monitor' acts in
a planning, editing and correcting function when three specific conditions are met:

 The second language learner has sufficient time at their disposal.

 They focus on form or think about correctness.
 They know the rule.
 It appears that the role of conscious learning is somewhat limited in second language
performance. According to Krashen, the role of the monitor is minor, being used only to correct
deviations from "normal" speech and to give speech a more 'polished' appearance.

Krashen also suggests that there is individual variation among language learners with
regard to 'monitor' use. He distinguishes those learners that use the 'monitor' all the time (over-
users); those learners who have not learned or who prefer not to use their conscious
knowledge (under-users); and those learners that use the 'monitor' appropriately (optimal
users). An evaluation of the person's psychological profile can help to determine to what group
they belong. Usually extroverts are under-users, while introverts and perfectionists are over-
users. Lack of self-confidence is frequently related to the over-use of the "monitor".

Note: Watch the video by accessing this site -

https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/monitor-hypothesis

Lesson 4: The Input Hypothesis

The Input hypothesis is Krashen's attempt to explain how the learner acquires a second
language – how second language acquisition takes place. The Input hypothesis is only
concerned with 'acquisition', not 'learning'. According to this hypothesis, the learner improves
and progresses along the 'natural order' when he/she receives second language 'input' that is
one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence. For example, if a learner is at a
stage 'i', then acquisition takes place when he/she is exposed to 'Comprehensible Input' that
belongs to level 'i + 1'. Since not all of the learners can be at the same level of linguistic
competence at the same time, Krashen suggests that natural communicative input is the key to
designing a syllabus, ensuring in this way that each learner will receive some 'i + 1' input that is
appropriate for his/her current stage of linguistic competence.

Note: Watch the video by accessing this site -

https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/input-hypothesis

Lesson 5: The Affective Filter Hypothesis

The Affective Filter hypothesis embodies Krashen's view that a number of 'affective variables'
play a facilitative, but non-causal, role in second language acquisition. These variables include:
motivation, self-confidence, anxiety and personality traits. Krashen claims that learners with
high motivation, self-confidence, a good self-image, a low level of anxiety and extroversion are
better equipped for success in second language acquisition. Low motivation, low self-esteem,
anxiety, introversion and inhibition can raise the affective filter and form a 'mental block' that
prevents comprehensible input from being used for acquisition. In other words, when the filter
is 'up' it impedes language acquisition. On the other hand, positive affect is necessary, but not
sufficient on its own, for acquisition to take place.

Note: Watch the video by accessing this site -

https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/affective-filter-hypothesis

The Role of Grammar in Krashen's View

According to Krashen, the study of the structure of the language can have general
educational advantages and values that high schools and colleges may want to include in their
language programs. Any benefit, however, will greatly depend on the learner being already
familiar with the language. It should also be clear that analyzing the language, formulating
rules, setting irregularities apart, and teaching complex facts about the target language is not
language teaching, but rather is "language appreciation" or linguistics, which does not lead to
communicative proficiency.

The only instance in which the teaching of grammar can result in language acquisition
(and proficiency) is when the students are interested in the subject and the target language is
used as a medium of instruction. Very often, when this occurs, both teachers and students are
convinced that the study of formal grammar is essential for second language acquisition, and
the teacher is skillful enough to present explanations in the target language so that the
students understand. In other words, the teacher talk meets the requirements for
comprehensible input and perhaps, with the students' participation, the classroom becomes an
environment suitable for acquisition. Also, the filter is low in regard to the language of
explanation, as the students' conscious efforts are usually on the subject matter, on what is
being talked about, and not the medium.

This is a subtle point. In effect, both teachers and students are deceiving themselves.
They believe that it is the subject matter itself, the study of grammar, that is responsible for the
students’ progress, but in reality their progress is coming from the medium and not the
message. Any subject matter that held their interest would do just as well.

References

 Crystal, David The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge University Press,

1997.
 Krashen, Stephen D. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Prentice-
Hall International, 1987.
 Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language
Learning. Prentice-Hall International, 1988.
Sources:
https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/acquisition-learning-hypothesis
https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/natural-order-hypothesis
https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/monitor-hypothesis
https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/input-hypothesis
https://sites.google.com/site/krashens2ndlgacquisition/overview/affective-filter-hypothesis

Teacher’s Insights
These hypotheses given by Krashen provides a glimpse of how language acquisition
undergoes a certain process. Though they are only hypotheses, it can be known that through
the application of these, along with appropriate learning materials to assist learning, a success
in language acquisition can be achieved.

However, it is important to note that the interest of the learner towards the language
and the process of acquiring it shall also be considered. Proficiency in the language being
acquired should be the aim of second language acquisition, as well as in the first language.

Chapter end activities

Activity 1: Eureka!

Directions: From studying the different hypotheses given by Krashen, think of your OWN
hypothesis that you believe can be a good tool in understanding language acquisition. Be able
to comprehensively explain the hypothesis on the space given below.

Hypothesis: ____________________________________________

Explanation:
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Activity 2: Online Teaching

Directions: After studying the different hypotheses, prepare an outline of each to come up with
a chapter summary of the Theories of Second Language Acquisition. Afterwhich, take a video of
yourself discussing each hypothesis. The context of your discussion is as if you are doing an
online class with your students.

REFLECTION MODE

From the ways of acquiring and learning a language, is Krashen correct or incorrect in his
hypotheses? Why do you say so?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Among the hypotheses given by Krashen, which do you think is the most effective when applied
to the current mode of learning [online class] students have at this time?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

From the hypotheses of Krashen, which do you like best? Which do you prefer least? Justify.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

SEMI-FINAL COVERAGE

Intended Learning Outcomes

a. discuss the variables in L2 acquisition

b. cite research-based classroom practices that addresses the
different variable of L2 acquisition
c. cite teaching implications for each causative variable
performance
d. create their own Language Acquisition Model or Framework
that shows the relationship of language acquisition and learning
theories to classroom practice

Specific Instructions in the Completion of this Semi-Final Coverage

1. You must read and understand the given list of Intended Learning Outcomes specified
above and use it as a checklist of acquired knowledge and skills after completing the entire
coverage. This shall be the basis of your teacher in designing the summative evaluation or
term exams that will be given soon.
 2. You must carefully study the given lecture notes and take note of concepts that you did not
clearly understood so that you can communicate it to your teacher for clarification purpose
during his or her consultation time set for your class. Also, analyze the implication of the
concepts being applied in specific contexts to ensure comprehension.

3. Thoroughly understand the discussions presented, including your teacher’s insights to

better facilitate your comprehension on the subject matter being studied. Strictly follow the
instructions given in the learning guide and accomplish the given activities with utmost
diligence.

4. After comprehensively reading all the lessons and topics presented or accessing the videos
provided and searching additional references related to the topics, you are directed to
accomplish all the activities and self-reflection questions given hereafter. Always carefully read
and analyze the instructions before you start. Also, refer to the rubric as reference in
performing and grading all your activities in the appendices portion of your ILG.

5. Compile your outputs in your Learning Portfolio. Your teacher will inform you for the date of
the submission of your outputs.

6. If you have queries, always consult your teacher. Communicating to your teacher will make
your learning easier and enjoyable.

Chapter V – The Causative Variables in Second Language Acquisition

Key Terms

variables acculturation psychological distance

culture shock assimilation adaptation

social dominance congruence cohesiveness

 Lesson 1: The Causative Variables

Many teachers are familiar with the work of Stephen Krashen because he was the first
to synthesize and integrate a number of research studies on second language acquisition, and
come up with some constructs for thinking about the acquisition process. According to Krashen,
"the true causative variables in second language acquisition derive from the input hypothesis
and affective filter - the amount of comprehensible input the acquirer receives and understands,
and the strength of the affective filter, or the degree to which the acquirer is 'open' to the
input." The input hypothesis is based on the following assumptions: 1) It relates to acquisition,
not learning; 2) We acquire by understanding language that contains structure a bit beyond our
current level of competence (i +1). This is done with the help of context, or extra-linguistic
information; 3) When communication is successful, when the input is understood and there is
enough of it, i+1 will be provided automatically; 4) Production ability emerges. It is not taught
directly. The affective filter hypothesis summarizes the research which has confirmed that a
variety of affective variables relate to success in second language acquisition, e.g. motivation,
self-confidence, and anxiety. It is hypothesized that comprehensible input can be blocked by
the affective filter if the latter is considered 'high'. This means that an acquirer receiving
comprehensible input may still not be able to produce the second language due to the effects
of, for instance, low self-image. However, the main critique of Krashen's hypotheses is that they
cannot be tested or proven. It is also not entirely clear what comprehensible input is. Moreover,
for the affective filter hypothesis to be helpful, there should be more specificity in what affect
variables, singly or in combination, and at what levels, serve to 'raise the filter'.

Lesson 2: Language Teaching: Does It Help?

Language teaching has been around for many centuries, and over the centuries, it
has changed. Various influences have affected language teaching. Reasons for learning
language have been different in different periods. In some eras, languages were mainly taught
for the purpose of reading. In others, it was taught mainly to people who needed to use it
orally. These differences influenced how language was taught in various periods. Also, theories
about the nature of language and the nature of learning have changed. However, many of the
current issues in language teaching have been considered off and on throughout history.

Ancient Times

The history of the consideration of foreign language teaching goes back at least to
the ancient Greeks. They were interested in what they could learn about the mind and the will
through language learning. The Romans were probably the first to study a foreign language
formally. They studied Greek, taught by Greek tutors and slaves. Their approach was less
philosophical and more practical than that of the Greeks.

Europe in Early Modern Times

In Europe before the 16th century, much of the language teaching involved teaching
Latin to priests. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, French was a lingua franca for
speaking to foreigners. Members of the court spoke French, of course, but it was also a
necessary language for travelers, traders, and soldiers. French was fairly widely taught during
this period, and a study of the theoretical books and language textbooks from this period
indicate that many of the same questions that are being considered today by language teachers
were being considered then. These included questions about practice versus learning rules and
formal study versus informal use.

The status of Latin changed during this period from a living language that learners
needed to be able to read, write in, and speak, to a dead language which was studied as an
intellectual exercise. The analysis of the grammar and rhetoric of Classical Latin became the
model language teaching between the 17th and 19th centuries, a time when thought about
language teaching crystalized in Europe. Emphasis was on learning grammar rules and
vocabulary by rote, translations, and practice in writing sample sentences. The sentences that
were translated or written by the students were examples of grammatical points and usually
had little relationship to the real world. This method came to be known as the grammar-
translation method. Though some people tried to challenge this type of language education, it
was difficult to overcome the attitude that Classical Latin (and to a lesser extent Greek) was the
most ideal language and the way it was taught was the model for the way language should be
taught. When modern languages were taught as part of the curriculum, beginning in the 18th
century, they were generally taught using the same method as Latin.

The 19th and Early to Mid-20th Century

The Grammar-Translation Method

The grammar-translation method was the dominant foreign language teaching

method in Europe from the 1840s to the 1940s, and a version of it continues to be widely used
in some parts of the world, even today. However, even as early as the mid-19th, theorists were
beginning to question the principles behind the grammar-translation method. Changes were
beginning to take place. There was a greater demand for ability to speak foreign languages,
and various reformers began reconsidering the nature of language and of learning. Among
these reformers were two Frenchmen, C. Marcel and F. Gouin, and an Englishman, T.
Pendergast. Through their separate observations, they concluded that the way that children
learned language was relevant to how adults should learn language. Marcel emphasized the
importance of understanding meaning in language learning. Pendergast proposed the first
structural syllabus. He proposed arranging grammatical structures so that the easiest were
taught first. Gouin believed that children learned language through using language for a
sequence of related actions. He emphasized presenting each item in context and using gestures
to supplement verbal meaning.

Though the ideas of these and other reformers had some influence for a time, they
did not become widespread or last long. They were outside of the established educational
circles, and the networks of conferences and journals which exist today did not exist then to
spread their ideas.

Reforms

However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, linguists became interested in the
problem of the best way to teach languages. These reformers, who included Henry Sweet of
England, Wilhelm Vietor of Germany, and Paul Passy of France, believed that language teaching
should be based on scientific knowledge about language, that it should begin with speaking and
expand to other skills, that words and sentences should be presented in context, that grammar
should be taught inductively, and that translation should, for the most part, be avoided. These
ideas spread, and were consolidated in what became known as the Direct Method, the first of
the "natural methods." The Direct Method became popular in language schools, but it was not
very practical with larger classes or in public schools.

Behaviorism and Language Teaching

Developments in other fields have, at times, had an effect on language teaching. In

the field of psychology, behaviorism has had a great effect on language teaching. Various
scientists in the early to mid-1900s did experiments with animals, trying to understand how
animals learned, and through animals, how humans learned.

One of the most famous of these scientists was Ivan Pavlov. His experiments showed
that if he rang a bell before giving food to the dogs he was studying, when the dogs heard the
bell, they would salivate, even before the food was presented to them. This is called a
conditioned response. Pavlov believed that this indicated that this is how animals learned, even
in the wild. Pavlov and other studying in fields of animal behavior (including John Watson and
B.F. Skinner) came to believe that animal behavior was formed by a series of rewards or
punishments. Skinner, in particular, promoted the idea that human behavior could be described
using the same model.

In applying his principles to language, Skinner theorized that parents or other

caretakers hear a child say something that sounds like a word in their language, they reward
the child with praise and attention. The child repeats words and combinations of words that are
praised and thus learns language.

Behaviorism, along with applied linguistics, which developed detailed descriptions of

the differences between languages, had a great influence on language teaching. Theorists
believed that languages were made up of a series of habits, and that if learners could develop
all these habits, they would speak the language well. Also, they believed that a contrastive
analysis of languages would be invaluable in teaching languages, because points in which the
languages were similar would be easy for students, but points in which they were different
would be difficult for students. From these theories arose the audio-lingual method. The audio-
lingual method is based on using drills for the formation of good language habits. Students are
given a stimulus, which they respond to. If their response is correct, it is rewarded, so the habit
will be formed; if it is incorrect, it is corrected, so that it will be suppressed.

The Mid- to Late-20th Century

In the years following World War II, great changes took place, some of which would
eventually influence language teaching and learning. Language diversity greatly increased, so
that there were more languages to learn. Expansion of schooling meant that language learning
was no longer the prerogative of the elite but something that was necessary for a widening
range of people. More opportunities for international travel and business and international social
and cultural exchanges increased the need for language learning. As a result, renewed attempts
were made in the 1950s and 1960s to 1) use new technology (e.g., tape recorders, radios, TV,
and computers) effectively in language teaching, 2) explore new educational patterns (e.g.,
bilingual education, individualized instruction, and immersion programs), and 3) establish
methodological innovations (e.g., the audio-lingual method). However, the hoped-for increase
in the effectiveness of language education did not materialize, and some of the theoretical
underpinnings of the developments were called into question.

Beginning in the mid-1960s, there has been a variety of theoretical challenges to the
audio-lingual method. Linguist Noam Chomsky challenged the behaviorist model of language
learning. He proposed a theory called Transformational Generative Grammar, according to
which learners do not acquire an endless list of rules but limited set of transformations which
can be used over and over again. For example, a sentence is changed from an affirmative to a
negative sentence by adding not and the auxiliary verb to, i.e., "I go to New York every week"
would be changed to "I do not go to New York every week." With a fairly limited number of
these transformations, according to Chomsky, language users can form an unlimited number of
sentences.

Other theorists have also proposed ideas that have influenced language teaching.
Stephen Krashen, for example, studied the way that children learn language and applied it to
adult language learning. He proposed the Input Hypothesis, which states that language is
acquired by using comprehensible input (the language that one hears in the environment)
which is slightly beyond the learner's present proficiency. Learners use the comprehensible
input to deduce rules. Krashen's views on language teaching have given rise to a number of
changes in language teaching, including a de-emphasis on the teaching of grammatical rules
and a greater emphasis on trying to teach language to adults in the way that children learn
language. While Krashen's theories are not universally accepted, they have had an influence.

Developments in various directions have taken place since the early 1970s. There has
been developments such as a great emphasis on individualized instruction, more humanistic
approaches to language learning, a greater focus on the learner, and greater emphasis on
development of communicate, as opposed to merely linguistic, competence. Some "new
methods," including the Silent Way, Suggestopedia, and Community Language Learning, have
gained followings, and these reflect some of the above trends. In addition, there has been a
disillusionment with the whole methods debate, partly due to inconclusiveness of research on
methods, and calls for a deeper understanding of the process of language learning itself.
Finally, there has been a greater stress on authenticity in language learning, meaning that the
activities involved in language learning reflect real-world uses of the language.

Web site to visit: http://old.ektf.hu/

Sources:

http://old.ektf.hu/~mako/data/MA%20Integrated%20ELT%20M-The%20History%20of
%20ELTworddoc.doc

https://web.stanford.edu/~hakuta/www/LAU/ICLangLit/SLAFAQs.htm#:~:text=According
%20to%20Krashen%2C%20%22the%20true,'%20to%20the%20input.%22%20

http://www.summaryplanet.com/summary/History-of-Language-Teaching-
Methodology.html#:~:text=The%20history%20of%20the%20consideration,least%20to%20the
%20ancient%20Greeks.&text=The%20Romans%20were%20probably%20the,than%20that
%20of%20the%20Greeks.

Lesson 3: Exposure Variables

 Lesson 4: Age

Lesson 5: Acculturation
Schumann’s Acculturation Theory

What are the components of the social and psychological distances? How are these
elements related with naturalistic or untutored second language acquisition?

Schumann’s Acculturation Theory as presented in The Pidginization Process: A Model for

Second Language Acquisition (1978) predicts that the degree of a learner’s success in second
language (L2) acquisition depends upon the learner’s degree of acculturation.The social and
psychological factors influence the acculturation process and the second language
learning.According to Schumman the naturalistic or untutored SLA is a by-product of
acculturation, which is defined by him as "the social and psychological integration of the learner
with the target language (TL) group."

To Schuman ,the social distance consists of eight factors, which greatly hamper in the
successful learning of SLA. The eight components of the social distance are discussed below.

Social dominance
The social dominance considers the degree of equality (subordination or domination)
between the host and guest cultures. If the second-language learning (2LL) group is politically,
culturally, technically or economically dominant to or subordinate to the target language (TL)
group, social contact between the two groups will tend not to be sufficient for optimal target
language acquisition. If they are nearly equal in status, then there will be more contact
between the two groups and thus, acquisition of the target language will be enhanced.

Integration pattern or Assimilation, preservation, and adaptation

The best condition for L2 acquisition is obtained when the 2LL group wants to assimilate
into the TL group. The second best condition occurs when the 2LL group wants to adapt to the
TL culture for intragroup interaction without assimilating to it. The least favorable conditions
obtain for acquiring the L2 when the 2LL group wishes to remain separated linguistically and
culturally from the TL group.

Enclosure
The more the 2LL groups share social institutions such as schools, churches, workplaces,
clubs, and others with the TL group, the more favorable the conditions will be for L2
acquisition.

Cohesiveness
The guest community tends to stay as a cohesive group as seen in the above example.
But the smaller and less cohesive the 2LL group, the more likely the contact with the TL group
and the more favorable the conditions for L2 acquisition.

Size
If the size of the learner’s group is large, it tends to facilitate intragroup contact rather
than inter-group contact.

Congruence
 The more similar the culture of the two groups, the more likely there will be social
contact and thus language acquisition.

Attitude
The more positive the views of the 2LL group toward the TL group, the more favorable
will be the conditions for L2.

Intended length of residence

The longer L2 learners plan to remain in the L2 environment, the more likely it is that
they will feel the necessity of learning the TL.

Thus, the great social distance between the host community and the target language
speakers and culture deeply affects their acculturation, and hence their second language
acquisition.

How social distance hampers SLA is also seen from the famous research on Alberto, on
which Schumman’s theory is based?

In the fall of 1973 a research project was undertaken to make a ten month longitudinal
study of the untutored acquisition of English by six native speakers of Spanish-two children, two
adolescents and two adults. Data collection involved the recording of both spontaneous and
experimentally elicited speech.

The study on a 33 year old Costa Rican named Alberto evidenced very little linguistic
development during the course of the project. It was felt that by attempting to account for his
lack of learning, significant insight could be gained about what is involved in successful second
language acquisition in general. Alberto spoke a reduced and simplified form of English in which
the negative particle was held external to the verb, questions were uninverted, inflectional
morphemes tended to be absent and auxiliary development was minimal. Three causes for his
lack of development were considered: ability, social and psychological distance from English
speakers, and age.

Psychological distance

The four affective variables included in Schumann's acculturation model are: 1)

language shock, or the degree to which speaking the new language makes the learner feel
foolish or comical; 2) culture shock, the extent to which the learner feels disoriented and
uncomfortable with extended residence in a new culture; 3) ego permeability, the ability of the
learner to accept a new identity associated with the belonging to a new speech community, and
4) motivation, the degree and type of desire experienced by the learner to acquire the L2. Of
these, only motivation seemed particularly applicable to the situation involved in this research
and therefore it will be the only one included in the data collection. In Schumann's model high
levels of motivation, both integrative and instrumental contribute positively to second language
acquisition.
 Schumann claims that acculturation, or the integration of the L2 learner into the target
linguistic community, is not a direct cause of second language acquisition (SLA), but rather it is
the first in a chain of factors which results in natural SLA. He proposes that "acculturation as a
remote cause brings the learner into contact with TL-speakers and verbal interaction with those
speakers as a proximate cause brings about the negotiation of appropriate input which then
operates as the immediate cause of language acquisition".

The factors that influence the acquisition of a second language

Introduction

Some students learn a new language more quickly and easily than others. This simple
fact is known by all who have themselves learned a second language or taught those who are
using their second language in school. Clearly, some language learners are successful by virtue
of their sheer determination, hard work and persistence. However there are other crucial
factors influencing success that are largely beyond the control of the learner. These factors can
be broadly categorized as internal and external. It is their complex interplay that determines the
speed and facility with which the new language is learned.

Internal factors

Internal factors are those that the individual language learner brings with him or her to the
particular learning situation.
  Age: Second language acquisition is influenced by the age of the learner. Children, who
already have solid literacy skills in their own language, seem to be in the best position to
acquire a new language efficiently. Motivated, older learners can be very successful too,
but usually struggle to achieve native-speaker-equivalent pronunciation and intonation.
 Personality: Introverted or anxious learners usually make slower progress, particularly
in the development of oral skills. They are less likely to take advantage of opportunities
to speak, or to seek out such opportunities. More outgoing students will not worry about
the inevitability of making mistakes. They will take risks, and thus will give themselves
much more practice.
 Motivation (intrinsic): Intrinsic motivation has been found to correlate strongly with
educational achievement. Clearly, students who enjoy language learning and take pride
in their progress will do better than those who don't.
Extrinsic motivation is also a significant factor. ESL students, for example, who need to
learn English in order to take a place at an American university or to communicate with
a new English boy/girlfriend are likely to make greater efforts and thus greater progress.
 Experiences: Learners who have acquired general knowledge and experience are in a
stronger position to develop a new language than those who haven't. The student, for
example, who has already lived in 3 different countries and been exposed to various
languages and cultures has a stronger base for learning a further language than the
student who hasn't had such experiences.
 Cognition: In general, it seems that students with greater cognitive abilities
(intelligence) will make the faster progress. Some linguists believe that there is a
specific, innate language learning ability that is stronger in some students than in
others.
 Native language: Students who are learning a second language which is from the
same language family as their first language have, in general, a much easier task than
those who aren't. So, for example, a Dutch child will learn English more quickly than a
Japanese child.

External factors

External factors are those that characterize the particular language learning situation.

 Curriculum: For ESL students in particular it is important that the totality of their
educational experience is appropriate for their needs. Language learning is less likely to
place if students are fully submersed into the mainstream program without any extra
assistance or, conversely, not allowed to be part of the mainstream until they have
reached a certain level of language proficiency.
 Instruction: Clearly, some language teachers are better than others at providing
appropriate and effective learning experiences for the students in their classrooms.
These students will make faster progress.
The same applies to mainstream teachers in second language situations. The science
teacher, for example, who is aware that she too is responsible for the students' English
language development, and makes certain accommodations, will contribute to their
linguistic development.
 Culture and status: There is some evidence that students in situations where their
own culture has a lower status than that of the culture in which they are learning the
language make slower progress.
  Motivation (extrinsic): Students who are given continuing, appropriate encouragment
to learn by their teachers and parents will generally fare better than those who aren't.
For example, students from families that place little importance on language learning
are likely to progress less quickly.
 Access to native speakers: The opportunity to interact with native speakers both
within and outside of the classroom is a significant advantage. Native speakers are
linguistic models and can provide appropriate feedback. Clearly, second-language
learners who have no extensive access to native speakers are likely to make slower
progress, particularly in the oral/aural aspects of language acquisition.

The infomation on this page is based on summaries of research into learner variables (internal
factors) in second language acquisition in the following resources:

a. Lightbown, Patsy M., and Nina Spada. How Languages Are Learned. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2013. Print.
b. Macaro, Ernesto. Continuum Companion to Second Language Acquisition . London:
Continuum, 2010. Print.

Sources:

http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/factors.htm

http://www.literary-articles.com/2018/05/schumanns-acculturation-theory-what-are.html

Teacher’s Insights
Over the centuries, many changes have taken place in language learning, and yet
there is evidence that considerations related to language learning have come up again and
again through history. No doubt the search for a greater understanding of language learning,
and more effective language teaching, will continue.

The factors mentioned in the above discussion should be taken into consideration so
that success in language acquisition or learning can be thoroughly achieved.
 CHAPTER END ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: Research Activity

Directions:

a. Think of a problem about second language acquisition.

b. Formulate your own research title. The research title must be related to your course.
c. Prepare the Chapters 1-3 (The Problem and Its Background, Review of Related Studies and
Literature and Research Methodology).
d. Be sure to approach your teacher on how are you going to go through your research study.

Activity 2: Interview

Directions:

a. Interview three (3) English teachers from different levels: Elementary, High School and
College. Interview can be face-to-face or virtual.

b. Ask the following questions:

- What are the difficulties they encounter in teaching English to their students?

- What can they advise to students to improve their English communication skills?

- What advice can they give to parents to help in their child’s language proficiency?

c. Provide documentations for the interview.

Reflection mode

If you are going to assess yourself, how proficient are you in the English language? State
reasons why you say so.

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

FINAL COVERAGE

Intended Learning Outcomes

a. discuss the varied approaches to language teaching
b. cite specific classroom practices wherein each approach
is applied
c. relate the principles of interactive language teaching to
classroom practices

Specific Instructions in the Completion of this Final Coverage

1. You must read and understand the given list of Intended Learning Outcomes specified
above and use it as a checklist of acquired knowledge and skills after completing the entire
coverage. This shall be the basis of your teacher in designing the summative evaluation or
term exams that will be given soon.

2. You must carefully study the given lecture notes and take note of concepts that you did not
clearly understood so that you can communicate it to your teacher for clarification purpose
during his or her consultation time set for your class. Also, analyze the implication of the
concepts being applied in specific contexts to ensure comprehension.

3. Thoroughly understand the discussions presented, including your teacher’s insights to

better facilitate your comprehension on the subject matter being studied. Strictly follow the
instructions given in the learning guide and accomplish the given activities with utmost
diligence.
 4. After comprehensively reading all the lessons and topics presented or accessing the videos
provided and searching additional references related to the topics, you are directed to
accomplish all the activities and self-reflection questions given hereafter. Always carefully read
and analyze the instructions before you start. Also, refer to the rubric as reference in
performing and grading all your activities in the appendices portion of your ILG.

5. Compile your outputs in your Learning Portfolio. Your teacher will inform you for the date of
the submission of your outputs.

6. If you have queries, always consult your teacher. Communicating to your teacher will make
your learning easier and enjoyable.

Chapter VI – Approaches to Language Teaching

Key Terms

syntax eschew social psychology

grammar-translation gastronomy audio-lingualism

silent way

Lesson 1: Present-day Teaching Methods

How the Different Approaches Differ?

 The approaches that will be presented here have overarching assumptions and
philosophies that they’re based on.

In short, they are what they are because of a set of beliefs held by their proponents.

The different teaching approaches in this post can be classified into four theoretical
orientations: structural, cognitive, psychological and functional.

 Structural

Structural approaches believe that language can be reduced to a learnable set of

building blocks. There are rules, known as grammar and syntax that govern how to combine
these basic elements. These rules can be memorized to achieve a high level of proficiency in a
language.

Some proponents would even go so far as saying that there’s a predetermined sequence
in which a language should be learned. Grammar textbooks are the most commonly used
material in this category.

 Cognitive

The cognitive perspective in learning a language puts the learner smack in the center of
everything. Cognitive approaches look to answer questions like: How can a language be
effectively learned? How does one make a set of vocabulary words memorable and get them
embedded in the long-term memory?

According to this kind of approach, the techniques, strategies and even the sequence of
lessons are learner-led and can’t be predetermined. Learning a language is a conscious,
rational, information-processing event.

 Psychological

Here, language learning is seen through issues like learner motivation and
predisposition, a location’s conduciveness to learning, teacher-student dynamics, stress levels,
etc. Is the teacher supportive enough to the students? Is the classroom dynamic facilitating or
inhibiting the acquisition of the language? Many of the insights in this category are borrowed
from counseling and social psychology.

 Functional/Communicative
 Functional approaches often emphasize spoken language over written language, and
profess that language isn’t a set of grammar rules but rather a tool for communication. This has
tremendous implications for the types of activities or the materials employed.

Anything that lies outside the ambit of passing on meaningful information is just
unneeded complication. Communicative approaches often eschew grammar textbooks in
exchange for speaking drills and question-and-answer interactions where students get a feel for
what speaking the language in conversation is really like.

Language Teaching Approaches

1. Grammar-translation Approach

This is the scene: A teacher stands in front of the class, telling her students to turn their
textbooks to chapter four, “Verbs and Tenses.” She writes on the board the different ways of
forming the past tense of verbs. She lists the general rules, and this list is promptly followed by
—you’ve guessed it—the exceptions to the rules, those special cases that make grammar so
exciting.

This is the classic way of teaching language. It began as a method to teach Latin and
Greek and was generalized to teach any second language. The Grammar-translation Approach
uses the students’ native language to teach the target language.

If you’re over 30, have ever learned language via the textbook or have spent many a
night memorizing a list of 30 foreign words, you’ve experienced the Grammar-translation
Approach.

Grammar and vocabulary are memorized rote. Plenty of written examples and drills are
given where grammar rules are elegantly observed:

The dog is black.

The cats are cute.

The approach has strong structural underpinnings and the emphasis is on the correct
use of grammar, regardless of the substance or context. The Grammar-translation Approach is
best when the goal is for the students to read/write the target language, as well as appreciate
its literature.

2. Direct Approach

Okay, turn Grammar-translation Approach on its head. What do you get?

Right. We have the Direct Approach. It’s a response to the Grammar-translation school
and, this time, rather than the written form, the emphasis is on the spoken language and the
development of oral skills.
 Grammar isn’t taught explicitly but is learned inductively by the students through
repeated exposure to the spoken language. Activities like pantomiming, word-picture
association, question-answer patterns, dialogues and role playing give the students the chance
to figure out the rules for themselves. And good news for your students—there are no grammar
drills or analyses of written sentences.

Oh, and by the way, only the target language is used in class. That’s a biggie. As
teacher, you won’t use the students’ mother tongue to teach concepts. Listening and
comprehension thus become central to this approach. There are no vocabulary lists to
memorize, but there are a lot of words and phrases to listen for and become more familiar with.

All things considered, it wouldn’t be hard to understand why the Direct Approach has
also been called as “The Anti-grammatical Method” and “Reform Method.”

3. Reading Approach

This is a very specific approach designed for a specific type of language learner.

The type of student that most appreciates this method probably never intends to
interact with native speakers in the target language. She may be a psychology doctoral
candidate studying German in order to understand the experts in her field. Or she may be a
culinary student whose only desire is to make lots of delicious food and understand the French
techniques in her gastronomy book.

A student like this requires only one linguistic skill: Reading comprehension.

So you do away with pronunciation and dialogues. Vocabulary words are learned in
context. The little grammar that you teach must be oriented towards understanding a piece of
reading. You need to teach elements like conjunctions, which nestles phrases and sentences
together, and negation, which changes the meaning of a sentence by 180 degrees.

In the Reading Approach, learning a language is employed as a means to a higher end.

This approach has both structural and functional underpinnings.

4. Audio-lingual Approach

This approach is also known as “The Army Method.” At the height of the events in World
War II, military personnel needed to learn the languages of allies and enemies alike as they
swept through the fields of Europe and Asia.

The approach, which blossomed in the 50s and 60s, is all about structural patterns.
Proponents believe that a language can be reduced to a basic set of sounds. Combine them and
you have spoken words. Those words, when phonetically joined, become phrases and later
become sentences.

Unlike the Reading Approach, the Audiolingual Approach gives higher priority to the
spoken form than the written form. Classes are generally held using the target language.
 Activities like role playing are dialogues are drilled into students until they get the
pronunciations and rhythm right. And because Audiolingualism borrows from the behaviorist
school of psychology, languages are taught through a system of reinforcement.

A single word like “Good!” with a pat on the back, a clap from the class, a star on her
paper are some of the reinforcements used. (Side note: How do we know if something is a
“reinforcement”? Answer: If it makes the students feel good about themselves or about the
situation, then it is one.)

Mistakes on the other hand, are quickly, but gently corrected. The end goal is the
forming of linguistic speaking habits through correct repetitions.

5. Communicative Approach

What good would it do any of your students if they know all the different ways of
conjugating a verb but fail to communicate a coherent message?

Communication is essentially the rationale for language and the Communicative

Approach seeks to develop those skills that enable students to meaningfully engage with each
other.

Interactive activities are the hallmark of this approach. As the teacher, your
responsibility is to give the students as much opportunity to give and receive meaningful
communication as possible. For example, you can let students introduce themselves, share their
hobbies using the target language. Instead of just presenting the language, you’re giving them
a task that can only be accomplished by using the target language.

The difference between statements shared in a round of show and tell and those found
in textbooks is that the former are much more meaningful to your students. They’re purposeful
and in context—not a list of discordant sentences used to illustrate a rule of grammar. Authentic
materials are used every so often.

A poster touting a concert or a flyer about some huge sale at a mall can be fertile
ground for learning. In the Communicative Approach, students experience the target language
as experienced by native speakers.

6. The Silent Way

Imagine a teacher who talks as little as possible.

You better believe it’s more than a fantasy. Proponents of this “alternative” approach
believe that teaching too much can sometimes get in the way of learning. It’s argued that
students learn best when they discover rather than simply repeat what the teacher said.

The Silent Way uses silence as a teaching tool. Your students might feel you’re giving
them the silent treatment if you don’t keep things friendly and explain the process to them.
You’re really encouraging them to do the talking themselves.
 You’re encouraging learners to be independent, to discover and figure out the language
for themselves. Learning the target language is therefore seen as a creative, problem-solving
process—a engaging cognitive challenge.

So how does one teach in silence?

Well, because you talk as little as possible, you need to employ plenty of gestures and
facial expressions to communicate with your students. You can also use props.

A commonly used prop option is Cuisenaire Rods—rods of different color and lengths. In
an English class for example, you can pick up any rod and say, “rod.” Pick another one, point at
it and say “rod.” Keep on repeating until students understand that “rod” refers to the objects in
front of them.

Then pick a green one and say, “green rod.” With an economy of words, point to
something else green and say, “green.” Keep on repeating until students get that “green” refers
to the color.

7. Community Language Learning

It’s called Community Language Learning because the class learns together as one unit.
Not listening to the same lecture, but interacting in the target language. The teacher’s role is
that of a counselor, a guide, an encourager.

Here’s what might happen in an innovative CLL class: Students sit in a circle. Because
the approach is learner-led, there’s no set lesson for the day. The students decide what they
want to talk about. Someone might say, “Guys, why don’t we talk about the weather?” That
student will then turn to the teacher (who’s standing outside the circle) and ask for the
translation of his statement. The teacher, acting as facilitator, will give him the translation and
ask him to utter it out loud. She’ll guide his pronunciation at the same time. The class, listening
to the teacher and student, are already learning from the interaction.

When the teacher is satisfied that the first student got the pronunciations right, she’ll
deliver her statement to the group again. (There’s a recorder standing by to record the first line
of conversation.)

After that, another student might chime in to say, “I had to wear three layers today.”
She then turns to the teacher for help. The process is repeated until a whole conversation is
saved in the recorder.

This conversation is then transcribed and mined for language lessons featuring
grammar, vocabulary and subject-related content.

In this approach, the students work as a community—learning together and negotiating

the lessons. Your role as a teacher is to encourage them to open up, participate in the
discussion and contribute to the whole process.

8. Functional-notional Approach
 The Functional-notional Approach recognizes language as purposeful communication.
That is, we talk because we need to communicate something. There’s purpose and meaning
behind the sounds that come out of our mouths.

In essence, we have verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives and so on in order to express

language functions and notions.

When we speak, we do it to inform, persuade, insinuate, agree, question, request,

evaluate and perform other “functions.” We do it to talk about concepts (“notions”) like time,
events, action, place, technology, process, emotion, etc.

So a teacher’s first stop when using this approach is to evaluate how the students will
be using the language.

For example, when teaching very young kids, you might want to teach them language
skills that would help them communicate with mommy and daddy, or with their friends. So, you
can teach them key social phrases like “thank you,” “please” or “may I borrow.”

When dealing with business professionals, a different syllabus would be in order. You
might want to teach them formal forms of the language, how to delegate tasks, how to vocally
appreciate a job well done. You could create role playing scenarios where students get a basic
feel for typical workplace situations. For example, in a marketplace situation, you can teach
functions like asking a question, expressing interest or negotiating a deal. Notions involved
could be about prices, quality or quantity.

You can certainly teach grammar and sentence patterns, but they’re always subsumed
by the purpose for which language is used.

9. Natural Approach

The Natural Approach takes its cues from how first language is naturally learned by
children. That process is then simulated for teaching adults a second language.

Just as there’s a “silent period” when babies don’t utter a single comprehensible word,
the Natural Approach gives time for learners to simply listen and absorb the language.
Producing correctly pronounced words and phrases comes later in the learning curve. The
emergence of speech isn’t a first priority. Listening comprehension is the priority.

So, early on in the process, students don’t need to speak at all. They have to observe,
to read the situation, to guess the meanings of words, to make mistakes and self-correct, just
like babies!

In addition, the Natural Approach sees a difference between “learning” and

“acquisition.”

Learning a language requires textbooks, grammar lessons and rote memory. Acquiring a
language only requires an immersive process of repetition, correction and recall. While other
methods have teachers leading students in a choral pronunciation of words written on a board,
the Natural Approach has the teacher bouncing a ball and repeatedly saying “ball.” She’s also
showing them pictures of different kinds of “balls.” She has the class play a game with the
object. Or she hides the object and says, “find the ball!”

The Natural Approach believes that the more the students lose themselves in the
activity, the better their handle on the language will be.

10. Total Physical Response

Total Physical Response is an approach to language teaching where gestures, actions

and movements play a vital role in language acquisition.

Remember when you were a kid and adults would tell you to do all kinds of things, like
“catch the ball,” “pick up your doll” or “open your mouth”? Well, TPR is going back to those
good old days.

TPR believes that when your students see movement and when they themselves move,
their brains create more neural connections that make for more efficient language acquisition.

That’s why, when you teach TPR, you’ll be flailing your hands a lot, widening your eyes
and moving your body. This isn’t so you can catch up on your exercise. This is to teach your
students basic language skills.

After demonstrating several times what “jump” looks like, for example, you’d then ask
students to perform the action themselves. Guess what, this won’t only invigorate them, but will
also make the word “jump” so memorable they’ll find it very hard to forget.

Another pillar of this approach is that learning a language should be stress free. Pop
quizzes and exams are dropped in exchange for fun activities like “Simon Says” where you ask
students to perform actions like “close your eyes,” “raise your left arm” or “pick up the red ball.”

With TPR, it’s like having an ice-breaker all the time. Your class would be so fun that
word will get around.

Source:

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator/language-teaching-approaches/

Lesson 2: Principles of Interactive Language Teaching

Ten Principles of Interactive Language Learning and Teaching. NFLC Occasional Papers.
Rivers, Wilga M.
Ten principles based on the interactive nature of language learning and teaching include
the following: (1) the student is the language learner; (2) language learning and teaching are
shaped by student needs and objectives in particular circumstances; (3) language learning and
teaching are based on normal uses of language, with communication of meanings (in oral and
written form) to all basic strategies and techniques; (4) classroom relations reflect mutual liking
and respect, allowing for both teacher personality and student personality in a non-threatening
atmosphere of cooperative learning; (5) basic to language use are knowledge of language and
control of language; (6) development of language control proceeds through creativity, which is
nurtured by interactive, participatory activities; (7) every possible medium and modality is used
to aid learning; (8) testing is an aid to learning; (9) language learning is penetrating another
culture: students learn to operate harmoniously within another culture or in contact with
another culture; and (10) the real world extends beyond the classroom walls; language learning
takes place in and out of the classroom. (MSE)
All language learning involves the processes of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Language learning is based on following well-defined principles.

Language Patterns as Habits

Language learning is a habit formation process. It is a process during which various
language habits are formed. Therefore, listening, speaking, reading and writing habits are to be
formed consciously and unconsciously.

Oral Approach
A child learns to speak his mother tongue before reading or writing it. This principle
should be adopted in learning and teaching a second or a foreign language.

Practice and Drill

Language learning is a habit-forming process. For this purpose sufficient practice and
drill is needed.

Natural Order of Learning

Listening-Speaking-Reading-Writing (LSRW) is the natural order of learning a language.
In this order, a child learns his or her mother tongue without any formal instruction. So this
natural order of learning should be considered while teaching English.

Multi-Skill Approach
All the four language skills are to be given their due importance when learning or
teaching them. No skill should be overemphasized or neglected.

Selection and Gradation

One should proceed from simple to difficult in language learning; therefore, vocabulary and
structures of language should be selected and graded as per their frequency, teachability and
difficulty level.

Situational Approach
The English language should be taught in situations which is the natural way in which a
child learns his mother tongue.

Imitation
The child learns his mother tongue by imitation. The English teacher must provide a
good model of speech before the learners. Audio-visual aids should be used.
Motivation
 Motivation plays an important role in learning a language. Thus, learners should be
motivated.

Accuracy
The English teacher should insist on accuracy in all aspects of language learning. So
learners follow their teachers and consider them as a role model.

Purpose
Purpose of language learning should be decided in the beginning. So it becomes a
simple affair to design a course suitable for the purpose.

Interest
The teacher should generate a great deal of energy and interest among learners so they
will pay attention to learning a language.

Co-relation
If teaching-learning of English is co-related with real life then learner will realize the
need of language learning and will take interest in it.

Sources:

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED320438
https://www.preptoz.com/library/principles-of-language-teaching/

Teacher’s Insights
You’ll likely notice that the approaches have some interesting relationships with each other.
They overlap, support, complement and even contradict each other.

It’s safe to say that no single approach can answer all of every teacher’s questions, so it’s in
your best interest to be open-minded enough to try all of them and begin to see which one
works best in which situations.

Keep in mind that each activity may not fall neatly into one category. It may blend two or more
of these categories. In fact, you might adopt one approach and add elements of unrelated
categories to it!
They all do have their own merits and minuses. It’s up to you, the teacher, to use the proper
approach to get the job done given your unique classroom and assortment of students.

Bottom line, don’t become strict about how these approaches are employed in the classroom,
just be aware of what they are and how they’re best used.

CHAPTER END ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: Lights, Camera, Action!

Directions: Choose five from the teaching methods that you have learned and take a video of
yourself showing the method used.

Activity 2: My Teaching Principle

Directions: Create a collage depicting you and your teaching principle. Place your artwork in a
short bond paper.

Reflection mode

What are the five (5) realizations you have after studying this subject?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

How do you find this Instructional Learning Guide?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Appendices

A. Rubrics

Rubric for Writing an Essay

5 / 2 / NEEDS 1 /
4 / VERY 3 /
EXCELLEN IMPROVEMEN UNACCEPTABL
GOOD AVERAGE
T T E

Ideas This paper is This paper The writer is Topic is not well- As yet, the paper
clear and is mostly beginning to defined and/or has no clear sense
focused. It focused, define the there are too of purpose or
holds the and has topic, even many topics. central theme. To
 reader's some good though extract meaning
attention. details and development from the text, the
Relevant quotes. is still basic or reader must make
details and general. inferences based
quotes enrich on sketchy or
the central missing details.
theme.

The Paper and The Sentences within The writing lacks

organization paragraphs organizational paragraphs make a clear sense of
enhances ) are structure is sense, but the direction. Ideas,
and mostly strong order of details, or events
showcases organized, enough to paragraphs does seem strung
the central in order, move the not. together in a
idea or and makes reader loose or random
Organizatio theme. The sense to through the fashion; there is
n order, the reader. text without no identifiable
structure of too much internal structure.
information is confusion.
compelling
and moves
the reader
through the
text.

The writing The writing The text The text seems The reader has to
has an easy mostly hums along choppy and is practice quite a
flow, rhythm, flows, and with a steady not easy to read bit in order to give
and cadence. usually beat, but orally. this paper a fair
Sentences invites oral tends to be interpretive
Sentence are well built, reading. more reading.
Fluency with strong businesslike
and varied than musical,
structure that more
invites mechanical
expressive than fluid.
oral reading.

Convention The writer The write The writer The writer seems Errors in spelling,
s demonstrates understand shows to have made punctuation,
a good grasp s good reasonable little effort to use capitalization,
of standard writing control over a conventions: usage, and
writing convention limited range spelling, grammar and/or
conventions s and of standard punctuation, paragraphing
(e.g., usually writing capitalization, repeatedly distract
spelling, uses them conventions. usage, grammar the reader and
punctuation, correctly. Conventions and/or make the text
capitalization, Paper is are paragraphing difficult to read.
grammar, easily read sometimes have multiple
usage, and errors handled well errors.
paragraphing are rare; and enhance
) and uses minor readability; at
conventions touch-ups other times,
 effectively to would get errors are
enhance this piece distracting
readability. ready to and impair
publish. readability.

The form and The format The writer's The writer's The reader
presentation only has a message is message is only receives a garbled
of the text few understandabl understandable message due to
enhances the mistakes e in this occasionally, and problems relating
ability for the and is format. paper is messily to the
Presentatio reader to generally written. presentation of
n understand easy to the text, and is
and connect read and not typed.
with the pleasing to
message. It the eye.
is pleasing to
the eye.

Rubric for Writing Poetry

CATEGORY Exceptional Good Work Developing Beginning
Focus on Assigned The entire poem is Most of the poem is Some of the poem is No attempt has been
Topic related to the assigned related to the related to the made to relate the
topic and allows the assigned topic. The assigned topic, but a poem to the assigned
reader to understand poem wanders off reader does not learn topic.
much more about the at one point, but much about the
topic. the reader can still topic.
learn something
about the topic.
Creativity The poem contains The poem contains The poem contains a There is little evidence
many creative details a few creative few creative details of creativity in the
and/or descriptions details and/or and/or descriptions, poem. The author does
that contribute to the descriptions that but they distract from not seem to have used
reader's enjoyment. contribute to the the poem. The much imagination.
The author has really reader's enjoyment. author has tried to
used his imagination. The author has use his imagination.
used his
imagination.
Spelling and There are no spelling There is one There are 2-3 The final draft has
Punctuation or punctuation errors spelling or spelling and more than 3 spelling
in the final draft. punctuation error in punctuation errors in and punctuation
the final draft. the final draft. errors.
Title Title is creative, sparks Title is related to Title is present, but No title.
interest and is related the poem and topic. does not appear to
to the poem and topic. be related to the
poem and topic.

Imagery Many vivid, descriptive Some vivid, The reader can figure The reader has trouble
words are used. The descriptive words out what to picture in figuring out what
reader can picture the are used. The the poem, but the imagery the poem is
imagery in the poem. reader can author didn't supply using and what the
 somewhat picture much detail. author wants him/her
the imagery in the to picture.
poem.

Rubric for Interview

Criterion 4 Exceptional 3 Acceptable 2 Marginal 1 or 0 Score
Unacceptable
Introduction You describe You describe You describe You describe
the interview the interview the interview little about the
event in detail event and event but say interview event
and skillfully introduce the little about the or person you
introduce the person you person you interviewed.
person you interviewed. interviewed.
interviewed.
Questions Prepares and Prepares and Prepares and Questions and
asks relevant asks largely asks question their delivery
questions that relevant that indicate little
are aptly questions that demonstrate a preparation
informed by demonstrate an minimal and attention
the context understanding, understanding to context, and
and the if not mastery, of the context, the subjects’
subject’s initial of the context and the initial query.
query. and the subjects’ initial
subject’s initial query.
query.
Listening Skills Demonstrate s Demonstrates Gives little Gives little or
/ Follow-up careful attentiveness evidence of no evidence of
Questions listening by by interjecting careful listening listening;
interjecting follow-up by largely marches
effective follow questions to ignoring through
up questions to responses that potentially prepared
significant may have relevant questions
responses. greater responses and without regard
Effectively significance, if moving on to to responses.
elicits relevant pursued. May the next Does not elicit
elaboration of elicit some prepared elaborated
answers. relevant question. Elicits responses.
elaboration of little
answers. elaboration.
Summary You provide a You provide a You provide a You provide a
detailed summary of the cursory perfunctory
summary of interview with summary of the summary of
the interview indication of the interview with the interview.
with a clear questions asked little indication
indication of and answers of the
the questions received. questions asked
asked and and answers
answers received.
received.
Conclusion You identify at You identify at You convey You convey
least three least two main little sense of little, if any,
 main points points you what you sense of what
you learned learned from learned from you learned
from the the interview the interview or from the
interview and and convey a how you might interview.
convey a clear sense of what apply it in the
sense of what you learned and future.
you learned how you might
and how you apply it in the
might apply it future.
in the future.

Rubric for Drama

Criteria 20 15 10 5 TOTAL
Voice Voices were Student spoke Voice and Could not
loud and clear; clearly but it language was understand
words were was difficult to not very clear; what was
easily understand could have being said due
understood. some of the been much to lack of
script; could louder. clarity and low
have been volume of
louder. speech.
Audience Audience felt Actor was Needed more No audience
like part of the aware and audience awareness or
show. well-connected awareness and connection at
to the connection. all.
audience.
Use of Props Appropriate A reasonable Could have No use of
use of props use of props used more props or props
that enhanced that were props to were not
performance. somehow enhance relative to
related to performance. performance.
performance.
Facial Actor seemed Actor seemed Actor Actor used few
Expressions an able to relatively demonstrated gestures or
Body anticipate comfortable only limited movement.
Language upcoming with dialogue gestures or
dialogue; and movement.
smooth performance;
performance! some gestures
or movement
enhanced
performance.
Overall Committed & Semi- Almost No
concentrated. committed, & committed & commitment or
WOW! concentrated. concentrated— concentration
GREAT! NOT TOO MORE
BAD… REHEARSAL!

Final Grade: __________

Additional Comments:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Rubric for Selfie Project

Criteria 5 - Excellent 4 - Good 3 - Average 2 - Poor
Content Content of Content of Content of Content of
narrative is well narrative is narrative is less narrative only has
organized. May generally than minimum in less than half of
exceed organized. It is of length. Narrative the required
minimum minimum length. is lacking in flow length. Narrative
required 200 The narrative and choppy, and is unfinished.
words of text. flows with some rarely uses
The narrative transitional transitional
flows very well devices and devices and
and uses expressions of expressions of
transitional past time. past time.
devices and
expressions of
past time.
Comprehensibility Reader can Reader can Reader can Incomprehensible
always understand most understand less throughout.
understand what of what the than half of what
the writer is writer is trying to writer is trying to
trying to communicate. communicate.
communicate. Mostly correct
The text reads use of Spanish
with ease due to vocabulary.
strong narrative.
Mechanics & Writer uses Writer usually Writer makes Writer uses
Grammar covered uses covered frequent mistakes grammar points
grammar points grammar points with grammar incorrectly
correctly correctly. points. Did not throughout.
including accent Frequent errors include any Distracting errors.
marks. The text could lead to accents. Confusing
is clear. Effort to confusion. message.
edit is obvious.
Vocabulary There's a wide Appropriate Basic vocabulary, No effort in
variety of words vocabulary. few spelling vocabulary use.
used and errors.
incorporates
new vocabulary.
Made an effort
to use words
from previous
lessons.
Effort Writer fulfills Writer fulfills Writer fulfills Assignment is
ALL the most of the some of the incomplete.
 requirements of requirements of requirements of Illustrations are
the assignment the assignment. the assignment. lacking and not
and has put care The photograph Illustrations go appropriate to
and effort into it goes very well with the the story. Effort
as shown both with the narrative. Work is lacking and it
in the text and narrative. Work has average shows in the
the has good visual visual interest visual aspect of
accompanying interest and and shows a fair the work.
required photo. shows a good amount of effort.
Work has strong amount of effort.
visual interest.

Rubric for Video Project

Criteria Excellent (5pts) Good (4pts) Satisfactory (3pts) Needs
Improvement (1-
2pts)
Concept The video clearly The video The video The video does
demonstrates a demonstrates key demonstrates a not demonstrate a
key concept. concepts. previous concept. clear concept.
Design The quality and The quality and The quality and The quality and
materials in the materials in the materials in the materials in the
video are very well video adequately video lacked some video are not
organized and organized and organization and organized and lack
understandable. somewhat clear. 50% clear. clarity.
Final Product Final product looks Final product looks Final product l Final product looks
professional and decent and the required more unrefined and the
the concepts were concepts were revisions and the concepts were not
visibly somewhat concepts were not demonstrated.
demonstrated. demonstrated. clearly
demonstrated.

B. List of References

TEXTBOOK:

Freeman, D. & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and Principles in language teaching. Oxford
University Press

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:

Krashen, S. (2009). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. University of

Southern California

Krashen, S. (2003). Explorations in language acquisition and use: The Taipei Lectures.
Portsmouth, NH: Neinemann
Wang, H. & Hill, C. (2011). A paradigm shift for English language teaching in Asia: From
imposition to accommodation. The Journal of Asia TEFL. Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 205-232

Zafar, M. (2010). Monitoring the ‘monitor’: A critique of Krashen’s five hypotheses: The Dhaka
University Journal of Linguistics: Vol. 2 No. 4 August 2009 Page: 139-146

Brown, D. H. (n.d.). Principles of language teaching and learning. San Francisco State University

WEBSITE REFERENCES:
Castello, D. (2016) First language acquisition and classroom language learning: Similarities and
differences. Retrieved at
https://www.birminham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/cels/essays/secondlanguage/First-
Language-Acquisition-and-Classroom-Language-Learning-Similarities-and-Differences.pdf

“First Language Acquisition” Retrieved at

http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test4materials/ChildLangAcquisition.htm

Milambiling, J. (2011). Bringing one language to another: Multilingualism as a resource in the

language classroom. English Teaching Forum. Retrieved from
https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/49_1_4_milambiling-1.pdf

Nacamulli, M. (2015). The benefits of a bilingual brain. Retrieved at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmOLN5zBLY

C. Acknowledgment and Disclaimer

Acknowledgment

The person who prepared this learning guide is grateful to the people who have been the
sources of the information in the module to facilitate learning to the EL 103 students. In
addition, a thousand thanks to the reviewer of this module for her patience and support while
this resource material was on the making. To our beloved institutions, MCNP-ISAP, thank you
for this opportunity to work and enjoy our stay as language instructors.
Disclaimer

The information given in this module was from different authors in various references and this
module is solely for the purpose of facilitating your studies for the course. Do not use this
module for other purposes nor do not sell this to anyone.