LESSON 2: THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO EXPLAINING SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

THEORIES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING

Definition of basic terms:

A theory refers to a set of ideas or principles that explains something or how an activity is based.
An Approach refers to theories about how something is done.
A Method or model is the practical way of doing something or realization of approach.
A procedure is the ordered sequence of doing something.
A technique is the systematic way of doing something.

Theories of learning

The starting point for all language teaching should be an understanding of how people learn. But in most cases, 'learning' factors are the last to be considered. ESP has been particularly guilty in this regard. The overwhelming weight of emphasis in ESP research and materials has been on language analysis. Learning factors, if considered at all, are incorporated only after the language base has been analyzed and systematized.
The basic theories of learning are as follows:

Behaviourism: learning as habit formation
This simple but powerful theory said that learning is a mechanical, process of habit formation which is influenced by means of the frequent reinforcement of a stimulus-response sequence.

Behaviourist theory gave rise to the principles that:
• Never translate.
• New language should always be dealt with in the sequence: hear, speak, read, and write.
• Frequent repetition is essential to effective learning.
• All errors must be immediately corrected.

2 Mentalism: thinking as rule-governed activity

It was found out that the Audiolingual Method and its behaviourist principles did not deliver the results promised.
This theory
• Insisted on translating things
• Asked for rules of grammar
• Found repeating things to a tape recorder boring
• Noted that people somehow failed to learn something no matter how often they repeated it.

3 Cognitive code: Learners as thinking beings

Whereas the behaviourist theory of learning assumed the learner as a passive receiver of information, the cognitive view takes the learner to be an active processor of information.
This theory pointed out that.
• Learning and using a rule require learners to think
• Learning is a process in which the learner actively tries to make sense of information,
• Learning can be said to have taken place when the learner has managed to carry out meaningful interpretation or pattern on the information.
• We learn by thinking about and trying, to make sense of what we see, feel and hear.

4 The affective factor: learners as emotional beings

This theory evolved around the cognitive theory. People think, but they also have feelings. It is one of human nature that, although we are all aware of our feelings and their effects on our actions, we invariably seek answers to our problems in rational terms.
This theory is based on:
• Human beings always act in a logical and sensible manner
• Learners are people with likes and dislikes, fears, weaknesses and prejudices.
• Learning of a language is an emotional experience, and the feelings that the learning process evokes have a crucial bearing on the success or failure of the learning.
The emotional reaction to the learning experience is the essential foundation for the initiation of the cognitive process. How, the learning is perceived by the learner will affect what learning, if any will take place.
We can represent the cognitive/affective interplay in the form of a learning cycle. This can either be a negative or a positive cycle. A good and appropriate course will engender the kind of positive learning cycle represented here:

5 Learning and acquisition

There has been much debate about the distinction between learning, and acquisition. While learning is seen as a conscious process, acquisition proceeds unconsciously). The two terms sometimes are not distinguished but used interchangeably. There are two ways to learning a language. Consciously and subconsciously, the conscious process is the formal learning of the language which refers to learning while the subconscious is the informal picking up of the language which is referred to as acquisition

6 A model for learning

A model for learning presents the process of learning as network of connections in which individual items of knowledge are connected to the main network to form a whole knowledge.
Why have we pictured the mind as operating like this?

a) Individual items of knowledge, like the towns, have little significance on their own. They only acquire meaning and use when they are connected into the network of existing knowledge.
b) It is the existing network that makes it possible to construct new connections. So in the act of acquiring new knowledge it is the learner's existing knowledge that makes it possible to learn new items.
c) Items of knowledge are not of equal significance. Some items are harder to acquire, but may open up wide possibilities for further learning. Like a bridge across a river or a tunnel through a mountain, learning a generative rule may take time, but once it is there, it greatly increases the potential for further learning. This is why so often the relationship between the cognitive and emotional aspects of learning is, therefore, one of vital importance to the success or otherwise of a language learning experience.
d) Roads and railways are not built haphazardly. They require planning. The road builder has to recognize where problems lie and work out strategies for solving those problems. In the same way the learner will make better progress by developing strategies for solving the learning problems that will arise.

e) A communication network is a system. If the road builder can see the whole system, the planning and construction of the roads will be a lot caster. Language is a system, too. If the learner sees it as just a haphazard set of arbitrary and capricious obstacles, learning -will be difficult, if not impossible.
f) Last, but by, no means least, before anyone builds a road, crosses a river or climbs a mountain, they must have some kind of motivation to do so. If they could not care less what is beyond the mountains, dislike the people who come from there or are simply afraid of traveling, the chances of communication links being established are minimal. First of all, there must be a need to establish the links. In ESP, this need is usually taken for granted. But, as anyone who has set out on a long and possibly difficult Journey will know, a need is not enough. You can always find an excuse for not going. The traveler must also want to make the Journey. And the traveler who can actually enjoy the challenges and the experiences of the journey is more likely to want to repeat the activity. So, with learning, a need to acquire knowledge is a necessary factor, but of equal, if not greater importance, is the need to actually enjoy, the process of acquisition.