UNIT 2UNIT 2

identify some theories of language identify some theories of language acquisitionacquisition

define descriptivism and prescriptivismdefine descriptivism and prescriptivismunderstand the importance of language understand the importance of language

variationvariation

By the end of this unit you will be able to:By the end of this unit you will be able to:

Home is the first place were children learn to communicate and use language.Children acquire language quickly, easily, and without effort or formal teaching. It happens automatically, whether their parents try to teach them or not.

MacLure (1999: 2002) states that when children start school they are already experienced communicators and they are also experienced learners. These two achievements are important for the language development of children. In the preschool years, children learn through language in their interactions with other people.

Acquisition

Language

How languages are acquired

Empirism Nativism

Environmental factors are believed to be more dominant in language acquisition

Innate factors are believed to be more dominant in language acquisition

Theories based on Theories based on “EMPIRICISM”“EMPIRICISM”

- Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development

- Skinner’s Verbal Behavior

- Piaget’s View of Language Acquisition

- The Competition Model- Discourse Theory

- The Speech Act Theory

- - The Acculturation Model

- Accommodation Theory

- The Variable Competence

- The Interactionist View of Language Acquisition

- The Connectionist Model

Theories based on Theories based on “NATIVISM”“NATIVISM”

-A Neurofunctional Theory of Language Acquisition

- The Universal Grammar Theory

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- Fodor’s Modular Approach

- The Monitor Model

Acquiring a Second Acquiring a Second Language for School: A Language for School: A

Conceptual Model Conceptual Model The model has four major components: sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive processes.

Illustrates the developmental second language acquisition process that occurs in the school context. Fig. 1 Virginia P. Collier, 1995.

Sociocultural processes: Sociocultural processes: Central to student's acquisition of language are all of the surrounding social and cultural processes occurring through everyday life within the student's past, present, and future, in all contexts, say, home, school, community, and the broader society.

Language development Language development consists of the subconscious aspects of language development, as well as the metalinguistic, conscious, formal teaching of language in school, and acquisition of the written system of language. This includes the acquisition of the oral and written systems of the student's first and second languages across all language elements, such as phonology ,vocabulary, morphology and syntax semantics, pragmatics, paralinguistics ,and discourse .

Academic development includes all school work in language arts, mathematics, the sciences, and social studies for each grade level.

Cognitive development. It has been mostly neglected by second language educators in the U.S. until the past decade. In language teaching, we simplified, structured, and sequenced language curricula during the 1970s, and when we added academic content into our language lessons in the 1980s, we watered down academics into cognitive simple tasks. We also too often neglected the crucial role of cognitive development in the first language. Now we know from our growing research data base that we must address all of these components equally if we are to succeed in developing deep academic proficiency in a second language.

Rules of Language

Descriptive Approach- it is a description of a

language - -it is a set of rules in an

observed regularity - language is considered a

linguistic variant which has come to be regarded as the variant which it is desirable to emulate

Prescriptive Approach-it is a set of instructions o how

language is to be used-it considers principles which

must be applied - It is the language to be

adopted in official documents and which is imposed to a group through the educational system

Rules of Language

So what is the basis to determine who is right and who is wrong?

• We have to keep in mind that descriptive linguists care about the use of language. It will be better to describe the language as appropriate or inappropriate according to the context in which it is used rather than using a correct or incorrect distinction.

To determine the appropriateness of the use of language Pountain (2006) lists a number of factors that should be considered.

Some speakers of a particular language formulate particular utterances that are acceptable for their contexts; these are called varieties of a language.

The variety of any language is influenced by a number of factors such as social group, age and sex of the speaker, time, place and the purpose of communication.

Teachers should teach students the differences between the standard variety of English and the non-standard so they can be aware of the appropriateness of language according to social contexts in which language is used.

School School LanguageLanguage

• Teachers should take the role of language researchers and explore different topics in linguistics with their students.

• Language teachers should be aware that language changes over the time.

• Teachers should use prescriptive grammar as a tool for teaching Standard English.

• Teachers should use descriptive grammar to teach students how to use their intuitive knowledge to question, critique, and even challenge prescriptive rules (Lobeck, 2008).

CONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONS