LANGUAGE, LEARNING AND TEACHING

CURRENT ISSUES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

LANGUAGE

Language is a system of arbitrary conventionalized vocal, written, or gestural symbols that enable members of a given communicative intelligibly with one another.

Language is systematic

Language is a set of arbitrary symbols

Language is used for communication

POSSIBLE DEFINITIONS OF LANGUAGE

• Explicit and formal accounts of the system of language

on several possible levels…

• The symbolic nature of language…

• Phonetics; phonology; writing systems; kinesics;

proxemics; and other "paralinguistic" features of

language.

• Dialectology; sociolinguistics; language

• and culture; bilingualism…

• Communication systems…

POSSIBLE AREAS

LEARNING

• It is acquiring or

getting knowlegde

of a subject or a

skill by study,

experience, or

instruction.

Components of the definition of learning:

• Learning is aquisition.

• Learning is retention of information or skill.

• Learning is a change in behavior.

• It is showing or helping

someone to learn how to

do something, giving

instructions, guiding in

the study of something,

providing with knowledge,

causing to know or

understand.

TEACHING

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Structuralism/Behaviorism

Constructivism

Language could be dismantled into small pieces or units and these units could be described scientifically, contrasted, and added up again to form the whole.

Structural or descriptive school of linguistics.

Leonard Bloomfield, Edward Sapir, and Charles Fries.

Describe human languages and to identify the structural characteristics of those language.

Typical behavioristic models were classical and operant conditioning, rote verbal learning, instrumental learning, discrimination learning, and other empirical approaches to studying human behavior.

Vygotsky described as a social constructivist by some, maintained that social interaction was foundational in cognitive development and rejected the emotionof predetermined stages.

Piaget stressed the importance of individual cognitive development as a relatively solitary act.Biological timetables and stages of development; social interaction was claimed only to triggerdevelopment at the right moment in time.

LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY

THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD

THE GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD

THE COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

METHOD

The audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key,[1] is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which professes that

certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement—correct use of a trait would receive positive feedback while incorrect

use of that trait would receive negative feedback.

It is a style of teaching used in

teaching foreign languages. This method includes:

Repetition

Inflection

Replacement

Restatement

It uses a system of

reinforcement with the correct

use of a trait would receive

positive feedback while the

incorrect use of that trait would

receive negative feedback.

The audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key,[1] is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which professes that

certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement—correct use of a trait would receive positive feedback while incorrect

use of that trait would receive negative feedback.

It is a method of teaching

foreign languages.

Its objectives are: to enable students to read and translate literature written in the target language, and to further students’ general intellectual development.

Students can learn

grammatical rules and apply

those rules by translating

sentences between the

target language and their

native language.

It is an approach to language

teaching that emphasizes

interaction as both the

means and the ultimate goal

of study.

Classroom activities:• Role-play• Interviews• Games• Language

exchanges• Surveys• Pair-work• Learning by

teaching

Osorio, liz

Michel