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Structural Linguistics - Bloomfield, 1933
Structural linguistics had its heyday in the 1940's and 50's and viewed language as various linguistic elements linked linearly by structures and rules (p. 5). In language pedagogy, this meant learning the rules and mastering the elements of a language's system. -
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Environmentalist Approach
The environmentalist approach to language acquisition focused primarily on oral language, since many languages did not have a written form and also because people learn to speak before they learn to read or write (Usó-Juan & Martinez-Flor, p. 5). Behaviorism also influenced this approach and led environmental linguists and psychologists to consider language acquisition as a process of conditioning with a stimulus and response (p. 5). -
Behaviorism - Skinner, 1957
BF Skinner's behaviorism was influential in the 40's and 50's. Behaviorism considered the learning process as a type of conditioning involving a stimulus, a response, and a reinforcement (p. 5). It focused entirely on external stimuli and dismissed individual mental processes as unobservable. To Skinner, language fell into this type of stimulus-response chain just as any other type of learning. -
Generative Linguistics - Chomsky, 1957
Noam Chomsky led the movement toward generative linguistics with what he coined Transformational-Generative Grammar (p. 6). The idea behind the term is that language has both a deep structure and a surface structure. Chomsky later developed the idea of the language acquisition device, which he later replaced with the term universal grammar (p. 7). The theory of universal grammar is that each person is born with an innate ability to learn any grammar. -
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Innatist Approach
In general, the innatist approach began to take a closer look at the deeper, unseen, and thus more abstract structures and processes of language acquisition (p. 6). Noam Chomsky's work steered the field to an understanding of the learner as having an innate ability to process language and as an active participant in the learning process (p. 7). -
Constructivism - Piaget, 1966, 1972, 1974
Piaget developed his constructivist approach with a focus on the process of learning rather than the material being learned (p. 9). He regarded cognitive development as an interplay between genetics and experience. -
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Interactionist Approach
The interactionist approach to second language acquisition started to consider the broader role of language and its role in discourse (p. 8). This directed linguists to look beyond structure and try to better understand the function of language, as well as how function determines form. The interactionist approach recognized an interaction between both internal and external factors in language processing (p. 10). -
Sociolinguistics - Hymes, 1971, 1972
Dell Hymes developed the idea of communicative competence, which accounted for social context and appropriacy, which previous scholars had not accounted for (p. 10). For sociolinguists, society and culture are inextricable factors of language and its acquisition. -
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Communicative Approach
The communicative approach considers language in everyday use as well as the appropriacy of language in certain situations (p. 146). Communicative competence under this approach gives weight to the social context and cultural appropriacy of language. Unlike some approaches before it, the communicative approach does not disprove prior work, but rather expands upon it. -
Systemic-Functional Linguistics - Halliday, 1975
Halliday's systemic grammar focuses on how the function of language affects its form (p. 8). Halliday's focus of study in language development identified communicative functions that all related to aspects of social encounters (p. 9). The new systemic-functional approach offered a contextualized view of language as opposed to the prior focus of decontextualized formal structures. -
Input Hypothesis - Krashen, 1982
Krashen placed input at the center of language learning (Shrum & Glisan, p. 16). His theory is that language can only be acquired with the appropriate amount of comprehensible input, which is language just beyond what the learner's current level. He also argued that correction should be minimal so as to lower the learner's affective filter. -
Communicative Competence - Canale and Swain, 1983
Canale and Swain formulated the first model of communicative competence, which included grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic, and discourse competence (p. 11). Canale and Swain did not address the relationship between the competencies, but this was later done by Savignon (1983), who posited that an increase in one single component would lead to an overall increase in communicative competence. -
Output Hypothesis - Swain, 1985
Swain argued in opposition to Krashen that language acquisition and learning occurs through output (Swain, p. 159). Swain argued that the process of making speech understandable requires the learner to refine their syntax. She also highlighted the importance of language learners being able to communicate with one another during the learning process (p. 162), which can lead to negotiation of both meaning and structure. -
Communicative Language Ability - Bachman, 1987
Bachman developed a model of communicative competence that included language competence, strategic competence, and psychomotor skills (p. 12). Language competence was further defined as the combination of organizational and pragmatic competence. Organizational competence is grammatical and textual. Pragmatic competence is further broken down to illocutionary and sociolinguistic competence, both of which take into account the social conventions surrounding language.