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Behaviourism (Skinner)
Claims:
● human learning and animal learning are the same;
● the child’s mind is a tabula rasa; there is no innate knowledge;
● all behaviour is viewed as a response to stimuli;
● behaviour happens in associative chains.
Language: progressive accumulation of habits
Goal: error-free production
L1: a major obstacle to L2 acquisition > negative transfer
Learners proceed from form to meaning through imitation/ repetition -
Contrastive Analysis (Lado)
A comparison of L1 and L2 to determine similarities and differences. Claims:
●LA is habit formation in a process of Stimulus – Response – Reinforcement (SRR). Practice makes perfect!
●Transfer from L1 to the L2
Positive Transfer- When the same structure is appropriated in both languages.
Negative Transfer (or Interference)- when the L1 structure is inappropriate in the L2 -
Universal Grammar (Chomsky)
A faculty for learning language > Language Acquisition Device. Input is needed to trigger the operation of LAD. Claims:
● Learners have their own internal syllabus (abstract principles) > these constrain the acquisition of both L1 and L2.
● Our innate universal grammar system influences the development of L2 (interlanguage development).
● Learners make projections about the language they learn that are often beyond the information they are supposed to know (poverty of the stimulus). -
Error Analysis (Corder)
An internal focus on learners creative ability to construct language. L2 learner’s errors are not “bad habits” but ‘a window’ into the learner’s mind. They show important insights into learning processes and learners’ language development. Steps in any typical EA research:
- collecting samples of learner language
- identifying the errors
- describing the errors
- explaining the errors
- evaluating/correcting the errors -
Interlanguage (Selinker)
•L2 learners construct a linguistic system that draws on L1 but still different form it and also from the TL. (approximate/developing system)
Characteristics:
1-Systematic: At a particular stage of development, the rules are discoverable by analysing the language the learner uses (production and errors)
2-Dynamic: frequent change
3-Variable: different contexts= different patterns of language
4-Reduced system both in form and function: less complex gr. structures are used.
5-Likely to fossilize -
Morpheme Order Studies (Duley&Burt)
Whether there is a natural order (or universal sequence) in the gr. development of L2 learners?
The similarity in the order of sequence and the existence of a natural order strengthened the claims for internally driven acquisition process > creative construction.
Source: -
Monitor Model (Krashen)
A collection of 5 hypotheses:
1-Acquisition-Learning Hypotheses: subconscious (involved LAD) vs. conscious (in classroom)
2-Monitor Hyp: what is learned is available as a monitor to correct and edit.
3-Natural Order Hyp: Acquisition happens in a natural order.
4-Input Hyp: Comprehensible input > criticized as there is no verification of what constitutes comp. input. / also i+1
5-Affective Filter Hyp: When up, input cannot be processed. -
Input Processing (VanPatten)
Claims:
- learners seem to process input for meaning (words) before they process it for form (grammatical features).
- learners parse sentences in order to figure out "who did what to whom", thereby relying on word order and employing a first noun processing strategy that assigns subject or agent status to the first noun or pronoun they encounter in that sentence. Related Approach: Processing Instruction through structured tasks -
Interaction Hypothesis (Long)
Input-Interaction-Output INPUT is essential: interactional (e.g. conversation, classroom interactions, etc.) and non-interactional (e.g. announcements). INTERACTION facilitates:
Noticing(e.g. comprehension checks "Is this clear?")
Negotiation of meaning
Corrective feedback is + direct or indirect. OUTPUT can help learners pick up on linguistic or grammatical points through interactions, or might help the formulation of hypotheses about TL that learners can test during language production. -
Processibility Theory (Pienemann)
The basic idea underlying PT:
- The learner can process only those L2 linguistic forms which the current state of the language processor can handle.
- Understanding the architecture of the language processor and the way in which it handles L2 enables one to predict the course of development of L2 linguistic forms. The level of grammatical correctness DOES NOT imply the level of acquisition. Acquisition is a U-shaped course of development.
Related Hypotheses: Teachability & Learnability -
References
