COMPLEX
“Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without
conscious effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is
qualitatively the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process
information or behave intelligently.”
(The Language Instinct - Pinker 1994)
SIMPLE
“Language is a system of arbitrary conventionalized vocal, written, or gestural symbols that
enable members of a given community to communicate intelligibly with one another”.
Standard Introductory Textbook
What makes a LANGUAGE…
is systematic
is used for communication
is primarily vocal but also visual
is acquired in much the same way
might define a community/culture
teaching/learning has universal characteristics
is a set of
arbitrary symbols
is essentially
human (but no limited to)
“Your understanding of the components of language determines to a large extent how you
teach a language”
Read and think. If you believe the following are essential to successful language learning,
which aspects of language will you focus on?
NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION NON VERBAL SYSTEMS (E.G. GESTURES)
LANGUAGE CAN BE DISMANTLED INTO PIECES THAT CAN BE TAUGHT INDIVIDUALLY
GRAMMAR, PHONETICS, ETC.
LANGUAGE IS ESSENTIALLY
CULTURAL AND CULTURAL
SOCIOLINGUISTIC STRATEGIES & COMMUNICATIVE TASKS
“Learning is acquisition or ‘getting’”
TRUE!
Learning is acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or skill by study, experience or
instruction.
“Learning involves passive focus”
FALSE!
Learning involves active, conscious focus on and acting upon events.
“Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting”
TRUE!
Learning is a relatively permanent change in a behavioural tendency and is the result of
reinforced practice.
“Teaching can be defined apart from learning”
FALSE!
Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learning to learn, setting the
conditions for learning.
What is a school of thought?
A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share
common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social
movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement.
- The process of education is one of the most important and complex of all human
endeavours -
What do you think is educational psychology?
Educational psychology → the application of psychology to education by focussing on the
development, evaluation and application of theories and principles of learning and
instruction that can enhance lifelong learning.
LEARNING = EDUCATION
→ XIX century: psychology boom
→ Philosophy led to psychology
→ Scientific method
→ Human behaviour
→ Human psyche vs observable behaviour
THE POSITIVIST SCHOOL
Premise: knowledge and facts exist within the real world and can be discovered by setting up
experiments in which conditions are carefully controlled and where hypotheses are set up and
tested. It accepts only empirical data as evidence and rejects anything which could not be seen
and/or measured.
CONSTRUCTIVISM
Traditional view →
Learning is the accumulation of facts VS.
Piaget →
Constructive nature of the learning process
CONSTRUCTIVISM
The individual is actively involved, since birth, in constructing
PERSONAL MEANING from their experiences.
What is the central focus in this learning theory?
THE LEARNER
CONSTRUCTIVISM
Constructivism is an action-based theory. What’s more important, the process or the result?
THE PROCESS
CONSTRUCTIVISM
PIAGET (An introduction to psychology, pages 17-19)
STAGES
● SENSORY MOTOR → The child explores through the senses.
● PRE-OPERATIONAL → 2-7 years old.
→ Memory and imagination begin to play a part.
● CONCRETE OPERATIONAL → From 7 years old on.
→ Realisation that operations can be reversed.
→ The child can go beyond information
given but still depends on concrete examples.
● FORMAL OPERATIONAL → Teens. Abstract reasoning.
“Piaget’s stages do have a message for the language teacher. When teaching young learners,
we should not expect them to have reached the stage of abstract reasoning, and, therefore,
should not expect them to apply this to sorting out the rules of the language. It is more
important at this stage to provide experiences in the target language which are related to
aspects of the child’s own world.”
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Process of maturation
Our mind seeks EQUILIBRIUM
Balance between WHAT’S KNOWN and WHAT’S BEING EXPERIENCED
BALANCE ACHIEVED THROUGH COMPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
ASSIMILATION: Process by which incoming information is changed or modified in our minds so
that we can fit it in with what we already know.
ACCOMMODATION; Process by which we modify what we already know to take into account
new information.
Working in conjunction they contribute to the central process of COGNITIVE ADAPTATION
- What is language? Definitions. Characteristics.
- Benefits of bilingualism.
- Behaviourism (characteristics)
a. Skinner’s theory → environmental/genetic factors, operant conditioning,
reinforcement, teacher/student roles, setbacks.
- Cognitive psychology
- Constructivism (characteristics)
a. Piaget → stages of cognitive development, environmental factors, cognitive
adaptation
b. Vygotsky → sociocultural theory, types of speech, ZPD,
c. Bruner → Spiral cuiiiculum, scaffolding, formats and routines.
- Humanism (characteristics)
a. Erikson → Epigenetic principle, basic concepts.
b. Maslow → Concept of needs, self-actualization
c. Rogers → Incongruence, client- centered therapy, unconditional positive reward.
