English for Specific Purpose Theories of learning

1. 1.
a)
b)
Look at the rules of behaviorist methodology on p.40. In what
ways do they conflict with cognitive/affective views of
learning?
Cognitive learning: Doing a laboratory drill according to the
behaviorism, in a cognitive manner, you don’t have a challenge
because the answer of the task is controlled –guided and it
wouldn’t be a problem –solving task in which you have to use
previous learning.
Affective learning: Doing a laboratory drill according to the
behaviorism in an affective manner. In behaviorism the learner
is viewed as a machine willing to do the task with an stimulusresponse not as a sensible human being acting just on an
affective motivation.

2. 2. What value do you think structural pattern drills
have? When your student is a beginner if they do a
structural pattern drill, when the task is finished they
will feel like if they accomplish a lot, something
meaningful and that can be motivating for them.
Why?............
 You don’t translate( in some of the cases).
 That, it has to deal with a sequence : Hear, speak,
read and write.
 Frequent repetition is essential to effective
learning.
 The errors would be immediately corrected.

3. 3. What is the importance to language teaching of
the view of language behavior as rule-governed
activity?
 It means that the individual needs to acquire
rules not forming habits.
 The individual uses prior experiences to
complete a task.
 It uses individuals motivations in order to find
basic patterns.

4. 4. Try to do the strategy task in figure 12.
a)
What strategies did you use to get your answers?
I used Mentalism; rule -governed
a)
How did you feel about the experience? Did you
find it satisfying or frustrating? I found it more
frustrating than satisfying because I didn’t have
much prior knowledge on the subject.

5. 5. Consider the motivation on your own student’s
Does it resemble integrative( Internal) or
instrumental(external) motivation?( share an
example)
In my case, I have both. I HAVE MANY
STUDENT’S WHICH ARE HIGHLY
MOTIVATED, I STARTED EXTERNALLY BUT
NOW THEY ARE INTERNALLY, I HAD TO
WORK HARD FOR THAT.(WITH GAMES AND
PRICES).

6. 6. What practical implications does the model of learning on
page 49 have for ESP materials and methodology? Make a set of
precepts(principles, rules or guidelines) for a learning-centered
methodology, like those for behaviorism methodology.
 Use a wide rage of strategies in the classroom, not just one.
Such as:
a)
The affective factor.
b)
Problem solving activities.
c)
Cognitive code (so the learner will process and make sense
of data).
 Try to motivate students first externally and then let them
continue, using a minimal externally motivation.
 Have them practice more than the teacher in front of the
class. And many more…………….