2. Table of content
1. Behaviourism
Mimicry and memorization
2. The innatist perspective
Universal Grammar
3. Cognitivist/developmental perspective
Information processing
Connectionism
The competition model
4. Sociocultural perspective
3. Behaviourism
Theory of learning
Very influential between the 1940s and 1970s
Nurture → Environment has great importance
4. Behaviourism
Explains learning in terms of:
Imitation
Practice (mimicry)
Reinforcement
→ Formation of habit = language development
5. Behaviourism
Influence on development of audiolingual teaching
and material
→ great emphasis on mimicry and
memorization
6. Behaviourism
Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis assumes:
First and target language
similar
Target language is learned
with ease
First and target language
different
Target language is learned
with difficulty
7. Behaviourism
But: learners did not do the predicted errors
→All learners made nearly the same errors
Influence of first language is the process of finding
similarities
8. Criticism on Behaviourism and CAH
Behaviourism + Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis are
inadequate explanations for second language
acquisition
9. Universal Grammar
Noam Chomsky
Innate linguistic
knowledge which
consists of a set of
principles common to all
languages
Explanation for second
language acquisition?
10. Universal Grammar
Lydia White:
best perspective for second language acquisition; but
nature of Universal Grammar is altered
Robert Bley-Vroman/Jacquelyn Schachter:
Not a good explanation for second language
acquisition: critical period is passed
Vivian Cook
Learners have more knowledge than input could give
them
11. Universal Grammar
→ Different theories about its nature
Nature and availability of Universal Grammar are
the same in first language acquisition and second
language acquisition
Universal Grammar that is present to second
language learners has been altered in its nature by
acquisition of other languages
12. Monitor Model
Stephen Krashen
Model of second
language acquisition
Influenced by
Chomsky‘s theory of
first language
acquisition
13. Monitor Model
Based on 5 hypotheses:
1. Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
2. Monitor Hypothesis
3. Natural Order Hypothesis
4. Input Hypothesis
5. Affective Filter Hypothesis
15. Cognitivist/developmental perspective
Since 1990 central role in second language
acquisition
Computer as metaphor for mind
→ Capacities for storage, integration and retrieval
No specific module in brain for acquisition/learning
UG as explanation for first language acquisition
→ Less successful for second language acquisition
17. Information processing
Norman Segalowitz:
Second language acquisition as the building up of
knowledge for automatic use of speaking and
understanding
Learner first pays attention to any aspect of language
for understanding/production
→ controlled processing
Experience/practice → easier process of information
→ quicker automatic access
18. Information processing
Slow access
Under control of
attention
Limited in capacity
Quick access
Requires little attention
Needs little capacity
to perform
Controlled processing Automatic processing
19. Information processing
Robert DeKeyser:
Second language acquisition as “skill learning”
Learning starts with declarative knowledge
Becomes procedural knowledge through practice
Processes become proceduralized/automized like other
skills
Parallel to development from controlled to automatic
processing
20. Information processing
Involves acquisition of
isolated facts and rules
→ knowing that
e.g. knowing that a car can
be driven
Requires practice
Involves processing of
longer units and increasing
automization
→knowing how
e.g. knowing how to drive a
car
Declarative knowledge Procedural knowledge
21. Information processing
Example: car driving
Begin learning to drive a car
◼ Close attention to every action/decision
◼ Aware that performances can easily be disturbed (e.g.
talking)
Practice → skill improves
◼ Automization
Experienced driver
◼ Able to pay attention to previously disturbing events
22. Information processing
Restructuring
Changes in language behavior
Quality changes in learner‘s knowledge
◼ New forms are not just added to old
◼ Regular systematic reorganization and reformulation
Sudden burst of knowledge or backsliding
◼ Systematic aspect of learner‘s language incorporates too
much or wrong things
→ saw + ed
24. Connectionism
Connectionism: frequency of encountering certain
language features in the input allow learners to
make connections.
Knowledge of language built up through exposure
“connections” build up
Stronger connections → the more often something is
heard→ chunks
25. Connectionism
Emphasis is on the frequency
Encountering of specific linguistic features in the input
How often features occur together
26. The competition model
Explains first language and second language
acquisition
Hypothesis:
“language acquisition occurs without the necessity of a
learner‘s focused attention or the need for any innate
brain module that is specifically for language“
27. The competition model
Language use and language meaning important
Learners understand how to use “cues”
→ word order, grammatical markers and
animacy of nouns
28. The competition model
Example: „Box push boy“
→ Depends on the mother tongue, how second languages
are learned
→ Example: “Il giocattolo guardail il bambino”
Two/three year old Four year old
Uses cues of animacy and their
knowledge of the way things work in the
world.
Children will give a SVO interpretation to
strings of the words.
29. The Sociocultural Perspective
• Vygotsky’s theory proposes:
• Cognitive development, including language development,
arises as a result of social interaction.
• Learning occurs how?
When an individual
- interacts with an interlocutor
- within his ZPD ( a situation where the learner is capable of
performing at a higher level because there is support from the
interlocutor.
- Focus on input and output in the interaction.
- Cognitive development starts from the social context then
become internalized.
30. Bibliography
Doughty, C. J. & Long, M.H. (eds.) (2003). The Handbook of Second Language
Acquisition. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Gramley, S. & Gramley, V. (eds.) (2008). Bielefeld Introduction to Applied Linguistics.
Bielefeld: Aithesis.
Lightbown, P. M. & Spada, N. (2006). How Languages are Learned. 3rd Edition. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. (1998). Second Language Learning Theories. London: Arnold.
Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approachesand Methods in Language Teaching.
2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.