Schools of Thought in Second Language Acquisition

Schools of
Thought in
Second
Language
Acquisition
IAN ALBERT AMPARO
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.
Second Language (L2)
is a language spoken in addition to one's first language
(L1). A second language may be a neighbouring
language, another language of the speaker's home
country, or a foreign language.
Questions about L2 acquisition
LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS
Who are the learners that you are teaching?

What is their ethnic, linguistic, and religious heritage?
What are their native languages, levels of education, and
socioeconomic characteristics?
What life’s experiences have they had that might affect their learning?
What are their intellectual capacities, abilities, and strengths and
weaknesses?
How would you describe the personality of any given learner?
LEARNING PROCESSES
How does learning take place? How can a person ensure success in
language learning?
What cognitive processes are utilized in second language learning?
What kinds of strategies are available to a learner, and which ones are
optimal?
How important are factors like frequency of input, attention to form and
meaning, memory and storage processes, and recall?
What is the optimal interrelationship of cognitive, affective, and physical
domains for successful language learning?
INSTRUCTIONAL VARIABLES
In such “natural” environments, do all people learn a language equally

successfully? If not, what are the ingredients for success? In what has come
to be called “instructed” SLA, many questions arise.
What are the effects of varying methodological approaches, textbooks,
materials, teacher styles, and institutional factors?
Consider the amount of time spent in classrooms learning a second language:
is there an optimal length of time required for successful mastery?
Should the learner be exposed to three or five or ten hours a week in the
classroom? Or a five-to-seven-hour day in an intensive language program?
And how “active” should a learner be outside of the classroom?
PURPOSE
Why are learners attempting to acquire the second language? What are
their purposes?
Are they motivated by the achievement of a successful career, or by
passing a foreign language requirement, or by wishing to identify
closely with the culture and people of the target language?
Beyond these categories, what other, emotional, personal, or
intellectual reasons do learners have for pursuing this gigantic task of
learning another language?
Three Different Schools
of Thought To Education
1 Structural Linguistics / Behavioral Psychology
2 Generative Linguistics / Cognitive Psychology
3 Constructivism
Structural
Linguistics /
Behavioral
Psychology
Structural Linguistics
defined as a study of language based on the theory that language is a structured system
of formal units such as grammar, sentences, syntax
an application of scientific observations of human languages.
only "publicly observable responses" could be subject to investigation.
The linguist's task was to describe human languages and to identify the structural
characteristics of those languages
Language could be dismantled into
small pieces or units and that
these units could be described
scientifically, contrasted, and
added up again to form the whole.
Contributions in the Behavioral
Psychology largely came from:
Ivan Pavlov B.F. Skinner

He is known for He is known for
Classical Conditioning Operant conditioning.
Operant Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
RESEARCH FINDINGS:
The prevailing paradigm in linguistic research in the 1940s
and 1950s viewed language as a linear, structured system
that described grammatical sequences in terms of
separate components that could comprise a sentence.
Noam Chomsky later called these as "surface structure"
relationships.
Focus on
W hat?
Behaviorism
What are the class practices?
1. Teachers also apply behaviorism through

using repetition of words in teaching a
second language. Through this method,
pupils gradually understand the meanings
of the words, imitate them, and adopt them
as habits.
Behaviorism
2. Teachers implement behaviorism through

rewards and punishments. When a teacher
uses reinforcements. the use of
reinforcement such as rewards, they intend
to encourage a behavior, and when they use
punishment, they intend to lessen a
behavior. Both should be employed in a
balanced manner since it serves as a
motivator that aids in teaching a child a
second language.
Generative
Linguistics /
Cognitive
Psychology
Generative Linguistics
Tries to show that human language cannot

be scrutinized simply in terms of
observable stimuli and responses or the
volumes of raw data
interested not only in describing language

(achieving the level of descriptive adequacy) but
also in arriving at an explanatory level of
adequacy in the study of language
Noam Chomsky (1964)
Generative Linguistics
claimed that there was a difference
between parole (what Skinner
"observes," and what Chomsky
called performance), on the one
hand, and langue (related to the
concept of competence, or our
underlying and unobservable
language ability). Ferdinand de Saussure (1916)
Langue
Langue comprises the Rules of Grammar of

Language, the syntax, spelling etc.
(Abstract system - what is shared by the community)
competence
Parole
Parole is making use of these rules to produce

utterances.
(Actual speech - what the individual speaks)
performance
Cognitive Psychology
•Seeking to discover underlying
motivations and deeper
structures of human behavior
• Meaning, understanding, and
knowing as legitimate data for
psychology
• Rational approach - using
logic, reason,inference to
explain for human behavior
Focus on
W hy?
Cognitivism
1. Teachers use cognitivism in the

classroom by preparing and arranging
lessons and information in a manner
that is easily understood - Through
this, students will comprehend the
subject thoroughly and improve their
memory.
Cognitivism
2. Another effective strategy that

teachers use to incorporate cognitivism
into the classroom is to ask questions -
For example, my grade 7 English teacher
back then always give oral recitations
activities and pose a question via a
puzzle. Thus, I was able to improve my
problem-solving skills, reflect on my
experiences, and create my own
comprehension of the lesson.
Structural Linguistics / Generative Linguistics /
Behavioral Psychology Cognitive Psychology
? Wh at?
Wh at
Why ?
Constructivism
Constructivism is an educational theory that claims
that students do not learn passively instead they
construct new understandings and knowledge
through experience, social discourse, and the
integration of new learning with what they already
know.
Constructivism
In this theory, students are expected to make their
own discoveries and a teacher serves as a facilitator
rather than the sole source of knowledge.
Constructivism
1. Teachers use constructivism in the

classroom by putting students in
situations where they can use their
past knowledge to build new ideas - For
example, an English teacher can give
group activities where they can share
their thoughts and what they've learned
with their peers.
Constructivism
2.Teachers also incorporate constructivism

by asking open-ended questions,
encouraging students to ask, and assigning
assignments that require them to research
and discover things for themselves -
Through this method, instructors assist
learners in developing their own knowledge
of the subject and promote students
critical thinking skills.
Which is the L 2 approach?

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Schools of

Who are the learners that you are teaching?

In such “natural” environments, do all people learn a language equally

2 Generative Linguistics / Cognitive Psychology

an application of scientific observations of human languages.

only "publicly observable responses" could be subject to investigation.

Ivan Pavlov B.F. Skinner

1. Teachers also apply behaviorism through

2. Teachers implement behaviorism through

Tries to show that human language cannot

interested not only in describing language

Langue comprises the Rules of Grammar of

Parole is making use of these rules to produce

1. Teachers use cognitivism in the

2. Another effective strategy that

1. Teachers use constructivism in the

2.Teachers also incorporate constructivism

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