Theories about Acquiring a Second Language
This Resource Guide provides information about and links
to digests, journals, books, and Web sites that offer information about second
language teaching methods and approaches
There are countless theories and offspring of theories published
in journals and presented for discussion at conferences. These theories,
normally influenced by developments in the fields of linguistics and
psychology, have inspired many approaches to the teaching of second and foreign
languages. Applied linguistics is a pseudo-science that attracts students of
etymology, grammarians, anthropologists and psycho-therapists.
Linguistics is a discipline based upon wide ranging research fields which use scientific methods and the results of
studies that tell us why long gone civilizations declined by vigorous
investigations of phenomena like the morphology of its language.
The grammar-translation, rote learning
method, popular for centuries, used methods based on the common knowledge that
language is primarily diagrammatic. Also, the main purpose of second language
learning was a necessary part of proper schooling to be used to read canonical texts or to
demonstrates one rhetorical skills.
The audio-lingual approach, which was very popular
from the 1940s through the 1960s, is based in
structural linguistics (structuralism) and behaviorist psychology (Skinner's
behaviorism). It emphasizes spoken rather than written language, and on the
grammar of particular languages, stressing that the mode of learning be
practice and habit. Rote memorization, role playing
and structure drilling are the predominant activities.
Audio-lingual approaches tend not to rely upon a gifted
instructor's unique gift to get through to his or her students, nor does it require
keen insights into the roots of a language. Teachers are not hamstrung by shopworn lesson guide
lines and text books authored by hardened veterans whose credentials rarely go
any further than being a teacher by day and having the discipline to write
books at night.
Therefore, they are easy to be implemented,
maintenance does not strain budgets, and they are still in use by many packaged
language courses (especially in
Beginning in the 1950s, Noam Chomsky and his followers
proposed that the world was round, so to speak, that languages were not learned
efficiently thril 'grill and drill" methods which required memorization of
vocabulary and classroom "repeat after me" drill". Language learners
have an instinctual creative inclination, which helps them to learn the
necessary collocation of phrases to express emotions, and inspired ideas.
Assuming that language learners are creative and resourceful, we must also bear
in mind that memorizing rules and practicing dialogues is not the way a first
language is learned.
This "Chomskian revolution" initially gave rise to
eclecticism in teaching, and over time, it has become the parent of two important
standards of pedagogy.
There are a humanistic approaches based on the charismatic
teaching of one person, and content-based communicative approaches, which try
to incorporate what radically different approaches for active learner participation which requires:
·
appropriate language input with
the conviction that advanced communication is a human activity.
·
Most recently, there has been also a
significant shift toward greater integration of language skills in order to
help a second language learner know the differences between say, how we pen our observations or talk about
them.
There have been developments emphasizing individualized
instruction with more humanistic approaches to language learning embedded in
the lesson plans. No it is standard practice to have a
greater focus on the learner, and greater emphasis on development of
communicative, as opposed to merely linguistic, competence.
The new trends favored more humanistic views and put a
greater focus on the learner and on social interaction. This produced a method
referred to in the United States a Natural and in
Language teaching, especially English language teaching came
into its own as a profession in the last half of the 20th century. English
became the standard language required in much of commerce, trade, industrial growth,
foreign partnerships, medical conferences, etc.
Central to this all of this sudden critical
need for English teachers throughout the world was the emergence of concepts of
language acquisition methods. The method concept in language
teaching—the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices based on a
particular theory of language and language learning—is a powerful one, and the
quest for better methods preoccupied teachers and applied linguists throughout
the 20th century.
The various four skills were ascribed their
particular approaches to learning. Having a purpose means having a reason to
read and requires an approach approaching to text with a specific end in mind. Reading
in the Real World
Perhaps the broadest distinction commonly
made in defining real-world reading purpose is that of reading for pleasure
versus reading for information.
Pleasure reading is most frequently
associated with narrative, and in particular, popular fiction..
By contrast, reading to learn helps us gain insight and shapes
our opinions.
In second language acquisition research and
theory, Krashen consistently states his opinion that pleasure reading is an
important source of comprehensible input for acquisition.
The only requirement "is that the story
or main idea be comprehensible and the topic be something the student is
genuinely interested in, that he would read in his first language"
(Krashen, 1982, p. 164).
In
addition to textbooks and novels, students can work with magazines and newspapers
in the classroom or library to create a portfolio of texts on a topic of
interest. In the portfolio, students identify the source and briefly summarize
the gist of each text.
Also, , they write
a paragraph to explain their interest in the topic, reactions to certain
articles, and questions they may have. The instructor responds in writing with
comments on both the topic itself and the text collection.
Because reading is
valuable input for language acquisition, it makes sense to take
advantage of the fact that many students in elementary courses are capable of
reading far beyond the level at which they speak.
Strong language learners and good readers
can benefit from reading longer, narrative texts at earlier levels of
instruction.
.
Beyond a method to evaluate a student’s comprehension, ,
purposeful reading can also be part of whole communicative task in the foreign
language classroom. to get something done via the
language, to read a text and do sod use of the text.
Recent reading research points to the
benefits of working with texts in order to draw a students' attention to formal features
of written language as well.
Teachers concur that instructors should
focus on textual messages first.
If an individual student cannot perform a
task successfully due to misreading of a text, the student will need to reread
problematic segments and attend more closely to the text structure. If many
students in a class experience difficulty with certain
syntactical structures or forms of text organization, the instructor may choose
to conduct a reading lesson that targets those areas.
A reader's background knowledge with
respect to text topic and genre is a significant factor in text comprehension.
As a result, textbooks and pedagogical practice now routinely include
pre-reading activities with authentic texts or other reading selections.
Interestingly, a benefit of such activities
is the focus or purpose for reading that they can provide.
The value of pre-reading work for both
comprehension and interest does not diminish at the advanced level. In
literature courses, for example, writing and discussion can serve equally well
as an entry into a whole text or text segment.
Pre-reading discussion can focus on a
critical argument or controversy surrounding interpretation of a text. More
simply, discussion or writing tasks can elicit students' personal views or
previous readings on a topic or their expectations with respect to text content
or point of view.
Writing is a particularly effective form of
pre-reading activity that prompts readers to reflect on what they are about to
read.
Writing activities foster the development
of a sense of offering an opinion and critical reader/response.
Because of this wide range, it is often
difficult to base instruction on a well-defined set of learners' future needs
or target tasks; however, it is possible to place increased emphasis on
learners' potential uses of text.
At all levels of foreign language
instruction, providing students a reason to pick up a text
also gives them a way to read it. In elementary and intermediate
classes, whole real-world tasks that offer other kinds of communicative purpose
convey to students the value of reading for message. In advanced-level courses,
the principle of reading with a purpose means rethinking the conventional
"read and discuss" approach to literary and cultural texts. It means
that some of the classroom discussion that has traditionally taken place after
reading would be better placed before, so students
have something to read for.
Reading with a perspective or reading to
decide for or against a particular interpretation, not only creates interest in
the text but also provides students with something interesting to say after
reading. At all levels of foreign language coursework, purposeful reading can
enhance interest and recall on the part of students. Just as important, the
concept of purpose provides a useful organizing principle for the coordination
of reading instruction across the curriculum.