Introduction

There are three major scientific research methods that are used to study the theories of Second

Language Acquisition (SLA). These three methods are:

1- Behaviorist Tradition2- Cognitive-Computational Tradition

3-Dialogical Tradition

1 -Behaviorism

- this school has been followed till 1960s.- The focus in this school was on the learner’s

external environment.- The external environment is doing the role of

Stimulus for the learning process.- As well as the learning process depends on

the external environment, it is regarded as habit-formation.

- Habit formation is (the link between stimuli and responses

-The learner’s mental abilities are disregarded in this school. As his mind does not belong to the external environment.

2- The cognitive-computational tradition

- this school is divided into two sections:

-The first is called the hypothetic-deductive. And the second is called the new information processing.

- This school believes that the human body is responsible for outward behavior and the human mind is responsible for the mental/inward process. Both of them are important in this school.

-in this school the human mind is superior to the human body.

The hypothetic-deductive method

- This method will be explained throughout this example. When the teacher gives the learner a question. The learner tries to think and get some suggestions. His/her suggestions may be right or wrong. These suggestions are known as deductions. When these deductions are correct, they are regarded as explanation for future actions. If these deductions are wrong, the question will be repeated

Conversational-adjustment hypothesis

the previous example will be understood in another way. The result of question-deduction is renamed as the conversational-adjustment hypothesis. In that way, if the linguistic/conversational adjustment promote comprehension of input and that comprehension input promotes acquisition. Therefore, it could be deduced that adjustment promotes acquisition.

A---B

B---C

A---C

The new-information Method

This method shows the mechanism for the processing of information or knowledge. In this method, the input, the output, short-term memory, and long-term memory are evoked.

The point here is that the mental process require a hard ware system-the human brain- and a soft ware program-the human mind- where these processes are prepared, processed, and stored.

Cognitive tradition & UG Chomsky

Some researchers tried to link between the cognitive tradition and the theory of universal grammar by Chomsky. They assumed that the meaning of any given sentence needs a reference and a sense.

Reference is to know either the circumstances around the sentence are true or false. Sense refers to the idea of this sentence. Is it logical or not.

Example:

1- the morning star is the evening star.

Reference= circumstances= the two stars come from the same planet so the meaning is clear (the morning star is the evening star).

Therefore, if we change the sentence:

2 the evening star is the morning star= the result is not the same meaning.

So, we have to move to the second factor that

Is sense.

The first sentence has logic while the second sentence does not have this logic.

Out from this example, we have to know that the two factors (reference and sense) should be adopted to understand the meaning of any sentence.

Summary of Cognitive tradition

Generally, this method stresses the importance of the mental processes. By the use of logic-deductive method. This method shows the importance of the internal processes rather than the external processes. In the cognitive tradition, the external environment is less important than the internal because human beings are born with innate nature to understand and realize cognitively. We are born with our own computer that is responsible for the cognitive development.

Therefore, behaviorism school depends mainly on the external environment (the body), cognitive theory depends on the internal world (the mental processes), and the computational information sees the human mental processes are governed by software program.

Q1: there are three main scientific research methods that affect SLA. Describe with examples. (what are the …..?)

3 -The Dialogical Tradition

This method tries to make the balance between the internal and external world of both behaviorism and cognitive traditions. It shows the balance between the mind and the body. This approach takes into consideration the dynamic roles of social contexts, socio-cultural, historical, and institutional backgrounds that affect the cognitive growth.

This tradition stresses the importance of social, cultural, political, historical matters in the person’s life.

To conclude, the three traditions of SLA are devoted to investigate the external world, the internal world, and finally, the relationship between the two environments.

***Behaviorism and SLA

Behaviorism was regarded as a general theory of learning (either first or second language). It was mentioned that learning is advanced by stimulus-response process by means of reinforcement and practice.

First language learning is viewed as the imitation of utterances the child exposed to. Therefore, How do children learn to speak is an important question?