ESCUELA:

PONENTE:

BIMESTRE:

PSYCHOLOGY AND LANGUAGE LEARNING

CICLO:

INGLÉS

I BIMESTRE

Lic. Gina Camacho

ABRIL – AGOSTO 2007

General Objective: • To identify major trends and issues, in second language teaching and

learning.

Specific Objectives: • To know the origins of second language teaching.• To learn about some research done on second language acquisition,

classroom interaction, task-based language teaching, learning styles and strategies.

• To compare traditional and contemporary approaches to second language teaching and learning (SLTL).

• To gain some ideas on how to improve second language teaching.• To identify and solve learners’ needs.

Contents:

• PART I The Context of Second Language Teaching and Learning

• Chapter One: The Conceptual Basis of Second Language Teaching and Learning

• Chapter Two: The Empirical Basis of Second Language Teaching and Learning

• Chapter Three: From the Traditional to the Contemporary In Second Language

Teaching and Learning

• PART II Language, Learners and the Learning Process

• Chapter Four: Focus on Language• Chapter Five: Focus on the Learner

Chapter 1 traces some of the trends and issues emerging from the general educational fields that have had an important influence on the current state of SLTL. This chapter serves as a reminder that the philosophy and principles of second language education are rooted firmly in the field of general education. As language teachers, we are a branch on a much larger tree, and our professional lives will be immeasurably enriched if we are knowledgeable about the rest of the tree.

Experiential learning builds a bridge from the known to the new by taking the learner’s perceptions and experiences as the point of departure for the learning process.

Traditional model: Traditional model: BehaviorismBehaviorism

Experiential Model: Experiential Model: ConstructuvismConstructuvism

Transmition of Transmition of knowledgeknowledge

Transforamtion of Transforamtion of knowledgeknowledge

Professionalism as Professionalism as individual autonomyindividual autonomy

Collaborative Collaborative professionalismprofessionalism

Application problem Application problem solvingsolving

Identification of Identification of problemsproblems

Knowledge of facts, Knowledge of facts, concepts and skills, focus concepts and skills, focus on content and producton content and product

Emphasis on process, Emphasis on process, learning skills, and learning skills, and social skillssocial skills

Teacher-structure Teacher-structure learninglearning

Emphasis on learner, Emphasis on learner, self-directed learning.self-directed learning.

Mainly extrinsicMainly extrinsic Mainly intrinsicMainly intrinsic

Deductive and inductive learning

• Deductive learning is a process of adding to our knowledge by working from principles to examples.

• In inductive learning one works from examples to principles, rules, and generalizations.

CLT a system for the expression of meanings. THERE ARE MANY WAYS to teach language. One is called Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). This method is learner-centered and emphasizes communication and real-life situations.

In CLT, students practice everyday situations that involve communication, such as asking someone for the time

In CLT, students practice real-life situations, for example, buying food at the market or asking someone for directions.In these exercises, the goal is for the student to communicate his or her needs and thoughts, without worrying about having perfect grammar.

In CLT, students learn about language in social contexts, such as the difference between speaking with an elder and a peer.

In CLT, students practice everyday situations that involve communication,

such as asking someone for the time.

• Instructional programmes should be centred around learners’ needs, and they should exercise their own responsability in the choice of learning objectives, content and methods.

• Negotiation with students, whether to do something or not.• Teachers should keep in mind that learners are going to become

teachers, so they have to provide them with the tools to be good ones.• TBLT collection of tasks that may or not involve the production of

language e.g., responding to a party invitation, completing a banking application form, describing a photograph , etc.

THE CONCEPTUALBASIS OF SLTL

Task-based language teaching Negotiated curricula

Learner-centerededucation

The humanistic tradition CLT

CONCEPT MAP OF CHAPTER 1

• Chapter 2 turns to some of the research that has influenced the current state of SLTL. Again, this is a selective review. To do full justice to the wealth of research in the diverse fields that feed into pedagogy would take several volumes, and a great deal of research is covered in other chapters of the book as well. The author’s principal purpose in this chapter is to put two questions of critical importance to language teachers under the microscope.

What is the relationship between formal instruction and language acquisition?

What tasks and patterns of classroom organization best facilitate second language acquisition?The chapter therefore looks at research in second language acquisition, classroom interaction, task-based language teaching, and learning styles and strategies.

2. Theoretical Approaches to Explaining SLL

Behaviorism

Language is the result of imitation, practice, feedback on sucess, and habit formation.

Innatism

Chomsky : Language develops in the child in the same way that other biological functions develop.

ConnectionismAccording to it children are born with a special ability to discover for themselves the underlying rules of a language system.

Interactionist

Language develops as a result of

interplay between the human

characteristics of the child and

the environment in which the

child develops.

Second Language Acquisition• According to Ellis: starting age does not affect the route of SLA.• Starting age affects the rate of learning.• Both number of years of exposure and starting age affect the level of

success.• The first proponents of the CPH were Penfield and Roberts (1959),

who assumed that language learning increases in difficulty with age and who linked this difficulty to decreasing cerebral plasticity.

The Critical Period Hypothesis

The biologist Eric Lennerberg there is a specific and limited time period for language acquisition.

Based on his analysis he cocluded that there is progressive lateralization of the language function to the left hemisphere which is complete by puberty.

The first CPH proponents were Penfield and Roberts (1959).

Nous avons 8 ans.

• The Acquisition/ Learning hypothesis ‘adults have two ways of developing competence in second languages…acquisition, that is by using language for real communication… learning.. “knowing about” language’.

The acquired system is the product of subconcious process similar to the way children pick up their L1.

The learned system is the product of conscious knowledge of the L. e.g., knowledge of grammar rules.

I am/you are/

Krashen’s ‘monitor model’Krashen’s ‘monitor model’

• The Monitor hypothesis ‘concious learning…can only be used as a Monitor or an editor’

The acquisition system is the utterance initiator, the learning system is the monitor or editor.

• The natural order hypothesis ‘we acquire the rules of language in a predictable order’.

The acquisition of grammatical structures follow a natural order.

Ad –s to third person singular verbs.

• The Input hypothesis ‘humans acquire language in only one way - by understanding messages or by receiving “comprehensive input”.It is concerned with acquisition not with learning.

If the input contains forms and structures just beyond the learner’s current level of competence in the L, then both comprehension and acquisition will occur.

Swain’s alternative hypothesis is “comprehensible output”, suggesting that oportunities to produce language were important for acquisition.

The Affective Filter Hypothesis: a mental block, caused by affective factors… that prevents input from reaching the language acquisition device’.

Affective variables (motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety) play a role in SLA.

When the filter is ‘up’ (angry, anxious, or bored) it impedes language acquisition.

When the filter is ‘down’ (relaxed and motivated) acquisition takes place.

RESEARCH

Task-based language teaching

Learning strategies and acquisition

First versus second language acquisition

Instuction and acquisition

Chronological age and SLA

CONCEPT MAP OF CHAPTER 2

• Chapter 3 is intended to highlight the main issues and themes that emerged from the two main chapters in the section. In this chapter the intention of the author is to do this by drawing a contrast between what, for want of better terms, he has called “traditional” and “contemporary” approaches to SLTL. He realized that in drawing this distinction he runs the risk of placing in conceptual opposition, what are in fact, points on a continuum. So, contemporary practice represents an evolution, and that the best practice incorporates the best of “traditional” practice rather than rejecting it.

Syllabus Design

• Syllabus design has to do with selecting and sequencing content.• Methodology with selecting and sequencing appropriate learning

experiences.• Evaluation with appraising learners and determining the effectiveness of

the curriculum as a whole.

Traditional and Contemporary Language Classrooms

Content and methodology decided Content and methodology decided with reference to the classroomwith reference to the classroom

Content and methodology match Content and methodology match learner needs beyond the classroomlearner needs beyond the classroom

Learning facts about language rather Learning facts about language rather than how to use it communicativelythan how to use it communicatively

Learners are actively involved in using Learners are actively involved in using languagelanguage

Grammar is taught as rules to be Grammar is taught as rules to be memorizedmemorized

Grammar and language are taught Grammar and language are taught communicatively.communicatively.

Learners do not learn how to become Learners do not learn how to become better language learners on their ownbetter language learners on their own

Learners learn strategies and they Learners learn strategies and they apply them to their own learning apply them to their own learning outside the class.outside the class.

Learners just listen and repeat what Learners just listen and repeat what the teacher says. They do not express the teacher says. They do not express their own ideas.their own ideas.

Learners interact with their partners Learners interact with their partners and express their opinions, ideas and and express their opinions, ideas and feelings.feelings.

CONTEMPORARY TRENDS

Classroom organization and resources

Out of class

Syllabus design Learner rolesTeaching issues

Language Issues Learning issues

Assessment

CONCEPT MAP OF CHAPTER 3

• Chapter 4, the author looks at language in context, focusing in particular on those aspects of language that can provide teachers with insights for developing materials and pedagogical procedures. In fact, in Section Three of the book, the author draws on the ideas developed here to present some of his own ideas for teaching spoken and written language.

Grammar and Grammaticality

• Grammar: A description of the structure of a language and the way in which linguistic units such as words and phrases are combined to produce sentences in the language.

• Grammaticality: The conformoty of a sentence or part of a sentence to the rules defined by a particular grammar of the language.

• According to Larsen-Freeman grammar has three interrelated dimensions: Form (syntax), meaning (semantics), and use (pragmatics). So, grammar is the study of how form, meaning, and use work together to enable individuals to communicate through language.

Cohesion and CoherenceCohesion refers to words and phrases that enable the writer or speaker to establish relationships across sentences or utterance boundaries, and that help to tie the sentences in a text together.

• Reference: Sentence taken out of the context, difficult to interpret.• Substitution and Ellipsis: A form of substitution in which the original item

is replaced by zero. Nominal, verbal, and clausal.• Conjunction: It signals relationships that can only be fully understood

through reference to other parts of the text. Adversative, additive, temporal, causal.

• Lexical cohesion: When two words in a text are semantically related in some way. Reiteration (repetititon) and collocation (items in a text that are semantically related).

• Coherence refers to the ordering of information.

LANGUAGE

Background knowledge

Pedagogical implications

Grammar PronunciationVocabulary

Discourse Metaphors

CONCEPT MAP OF CHAPTER 4

• Chapter 5 considers the learner. It elaborates on the concept of learners-centeredness presented in Chapter I, and looks at the practical implications of a view of learning that places learners themselves in the center of the process.

• Objective needs are those that can be diagnosed by teachers. (personal experience and knowledge)

• Subjective needs are the desires and expectations of the students.• According to Widdowson, learners need to be able to use the skills taught

in the classroom to do things other than those that they had been taught.• Ss experiences help teachers to avoid ways of teaching they do not like.• The difference between effective and ineffective language learners is that

effective learners make appropriate choices when it comes to the means through which they learn language.

Motivating Ss into the lesson, varying the activities, tasks, and material, using co-operative rather than competitive goals.

Choose the strategies taking into account the learner’s preferences. Create a good learning environment where all children enjoy participating.

LEARNERS

NeedsRoles/

contributions

Choices

CONCEPT MAP OF CHAPTER 5

Importance Techniques for encouraging

The influence of CLT

Deductive and inductive learning