Research Centre for Foreign Language Education (ReFLEct)

Theories in SLA/L2 Learning

Language Didactics

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Theories in SL Acquisition (1) a continuum (1) nativist (2) interactionist (3) environmentalist (4) ecological theories at least 40 proposed so far

NB. SLA or SL/L2 Learning

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4) Ecological Theories (1/16) an ecological approach to cognition,

learning and language (van Lier 2000; Vygotsky, Bakhtin; Peirce, Dewey)

challenges the 3 premises underlying scientific thinking that has dominated Western civilisation since Galileo and Descartes

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4) Ecological Theories (2) The 3 scientific premises:1) in order to conduct coherent

investigations it is necessary to simplify and select from the infinite variety of the real world

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4) Ecological Theories (3) The 3 scientific premises: 2) in accordance with Occam’s razor,

the simplest explanations that minimally account for the data are to be preferred

William of Occam (1284-1347), an English philosopher and theologian: “Entities must not be multiplied beyond what is necessary.”

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4) Ecological Theories (4) The 3 scientific premises:3) problems must be broken down

into their component elements and these must be analysed one by one

“There’s physics, and there is stamp collecting.” (Rutherford)

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4) Ecological Theories (5)shifts the emphasis from

scientific reductionism to the notion of emergence

at every level of development properties emerge that cannot be reduced to those of prior levels

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4) Ecological Theories (6)Not all of cognition and learning

can be explained in terms of processes that go on inside the head (vs. learning takes place in the brain, by means of computational mechanisms that process information received by the senses)

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4) Ecological Theories (8) Learning = the development of

increasingly effective ways of dealing with the world and its meanings

To look for learning is to look at the active learner in her environment (not at the contents of her brain)

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4) Ecological Theories (13) it also relates verbal utterances to

other aspects of meaning making, such as gestures, drawings, artefacts

the totality of meaning-making is not merely linguistic; it is semiotic

in terms of learning, language emerges out of semiotic activity

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4) Ecological Theories (14)The environment provides a

‘semiotic budget’, ie the opportunities for meaningful action that the situation affords

[≠ the amount of input available]—> affordance

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4) Ecological Theories (15) affordance = a reciprocal relationship

between an organism and a particular feature of its environment (Gibson 1979)

knowledge of language for a human is like knowledge of the jungle for an animal

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Raudaskoski (2003) affordanssista:

”Tarjoumilla kuvataan artefaktien käytössä

aktualisoituvia ominaisuuksia

eli merkityksellisiä toimintamahdollisuuksia”

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4) Ecological Theories (16) Provide a rich ‘semiotic budget’, ie

structure the learner’s activities and participation so that access is available and engagement encouraged

then ecological LL in line with situated learning (Lave & Wenger 1991), apprenticeship, participatory appropriation

(Rogoff 1995)

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Conclusion—SLA Theories over 40 different theories, difficult to

compare and evaluate as they often differ greatly in (1) scope, or the range of SLA

phenomena they treat; (2) the type of data to which they are

held accountable, and (3) the degree of abstraction

of the statements they contain

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Interim Conclusion?

Methods?

They come and go …

Theory?

Theory remains …