Methodology of Language Teaching and Research ( 940/617:501)

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Methodology of Language Teaching and Research (
940/617501)

• Liliana Sanchez
• Lsanchez_at_rci.rutgers.edu
• Phone [phone] ext 18
• Spanish and Portuguese CPH 301- Douglass Campus

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Language Teaching, Language Learning and Language
Acquisition

• A shift in focus
• From
• How to teach languages?
• To
• How does an individual learn/acquire languages?
• How to facilitate that process?

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The Acquisition of a Language

• What is language?
• A social object.
• The result of the interaction between a
  biological endowment and the environment.

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What do we think about language learning?

• Please answer the questionnaire individually.
  (Lightbowm and Spada xv)
• Please share your responses with the class.

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Developmental sequences in first language
acquisition

• Negation
• Stage 1
• No go. No cookie. No comb hair
• Stage 2
• Daddy no comb hair
• Stage 3
• I cant do it. He dont want it.
• Stage 4
• She doesnt want it.
• I dont have no more candies

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How Do We Acquire Language?

• The behaviorist position
• Language is acquired through imitation
• Mother Would you like some bread and peanut
  butter?
• Katie Some bread and peanut butter
• Michel I can handle it. Hannah can handle it.
  We can handle it.

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Arguments Against Imitation

• 1. Children Entertain Hypotheses About Grammar
• Child My teacher holded the rabbits and we.
• patted them.
• Adult Did you say your teacher held the baby
  rabbits?
• Child Yes.
• Adult What did you say she did?
• Child She holded the rabbits and we patted
  them.
• Adult Did you say she held them tightly?
• Child No, she holded them loosely.

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Arguments Against Imitation (2)

• 2. Children Entertain Hypothesis About the
  Meaning of Expressions
• Mother I love you to pieces
• David I love you three pieces
• Randall You took all the towels away because I
  cant dry my hands.

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The Innatist Position

• Children are biologically programmed for
  language.
• Language develops in the same way as other
  biological functions.
• The childs innate biological endowment allows
  her/him to acquire language.

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Arguments in Favor of the Innatist Position

• Under normal physiological conditions, all
  children learn successfully a first language.
• All children acquire the structure of the
  language spoken around them.
• The linguistic input does not contain examples of
  all the information the children eventually
  know.
• Children do not need negative evidence to acquire
  language.

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The critical period hypothesis

• Lennebergs Critical Period Hypothesis There is
  a specific and limited time period for language
  acquisition.
• The natural experiments
• Victor (Lenfant sauvage)
• Genie (California, 1960s)
• Deaf signers

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The Interactionist Position

• One-to-one interaction between child and
  care-taker is necessary for language development
• A case study Jim

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Learner profiles

• Please fill out the tables. (Lightbowm and Spada
  p. 33)

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Theories of Second Language Learning

• Learner profiles
• Previous knowledge of language
• Cognitive maturity
• Metalinguistic awareness
• World knowledge
• Anxiety

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Theories of Second Language Learning (2)

• Learning conditions
• Freedom to be silent
• Ample time
• Corrective feedback (direct negative input)
• Availability of positive input
• Modified input

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The Behaviorist Position

• Language development is the acquisition of a a
  set of habits
• Errors in SLA are due to the interference of
  first language habits with second language
  acquisition
• The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)
  Similarities/differences between L1 and L2
  predict ease of acquisition

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Arguments Against the CAH

• Word order transfer.
• French learners of English. Transfer is
  bounded by grammatical rules. It is not transfer
  of habits.
• (3) I see them.
• (4) I them see (unattested).
• English learners of French.
• (5) Le chien a mangé les.
• (6) Il veut les encore.
• (Ervin-Tripp 1974).

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Cognitive Theories

• The monitor model
• Acquisition is guided by Universal Principles.
• Learning is guided by other cognitive abilities
  such as reasoning and memory.
• Acquisition is ordered and it takes place through
  exposure to comprehensible input.

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Cognitive Theories (2)

• Learning serves a a Monitor for the acquired
  system. It may alter the output.
• Use of the monitor requires time, focus on form
  and conscious knowledge of rules. (Krashen 1985)
• Methodological consequence Shift towards a
  communicative approach that allows acquisition to
  take place along with learning.

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Communication Strategies

• Interaction
• Negotiation of meaning
• Production allows the learner to test hypotheses
  and to develop automaticity
• Methodological consequence
• Importance of negotiation of meaning through
  interaction as a source of positive and negative
  evidence.

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The theories behind our textbooks

• Please analyze one activity from the elementary
  textbook you are using.
• What are the theoretical basis for these
  textbooks?