Learning Theories and Language Teaching

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Learning Theories and Language Teaching
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Word list

• Look at the list of words and try to memorise as
  many of the items as possible. Do not write any
  of them down.

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Behaviourism

• Learning as habit formation
• Stimulus-Response-Reinforcement
• repetition
• Pattern practice (drills, etc.)
• Learner as passive receiver of information

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Mentalism

• Behaviourism unable to account for creativity of
  language learning
• novel utterances
• system-building
• 2. Learning as rule-governed activity (Chomsky)
• habit formation vs. acquiring rules
• stimulus triggers search for underlying pattern
• hypothesis-testing

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The cognitive theory

• Learning as a thinking process.
• Learner as an active processor of information.
• Problem-solving tasks, learning strategies, etc.

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Affective theory

• Learning as an emotional process
• The cognitive-affective interconnection
• Motivation
• Language, learner and learning situation levels
  framework (Dornyei 2001 18)
• Process model (ibid 19 - 23)
• Authentic texts/tasks, small group-work, etc.

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Learning vs. acquisition (Krashen)

• Learning as an unconscious process
• i 1 (comprehensible input)

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SEMINAR

• What theory/theories of learning underlie each of
  the language teaching activities provided?

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