1. How humans learn in
general and how they
learn a foreing language
FABIOLA CARVAJAL
2. LEARNING
We learn from the things that happen to us our experiences. Learning a foreign language can increase
the size of our brain. There is an study that is part of a growing body of research and explains how using
brain imaging technologies to better understand the cognitive benefits we improve the language
learning.
Learning is acquiring relatively permanent
change in behavior through experience. We
experience things and learn to modify our
behaviors based on what we know.
Humans learn in general by two different types
of learning: obsevational and associative
learning
Observational: Is learning by watching others
engage in different behaviors.
Associative : Is learning by stablishing
connections between events
3. Factors that affect Learning
Most of the time,
learning occurs in
not so ideal
situations
Have you ever witnessed
for example: Have you
ever had problem
remembering names
when you went through
zero sleep lasta night?
Probably no this is
because there are
biological, cognitive
and cultural factors in
learning
By the time a child is
five years old, s/he can
express ideas clearly
and almost perfectly
from the point of view
of language and
grammar
We learn from the
things that happen to
us, our experiences.
For example, we
learned that lightning
is followed by thunder
4. CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
It is the process of associating, and consequently, providing meaning to a neutral stimulus with another
meaningful stimulus, It is the process of associating, and consequently, providing meaning to a neutral
stimulus with another meaningful stimulus, in order to elicit similar response
For example, we learned not to tell lies because it can cause us to lose our credibility and to lose our
friends, or that we learned how to dance by watching others demonstrate dance steps to us. We can
say that we have learned these things because we have acquired appropriate responses for them
CC makes use of our reflexes to teach associations. Almost all of us exhibit the same reflexes upon birth,
although some fade in time
5. BASIC PROCESS
OF CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning works
like this:
A neutral stimulus is paired
with a meaningful stimulus
until the neutral stimulus
gains the meaning of the
other stimulus.
A neutral stimulus
is paired with a
meaningful
stimulus until the
neutral stimulus
gains the meaning
of the other
stimulus.
From the
example above:
If thunder doesn't always come
after lightning, we would never
learn to cover our ears when
lightning strikes. Learning
through classical conditioning
doesn't take much time.
Learning extends beyond the
scope of proper education. Prior
schooling, we learned how to tie
our shoes, how to write, and
maybe, even how to read.
6. ACQUISITION
Acquisition is the initial
learning of the stimulus-
response link. Two important
aspects of acquisition are
contiguity and contingency.
Contiguity is the time interval
between the occurrence of the
meaningful stimulus and the
neutral stimulus. The optimal
time interval between the two
stimuli is 0.25 second.
Contingency, on the other
hand, is the predictability
between the two stimuli.
7. WHY STUDY A SECOND LANGUAGE
Learning a foreign language requires time
and dedication. Among the reasons for
acquiring a new language can be for: need,
for intellectual reasons, for social reasons, for
family reasons, for work and other reasons.
In this context, it is important to have a clear
idea of why we are learning a language and
what are the motivations of our studies.
8. Among these reasons can be counted:
Emigration
When you move to a different country
or region, learning the local language
will help you to communicate and
integrate with the local community.
Even if many of the locals speak your
language, your while learning the local
language. Doing so will demonstrate
your interest in and commitment to the
new country.
Family and friends
If your partner, in laws, relatives or
friends speak a different language,
learning that language will help you
to communicate with them. It can
also give you a better
understanding of their culture and
way of thinking.
Work
If your work involves regular contact
with speakers of foreign languages, being
able to talk to them in their own
languages will help you to communicate
with them. Knowledge of foreign
languages may also increase your
chances of finding a new job, getting a
promotion or a transfer overseas, or of
going on foreign business trips.
9. Generalization and/or Discrimination
Generalization is the
application of learning to
other similar stimuli. Using
the thunder -lightning
example, if you are watching
a movies, and lightning
striked in the movie, you
would probably expect to
hear thunder to follow.
Discrimination, on the other
hand, is the process of
knowing when not to elicit
similar response. Using the
example of the whistling kettle
above, if a family member
blows a whistle while you're
heating kettle on the stove,
you would probably know that
the whistle is not coming from
the kettle and water is not yet
boiling, because the sound of
the kettle whistle is not the
same as the one your family
member just blew.
The process of generalization
and discrimination is
important in learning. For
example, herbivores should
be able to distinguish edible
plants from poisonous ones.
Similarly, educators use this
process to check if students
understand the concepts
taught in class. Multiple-
choice questions are
oftentimes used to evaluate
how a student can
discriminate one concept
from another.
10. EXTINCTION SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY
Extinction is the process of unlearning the
conditioned stimulus. The philosophy
behind acquisition and extinction is this:
"If it can be learned, it can also be
unlearned." Extinction occurs with the
absence of the unconditioned or originally
meaningful stimulus. With extinction, the
conditioned response weakens.
Unlike acquisition, unlearning a
conditioned stimulus takes time. To
demonstrate our difficulty to unlearn,
spontaneous recovery is the recurrence
of the conditioned response despite
continued absence of the conditioned
stimulus after a period of rest. The good
thing is that spontaneous recovery
quickly dies out, and the negative
hyperbola gets even smaller in time.
11. How humans learn a foreign language
One of the biggest questions over human behavior is whether
our actions are determined by our natures, or by our nurtures
In other words, do we act the way we
do because of genetic programming –
innate qualities that we have no power
over – or is it the way we are brought
up, treated, educated, and so forth.
This will be discussed in
more detail in human
sciences, but the debate
interests us in language
in the question over
how we learn to speak.
Is it an innate human, or is it
purely a result of our
environment, as we first
imitate our parents and
family members, and then
apply the rules of grammar to
perfect our powers of
communication?
12. Learning language is something we’re born to do. it’s an
instinct we have, which is proven, as one research paper
says, just by observation:
To believe that special biological adaptations are
a requirement, it is enough to notice that all the
children but none of the dogs and cats in the
house acquire language.
As children, we learn to think, learn to
communicate and intuitively pick up an
understanding of grammar rules in our
mother tongue, or native language. From
then on, we learn all new languages in
relation to the one we first knew—the one
that we used to understand the world
around us for the first time ever.
Although language is something we learn,
research has shown that the instinct to do so
is present from birth. Not only are we inclined
to process and adopt language, but it seems
that the human brain has common linguistic
constraints, regardless of the language we’ve
learned.
13. Learning a foreign language
When it comes to learning a
second language, adults are at
a disadvantage. As we age,
our brain’s plasticity (its ability
to create new neurons and
synapses) is reduced.
Following brain damage that
causes a loss of speech, for
instance, researchers have
observed that children are
more likely to regain the power
of speech, by creating new
pathways in the brain to replace
the damaged ones.
One theory of why learning a
foreign language is so hard for
adults focuses more on the
process we go through to do so,
rather than the loss of plasticity.
Robert Bley-Vroman explains in
Linguistic Perspectives on Second
Language Acquisition that adults
approach learning a new
language with an adult problem-
solving process, rather than in
the same way a child develops
language for the first time.
14. What is the best way to teach a second language?
There are many different things that factor
into the decision about how to teach a person
a second language, including the following:
• Language spoken in the home
• Amount of opportunity to practice the
second language
• internal motivation of the learner
• Reason that the second language is needed
• The ability of a person to use a second
language will depend on his or her family's
ability to speak more than one language. It
is important for parents/caregivers to
provide a strong language model. If you
cannot use the language well, you should
not be teaching it
15. Almost all human beings
acquire a language (and
sometimes more than one), to
the level of native competency,
before age 5. How do children
accomplish this remarkable feat
in such a short amount of time?
Which aspects of language
acquisition are biologically
programmed into the human
brain and which are based on
experience?
Do adults learn language
differently from children?
Researchers have long
debated the answers to
these questions, but
there is one thing they
agree on: language
acquisition is a complex
process.
Most researchers agree
that children acquire
language through interplay
of biology and
environmental factors. A
challenge for linguists is to
figure out how nature and
nurture come together to
influence foreign language
learning.
