This document discusses several theories and concepts related to second language acquisition and models of instruction. It covers behaviourism, constructivism, language acquisition, mastery learning, schema theory, and concludes with a discussion of research on second language acquisition in classroom settings. The key findings are that children acquire language through both innate capacities and environmental influences, and that traditional grammar and vocabulary focused instruction is less effective for proficiency than communicative approaches that provide opportunities for meaningful use of the target language.

1. SECOND-LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND MODELS OF INSTRUCTION
Juan Francisco Oyana
2012/04/23
Behaviourism
Is also called learning perspective, is a philosophy of psychology based on the
proposition that all things that organisms do including acting, thinking, and
feeling can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological
disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns or modifying the
environment
Constructivism
Is the theory that deals with the way people create meaning of the world
through a series of individual constructs. Constructs are the different types of
filters we choose to place over our realities to change our reality from chaos to
order. Von Glasersfeld describes constructivism as, “a theory of knowledge with
roots in philosophy, psychology, and cybernetics”. Simply stated, it is a learning
process which allows a student to experience an environment first-hand,
thereby, giving the student reliable, trust-worthy knowledge. The student is
required to act upon the environment to both acquire and test new knowledge.
What is language Acquisition?
Language acquisition is a process. Humans acquire the capacity to perceive
and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words to

2. communicate. The capacity to successfully use language requires one to
acquire a range of tools including syntax, phonetics, and an
extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocalized as with speech or
manual as in sign. The human language capacity is represented in the brain.
Even though the human language capacity is finite, one can say and
understand an infinite number of sentences, which is based on a syntactic
principle called Recursion. Evidence suggests that every individual has three
recursive mechanisms that allow sentences to go indeterminately. These three
mechanisms are: relativization, complementation and coordination.[1] Language
acquisition usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants'
acquisition of their native language. This is distinguished from second language
acquisition, which deals with the acquisition (in both children and adults) of
additional languages.
The capacity to acquire and use language is a key aspect that distinguishes
humans from other beings. Although it is difficult to pin down what aspects of
language are uniquely human, there are a few design features that can be
found in all known forms of human language, but that are missing from forms
of animal communication.For example, many animals are able to communicate
with each other by signaling to the things around them, but this kind of
communication lacks the arbitrariness of human vocabularies (in that there is
nothing about the sound of the word "dog" that would hint at its meaning). Other
forms of animal communication may utilize arbitrary sounds, but are unable to
combine those sounds in different ways to create completely novel messages
which can then be automatically understood by another.Hockett called this
design feature of human language "productivity." It is crucial to the
understanding of human language acquisition that we are not limited to a finite
set of words, but, rather, must be able to understand and utilize a complex
system that allows for an infinite number of possible messages. So, while many
forms of animal communication exist, they differ from human languages, in that
they have a limited range of non-syntactically structured vocabulary tokens that
lack cross cultural variation between groups.
A major question in understanding language acquisition is how these capacities
are picked up by infants from what appears to be very little input. Input in the
linguistic context is defined as "All words, contexts, and other forms of language
to which a learner is exposed, relative to acquired proficiency in first or second
languages" It is difficult to believe, considering the hugely complex nature of
human languages, and the relatively limited cognitive abilities of an infant, that
infants are able to acquire most aspects of language without being explicitly
taught. Children, within a few years of birth, understand the grammatical rules of
their native language without being explicitly taught, as one learns grammar in
school.A range of theories of language acquisition have been proposed in order
to explain this apparent problem. These theories, championed by the likes
of Noam Chomsky and others, include innatism and Psychological nativism, in
which a child is born prepared in some manner with these capacities, as
opposed to other theories in which language is simply learned as one learns to
ride a bike. The conflict between the traits humans are born with and those that
are a product of one's environment is often referred to as the "Nature vs.
Nurture" debate. As is the case with many other human abilities and

3. characteristics, it appears that there are some qualities of language acquisition
that the human brain is automatically wired for (a "nature" component) and
some that are shaped by the particular language environment in which a person
is raised (a "nurture" component).
What is mastery learning?
There is a school of thought that presumes all children can learn if they are
provided with the appropriate learning conditions. Learning for
mastery ormastery learning, are terms coined by Benjamin Bloom in 1968 and
1971 respectively. Bloom hypothesized that a classroom with a mastery
learning focus as opposed to the traditional form of instruction would reduce the
achievement gaps between varying groups of students In Mastery learning,
"the students are helped to master each learning unit before proceeding to a
more advanced learning task.
Schema teory.
 An organized pattern of thought or behavior.
 A structured cluster of pre-conceived ideas.
 A mental structure that represents some aspect of the world.
 A specific knowledge structure or cognitive representation of the self.
 A mental framework centering on a specific theme that helps us to organize
social information.
 Structures that organize our knowledge and assumptions about something
and are used for interpreting and processing information.
Conclusion
While the majority of SLA research has been devoted to language learning in a
natural setting, there have also been efforts made to investigate second-
language acquisition in the classroom. This kind of research has a significant
overlap with language education, but it is always empirical, based
on data and statistics, and it is mainly concerned with the effect that instruction
has on the learner, rather than what the teacher does.
The research has been wide-ranging. There have been attempts made to
systematically measure the effectiveness of language teaching practices for
every level of language, from phonetics to pragmatics, and for almost every

4. current teaching methodology. This research has indicated that many traditional
language-teaching techniques are extremely inefficient. cited in Ellis 1994 It is
generally agreed that pedagogy restricted to teaching grammar rules and
vocabulary lists does not give students the ability to use the L2 with accuracy
and fluency. Rather, to become proficient in the second language, the learner
must be given opportunities to use it for communicative purposes.
Another area of research has been on the effects of corrective feedback in
assisting learners.This has been shown to vary depending on the technique
used to make the correction, and the overall focus of the classroom, whether on
formal accuracy or on communication of meaningful content. There is also
considerable interest in supplementing published research with approaches that
engage language teachers in action research on learner language in their own
classrooms As teachers become aware of the features of learner language
produced by their students, they can refine their pedagogical intervention to
maximize interlanguage development.