The nature of language slideshare.net

DAY 3: THE NATURE OFDAY 3: THE NATURE OF
LANGUAGELANGUAGE,THE NATURE OF,THE NATURE OF
LEARNING AND LANGUAGELEARNING AND LANGUAGE
LEARNINGLEARNING
Elih Sutisna Yanto,M.Pd., MMElih Sutisna Yanto,M.Pd., MM
elihsutisnayanto@gmail.com
Department of English Education Faculty of Teachers
Training and Education, UNIVERSITAS NEGERI
SINGAPERBANGSA KARAWANG

Learning Points
1. Three different views of
The nature of language
2. Definition of learning
3. Theory of language
learning

The Structural view
of language

Wednesday, March 18, 2015 4
The structural view of language is
that language is a system of
structurally related elements for the
transmission of meaning.

These elements are usually described
as

Functional and structural words
• Functional/Content words (in blue) are further classified
into Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs. There are
tens of thousands of them in a language and so they
make up most of the words in a dictionary. Proper nouns
(names of people and places) are not usually a problem
for understanding, but are also Content Words.
Structure words (in black italic above) are further
classified
into Determiners, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Pro
nouns. We'll be looking at them later. They are very
common, and there are only a couple of hundred of them.
Most of them are short, worn down from constant use.
They mostly indicate grammatical relations.

Areas of research in this view of
language
•Linguistic analysis
•Textual discourse analysis

Target of language learning
The mastery of element of this
system

Methods based on this view
•The audiolingual method
•Total Physical Response
•The Silent Way

Summary of Structural View
Structural view: It views language as a system of
structurally related element.
The target of language learning is seen to be the mastery
of elements of this system, which are generally defined in
terms of phonological units (e.g., phonemes), grammatical
units (e.g., clauses, phrases, sentences), grammatical
operations (e.g., adding, shifting, joining, or transforming
elements), and lexical items (e.g., function words and
structure words)
For examples: the Audiolingual method, the Total Physical
Response, and the Silent Way embody this particular view
of language.

The
Communicative
view of language

The communicative, or functional
view of language is the view that
language is a vehicle for the
expression of functional meaning.
The semantic and communicative
dimensions of language are more
emphasized than the grammatical
characteristics, although these are
also included.

langauge
•Sosiolinguistics
•Pragmatics
•Semantics

To learn to express
communication functions and
categories of meaning.

Approaches and Methods based on
this view are:
•Communicative approaches
•Functional-notional syllabuses
•The natural approach

Summary of functional view
Functional view: It regards language as a vehicle for the
expression of functional meaning.
The communicative movement in language teaching
subscribes to this view of language.
This theory emphasizes the semantic and
communicative dimension rather than merely the
grammatical characteristics of language, and
Leads to a specification and organization of language
teaching content by categories of meaning and function
rather than by elements of structure and grammar.

The Interactional
view of language

The interactional view of language
sees language primarily as the
means for establishing and
maintaining interpersonal
relationships and for performing
social transactional between
individuals.

langauge
•Interactional analysis
•Conversational analysis
•ethnomethodology

Learning to initiate and maintain
conversations with other people.

Approaches and Methods based on
this view are:
•Strategic interaction
•Communicative approaches

Summary of Interactional view
3. Interactional view: It sees language as a vehicle for
the realization of interpersonal relations and for the
performance of social transactions between
individuals.
Language is seen as a tool for the creation and
maintenance of social relations.
The development of interactional approach to
language teaching include interactional analysis,
conversational analysis, and ethnomethodology,

The common assumptions about the
nature of the language
1. Language is a group of sounds with specific
meaning and organized by grammatical rules
(The Silent Way).
2. Language is the everyday spoken utterance of
the average person at normal speed (Audio
Lingual Method).
3. Language is a system for the expression of
meaning (Communicative Language Teaching).
4. Language is a set of grammatical rules and
language consists of language chunks (Total
Physical Responses)

Definitions of learning
1. A change in behavior as a result of experience or
practice.
2. The acquisition of knowledge.
3. Knowledge gained through study.
4. To gain knowledge of , or skill in, through study,
teaching, instruction or experience.
5. The process of gaining knowledge.
6. A process by which behavior is changed, shaped,
or controlled.
7. The individual process of constructing
understanding based on experience from a wide
range of sources.
(Alan Prichard 2009:2)

What is language
learning approach?

A language learning approach
consists of the following three
elements:
•View about the nature of language
•Beliefs about language learning,
and
•Ideas about how the above should
be applied practically to language
learning and teaching.

Examples of Approaches:
•The Oral Approach
•The Structural Approach
•The Natural Approach
•The Communicative Approach

What is Theory of
language learning?

A theory of language learning is an
account of the psycholinguistic and
cognitive processes involved in
learning a language and of the
conditions that need to be met in
order for these processes to take
place.

Kinds
•Process-oriented theories and
•Condition-oriented theories

What is a process-oriented language
learning theory?
•Habit-formation
•Induction
•Inferencing
•Hypothesis-testing
•generalization

What is a condition-oriented language
learning theory?
Definition: condition-oriented language
learning theories emphasize the human and
physical context in which language learning
takes place.
Examples: Charles Curran’s Counseling-
learning theory focuses primarily on the
conditions necessary for learning, as does
the theory behind Gattegno’s Silent Way.
(both described in Stevick, 1980, 1990.)

•It is based on the premise that the
teacher should be silent as much
as possible in the classroom but
the learner should be encouraged
to produce as much language as
possible.

What is language learning method?
A language learning method is an
overall plan for learning a second
language or foreign language, based
on the theoretical approach selected.
It involves the design of a syllabus for
the course, which in turn consists of
objectives and techniques for
achieving those objectives.

Examples
•The language Learning Cycle
•Total Physical Response
•Suggestopedia
•Counseling Learning
•Direct Method

What is language learning
technique?
• An explicit procedure or stratagem (clever scheme) used
accomplish a particular learning objective or set of
objectives.
• Examples:
• Techniques for self-directed language learners for
descriptions of a variety of specific technique.
• What do you need to know to learn a foreign language?
Paul-Nation

The nature of language learning:
1. Behaviorism: Stimulus- Response-
Reinforcement.- Drilling, exercise,
repetition.
2. Nativism: A child naturally has a
language acquisition device. (Kodrati).
3. Constructivism: A child acquired a
language through interaction between
the child and environment. (Jean
Piaget).

The nature of learning:
1. Behaviorism is a theory of learning
focusing on observable behavior and
discounting any mental activity.
Learning is defined simply as the
acquisition of new behavior. (Alan
Prichard 2009:6)

Learning a first language
Say what I say: the behaviorist position
Traditional behaviorists believed that language
learning is simply a matter of imitation and habit
formation.
Children imitate the sounds and patterns which they
hear around them and receive positive reinforcement
( the form of praise or just successful
communication) for doing so.
The quality and quantity of the language which the
child hears, as well as the consistency of the
reinforcement offered by others in the environment,
should have an effect on the child’s success in
language learning.

It’s all in your mind: the innatists position
The linguist Noam Chomsky claims that children are
biologically programmed for language and that
language develops in the child in just the same way
that other biological functions develop.
For example, every child will learn to walk as long as
adequate nourishment and reasonable freedom of
movement are provided.
The child does not have to be taught, most children
learn to walk at about the same time, and walking is
essentially the same in all normal human beings.

Chomsky (1959) argues that
behaviorism cannot provide
sufficient explanations for
children’s language acquisition for
the following reasons:

•Children come to know more about
the structure of their language than
they could be expected to learn on
the basis of the samples of language
they hear.

•The language children are exposed to
includes false starts, incomplete
sentences and slips of the tongue, and
yet they learn to distinguish between
grammatical and ungrammatical
sentences.
•Children are by no means systematically
corrected or instructed on language by
parents.

Cont...
For Chomsky, language acquisition is very similar to
the development of walking.
The environment makes a basic contribution – in
this case, the availability of people who speak to the
child. The child, or rather, the child’s biological
endowment, will do the rest.
Chomsky developed his theory in reaction to the
behaviorist theory of learning based on imitation and
habit formation.

LAD: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
DEVICE ( or BLACK BOX)
• It contains all and only the principles which are universal to all
human languages
(i.e.. Universal Grammar – UG).

CONCLUSION
• Children’s acquisition of grammatical rules
is guided by principles of an innate UG
which could apply to all languages.
• Children “know” certain things of the
language just by being exposed to a
limited number of samples.

Evidence used to support Chomsky’s
innatist position:
Virtually all children
successfully learn their native language
at a time in life
when they would not be expected
to learn anything else so complicated
(i.e. biologically programmed).

•Language is separate from other
aspects of cognitive developments
(e.g., creativity and social grace)
and may be located in a different
“module" of the brain.

The language children are exposed to
does not contain examples
of all the linguistic rules and patterns.

Animals cannot learn
to manipulate a symbol system
as complicated as
the natural language
of a 3- or 4-year-old child.

Children acquire grammatical rules
without getting explicit instruction.

The biological basis for the innatist position:
The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) –Lenneberg:
• There is a specific and limited time period (i.e., “critical period”)
for the LAD to work successfully.
• Only when it is stimulated
at the right time

Virtually every child learns language on a
similar schedule in spite of different
environments.
• Three case studies of abnormal language
development - evidence of the CPH
•Victor – a boy of about 12 years old (1799)
•Genie – a girl of 13 years old (1970)
•Deaf signers (native signers, early learners,
vs. late learners)

Cognitive, constructivist learning
Constructivists view learning as the result
of mental construction. That is, learning
take place when new information is built
into and added onto an individual’s
current structure of knowledge,
understanding and skills. We learn best
when we actively construct our own
understanding (Alan Prichard 2009:17)

Mom’s the word: the interactionist position
A third theoretical position focuses on the role of the
linguistic environment in interaction with the child’s
innate capacities in determining language
development.
‘The interactionist’ position is that language develops
as a result of the complex interplay between the
uniquely human characteristics of the child and the
environment in which the child develops.
Unlike the innatists, the interactionists claim that
language which is modified to suit the capability of the
learner is a crucial element in the language acquisition
process.

Cont...
For example: Caretaker talk (Motherese)
 We are familiar with the way adults typically modify
the way they speak when addressing little children.
In English, caretaker talk involves a slower rate of
speech, higher pitch, more varied intonation, shorter,
simple sentence patterns, frequent repetition, and
paraphrase.
Example:
Son : I putted the plates on the table.
Mother : You mean, I put the plates on the table.
Son : No, I putted them on all by myself.

The following assumptions relate to theories of learning and
teaching
1. Learning is facilitated if language learners discover
rather than repeat and remember without
understanding what is to be learned (Silent Way).
2. Learning involves the unconscious functions, as
well as the conscious functions (Suggestopedia).
3. The norms of the society often block the process of
learning (Suggestopedia)
4. Language learning will take place if language
learners maintain their feeling of security
(Community Language Learning).
5. Language learning is a process of habit formation
(Audio Lingual Method)

ASSUMPTION ABOUT LEARNING
AND TEACHING, WHICH HAVE
BEEN DEVELOPED FROM
THEORIES IN PSYCHOLOGY,
SEEM TO DEVELOP FASTER
THAN THOSE ABOUT THE
NATURE OF LANGUAGE.

Method
The plan of language teaching which consistent
with the theories. (Edward Anthony-1963)
Method may mean different things to different
people (Mackey, 1975:155) For some , it means a
set of teaching procedures; for others, the
avoidance of teaching procedures. For some, it is
the primary of a language skill; for others, it is the
type and amount of vocabulary and structure.

Method cont...
The term “method” in the Direct Method may refer
to a single aspect of language teaching:
presentation of material.
Method in the Reading Method refers to the
emphasis of a single language skill: reading, while
In the Grammar Translation Method, method
refers to the emphasis of the teaching material.

Method cont...
According to Mackey (1975:157), all teaching,
whether good or bad, must include some sort
of selection, some sort of gradation, some sort
of presentation, and some sort of repetition.
Therefore, all methods should include the four
steps of teaching a language.
Any method should include the four steps:
selection, gradation, presentation, and
repetition.

Method
According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), a
method is theoretically related to an approach,
organized by the design, and practically
realized in procedure.

Technique
Carry out a method. It is
implementational, meaning
that a technique is something
that actually takes place in
language teaching or learning
in the classroom.

Technique cont...
The following are some examples of techniques in error
correction.
1.The teacher does not praise or criticize so that language
learners learn to rely on themselves (Silent Way).
2.The teacher often praises when a student has made a
good thing in learning (Audio Lingual Method).
3.When a student has produced a wrong expression, the
teacher just repeats the right one (Total Physical
Response).
4.The teacher does not care when a student make an error
as long as it does not hinder (delay/prevent)
communication (Natural Method)

The Term of Technique
(H.D. Brown 2007:180)
1. Task. Task usually refers to a specialized form of
technique or series of techniques closely allied with
communicative curricula, and as such must minimally
have communicative goals. It is focuses on the
authentic use of language for meaningful
communicative purpose beyond the language
classroom.

2. Activity. Activity may refer to virtually anything that learners
do in the classroom.
 We usually refer to a reasonably unified set of student
behavior, limited in time, preceded by some direction from
the teacher, with a particular objective.
 Activities include role plays, drills, games, peer-editing,
small-group information-gap exercise, and much more.
 Because an activity implies some sort of active performance
on the part of learners, it is generally not used to refer to
certain teacher behaviors like saying “good morning,”
maintaining eye contact with students, explaining a grammar
point, or writing a list of words on the chalkboard.
Such teacher behavior, however can indeed be referred to
as technique.

3. Procedure. Richards and Rodgers (2001) used
the term procedure to encompass “the actual
moment-to-moment techniques, practices, and
behaviour that operate in teaching a language
according to a particular method” (p.26)
 Procedures from this definition, include
techniques. Thus, for Richards and Rodgers,
this appears to be a catchall term, a thing for
holding many small objects or a group or
description that includes different things and
that does not state clearly what is included or
not.

4. Practice, behaviour, exercise,
strategy...
In the language-teaching
literature, these terms, and
perhaps some others, all
appear to refer , in varying
degrees of intensity, to what is
defined as technique.

5. Technique
 Even before Anthony (1963) discussed and defined the
term, the language teaching literature generally
accepted technique as a superordinate term to refer to
various activities that either teachers or learners
perform in the classroom.
 In other words, technique include all tasks and
activities.
 They almost always planned and deliberate, done on
purpose rather than by accident.

Cont...
They are the product of a choice made by
the teacher. And they can, for your purposes
as a language teacher, comfortably refer to
the pedagogical units or components of a
classroom session.
You can think of a lesson as consisting of a
number of techniques, some teacher-
centered, some learner-centered, some
production-centered, some comprehension-
centered, some clustering together to form a
task.

Taxonomy of language-teaching Techniques (adapted
from Crookes & Chaudron,1991 pp.52-54)
Controlled Techniques
1.Warm-up: Mimes, dance, songs, jokes, play. This activity
gets the students stimulated, relaxed, motivated, attentive, or
otherwise engage and ready for the lesson. It does not
necessarily involves use of the target language.
2.Setting: Focusing on lesson topic. Teacher directs attention
to the topic by verbal or nonverbal evocation of the context
relevant to the lesson by questioning or miming or picture
presentation, possibly by tape recording of situations and
people.
3.Organizational: Structuring of lesson or class activities
includes disciplinary action, organization of class furniture and
seating, general procedures for class interaction and
performance, structure and purpose of lesson, etc.

4.Content Explanation: Grammatical, phonological, lexical
(vocabulary), sociolinguistic, pragmatic, or any other aspect of
language.
5.Role-play demonstration: Selected students or teacher
illustrate the procedure(s) to be applied in the lesson segment
to follow. Includes brief illustration of language or other content
to be incorporated.
6.Dialogue/Narrative presentation: Reading or listening passage
presented for passive reception. No implication of student
production or other identification of specific target forms or
functions (students may be asked to “understand”)
7.Dialogue/Narrative recitation: Reciting a previously known or
prepared text, either in unison or individually.

8.Reading aloud: Reading directly from a given text.
9.Checking: Teacher either circulating or guiding the
correction of students’ work, providing feedback as an
activity rather than within another activity.
10.Question-answer display: Activity involving prompting of
students responses by means of display questions (i.e.
teacher or questioner already knows the response or has a
very limited set of expectations for the appropriate
response). Distinguished from referential questions by the
likelihood of the questioner’s knowledge of the response
and the speaker’s awareness of that fact.

11.Drill: Typical language activity involving fixed patterns of
teacher prompting and student responding, usually with
repetition, substitution, and other mechanical alterations.
Typically with little meaning attached.
12.Translation: Student or teacher provision of L1 or L2
translation of given text.
13.Dictation: Student writing down orally presented text.
14.Copying: Student writing down text presented visually.
15.Identification: Student picking out and producing/labeling
or otherwise identifying a specific target form, function,
definition, or other lesson-related item.

16.Recognition: Student identifying forms, as in
identification (i.e., checking off items, drawing symbols,
rearranging pictures), but without a verbal responses.
17.Review: Teacher-led review of previous week/month/or
other period as a formal summary and type of test of
student recall performance.
18.Testing: Formal testing procedures to evaluate student
progress.
19.Meaningful drill: Drill activity involving responses with
meaningful choices, as in reference to different information.
Distinguished from information exchange by the regulated
sequence and general form of responses.

Semicontrolled Techniques
20.Brainstorming: A form of preparation for the lesson, like
Setting, which involves free, undirected contributions by the
students and teacher on a given topic, to generate multiple
associations without linking them; no explicit analysis or
interpretation by the teacher.
21.Storytelling (especially when student-generated): Not
necessarily lesson-based, a lengthy presentation of story by
teacher or student (may overlap with Warm-up or Narrative
recitation), May be used to maintain attention, motivate, or as
lengthy practice.
22.Question-answer, referential: Activity involving prompting of
responses by means of referential questions (i.e., the
questioner does not know beforehand the responses
information). Distinguished from Question-answer, display.

23.Cued narrative/Dialogue: Student production of narrative or
dialogue following cues from miming, cue cards, pictures, or
other stimuli related to narrative/dialogue (e.g., metalanguage
requesting functional acts).
24.Information transfer: Application from one mode (e.g.,
visual) to another (e.g., writing), which involves some
transformation of the information (e.g., student fills out diagram
while listening to description). Distinguished from Identification
in that the student is expected to transform and reinterpret the
language or information.
25.Information exchange: Task involving two-way communication as in
information-gap exercise, when one or both parties (or a larger group) must
share information to achieve some goal. Distinguished from Question-
answer, referential in that sharing of information is critical for the task.

26. Wrap-up: Brief teacher- or student-produced summary
of point and/or items that have been practiced or learned.
27.Narration/Exposition: Presentation of a story or
explanation derived from prior stimuli. Distinguished from
Cued narrative because of lack of immediate stimulus.
28.Preparation: Student study, silent reading, pair planning
and rehearsing, preparing for later activity. Usually a
student-directed or –oriented project.

Free Techniques
29.Role play: Relatively free acting out of specified roles
and functions. Distinguished from Cued dialogues by the
fact that cueing is provided only minimally at the beginning ,
and not during the activity.
30.Games: Various kinds of language game activity not like
other previously defined activities (e.g., board and dice
games making words).
31.Report: Report of student-prepared exposition on books,
experiences, project work, without immediate stimulus, and
elaborated on according to student interests. Akin to
Composition in writing mode.

Free Techniques
32.Problem solving: Activity involving specified problem and
limitations of means to resolve it; requires cooperation on part
of participants in small or large group.
33.Drama: Planned dramatic rendition of play, skit, story, etc.
34.Simulation: Activity involving complex interaction between
groups and individuals based on simulation of real-life actions
and experiences.
35.Interview: A student is directed to get information from
another student or students.
36.Discussion: Debate or other form of grouped discussion of
specified topic, with or without specified sides/positions
prearranged.

Free Techniques
37.Composition: As in Report (verbal),
written development of ideas, story, or
other exposition.
38.A propos: Conversation or other
socially oriented interaction/speech by
teacher, students, or even visitors, on
general real-life topics. Typically
authentic and genuine.

Some techniques will fit into more than one category.
Consider the “warm-up” activity suggested by Klippel
(1984,pp13-14) for beginning level class:
Step1: Each student writes his/her full name of a piece of
paper. All the papers are collected and redistributed
so that everyone receives the name of a person
he/she does not know.
Step 2: Everyone walks around the room and tries to find
the person whose name he/she holds. Simple questions
can be: “Is your name......? Are you......?
Step 3: When everyone has found his/her partner, he/she
introduces him/her to the group.

This exercise seems to fit into a number of possible categories.
It involves question-answer, referential activity; there is some
information exchange as well.; and in some ways either
problem solving or games may fit here.
The purpose in referring to such a taxonomy, therefore, is not
to be able to pinpoint every technique specifically. Rather, the
taxonomy is more of a help to you as
An aid to raising your awareness of the wide variety of
available techniques
An indicator of how techniques differ according to a continuum
ranging from controlled to free
A resource for your own personal brainstorming process as
you consider types of techniques for your classroom.

References
• Brown, D.H. (2001). Teaching by Principle.Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice
Hall.
• Clarke,M.A.1983. The scope of approach, the importance of method, and the
nature of technique. In J.E. Alatis. H.Stern,& P. Strevens (Eds.). Geogetown
University Round Table on Language and Linguistics 1983. : Applied
linguistics and the preparation of second language teachers (pp.106-115).
Washington, D.C: Georgetown University.
• Kumaravadivelu, B. 2006. Understanding Language teaching.New Jersey:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,Inc. , Publisher.
• Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language
Teaching. 2nd ed.Oxford: OUP
• Lightbown, P& Nina Spada.1993. How language are learned. New York:
Oxford University Press.
• Prichard, Alan.2009. Ways of Learning: Learning theories and learning styles
in the classroom. New York: Routledge.
• Richard, Jack C. , & Rodgers, Theodore S. (2001). Approaches and Methods
in Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press

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