This document outlines theories of language learning, covering historical background, basic concepts, key issues, and approaches. It discusses the shift from practice-oriented to theory-oriented study, and the development of related fields. Key concepts covered include the differences between L1, L2, and FL. Approaches discussed include the linguistic approach, functional-typological approach, information processing/cognitive approach, and socio-cultural approach. Current issues focus on the cognitive underpinnings of L2 learning and representation of multiple languages in the brain.

1. Theories of language learning:
key issues, central topics and
basic approaches
MA. Program of Language education
Wu Heping
Tel: 7972101
Email: wuhp@nwnu.edu.cn
wuhpnet@gmail.com
Course site: http://wuhpnet.googlepages.com/sla

2. Theories of language learning:
an outline
 Historical background
 Basic concepts
 Key issues
 Approaches
 Current thinking and future trend

3. Background
 Disillusionment of the search for the “best language teaching method”
 From practice-oriented to theory-oriented
 2 phases
 To adduce implications for language teaching from the then-current behaviorist
thinking in experimental psychology and American structuralism
 To study the nature of L2 development; independent discipline for its own sake
 The development of the neighouring science.
 Applied linguistics
 Linguistics
 Psycholinguistics
 Cognitive Science
 Error Analysis and Contrastrive Analysis. Etc.
 S. P. Corder: The best teaching method is the one that facilitate, rather than
impede the natural language learning process.

4. Basic concepts
 Language
 First language, second language,
foreign language
 Language learning and acquisition

5. The basics of human
language
 Language is systematic and generative.
 Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.
 Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also
be visual.
 The symbols have conventionalized meanings to
which they refer.
 Language is used for communication.
 Language operates in a speech community or
culture.
 Language is essentially human, although
possibly not limited to humans.
 Language is acquired by all people in much the
same way---language and language learning both
have universal characteristics.

6. Language: what needs to be
learnt by language acquirers?
An easy answer: a second language learner
needs to learn the ‘grammar’ of the target
language.
grammar=form+function
The form and function of a linguistic structure is
usually acquired unconsciously in first
language acquisition.

7. Basic concepts of language
learning
 L1, L2 and FL
 Learning and acquisition
 Competence and performance

8. L1 and L2
 L1
 The L1 terms are used to
indicate that a person
has acquired the
languages in infancy and
early childhood and
generally within the
family.
 Besides, the L1 terms
signal a characteristic
level of proficiency in
the language. They
suggest an intuitive,
native-like, full or
perfect command of the
language.
 L2
 The concept of L2 (non-
native language, second
language, foreign
language)implies the prior
availability to the individual
of an L1, in other words
some form of bilingualism.
 The L2 terms may indicate
a lower level of proficiency
in the language in
comparison with the
primary language.

9. Discussion: what other
differences can you see between
L1 and L2
L1 acquisition L2 acquisition
Goal
Success
Variation
Error
correction
Affective
factor
Others
Input

10. L2 and FL
 L2
 non-native language learnt
and used within the speech
community where the
language is used.
 Since the second language
is frequently the official
language or one of two or
more recognized languages,
it is needed for full
participation in the political
and economic life of the
nation.
 FL
 Non-native language learnt
and used outside the
speech community where
the language is used.
 Foreign language learning
is often undertaken with a
variety of different purposes
in mind. i.e. travel abroad,
communication with native
speaker, reading of a
foreign language, pass an
examination, find a decent
job, etc.

11. Classroom Discussion
 To become aware of the complexity of
the interaction of different factors
involved in different types of non-native
language, please compare the following
five acquisitional settings and try to find
factors that that are different from
these settings.

12. learning, acquisition
 learning vs. acquisition
 The term of acquisition in preferred by
some theorists because they believe
that the process of language
acquisition was viewed as a biological
process of growth and maturation rather
than is one of social learning through
experience, environmental influence or
deliberate teaching.

13. Learning vs.
acquisition
 Krashen uses the term acquisition to
describe second language learning which
is analogous to the way in which a
child acquires his first language, that
is ‘naturally’, without focus on
linguistic form, and ‘learning’ as
conscious language development
particularly in formal school-like
settings.

14. Competence vs. performance
 Competence consists of the mental representation of
linguistic rules which constitute the speaker-hearer’s
internalized grammar.
 Performance consists of the comprehension and
production of language.
 Language acquisition studies are interested in how
competence is developed. However, because the
rules the learner has internalized are not open to
direct inspection, it has been necessary to examine
how the learner permforms, mainly in production.
 One of the major problems of SLA research has been precisely to what
extent competence is inferred from performance.

15. Key issues in language
learning theories
 Language, First language , second language &
foreign language
 Learning vs. acquisition
 Competence vs. performance
 The role of first language
 The role of input
 The role of formal instruction
 Factors involved in language learning

16. The role of first language
 Between the post-war years and 1960s, there was a
strong assumption that most of the difficulties facing
the L2 learner were imposed by his or her first
language. i.e. Difference=difficulties. Llarge
proportion of grammatical errors could not be
explained by L1 interference. As a result of such
studies, the role of the L1 becomes one of the key
issues in SLA studies.
 This hypothesis was put under challenge in the late
1960s. A role of the L1 was played down.
 L1 may contribute to learning in entirely different
ways. Tranfer is then positively perceived as a
learning strategy.

17. The role of input
 The input constitutes the language to which the
learner is exposed. It serves as the data which the
learner must use to determine the rules of the target
languages.
 Early theories of SLA, based on the behaviourist
notion of of habit formation through practice and
reinforcement, emphasized the importance of the
input. The whole process of learning could be
controlled by presenting the L2 in the right-sized
doses and ensuring that the learner continued to
practise until each feature is overlearned. Learning L2
was just like any other kind of learning via building
stimulus-response links.

18. Behaviorist Account of Learning
Input Response
Positive
Reinforcement
Negative
Reinforcement

19. The role of input (II)
 This view of learning was challenged in the
1960, notably by Chomsky. As mentalist view
of language learning emphasized what he
called the learner’s he observed that the was
no match between the learner’s input and
output. Chomsky’s ‘langauge acquisition
devide’ and played down the role of the
linguistic input, which is merely a trigger to
activate the device.
 Example: input: went-----output goed.

20. Mentalist Account of Language
Learning
Language
Acquistion
Device (LAD)
Output
(Language Produced
by the Learner.
Input
(Language Data)

21. The role of input (III)
 The input that the learners are exposed to is
not adequate for them to make
generalizations in the target language.
 Krashen’s comprehensible input: language
learning takes place if the learners are
provided with the input that they can
understand.
 Now it is assumed that it is not so much
‘input’ as interaction that is important.

22. The role of formal instruction
 It is now believed that formal
instruction can not greatly change the
route of language development, but it
does change the rate of language
acquisition.

23. Approaches to SLA
 Linguistic approach
 Functional-typological approach
 Information processing (cognitive)
approach
 Socio-cultural approach

24. Linguistic approach
 Investigating the relationship between
the general principles of linguistic
structure and language acquisition.
 The basic assumption is the language is
acquired in the way that it is
represented in the mind of human
beings.

25. (1) a. * John likes not Mary.
b. Jean (n’)aime pas Marie.
John does not like Mary.
(2) a. * Likes she John?
b. Aime -t-elle Jean?
Does she like John?
(3) a. * John watches often television.
b. Jean regarde souvent la television.
c. Mary often watches television.
d. * Marie souvent regurde television.
(4) a. * My friends like all Mary.
b. Mes amis uiment tous Marie.
c. My friends all like Mary.
d. * Mes amis tous uiment Marie.
my friends all like Marie

26. The functional-typographical
framework
 Linguistic research within this tradition
seeks universal empirical
generalizations about the structure of
human language. Explanations of these
generalizations are then sought in
functional and ormal features of the
elements involved.

27. Noun Phrase Accessibility
Hierarchy (NPAH)
 Subject > Direct Object > Indirect Object > Object of
a Preposition >Genitive > Object of a Comparative
 The NPAH is the basis for a number of empirical
generalizations about the languages of the world,
Within relative clauses, if a language can extract a
noun phrase in a given grammatical function in the
hierarchy, then it can extract a noun phrase in any
grammatical function higher in the hierarchy (though
not necessarily conversely).

28. Information-processing (cognitive)
approach
 Under this approach, SLA is viewed as
the development of a highly complex
skill-like attainment of other,
nonlinguistic skills, such as playing
chess or mathmatical problem solving.
 What implications does this approach
have on our understanding of language
acquisition?

29. Variationist (socio-cultural)
approach
 Under this approach, thevariability of structural
features in speech production is studied with the
purpose of determining the linguistic, psycholinguistic,
social psychological and psychological basis for that
variability.
 This general approach was developed in the 1960s
primarily by William Labov for the main purpose of
investigating correlations between quantitative
properties of the speech of individuals on one hand
and a number of other variables on the other.

30. Current issues in SLA
 What cognitive structures and abilities underlie the L2
learner’s use of his or her L2?
 What properties of the linguistic input to the L2
learner are relevant to acquisition?
 What is the nature of the L2 learner’s capacity for
attaining the cognitive structure and abilities?
 What’s the nature of the L2 learner’s overall capacity for
language acquisition?
 How is that capacity deployed in real time to determine the
course of SLA?
 How are the L2 user’s two (or more) languages represented
in the brain?
 What changes in brain structure, if any, underlie changes in
the capacity for language acquisition across the life span of
the individual?