Aula 03

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PRÁTICA DE ENSINO DE INGLÊS - I
Aula 3 – Theories of Language Acquisition - I
Tema da Apresentação
LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Agenda:
Brief Revision (Lesson 02);
Imitation (Aristotle);
Behaviorism – Context;
Behaviorism – Principles;
Behaviorism – Beliefs;
Summary;
Bibliography;
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Reflecting upon ...
“Imitation is natural to man from childhood, one of his advantages over the lower animals being this, that he is the most imitative creature in the world, and learns at first by imitation” (Aristotle, The Poetics, Chapter IV).
To what extent do you think this statement is true?
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Questions:
1) If children learn through imitation, how do they master the use of verb tenses, inflections, and many other structures, without being explicitly taught about them?
2) How is it possible for a child to incredibly manipulate complex linguistic structures in different languages (bilingualism) at a very early age?
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Acquisition versus Learning:
Acquisition:
Krashen (1982, p. 10) argues that: “Language acquisition is a subconscious process; language acquirers are not usually aware of the fact that they are acquiring, but are only aware of the fact that they are using the language for communication”. 
Acquisition = implicit learning = “picking-up a language”
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Acquisition versus Learning:
Learning:
According to Krashen (1982, p. 10) “the term ‘learning’ [refers] to conscious knowledge [...], knowing the rules, being aware of them, and being able to talk about them. In non-technical terms, learning is ‘knowing about’ a language, known to most people as ‘grammar’ or ‘rules”.
Learning = conscious knowledge
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Behaviorism – Context:
“The dominant psychological theory of the 1950s and 1960s was behaviorist learning theory. According to this theory, language learning is like any other kind of learning in that it involves habit formation. Habits are formed when learners respond to stimuli in the environment and subsequently have their responses reinforced so that they are remembered. Thus, a habit is a stimulus-response connection”. (Ellis, 2003, p. 31)
Behaviorism = a Theory of Habit Formation
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Behaviorism – Idea - I:
“It was believed that all behaviors... could be explained in terms of habits. Learning took place when learners had the opportunity to practice, making the correct response to a given stimulus. Learners imitated models of correct language (i.e. stimuli) and received positive reinforcement if they were correct and negative reinforcement if they were incorrect”. (Ellis, 2003, p. 31)
Behaviorism = all behaviors (even language learning) could be explained in terms of habits.
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Behaviorism – Idea - II:
“As the name implies, behaviorism focused on people´s behaviors, which are directly observable, rather than on the mental systems underlying these behaviours. Language was viewed as a kind of verbal behavior, and it was proposed that children learn language through imitation, reinforcement, analogy, and similar processes” (Fromklin, Rodman and Hyams, 2009)
Consequently, the structure of a language was not inside the individual: it had to be “built-in”. A child´s mind was thought to be similar to a Tabula Rasa (a mind not yet affected by experiences, impressions).
Behaviorism = imitation, reinforcement, analogy.
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Reflecting upon ...
“Due to this perspective, we may infer that innate knowledge would be a result of the child´s ability to establish connections between stimuli or between stimuli and responses, based on similarities and continuity”.
Question: From the ideas aforementioned, is it reasonable to say that knowledge/language is acquired on a linear basis?
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
One Example:
The child is not really imitating the adult speech. Had the child done that, he/she would have been able to “correct himself/herself”.
Child: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
Adult: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?
Child: Yes.
Adult: What did you say she did?
Child: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
Adult: Did you say she held them tightly?
Child: No, she holded them loosely.
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Behaviorism: Basic Procedures & Beliefs
The essential step-by-step procedure in this theory of language acquisition has its roots on the following line of thought (beliefs): 
	“a child learns how to use his/her language correctly mainly because he/she has opportunities to practice using language in response to a given stimulus” 
As a consequence:
“Every time the child ‘produces’ language, he/she receives positive reinforcement if the language is considered grammatical, and negative reinforcement if the language is considered ungrammatical”.
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Reflecting upon ...
1) What about children´s learning autonomy, i.e. “the freedom to determine his/her own actions or behavior”?
2) Parental control will be the only source of language available for the child to be in contact with? 
3) Think about register, i.e., “a form of language associated with a particular social situation or subject matter” . Wouldn´t the child be confused as soon as two different forms are related to a single function?
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Behaviorism: Typical Model (Principle)
“Every child needs formal teaching and guidance in order to learn language well”
Question: Do you reckon instruction is the same as teaching?
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Behaviorism: Analogy & Structured Input
Other typical beliefs in this theory of language acquisition are:
	1) “Children use the phrases and sentences they hear as models to form new ones. In other words, they would form phrases and sentences by analogy”;
	2) “It has also been suggested that children acquire a language because adults facilitate this process by talking to them in a simplified manner (baby talk)”; 
Analogy → a comparison 
Baby Talk → simplified language input
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Reflecting upon ...
If children, theoretically, depend on simplified language input, as well as analogy to, not only acquire his/her mother language, but also to produce differently new utterances:
Whatwill happen to a child who moves into a new community whose language differs completely from his/her mother tongue? 
To matters worse, what if his/her parents do not have any background knowledge on this language as well?
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Conclusion - I:
“Analogy, imitation, and reinforcement cannot account for language development because they are based on the (implicit or explicit) assumption that what the child acquires is a set of sentences or forms rather than a set of grammatical rules. Theories that assume that acquisition depends on a specially structured input also place too much emphasis on the environment rather than on the grammar-making abilities of the child” (Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams, 2009).
In other words: proposals like those ones aforementioned fail in accounting for children´s creativity during the process of language acquisition
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LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Conclusion - II:
In terms of Second Language Acquisition:
“Behaviorism cannot adequately account for second language acquisition. This is due to the fact that second language learners, just like native speakers, do not imitate phrases and sentences they hear around them. Actually, when we consider the mistakes they make, we can easily see they are actively involved in the construction of their own ‘rules’, which can be very different from what they hear around them.
In other words: There is one language in-between the mother tongue and the desired language (L2): interlanguage, creatively “coined” by learners.
Tema da Apresentação
LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Summarizing ...
Brief Revision – Lesson 02;
Concept of Imitation;
Behaviorism: Context, Principles and Beliefs;
Reflection upon Behaviorist Theory;
Behaviorism & Second Language Acquisition;
Conclusion;
Tema da Apresentação
LESSON 03 – THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - I
PRÁTICA DE ENSINO E ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO DE INGLÊS I
Bibliography: 
ELLIS, Rod. Second language acquisition. Oxford: OUP, 1997.
FIORIN, José Luiz. (Org.) Introdução à linguística. São Paulo: Contexto, 2010, Vol. I & II.
KRASHEN, Stephen D. Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1982.
MARTELOTTA, Mário Eduardo (Org.). Manual de linguística. São Paulo: Contexto, 2010.
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