MODULO DIDACTICS OF LANGUAGE

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MODULE 
 
Didactics of Languages 
 
Distance Educaction 
 
Universidade Pedagógica 
Rua Comandante Augusto Cardoso n˚ 135 
 
 
Copyright 
This Module cannot be printed for commercial purposes. In case of photocopying, reference should be 
made to Universidade Pedagógica and to the Authors of the module. 
Universidade Pedagógica 
 
Rua Comandante Augusto Cardoso, nº 135
Telefone: 21-320860/2 
Telefone: 21 – 306720 
Fax: +258 21-322113 
 
 
Acknowledgements 
 
To COMMONWEALTH of LEARNING (COL) for providing the Template used for the productions 
designing the modules 
To Instituto Nacional de Educação a Distância (INED) for the support and guidance provided 
To Magnificent Rector, Dean of Faculty, Heads of Department for support provided during whole 
process. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Technical Assistance 
 
 
Author: Lopés Nazaré 
Instructional Designing: Andrea Serra 
Language Review: Trindade Nahara 
Graphic Designing: Fátima Alberto Nhantumbo 
Edition: Anilda Ibrahimo Khan 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Contents 
About this Module 1 
How this Module is structured.......................................................................................... 1 
Course overview 3 
Welcome to Didactics of Language Module .................................................................... 3 
Didactics of Language Module -is this course for you? ................................................... 3 
Course outcomes............................................................................................................... 4 
Timeframe......................................................................................................................... 4 
Study skills........................................................................................................................ 5 
Need help? ........................................................................................................................ 6 
Assignments...................................................................................................................... 6 
Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 7 
Getting around this MODULE 8 
Margin icons ..................................................................................................................... 8 
Unit 1 9 
First Language Acquisition............................................................................................... 9 
Introduction ............................................................................................................. 9 
Lesson 1: Introduction into First Language Acquisition....................................... 10 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 12 
Lesson 2: Early Childhood Bilingualism .............................................................. 14 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 16 
Lesson 3: Behaviourism in First Language Acquisition ....................................... 17 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 20 
Lesson 4: Innatism Position in First Language Learning...................................... 21 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 25 
Lesson 2: The Biological Basis for the Innatist Position ...................................... 27 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 30 
Lesson 6: The Interactionist Position on First Language Acquisition .................. 31 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 34 
Unit summary ................................................................................................................. 35 
Unit 2 37 
Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language Learning .............................. 37 
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 37 
Lesson 1: Second Language Learning and Learners Factors ................................ 38 
Activity feedback............................................................................................................ 42 
Lesson 2: Behaviourism Position in Second Language Learning......................... 44 
 
 
ii Contents 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 45 
Lesson 3: Innatism Position in Second Language Learning ................................. 47 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 49 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 52 
Lesson 4: Recent Psychological Theories ............................................................. 54 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 56 
Lesson 5: The Interactionist Position .................................................................... 58 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 61 
Unit summary ................................................................................................................. 62 
Assignment ..................................................................................................................... 63 
Assessment...................................................................................................................... 63 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 64 
Unit 3 67 
Factors affecting second language learners .................................................................... 67 
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 67 
Lesson 1: 3 Factors affecting second language learners ....................................... 68 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 70 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 72 
Lesson 2:................................................................................................................ 74 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 75 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 77 
Lesson 3:................................................................................................................ 78 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 79 
Lesson 4:................................................................................................................ 80 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 82 
Lesson 5:................................................................................................................83 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 85 
Lesson 6:................................................................................................................ 86 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 90 
Unit summary ................................................................................................................. 91 
Assessment...................................................................................................................... 92 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 92 
Unit 4 95 
Factors affecting second language learners .................................................................... 95 
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 95 
Lesson 1: Grammar translation method ............................................................... 96 
Feedback ....................................................................................................................... 101 
Lesson 2: The Direct Method............................................................................. 101 
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 101 
Feedback ....................................................................................................................... 105 
Lesson 3: The Audio-Lingual Method ............................................................... 106 
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 106 
Feedback ....................................................................................................................... 111 
Lesson 4: The Total Physical Response Method................................................. 112 
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 112 
 
 
Feedback ....................................................................................................................... 116 
Lesson 5: The Communicative Approach ........................................................... 116 
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 117 
Feedback ....................................................................................................................... 121 
Unit summary ............................................................................................................... 121 
 
 
 1 
 
About this Module 
Didactics of language method has been produced by Universidade 
Pedagógica. All Modules produced by Universidade Pedagógica are 
structured in the same way, as outlined below. 
How this Module is structured 
The course overview 
The course overview gives you a general introduction to the course. 
Information contained in the course overview will help you determine: 
If the course is suitable for you. 
What you will already need to know. 
What you can expect from the course. 
How much time you will need to invest to complete the course. 
The overview also provides guidance on: 
Study skills. 
Where to get help. 
Course assignments and assessments. 
Activity icons. 
Units. 
We strongly recommend that you read the overview carefully before 
starting your study. 
The course content 
The course is broken down into units. Each unit comprises: 
An introduction to the unit content. 
Unit outcomes. 
 
 
About this Module 
 2 
 
New terminology. 
Core content of the unit with a variety of learning activities. 
A unit summary. 
Assignments and/or assessments, as applicable. 
Resources 
For those interested in learning more on this subject, we provide you with 
a list of additional resources at the end of this MODULE; these may be 
books, articles or web sites. 
Your comments 
After completing Distance Educaction we would appreciate it if you 
would take a few moments to give us your feedback on any aspect of this 
course. Your feedback might include comments on: 
Course content and structure. 
Course reading materials and resources. 
Course assignments. 
Course assessments. 
Course duration. 
Course support (assigned tutors, technical help, etc.) 
Your constructive feedback will help us to improve and enhance this 
course. 
 
 
 
 3 
 
Course overview 
Welcome to Didactics of 
Language Module 
 Welcome to Didactics of Languages Module. You will see that this 
module is divided into four units. You should see this handbook as the 
main reading to help you to answer the questions in the tests and 
assignments. I suggest you begin your studies with an overall skim 
reading of the handbook. 
 
Didactics of Language Module -is 
this course for you? 
This course is designed to address the needs of people who are working 
in the field of ELT with no prior training and with no possibility of doing 
so on a class based course. This means that, wherever necessary, 
instructions are given clearly so you know what to do although there is no 
teacher to ask. The course gives you an opportunity to practise many of 
the skills you will need in order to study a subject in English. It does not 
contain traditional language exercises. Make sure you have a good 
dictionary and a good grammar book to refer to when existing knowledge 
is not enough. 
You should be an upper- intermediate (the level of the Cambridge First 
Certificate in English) user of English and need either to learn the skills 
of study or to learn how to use familiar skills in the unfamiliar medium of 
English to handle the material in this module satisfactorily. 
 
 
 
Course overview 
 4 
 
Course outcomes 
Upon completion of Didactics of Languages Module you will be able to: 
 
Outcomes 
 provide overall accounts of the historical developments of English 
language teaching;. 
 explain the difference between first and second language acquisition;. 
 describe the factors that affect second language learners; 
 explain the characteristics of various teaching methods and 
approaches; 
 identify approaches being followed by teachers in lessons being 
observed. 
Timeframe 
 
How long? 
Each unit will depend on your own speed and how well you are 
organised. 
You should spend at least 2 hours a day to read each lesson. 
You should take at least two hours on self-study. 
 
 
 
 5 
 
Study skills 
 
Study skills 
As an adult learner your approach to learning will be different to that 
from your school days: you will choose what you want to study, you will 
have professional and/or personal motivation for doing so and you will 
most likely be fitting your study activities around other professional or 
domestic responsibilities. 
Essentially you will be taking control of your learning environment. As a 
consequence, you will need to consider performance issues related to 
time management, goal setting, stress management, etc. Perhaps you will 
also need to reacquaint yourself in areas such as essay planning, coping 
with exams and using the web as a learning resource. 
Your most significant considerations will be time and space i.e. the time 
you dedicate to your learning and the environment in which you engage 
in that learning. 
We recommend that you take time now—before starting your self-
study—to familiarize yourself with these issues. There are a number of 
excellent resources on the web. A few suggested links are: 
http://www.how-to-study.com/ 
The “How to study” web site is dedicated to study skills resources. 
You will find links to study preparation (a list of nineessentials for a 
good study place), taking notes, strategies for reading text books, 
using reference sources, test anxiety. 
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html 
This is the web site of the Virginia Tech, Division of Student Affairs. 
You will find links to time scheduling (including a “where does time 
go?” link), a study skill checklist, basic concentration techniques, 
control of the study environment, note taking, how to read essays for 
analysis, memory skills (“remembering”). 
http://www.howtostudy.org/resources.php 
Another “How to study” web site with useful links to time 
management, efficient reading, questioning/listening/observing skills, 
getting the most out of doing (“hands-on” learning), memory building, 
tips for staying motivated, developing a learning plan. 
The above links are our suggestions to start you on your way. At the time 
of writing these web links were active. If you want to look for more go to 
www.google.com and type “self-study basics”, “self-study tips”, “self-
study skills” or similar. 
 
 
 
Course overview 
 6 
 
Need help? 
 
Help 
In case of difficulties, please contact the following: 
In Maputo: 
Universidade Pedagógica - Centro de Educação Aberta e à Distância 
(CEAD) 
Faculty of Languages: English Department 
Rua: Comandante Augusto Cardoso no. 135 Maputo 
Telephone: 21 420860-2 or 21 306720 
Monday to Friday: 8:00 to 12:00 
Email: f:linguas@yahoo.com.br 
In the provinces: 
In each province there is a resource centre available and a local Provincial 
English Advisor to help you. 
 
Assignments 
 
Assignments 
Throughout each unit, you will have to carry out a number of activities 
that will help you consolidate the matters reviewed. 
We recommend that you go through all exercises indicated without 
immediately resorting to the key answers/correction guide. 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
Assessments 
 
Assessments 
A minimum of four (4) tests should be written in this course; two (2) tests 
each semester. A Final Exam will take place at the end of the academic 
year. 
Throughout each lesson in every unit you will have to do exercises or 
activities to check your progress. Make sure that you resolve all exercises 
and activities without immediately resorting to the answers key. If you do 
start by the answers key before doing the exercises/activities you will be 
fooling yourself! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Getting around this MODULE 
 8 
 
Getting around this MODULE 
Margin icons 
While working through this MODULE you will notice the frequent use of 
margin icons. These icons serve to “signpost” a particular piece of text, a 
new task or change in activity; they have been included to help you to 
find your way around this MODULE. 
A complete icon set is shown below. We suggest that you familiarize 
yourself with the icons and their meaning before starting your study. 
 
 
 
 
 
Activity Assessment Assignment Case study 
 
Discussion Group activity Help Note it! 
 
 
 
Outcomes Reading Reflection Study skills 
 
 
Summary Terminology Time Tip 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
Unit 1 
First Language Acquisition 
Introduction 
This unit is designed to provide you with a more critical awareness of the 
issues underlying the theories of first language acquisition. 
Upon completion of this unit you should have: 
 
 
Outcomes 
explain the milestones and patterns in language development; 
describe the main characteristics of early childhood bilingualism; 
provide short accounts of developmental sequences in language 
acquisition; 
analyse the theoretical approaches to explaining first language learning; 
describe the main characteristics of child directed speech. 
 
 
Allomorph: any of the different forms of a morpheme 
Automaticity: the ability to use a language using automatic 
processing 
Morpheme: the smallest meaningful unit in a language 
 
Terminology 
Metalinguistic: related to knowledge of the forms, structure and 
other aspects of a language 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 10 
 
 
Lesson 1: Introduction into First Language Acquisition 
 
This lesson is about how children learn their first language. 
By the end of the lesson you should be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 describe early child vocalization; 
 explain the main characteristics of child telegraphic language and 
 describe the level of proficiency in young children. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 45 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
 Language acquisition is one of the most impressive and fascinating 
aspects of human development. We listen with pleasure to the ̒coos ̓ and 
̒gurgles̓ of a three-month-old baby. We laugh and ̒answer̓ the 
conversational ̒ba-ba-ba ̓ babbling of older babies, and we share in the 
pride and joy of parents whose one-year-old has uttered the first ̒bye-bye̓. 
Indeed, learning a language is an amazing feat—one which has attracted 
the attention of linguists and psychologists for generations. How do 
children accomplish this? What is it that enables a child not only to learn 
words, but to put them together in meaningful sentences? What pushes 
children to go on developing complex grammatical language even though 
their early simple communication is successful for most purposes? 
In this unit, we will look briefly at some of the characteristics of the 
language of the young children. We will then consider several theories 
which have been offered as explanation for how language is learned. 
One remarkable thing about first language acquisition is the high degree 
of similarity which we see in the early language of children all over the 
world. 
The earliest vocalizations are simply the involuntary crying that babies do 
when they are hungry or uncomfortable. Soon, however, we hear the 
cooing and gurgling sounds of contented babies, lying in their beds 
looking at bright shapes and colours around them. Even in these early 
weeks and months of life, however, infants are able to hear very subtle 
differences between sounds of human language. In cleverly designed 
 
 
 11 
 
experiments, scientists have been able to show that tiny babies can hear 
the difference of ̒pa ̓ and ̒ ba ̓, for example. And yet, it will be many 
months before their own vocalizations (babbling) begin to reflect the 
characteristics of the different languages they are learning. 
By the end of their first year, most babies understand quite a few 
frequently repeated words. They wave when someone says ̒ bye-bye̓; they 
clap when someone says ̒pat-a-cake ̓; they eagerly hurry to the kitchen 
when ̒ juice and cookies ̓ are announced. At 12 months, most babies will 
have begun to produce a word or two that everyone recognizes. From this 
time on, the number of words they understand and produce grows rapidly. 
By the age of two, most children reliably produce at least fifty different 
words and some many many more. About this time, they begin to 
combine words into simply sentences such as ̒ Mommy juice ̓ and ̒ baby 
fall down ̓. These sentences are sometimes called ̒telegraphic ̓ because they 
often leave out such things as articles, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs. 
We recognize them as sentences because, even though function words 
and grammatical morphemes are missing, the word order reflects the 
word order of the language they are hearing and the combined words 
have a meaning relationship between them which makes them more than 
just a list of words. Thus, for an English-speaking child, ̒ kiss baby ̓ does 
not mean the same thing as ̒ baby kiss ̓. Remarkably, we also see 
evidence, even in these early sentences that children are doing more than 
imperfectly imitating what they have heard. Their two and three-word 
sentences show signs that are creatively combining words: ̒more outside ̓ 
in a situation where the meaning seems to be ̒ I want to go outside again̓ 
or ̒ Daddy uh-oh ̓ which seems to mean ̒ Daddy fell down ̓. 
By theage of three-and-a-half or four years, most children can ask 
questions, give commands, report real events, and create stories about 
imaginary ones—complete with correct grammatical morphemes. In fact, 
it is generally accepted that by age four, children have mastered the basic 
structures of the language (or languages) which have been spoken to them 
in these early years. In addiction to the evidence we have from simply 
talking and listening to children, some carefully designed procedures 
have been developed to explore children’s knowledge of language. One 
of the best known is the so-called ̒wug test ̓ developed by Jean Berko 
Gleason. In this ̒test ̓, children are shown pictures of imaginary creatures 
with novels names or people performing mysterious actions. For 
example, they are told: ̒ Here is a wug. Now there are two of them. There 
are two____. ̓ or ̒ Here is a man who knows how to bod. Yesterday he did 
the same thing. Yesterday he____. ̓ By completing these sentences with 
̒wugs ̓ and ̒bodded ̓, children demonstrate that they actually know the rules 
for the formation of plural and simple past in English, not just a list of 
memorized word pairs such as ̒ book/books ̓ and ̒nod/nodded ̓, and can 
apply these rules to words which they have never heard before. 
Children’s ability to understand language and to use it to express 
themselves develops rapidly in the pre-school years. Metalinguistic 
awareness—the ability to treat language as an object, separate from the 
meaning it conveys—develops more slowly. A dramatic development in 
metalinguistic awareness occurs when children begin to learn to read. 
Although metalinguistic awareness begins to develop well before this 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 12 
 
time, seeing words represented by letters on a page leads children to a 
new level of awareness of language as separate from the meaning it 
represents. Three-year-old children can tell you that it’s ̒wrong̓ to say 
̒drink the chair̓, but while they would never say ̒cake the eat ̓ they will not 
be able to say what is wrong with it. A five-year-old on the other hand, 
knows that ̒drink the chair ̓ is silly in a different way from ̒cake the eat ̓. 
Unlike a three-year-old, a child who can read comes to understand that 
̒caterpillar ̓ is a longer word than ̒ train ̓ even though the object it 
represents is substantially shorter! Metalinguistic awareness also includes 
the discovery of such things as ambiguity—words and sentences that have 
multiple meaning. This gives children access to word jokes, trick 
questions, and riddles which they love to share with their friends and 
family. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 1 
After you have read the text above answer the following questions. 
 
1. Describe the earliest vocalization in first language acquisition. 
2. Describe the main characteristics of telegraphic speech. 
3. Describe the level of proficiency of a three and half or four year old. 
4. What do you understand by metalinguistic awareness? 
 
Feedback 
Great! Now you can reefer to the answers given below. How many 
questions did you get right? 
1. The earliest vocalizations are simply the involuntary crying that 
babies do when they are hungry or uncomfortable. 
2. Telegraphic speech often leave out such things as articles, 
prepositions, and auxiliary verbs. We recognize them as sentences 
because, even though function words and grammatical morphemes 
are missing, the word order reflects the word order of the language. 
The combined words have a meaning relationship between them 
which makes them more than just a list of words. 
 
 
 13 
 
3. By the age of three-and-a-half or four years, most children can ask 
questions, give commands, report real events, and create stories about 
imaginary ones—complete with correct grammatical morphemes. In 
fact, it is generally accepted that by age four, children have mastered 
the basic structures of the language (or languages) which have been 
spoken to them in these early years. 
4. Metalinguistic awareness is the ability to treat language as an object, 
separate from the meaning it conveys. A dramatic development in 
metalinguistic awareness occurs when children begin to learn to read. 
Although metalinguistic awareness begins to develop well before this 
time, seeing words represented by letters on a page leads children to a 
new level of awareness of language as separate from the meaning it 
represents. 
 
 
Summary 
In the lesson above you have learnt about how children learn their first 
language. Among many aspects of early first language acquisition the 
lesson summarized the main characteristics of earliest vocalization and 
telegraphic speech and then looked at the level of proficiency in young 
children. 
 
 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 14 
 
Lesson 2: Early Childhood Bilingualism 
 
You are going to read about the main characteristics of early child 
bilingualism. 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
outline the differences between simultaneous and sequential 
bilingualisms; 
understand what is meant by subtractive bilingualism and have an idea on 
possible solutions that educators often propose to parents whose children 
are facing subtractive bilingualism. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
 
Many children, perhaps the majority of children in the world, are exposed 
to more than one language in early childhood. Children who hear more 
than one language virtually from birth are sometimes referred to as ̒ 
simultaneous bilinguals ̓, whereas those who begin to learn a second 
language later are referred to as ̒sequential bilinguals ̓. There is a 
considerable body of research on the ability of young children to learn 
more than one language in their earliest years. The evidence suggest that, 
when simultaneous bilinguals are in contact with both languages in a 
variety of settings, there is every reason to expect that they will progress 
in their development of both languages at a rate and in a manner which 
are not different from those of monolingual children. Naturally, when 
children go on to have schooling in only one of those languages, there 
may be considerable differences in the amount of metalinguistic 
awareness they develop and in the type and extent of the vocabulary they 
eventually acquire in the two languages. Nevertheless, there seems to be 
little support for the myth that learning more than one language in early 
childhood slows down the child’s linguistic or cognitive development. 
There may be reason to be concerned, however, about situations where 
children are virtually cut off from their family language when they are 
̒submerged ̓ in a second language for long periods in early schooling or 
day care. In such cases, children may begin to lose the family language 
before they have developed an age-appropriate mastery of the new 
language. This is referred to as subtractive bilingualism, and it can have 
serious negative consequences for children from minority groups. In 
some cases, children seem to continue to be caught between two 
 
 
 15 
 
languages: not having mastered the second language, they have not 
continued to develop the first. Unfortunately, the ̒solution̓ which 
educators often propose to parents is that they should stop speaking the 
family language at home and concentrate instead on speaking the 
majority language with their children. The evidence seems to suggest that 
the opposite suggestion would be more effective. That is, parents who 
themselves are learners of the majority language should continue to use 
the language which is most comfortable for them. The children may 
eventually prefer to answer in the majority language, but at least they will 
maintain their comprehension of their family language. This also permits 
the parents to express theirknowledge and ideas in ways that are likely to 
be richer and more elaborate than they can manage in their second 
language. 
There is no evidence that a child’s brain has a limited capacity for 
languages such that their knowledge of one language must shrink if their 
knowledge of the other one grows. Most minority language children do 
eventually master the majority language, but the second language 
acquisition takes time. It may take many years for children to know the 
language well enough to use it for school learning with the same ease as 
children who have learned the language from the birth. Eventually, 
however, it is likely to become their preferred language. Demographic 
research shows that minority languages are usually lost in the second 
generation after immigration. Children who have the opportunity to learn 
multiply languages from early childhood and to maintain them 
throughout their lives are fortunate indeed, and families that can offer this 
opportunity to their children should be encouraged to do so. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned. Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
Now you have a chance to check you level of comprehension. Answer 
the questions below before referring to the feedback 
 
1. Outline the differences between simultaneous and sequential 
bilingualisms. 
2. What do you understand by subtractive bilingualism? 
3. What solution do educators often propose to parents whose children 
are facing subtractive bilingualism? 
 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 16 
 
Feedback 
1. Simultaneous bilingualism occurs in children who hear more than 
one language virtually from birth, whereas sequential bilingualism 
occurs to those who begin to learn a second language later. 
2. Subtractive bilingualism occurs in situations where children are 
virtually cut off from their family language when they are ̒submerged ̓ 
in a second language for long periods in early schooling or day care. 
In such cases, children may begin to lose the family language before 
they have developed an age-appropriate mastery of the new language. 
3 The solution educators often propose to parents is that they should 
stop speaking the family language at home and concentrate instead 
on speaking the majority language with their children. 
Was it difficult? Idon’t think so. If you couldn’t get all the answers 
right, read the text again and see if you can correct what went wrong. 
 
 
Summary 
In the lesson above you read about the main characteristics of early child 
bilingualism. The text outlined the differences between simultaneous and 
sequential bilingualism, described the main characteristics of subtractive 
bilingualism and finally gave possible solutions that educators often 
propose to parents whose children are facing subtractive bilingualism. 
 
 
 
 
 17 
 
Lesson 3: Behaviourism in First Language Acquisition 
 
In this lesson you are going to read about one of the theories that try 
to explain how children learn a first language 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 explain the main view of behaviourism into first language learning 
and 
 outline the strength and weakness of behaviourism in explaining how 
children learn a first language. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
Behaviourism is a psychological theory of learning which was very 
influential in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in the United States. 
Traditional behaviourists believed that language learning is the result of 
imitation, practise, feedback on success, and habit formation. Children 
imitate the sounds and patterns which they hear around them and receive 
positive reinforcement (which could take the form of praise or just 
successful communication) for doing so. Thus encouraged by their 
environment, they continue to imitate and practise these sounds and 
patterns until they form ̒ habits̓ of correct language use. According to this 
view, 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. 
The behaviourist view of how language is learned is an intuitive appeal. 
And there is no doubt that it can offer a partial explanation of some 
aspects of children’s early language learning. However, it is useful to 
examine actual language data to see how well this view accounts for the 
development of some more complex aspects of their language. 
The behaviourists view imitation and practise as primary processes in 
language development. To clarify what is meant by these two terms, 
consider the following definitions and examples. 
Imitation: Word-for-word of all or part of someone else’s utterance. 
 Mother: Would you like some bread and peanut butter? 
 Katie: Some bread and peanut butter. 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 18 
 
Practice: Repetitive manipulation of form. 
 Michel: I can handle it. Hannah can handle it. We can handle it. 
 
 
Activity 
Analyzing children’s speech 
Examine these transcripts from Peter, Cindy, and Kathryn, who are about 
the same age. The transcripts are based on recordings made while the 
children were playing with a visiting adult. Look for examples of 
imitation and practice. 
Transcription conventions: 
xxx = incomprehensible speech 
… = pause 
parentheses = description of non-verbal events 
Peter (24 months) 
(Peter is playing with a dump truck while two adults, Patsy and Lois, look 
on.) 
 Peter: Get more. 
 Lois: You’re going to put more wheels in the dump truck? 
 Peter: Dump truck. Wheels. Dump truck. 
(later) 
 Patsy: What happened to it (the truck)? 
 Peter: (looking under chair for it) Lose it. Dump truck! Dump 
truck! 
 Fall! Fall! 
 Lois: Yes, the dump truck fell down. 
 Peter: Dump truck fell down. Dump truck. 
 
 
 
Peter (25 months) 
 
 
 19 
 
(Peter, Patsy, and Lois are playing with pencil and paper.) 
 Peter: (indicating he wants Patsy to draw) Lois. Lois too. 
Patsy. Lois too! 
 Patsy: You want me to make a car? Ok. 
(Patsy draws a tiny car like Lois’s.) 
 Patsy: Oh, you want Lois to have some paper? 
 Peter: Lois have some paper? 
(later) 
 Patsy: Let’s see if I can draw what you drew. Draw 
something! 
 Peter: Draw something! 
(Unpublished data from P.M. Lightbown) 
It is easy to see that Peter imitates a great deal. However, it should be 
stressed that not all children imitate to the extent that Peter does. Some 30 
̶ 40 per cent of Peter’s speech consists of imitation while, for some 
children, the rate of imitation may be les than 10 per cent. 
It is also important to note that children’s imitations are not random; they 
don’t imitate everything they hear. Very detailed analyses showed that 
Peter imitated new words and sentences structures until they became 
solidly grounded in his language system, and then he stopped imitating 
these and went on to imitate other new words and structures. Thus, unlike 
a parrot that imitates the familiar and continues to repeat the same things 
again and again, children’s imitation is selective and based on what they 
are currently learning. In other words, even when other child imitates, the 
choice of what to imitate seems to be based on something the child has 
already begun to understand, not simply on what is ̒available ̓ in the 
environment. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned. Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 1 
After reading the text above, try to answer the following questions. 
You should try to do that before looking atthe answers provided in 
the feedback section below. 
 
1. What is the main view of behaviourism into first language learning? 
2. Outline the weakness of behaviourism in explaining how children 
learn a first language? 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 20 
 
 
Feedback 
Great! Now compare your answers to the ones given below. Did you 
get all of them right? If not read the text again and see what went 
wrong. 
1. Language learning is the result of imitation, practise, feedback on 
success, and habit formation. Children imitate the sounds and 
patterns which they hear around them and receive positive 
reinforcement (which could take the form of praise or just successful 
communication) for doing so. Thus encouraged by their environment, 
they continue to imitate and practise these sounds and patterns until 
they form ̒ habits ̓ of correct language use. 
2. Children do not learn language by simple imitation. Children’s 
imitations are not random; they don’t imitate everything they hear. 
Thus, unlike a parrot who imitates the familiar and continues to 
repeat the same things again and again, children’s imitation is 
selective and based on what they are currently learning. In other 
words, even when other child imitates, the choice of what to imitate 
seems to be based on something the child has already begun to 
understand, not simply on what is ̒available ̓ in the environment. 
 
 
Summary 
In this lesson we discussed the behaviourist view on first language 
acquisition. We saw that proponents of the behaviourist position see 
language learning as the result of imitation, practise, feedback on success, 
and habit formation. 
We also looked at the weaknesses of the behaviourist position in 
explaining first language learning. The point is that children do not learn 
language by simple imitation. 
 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 
Lesson 4: Innatism Position in First Language Learning 
 
You are going to read about the second theory that tries to explain how 
children learn their first language. The second theory is the result of the 
reaction to the first theory that you read about in the previous lesson. 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to 
 explain the innatist claim on first language learning; 
 describe role that the environment play in first language learning; 
 evaluate the critism of the behaviourist theory and understand 
Chomsky’s view of language acquisition device (LAD) and 
Universal grammar. 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
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 the same age, and walking is essentially 
the same in all normally human beings. For Chomsky, language 
acquisition is very similar. 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. This is 
known as the innatism position. Chomsky proposed his theory in reaction 
to what he saw as the inadequacy of the behaviourist theory of learning 
based on imitation and habit formation (Chomsky 1959). 
Chomsky argues that the behaviourist theory fails to recognize what has 
come to be called ̒the logical problem of language acquisition̓. This 
logical problem refers to the fact that children come to know more about 
the structure of their language then they could reasonably be expected to 
learn on the basis of the samples of language which they hear. According 
to Chomsky, the language the child is exposed to in the environment is 
full of confusing information (for example, false starts, incomplete 
sentences, or slips of the tongue) and does not provide all the information 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 22 
 
which the child needs. Furthermore, the evidence seems very strong that 
children are by no means systematically corrected or instructed on 
language. Parental corrections of language errors have been observed to 
be inconsistent or even non-existent for children of pre-school age. When 
parents do correct, they tend to focus on meaning and not on language 
form, often simply repeating the child’s incorrect utterance in a more 
complete grammatical form. When parents do correct errors, children 
often ignore the correction, continuing to use their own ways of saying 
things. 
According to Chomsky, children’s minds are not blank slates to be filled 
merely by imitating language they hear in the environment. Instead he 
claims that children are born with a special ability to discover for 
themselves the underlying rules of language system. 
Chomsky originally referred to this special ability as a language 
acquisition device (LAD). This device was often described as an 
imaginary ̒ black box ̓, which exists somewhere in the brain. This ̒̒ black 
box̓, thought to contain all and only the principles which are universal to 
all human languages, prevents the child from going off on lots of wrong 
trails in trying to discover the rules of the language. For the LAD to work, 
the child needs access only to samples of a natural language. These 
languages samples serve as a trigger to activate the device. Once it is 
activated, the child is able to discover the structure of the language to be 
learned by matching the innate knowledge of basic grammatical 
relationships to the structures of the particular language in the 
environment. In recent writings, Chomsky and his followers no longer 
use the term LAD, but refer to the child’s innate endowment as Universal 
Grammar (UG). UG is considered to consist of a set of principles which 
are common to all languages. If children are pre-equipped with UG, then 
what they have to learn is the ways which their own language makes use 
of this principles and the variations on those principles which may exist 
in the particular language which they hear spoken around them (Chomsky 
1981, Cook 1988, White 1989). 
Chomsky drew attention to the fact that children seem to develop 
language in similar ways and on a similar schedule, in a way not very 
different from the way all children learn to walk. Environmental 
differences may be associated with some variation in the rate of 
acquisition (how quickly children learn), but adult linguistic competence 
(the knowledge of how their language works) is very similar for all 
speakers of one dialect or language. In acquiring the intricate and 
complex systems that make up a language, young children, whose 
cognitive abilities are fairly limited in many ways, accomplish something 
which adult second language learners may envy. 
Here is a summary of the kinds of evidence which has been used to 
support Chomsky’s innatist position: 
1 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. Children who are profoundly deaf will learn 
sign language if they are exposed to it in infancy and their 
progress in language acquisition is similar to that of hearing 
 
 
 23 
 
children. Even children with very limited cognitive ability 
develop quite complex language systems if they are brought up in 
environments which people talk to them and engage them in 
communication. 
2 Children successfully master the basic structure of their native 
language or dialect in variety of conditions: some which would 
be expected to enhance language development (for example, 
caring, attentive parents who focus on the child’s language), and 
some which might be expected to inhibit it (for example, abusive 
or rejecting parents). Children achieve different levels of 
vocabulary,creativity, social grace, and so on, but virtually all 
achieve mastery of the structure of the language spoken around 
them. This is seen as support for the hypotheses that language is 
somehow separate from other aspects of cognitive development 
and may even be located in a different part of the brain. The term 
̒modular ̓ is sometimes used to represent the notion that the brain 
has different ̒modules ̓ which serves different kinds of knowledge 
and learning. 
3 The language children are exposed to does not contain examples 
(or, in any case, not very many examples) of all the linguistic 
rules and patterns which they eventually know. 
4 Animals—even primates receiving intensive training from 
humans—cannot learn to manipulate a symbol as complicated as 
the natural number of a three-or four-year-old human child. 
5 Children seem to accomplish the complex task of language 
acquisition without having someone consistently point out to 
them which of the sentences they hear and produce are ̒correct ̓ 
and which are ̒ungrammatical ̓. 
One example of the kind of complex language system which children 
seem to learn without special guidance is the system of reflexive 
pronouns. This system of pronouns has been studied by a number of 
linguists working from a Chomskyan perspective. 
Consider the following sentences which we have taken from a book by 
Lydia White (1989). These English sentences contain the reflexive 
pronoun ̒ himself ̓. Both the pronoun and the noun it refers to (the 
antecedent) are printed in italics. An asterisk at the beginning of a 
sentence indicates that the sentence is ungrammatical. 
What do children have to discover about the relationship between the 
reflexive pronoun and its antecedent? Could they learn what they need to 
know by imitation of sentences they hear? 
a. John saw himself. 
b. *Himself saw John. 
In (a) and (b), it looks as if the reflexive pronoun must follow the noun it 
refers to. But (c) disproves this: 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 24 
 
c. Looking after himself bores John. 
If we consider sentences such as: 
d. John said that Fred liked himself. 
e. *John said that Fred liked himself. 
f. John told Bill to wash himself. 
*John told Bill to wash himself 
We might conclude that the closest noun phrase is usually the antecedent. 
However, (h) shows that this rule won’t work either: 
g. John promised Bill to wash himself. 
And it’s even more complicated than that. Usually the reflexive must be 
in the same clause as the antecedent as in (a) and (d), but not always, as 
in (h). Furthermore, the reflexive can be in the subject position in (i) but 
not in (j). 
h. John believes himself to be intelligent (non-finite clause). 
i. * John believes that himself is intelligent (finite clause). 
In some cases, more than one antecedent is possible, as in (k) where the 
reflexive could refer to either John or Bill: 
 k. John showed Bill a picture of himself. 
By now, you are probably quite convinced of the complexity of the rules 
pertaining to interpreting reflexives pronouns in English. The innatists 
argue that children could not discover the rules about reflexives pronouns 
by trial and error, even if parents did systematically correct children’s 
errors. In fact, they simply do not make enough mistakes for this 
explanation to be plausible. The innatists conclude that a child’s 
acquisition of these grammatical rules is guided by principles of an innate 
Universal Grammar which could apply to all languages. Children come to 
̒ know ̓ certain things about the specific language being learned through 
exposure to a limited number of examples. Different languages have 
different rules about, for example, reflexives, and children seem able to 
learn, on hearing some sentences, which other ones are possible and 
which are not in the language they are learning. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned. Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
Activity 2 
After reading the text on the innatist position on learning first 
language I want you to draw on the main points of this lesson by 
answering the questions below 
1. What is the innatist claim on first language learning? 
2. According to Chomsky what role does the environment play in first 
language learning? 
3. What are Chomsky´s critism of the behaviourist theory? 
4. According to Chomsky what is language acquisition device (LAD)? 
5. What do you understand by Universal grammar? 
 
Feedback 
How did you find the questions? If you managed to answer most of 
them, it means you have understood the main idea of the innatist 
position. Now check your answers to the ones given below. 
1. 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 the same age, and walking is essentially the same in 
all normal human beings. 
2. 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. 
3. Chomsky argues that the behaviourist theory fails to recognize what 
has come to be called ̒the logical problem of language acquisition ̓. 
This logical problem refers to the fact that children come to know 
more about the structure of their language then they could reasonably 
be expected to learn on the basis of the samples of language which 
they hear. According to Chomsky, the language the child is exposed 
to in the environment is full of confusing information (for example, 
false starts, incomplete sentences, or slips of the tongue) and does not 
provide all the information which the child needs. Furthermore, the 
evidence seems very strong that children are by no means 
systematically corrected or instructed on language. Parental 
corrections of language errors have been observed to be inconsistent 
or even non-existent for children of pre-school age. When parents do 
correct, they tend to focus on meaning and not on language form, 
often simply repeating the child’s incorrect utterance in a more 
complete grammatical form. 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 26 
 
4. Language acquisition device (LAD) was often described as an 
imaginary ̒ black box ̓, which exists somewhere in the brain. This ̒̒ 
black box ̓, thought to contain all and only the principles which are 
universal to all human languages, prevents the child from going off 
on lots of wrong trails in trying to discover the rules of the language. 
5. The Universal Grammar (UG) is considered to consist of a set of 
principles which are common to all languages. If children are pre-
equipped with UG, then what they have to learn is the ways which 
their own language makes use of this principles and the variations on 
those principles which may exist in the particular language which 
they hear spoken around them. 
 
 
Summary 
In this lesson we looked at the innatist position on first language learning. 
We saw that the innatists believe that children are biologically 
programmed for language and that language develops in the child in just 
the same way that other biological functions develop. We then moved to 
look at Chomsky’s criticism to the behaviourist. Chomsky argues that the 
behaviourist theory fails to recognize what has come to be called ̒the 
logical problem of language acquisition̓. This logical problem refers to 
the fact that children come to know more about the structure of their 
language then they could reasonably be expected to learn on the basis of 
the samples of language which they hear. Finally we look at the 
description of the language acquisition devicve. According to Chomsky 
(LAD) was often described as an imaginary̒ black box̓, which exists 
somewhere in the brain. This ̒̒ black box ̓, thought to contain all and only 
the principles which are universal to all human languages, prevents the 
child from going off on lots of wrong trails in trying to discover the rules 
of the language. 
 
 
 
 
 27 
 
Lesson 2: The Biological Basis for the Innatist Position 
 
In this lesson you are going to read about the biological basis for the 
innatist theory. 
By the end of this lesson you will be able to: 
 explain the biological basis for the innatist theory and 
 explain the difference between the weak and strong versions of the 
critical period hypothesis 
Lesson Outcomes 
 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
 
Chomsky’s ideas are compatible with those of biologist Eric Lenneberg, 
who also compares learning to talk with learning to walk: children who 
for medical reasons cannot move about when they are infants may soon 
stand and walk if their problems are corrected at the age of a year or so. 
Similarly, children who can hear but who cannot speak can nevertheless 
learn language, understanding even complex sentences. 
The Critical Period Hypothesis 
Lenneberg observed that this ability to develop normal behaviours and 
knowledge in a variety of environments does not continue indefinitely 
and that children who have never learned language (because of deafness 
or extreme isolation) cannot do so if these deprivations go on for too 
long. He argued that the language acquisition device, like other biological 
functions, works successfully only when it is stimulated on the right 
time—a time called the ̒critical period̓. This notion that there is a specific 
and limited time period for language acquisition is referred to as the 
Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH). Read the following cases studies and 
think about whether they support the CPH. 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 28 
 
Natural Experiments: Victor and Genie 
It is understandably difficult to find evidence for the Critical Period 
Hypothesis. Since all normal children are exposed to language at an early 
age and consequently acquire language. However, history has 
documented a few ̒natural experiments ̓ where children have been 
deprived of contact with language. One of the most famous cases is that 
of a child called Victor. François Truffaut created a film, L’Enfant 
sauvage (The Untamed Child), about him and about the efforts to teach 
him to speak. 
In 1799, a boy at about 12 years old was found wandering naked in the 
woods of Aveyron in France. Upon capture, he was found to be 
completely wild, apparently having had no contact with humankind. A 
young doctor, Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, devoted five years to the task of 
socializing Victor and trying to teach him language. 
Although Itard succeeded to some extent in developing Victor’s 
sociability, memory, judgement, and all the functions of his senses, 
Victor remained unreceptive to all sounds other than those which had 
meaning for him in the forest, such has a cracking of a nut, animal 
sounds, or the sound of rain. He only succeeded in speaking two words, 
his favourite food ̒ lait̓ (milk) and his governess’s frequent exclamation ̒ 
O Dieu! ̓ (Oh God!). Moreover, his use of ̒ lait ̓ was only uttered as an 
excited exclamation at the sight of a glass of milk. He never uttered the 
word to request milk, even though it was the one thing he could name, 
and something of which he was very fond. Even when Itard took Victor’s 
milk away in hopes of making him asking for it, Victor never used the 
word to communicate his need. Finally Itard gave up. 
Another famous case of a child who did not learn language normally in 
her early years is that of Genie. Genie was discovered in California in 
1970, a 13-year-old girl who had been isolated, deprived, neglected, and 
abused. Because of the irrationals demands of a disturbed father and the 
submission and fear of an abused mother, Genie had spent more than 
eleven years tied to a chair or a crib in a small, darkened room. Her father 
had forbidden his wife and son to speak to her and had himself only 
growled and barked at her. She was beaten every time she vocalized or 
made any kind of noise, and she had long since resorted to complete 
silence. Genie was unsocialized, primitive, and undeveloped physically, 
emotionally, and intellectually. Needless to say, she had no language. 
After she was discovered, Genie was cared for and educated in the most 
natural surroundings possible, and to the fullest extent possible, with the 
participation of many teachers and therapists. After a brief period in a 
rehabilitation centre, Genie lived in a foster home and attended special 
schools. Although far from being ̒normal ̓, Genie made remarkable 
progress in becoming socialized and cognitively aware. She developed 
deep personal relationships and strong individual tastes and traits. But 
despite the supportive environment for language acquisition, Genie’s 
language development has not paralleled natural first language 
development. After five years of exposure to language, a period during 
which a normal child would have acquired an elaborated language 
system, Genie’s language contained many of the features of abnormal 
 
 
 29 
 
language development. These include a larger than normal gap between a 
comprehension and production, inconsistency in the use of grammatical 
forms, a slow rate of development, overuse of formulaic and routine 
speech, and absence of some specific syntactic forms and mechanisms 
always present in normal grammatical development ( Curtiss 1977). For 
discussion of further developments in Genie’s life, see Rymer (1993). 
Genie’s language shares features of language development exhibited by 
adults with brain damage who have to relearn language in adulthood, by 
children in the earliest stage of language acquisition, and by chimps 
attempting to learn language. It is the most carefully documented and 
tested case of a child brought up in isolation, allowing linguists to study 
the hypotheses regarding the critical period. 
Although these cases appear to support the CPH, it is difficult to argue 
that the hypothesis is confirmed on the basis of evidence from such 
unusual children and the unknown circumstances of their early lives. We 
cannot know that other factors besides biological maturity (for example, 
social isolation or physical abuse) might have contributed to their 
inability to learn language. For now, the best evidence for the CPH is that 
virtually every child learns language on a schedule which is very similar 
in spite of quite different circumstances of life. 
Both Victor and Genie were deprived of a normal home environment, 
which may account for their abnormal language development. There are 
other individuals, however, who comes from loving homes, yet do not 
receive exposure to language at the usual time. This is the case of many 
profoundly deaf children who have hearing parents. 
 
Natural experiments: Deaf signers 
Elissa Newport and her colleagues have studied deaf users of American 
Sign Language (ASL) who acquired it as their first language at different 
ages. Such a population exists because only 5−10 per cent of the 
profoundly deaf are born to deaf parents, and only these children would 
be likely to ASL from birth. The remainder of the profoundly deaf 
population begin learning ASL at different ages, often when they start 
attending a residential school where sign language is used for day-to-day 
communication. 
In one study, there were three distinct groups of ASL users: Native 
signers who were exposed to sign language from birth, Early learners 
whose first exposure to ASL began at ages four to six at school, and Late 
learners who first came into contact with ASL after the age of 12 
(Newport 1990). 
Just like oral languages, ASL makes use of grammatical markers (like –ed 
and –ing in English);the only difference is that these markers are 
indicated through specifics hand and body movements. The researchers 
were interested in whether there was any difference between Native 
signers, Early learners and Late learners in the ability to produce and 
comprehend grammatical markers. 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 30 
 
Results of the research showed a clear pattern. On word order, there was 
no difference between the groups. But on test focusing on grammatical 
markers, the Native group outperformed the Early learner group who 
outperformed the Late learner group. The Native signers were highly 
consistently in their use of the grammatical forms. Although the other 
two groups used many of the same forms as the Native group, they also 
used forms which are considered ungrammatical by the Native signers. 
For example, they would omit certain grammatical forms, or use them in 
some obligatory contexts but not in others. The researchers conclude that 
their study supports the hypothesis there is a critical period for first 
language acquisition. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
 
Activity 
Here are some questions that lead you to the main ideas of the 
biological basis of the innatist theory. Work out the answers before 
refering to the feedback. 
 
1. What is the biological basis for the innatist theory? 
2. Explain what you understand by critical period hypothesis. 
 
Feedback 
Great! Now compare your answers to the ones given below. 
1. Children who for medical reasons cannot move about when they are 
infants may soon stand and walk if their problems are corrected at the 
age of a year or so. Similarly, children who can hear but who cannot 
speak can nevertheless learn language, understanding even complex 
sentences. 
2. The critical period is the notion that there is a specific and limited 
time period for language acquisition. 
 
 
Summary 
In this lesson you have seen that the innatist position has been very 
persuasive in pointing out how complex the knowledge of adult speakers 
is and how difficult or impossible it is to learn a language after puberty. 
In the next lesson you are going to read about the third theory of first 
language acquisition 
 
 
 31 
 
Lesson 6: The Interactionist Position on First Language Acquisition 
 
In this lesson you are going to read about the third theory of language 
acquisition that focuses on the role of the linguistic environment in 
interaction with the child’s innate capacities in determining language 
development. 
 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
expalin the interactionist claim on first language learning and 
Vygotsky’s idea on child language development. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
 
The interactionists’ 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. Interactionists 
attribute considerably more importance to the environment than the 
innatists do. For example, unlike the innatists, most interactionists claim 
that language which is modified to suit the capability of the learner is a 
crucial element in the language acquisition process. They emphasize the 
importance of child-directed speech—the language which is not only 
addressed to children but adjusted in ways that make it easier for them to 
understand. In addiction, interactionists are inclined to see language 
acquisition as similar to and influenced by the acquisition of other kinds 
of skill and knowledge, rather than as something which is largely 
independent of the child’s experience and cognitive development. 
However, interactionists represent a wide range of theories about the 
relative contributions of innate structures of the human mind and the 
environment which provides the samples of the language to be learned. 
Among interactionists positions we could include those which were 
articulated much earlier in this century by the Swiss 
psychologist/epistomologist, Jean Peaget (see Ginsburg and Opper 1969). 
Piaget observed infants and children in their interactions with adults. He 
was able to trace the development of their cognitive understanding of 
such things as object permanence (knowing that things which are hidden 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 32 
 
from sight are still there), the stability of quantities regardless of changes 
in their appearance (knowing that ten pennies spread out to form a long 
line are not more numerous than ten pennies in a tightly squeezed line), 
and logical inferencing (figuring out which properties of a set of rods—
size, weight, material, etc—cause some rods to sink and others to float on 
water). It is easy to see from this how children’s cognitive development 
would partly determine how they use language. For example, the use of 
certain terms such as ̒ bigger ̓ or ̒more ̓ depends on the children’s 
understanding of the concepts they represent. The development cognitive 
understanding is built on the interaction between the child and the things 
which can be observed, touched, and manipulated. 
Unlike the innatists, Piaget did not see language as based on a separate 
module of the mind. For him, language was one of a number of symbol 
systems which are developed in childhood. Language can be used to 
represent knowledge that children have acquired through physical 
interaction with the environment. 
A strongly interactionist view was the sociocultural theory of human 
mental processing held by the psychologist Lev Vygotsky whop worked 
in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s (Vygotsky 1978). He 
concluded that language develops entirely from social interaction. He 
argued that in a supportive interactive environment, the child is able to 
advance to a higher level of knowledge and performance than he or she 
would be capable of independently. Vygotsky referred to what the child 
could do in interaction with another, but no alone, as the child’s zone of 
proximal development. He observed the importance of conversations 
which children have with adults and with other children and saw in these 
conversations the origins of both language and thought. Vygotsky’s view 
differs from Piaget’s. Piaget hypothesized that language development as a 
symbol system to express knowledge acquired through interaction with 
the physical world. For Vygotsky, thought was essentially internalized 
speech, and speech emerged in social interaction. 
 
Child-directed speech 
Many researchers have studied child-directed speech, the language which 
adults use with children. We are all familiar with the ways adults 
frequently modify the way they speak when addressing little children. In 
English, child-directed speech involves a slower rate of delivery, higher 
pitch, more varied intonation, shorter, simpler sentence patterns, frequent 
repetition, and paraphrase. Furthermore, topics of conversation may be 
limited to the child’s immediate environment, the ̒ here and now ̓, or to 
experiences which the adult knows the child has had. Adults often repeat 
the content of a child’s utterance, but they expand it into a grammatically 
correct sentence. If you examine the transcripts presented earlier in this 
chapter, you will see examples of some of these features. For example, 
when Peter says, ̒Dump truck! Dump truck! Fall! Fall! ̓, Lois responds, ̒ 
Yes, the dump truck fell down.’ 
Researchers working among parents and children from a variety of 
cultural groups have found that the child-directed speech which was 
 
 
 33 
 
described on the basis of studies of families in middle-class American 
homes is not universal. In some societies, adult do not engage in 
conversation or verbal play with very young children. And yet these 
children achieve full competence in the community language. Thus, it is 
difficultto judge the importance of these modifications which some 
adults make in speech addressed to children. Children whose parents do 
not consistently provide such modified interaction will still learn 
language; however, they may have access to modified language when 
they are in the company of older siblings or other children. To the 
theorist, this suggests that more important than simplification is the 
conversational give-and-take in which the more proficient speaker 
intuitively responds to the clues the child provides as to the level of 
language he or she is capable of processing. The importance of such 
interaction becomes abundantly clear in the atypical cases where it is 
missing. Such is the case of Jim. 
Case study: Jim. 
Jim, the hearing child of deaf parents, had little contact with 
hearing/speaking adults up to the age of three years and nine months 
(3,9). His only contact with oral language was through television, which 
he watched frequently. The family was unusual in that the parents did not 
use sign language with Jim. Thus, although in other respects he was well 
cared for, Jim did not begin his linguistic development in a normal 
environment in which a parent communicated with him in either oral or 
sign language. Language tests administered indicated that he was very 
much below age level in all aspects of language. Although he attempted 
to express ideas appropriate to his age, he used unusual, ungrammatical 
word order. 
When Jim began conversational sessions with an adult, his expressive 
abilities began to improve. By the age of 4,2 most of the unusual speech 
patterns had disappeared, replaced by structures more typical at Jim’s 
age. It is interesting to note that Jim’s younger brother Glenn did not 
display the same type of lag and performed normally on language tests 
when he was at the age which was first tested. Glenn’s linguistics 
environment was different in that he had his older brother as a 
conversational partner (Sachs, Bard, and Johnson 1981). 
Jim showed very rapid acquisition of the structures of English once he 
began to interact with an adult on a one-to-one basis. The fact that he had 
failed to acquire language normally prior to this experience suggests that 
the problem laid in the environment, not the child. That is, it seems that 
exposure to impersonal sources of language such as television or radio 
alone is insufficient for the child to learn the structure of a particular 
language. 
One-to-one interaction gives the child access to language which is 
adjusted to his or her level of comprehension. When a child does not 
understand, the adult may repeat or paraphrase. The response of the adult 
may also allow children to find out when their own utterances are 
understood. Televisions for obvious reasons, does not provide such 
interactions. Even in children’s programs, where simpler language is used 
and topics are relevant to younger viewers, there is no immediate 
adjustment made for the needs of an individual child. 
 
 
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition 
 34 
 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
Now that you have finished reading the text above try to find the 
answers to the two questions below 
 
1. What is the interactionist claim on first language learning? 
2. According to Vygotsky how does language develop? 
 
Feedback 
Well done, how did you find the two questions? Difficult? Now you 
can compare your answers to the ones given below 
1. The interactionists’ 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. 
Interactionists attribute considerably more importance to the 
environment than the innatists do. 
2. Vygotsky argues that language develops entirely from social 
interaction. He argued that in a supportive interactive environment, 
the child is able to advance to a higher level of knowledge and 
performance than he or she would be capable of independently. 
 
Summary 
In this lesson you read about the third theory of language acquisition.The 
lesson explained the interactionist claim on first language learning saying 
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. The lesson also discussed Vygotsky’s idea on child 
language development Vygotsky argues that language develops entirely 
from social interaction. As long as thre is a supportive interactive 
environment available, the child will able to advance to a higher level of 
knowledge and performance than he or she would be capable of 
independently. 
 
 
 
 
 
 35 
 
Unit summary 
 
 
Summary 
In this unit you learned about the early milestones in first language 
acquisition and the three broad theoretical approaches to explaining first 
language acquisition, each of which was corroborated by evidence. 
 
 
 
Assignment 
Discuss the three theories of first language acquisition (behaviourist, 
innatist and interactionist). Dont forget to outline the strength and 
weakness of each of them 
Guidance notes: In each of the theories outline the main view of the 
proponents and show its strength and weakness. Your assignment should 
be made up of three main sections, representing the three theories, an 
introduction and a conclusion. You should not forget to include a title 
page and a table of contents. 
 
 
 
 
 
 37 
 
Unit 2 
Theoretical Approaches to 
Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
Introduction 
In this unit we look at some of the theories that have been proposed to 
account for second language acquisition (SLA). In many ways, theories 
which have been developed for SLA are closely related to those discussed 
for first language acquisition in unit 1. That is, some theories give 
primary importance to learners’ innate characteristics; some emphasize 
the essential role of the environment in shaping language learning; still 
others seek to integrate learner characteristics and environmental factors 
in an explanation for how second language acquisition takes place. 
Upon completion of this unit you will be able to: 
 
Outcomes 
describe the difference between a child and an adult learning a second 
language. 
differentiate theories of first language acquisition from theories of second 
language learning. 
explain the effects of the factors that affect second language learning. 
explain the characteristics of a good language learner. 
 
Acquisition: the learning and dvelopment of a person´s native 
language 
Learning: the process by which people develop poficiency in 
a second or foreign language 
Cognition: the various mental processes used in thinking, 
remembering, perceiving, recognizing, classifying 
Metalinguistic: the forms, structure and other aspects of a 
language 
Competence: a person´s internalized grammar of a language 
 
Terminology 
Performance: a person´s actual use of language 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 38 
 
Lesson 1: Second Language Learning and Learners Factors 
 
Introduction into second language learning 
In this lesson you are going to look at the characteristics of first and 
second language learners. 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to 
 describe the differences between child learning a first language and a 
child or adult learning a second language in relation to learners’ 
characteristics and learning conditions. 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this unit 
 
The questions below that show that, it is clear that a child or adult 
learning a second language is different from a child acquiring a first 
language in terms of both personal characteristics and conditions for 
learning. First of all look at the first table (2.1) on the learner’sprofile 
below and then consider the questions 
1. Does the learner already know a language? 
2. Is the learner cognitively mature, that is, is he or she able to engage in 
problem solving, deduction, and complex memory tasks? 
3. How well developed is the learner’s metalinguistic awareness? That 
is, can the learner treat language as an object—for example, define a 
word, say what sounds make up that word, or state a rule such as ‘add 
an –s to form the plural’? 
4. How extensive is the learner’s general knowledge of the world? This 
kind of knowledge makes it easier to understand because one can 
sometimes make good guesses about what the interlocutor is 
probably saying even when the language carrying the message is 
new. 
5. Is the learner nervous about making mistakes and sounding ‘silly’ 
when speaking the language? 
 
 
 
 39 
 
6. Does the learning environment allow the learner to be silent in the 
early stages of learning, or is he or she expected to speak from the 
beginning? 
7. Is there plenty of time available for language learning to take place, 
plenty of contact with proficient speakers of the language? 
8. Does the learner receive corrective feedback when he or she makes 
errors in grammar or pronunciations, or does the listener overlook 
these errors and pay attention to the message? 
9. Does the learner receive corrective feedback when he or she uses the 
wrong word, or does the listener usually try to guess the intended 
meaning? 
10. Is the learner exposed to language which is modified, in terms of 
speed of delivery, complexity of grammatical structure, and 
vocabulary, so that it matches the learner’s ability to comprehend and 
interact? 
 
 
Activity 
Learner profiles 
Table 2.1 (below) helps to illustrate possible answers to these questions 
with respect to the profiles of four languages learners: 
Fill in the chart, giving your opinion about the presence or absence of 
the characteristics or conditions referred to in the questions above. 
Use the following notation: 
− a child learning a first language (L1) 
− a child learning a second language (L2) informally 
− an adolescent learning a second language in a formal language 
learning setting 
− an adult learning a second language informally (in the workplace or 
among friends). 
+ = a characteristic which is usually present 
− = a characteristic which is usually absent 
? = where the characteristic or condition is sometimes present, sometimes 
absent, or where you are not sure 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 40 
 
Table 2.1 
 L1 L2 
 Leaner 
 characteristics 
Child Child 
(informal) 
Adolescent 
(formal) 
Adult 
(informal) 
1 knowledge of another 
 Language 
 
2 cognitive maturity 
3 metalinguistuc 
awareness 
 
4 knowledge of the 
world 
 
5 nervousness about 
speaking 
 
 Learning conditions 
6 freedom to be silent 
7 ample time 
8 corrective feedback: 
 grammar and 
pronunciation 
 
9 corrective feedback: 
 Word choice 
 
10 modified input 
 
The discussion below summarizes our views about the profiles of these 
four language learners in terms of their characteristics and the conditions 
in which their learning takes place. 
 
Learner characteristic 
All second language learners, regardless of age, have by definition 
already acquired at least one language. This prior knowledge may be an 
advantage in the sense that the learner has an idea of how languages 
 
 
 41 
 
work. On the other hand, as we shall see, knowledges of other languages 
can also lead learners to make incorrect guesses about how the second 
language works and this may cause errors which a first language learner 
would not make. 
Young language learners begin the task of language learning without the 
benefit of some of the skills and knowledge which adolescent and adult 
learners have. The first language learner does not have the same cognitive 
maturity, metalinguistic awareness, or world knowledge as older second 
language learners. Although young second language learners have begun 
to develop cognitive maturity and metalinguistic awareness, they will still 
have far to go in these areas, as well as in the area of world knowledge, 
before they reach the levels already attained by adults and adolescent. 
Most child learners do not feel nervous about attempting to use the 
language—even when their proficiency is quite limited, but adults and 
adolescents often find it very stressful when they are unable to express 
themselves clearly and correctly. Nevertheless, even very young (pre-
school) children differ in their nervousness when faced with speaking a 
language they do not know well. Some children happily chatter away in 
their new language; others prefer to listen and participate silently in social 
interaction with their peers. Fortunately for these children, the learning 
environment rarely puts pressure on them to speak when they are not 
ready. 
 
Learning conditions 
Younger learners, in an informal second language learning environment, 
are usually allowed to be silent until they are ready to speak. Older 
learners are often forced to speak—to meet the requirements of a 
classroom or to carry out everyday tasks such as shopping, medical visits, 
or job interviews, young children in informal settings are usually exposed 
to the second language for many hours everyday. Older learners, 
especially students in language classrooms, are more likely to receive 
only limited exposure to the second language. 
One condition which appears to be common to learners of all ages—
though perhaps not in equal quantities—is access to modified input. This 
adjustd speech style, which is called child-directed speech for first 
language, is sometimes called foreigner talk or teacher talk for second 
languages. Many people who interact regularly with language learners 
seem to have an intuitive sense of what adjustments are needed to help 
learners understand. Of course, some people are better at this than others. 
We have all witness those painful conversations in which insensitive 
people seem to think that they can make learners understand better if they 
simply talk louder! Some Canadian friends recently told us of an 
experience they had in China. They were visiting some historic temples 
and wanted to get more information about them than they could glean 
from their guidebook. They asked their guide some questions about the 
monuments. Unfortunately, their limited Chinese and his non-existent 
English made it difficult for them to exchange information. The guide 
kept speaking louder and louder, but our friends understood very little. 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 42 
 
Finally, in frustraction, the guide concluded that it would help if these 
hopeless foreigners could see the information—so he took a stick and 
began writing on the sand ̶ in Chinese characters! 
As we saw in unit 1, error correction in first language acquisition tends be 
limited to corrections of meaning—including errors in vocabulary choice. 
In informal second language acquisition, errors which do not interfere 
with meaning are usually overlooked. Most people would feel they were 
being impolite if they interrupted and corrected someone who was trying 
to have a conversation with them! Nevertheless, they may react to an 
error if they cannot understand what the speaker is trying to say. Thus, 
errors of grammar and pronunciation are rarely remarked on, but the 
wrong word choice may receive comment from a puzzled interlocutor. 
The only place where feedback on error is typically present with high 
frequency is the language classroom. As we shall see, however, it is not 
present in all classrooms. 
 
Activity feedback 
Now compare your answers to the ones given in the table below 
 L1 L2 
 LeanerCharacteristics 
Child Child 
(informal) 
Adolescent 
(formal) 
Adult 
(informal) 
1 knowledge of another 
 Language 
- + + + 
2 cognitive maturity - - + + 
3 metalinguistuc 
awareness 
- - + + 
4 knowledge of the 
world 
- - + + 
5 nervousness about 
speaking 
- - + + 
 Learning conditions 
6 freedom to be silent + + - - 
7 ample time + + - + 
 
 
 43 
 
8 corrective feedback: 
 grammar and 
pronunciation 
- - + - 
9 corrective feedback: 
 Word choice 
+ + + + 
10 modified input + + + + 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Summary 
A general theory of SLA needs to account for language acquisition by 
learners with a variety of characteristics, learning in a variety of contexts. 
The emphasis in the following section is on the theories which have been 
proposed to explain the learning mechanisms which are common to all 
second language learners. 
 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 44 
 
Lesson 2: Behaviourism Position in Second Language Learning 
 
In this lesson you are going to read about the behaviourist view on second 
language learning. 
By the end of this unit you should be able to: 
 
discuss the behaviourist view on second language learning and; 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 explain the role of contrastive analysis in second language learning 
including its weakness in explaining the origin of second language 
errors. 
 
 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
As we saw in unit 1, the behaviourists account for learning in terms of 
imitation, practice, reinforcement (or feedback on success), and habit 
formation. According to the behaviourists, all learning, whether verbal or 
non-verbal, takes place through the same underlying processes. Learners 
receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment and they form 
‘associations’ between words and objects or events. These associations 
become stronger as experiences are repeated. Learners receive 
encouragement for their correct imitations, and corrective feedback on 
their errors. Because language development is viewed as the formation of 
habit, it is assumed that the person learning a second language starts off 
with the habits formed in the first language and that these habits 
interferewith the new ones needed for the second language (Lado 1964). 
Behaviourism was often linked to the Contrastive Analisys Hyphothesis 
(CAH) which was developed by stuctural linguists in Europe and North 
America. The CAH predicts that where there are similarities between the 
first language and the target language, the learner will acquire target-
language structures with ease; where there are differences, the learner 
will have difficulty. 
 
 
 45 
 
There is little doubt that a learner’s first language influences the 
acquisition of a second language. However, researchers have found that 
not all errors predicted by the CAH are actually made. Furthermore, many 
of the errors which learners do make are not predictable on the basis of 
the CAH. For example, adult beginers use simple structures in the target 
language just as children do: ‘No understand,’ or ‘Yesterday I meet my 
teacher.’ Such sentences look more like a child’s first language sentences 
than like translations from another language. Indeed, many of the 
sentences produced by the second language learners in the early stages of 
development would be quite ungrammatical in their first language. What 
is more, some characteristics of these simple structures are very similar 
across learners from a variety of backgrounds, even if the structures of 
their respective first languages are different from each other and different 
from the target language. 
For second language acquisition, as for first language acquisition, the 
behaviourist account has proven to be at best an incomplete explanation 
for language learning. Psychologists have proposed new, more complex 
theories of learning. Some of these are discussed later in this unit. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
After this lesson can you see any difference between learning a first 
and second language? Answer the questions below to reflect on your 
beliefs of how people learn a language 
1. What is the behaviourist view about second language learning? 
2. What is the contrastive analysis view on language learning? 
 
What are the weaknesses of contrastive analysis in explaining the origin 
of second language errors? 
Feedback 
Was it difficult to get the answers right? Now compare your answers 
to the ones given below. If you didn’t manage to get all the answers 
correct, read the text again and see if you can get them right. 
1. Behaviourists account for learning in terms of imitation, practice, 
reinforcement (or feedback on success) and habit formation. 
According to the behaviourists, all learning, whether verbal or non-
verbal, takes place through the same underlying processes. Learners 
receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment and they 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 46 
 
form ‘associations’ between words and objects or events. These 
associations become stronger as experiences are repeated. Learners 
receive encouragement for their correct imitations, and corrective 
feedback on their errors. Because language development is viewed as 
the formation of habit, it is assumed that the person learning a second 
language starts off with the habits formed in the first language and 
that these habits interfere with the new ones needed for the second 
language. 
2. The CAH predicts that where there are similarities between the first 
language and the target language, the learner will acquire target-
language structures with ease; where there are differences, the learner 
will have difficulty. 
3. The researchers have found that not all errors predicted by the CAH 
are actually made. Furthermore, many of the errors which learners do 
make are not predictable on the basis of the CAH. 
 
 
Summary 
In this lesson you read about the behaviourist view on second language 
learning. You saw that the bahaviourist theory explains second language 
learning in terms of imitation, practice, reinforcement (or feedback on 
success) and habit formation. You also discussed the reasons why 
contrastive analysis failed to explain the origin of second language errors. 
 
 
 
 
 47 
 
Lesson 3: Innatism Position in Second Language Learning 
 
This lesson is about the innatist view on second language learning. 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to: 
explain Chomsky´s claim on second language learning and; 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
outline the different views on the role the universal grammar on second 
language learning. 
 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
The Universal Grammar 
As we saw in unit 1, Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition is based 
on the hyphotesis that innate knowledge of the principles of Universal 
Grammar (UG) permits all children to acquire the language of their 
environment, during a critical period in their development. Chomsky has 
not made specific claims about the implications of this theory for second 
language learning. Nevertheless, some linguists working within this 
theory have argued that Universal Grammar offers the best perspective 
from which to understand second language acquisition (SLA). Others 
argue that, although it is good framework for understanding first language 
acquisition, UG is no longer available to guide the acquisition of a second 
language in learners who have passed the critical period for language 
acquisition. In their view, this means that second language acquisition has 
to be explained by some other theory, perhaps one of the more recent 
psychologicaltheories described below. 
Even those who believe that UG has an important explanatory role in SLA 
do not agree on how UG works in second language development. Some 
argue that, even if second language learners begin learning the second 
language after the end of the critical period and even if many fail to 
achieve complete mastery of the target language, there is still a logical 
problem of (second) language acquisition: learners eventually know more 
about the language than they could reasonably have learned if they had to 
depend entirely on the input they are exposed to. They infer from this that 
UG must be available to second language learners as well as to first 
language learners. Some of the theorists who hold this view claim that the 
nature and availability of UG in SLA is no different from that which is 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 48 
 
hypothesized to guide first language learners. Others argue that UG may 
be present and available to the second language learners, but that it’s 
exact nature as been altered by the acquisition of other languages. 
Researchers working within the UG framework also differ in their 
hypotheses about how formal instruction or error correction will affect 
the learner’s knowledge of the second language. Some argue that, like 
young children, adult second language learners neither need nor benefit 
from error correction and metalinguistic information. They conclude that 
these things change only the superficial appearence perfomance and do 
not really affect the underlying systematic knowledge of the new 
language (Schwartz 1993 and see the discussion of Krashen’s theory, on 
next pages). Other UG linguists, especially those who think that UG has 
been affected by the prior acquisition of the first language, suggest that 
second language learners may need to be given some explicit information 
about what is not grammatical in the second. Otherwise, they may assume 
that some structures of the first language have equivalents in the second 
language when, in fact, they do not. 
Researchers who study SLA from the UG perspective are usually 
interested in the language competence (knowledge) of advanced learners 
rather than in the simple language of early stage learners. They argue 
that, while a variety of different theories might be sufficient to explain 
some early language perfomance (use), a theory such as UG is necessary 
to explain learners’ knowledge of complex syntax. They are interested in 
whether the competence which underlies the language perfomance of 
second language learners resembles the competence which underlies the 
language perfomance of native speakers. Thus their investigations often 
involve comparing the judgements of grammatically made by two groups, 
rather than observations of actual speaking. In doing this, they hope to 
gain insight into what learners actually know about the language, using a 
task which avoids at least some of the many things which affect the way 
we ordinarily use language. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
After reading the first part of this lesson I would like you to answer 
the questions below 
1. What are Chomsky´s claim on second language learning? 
2. Outline the different views on the role the universal grammar on 
second language learning? 
 
 
 
 49 
 
Feedback 
Great! Are your answers similar to the ones below? If not try to trace 
the answers again in the reading text 
1. Chomsky has not made specific claims about the implications of this 
theory for second language learning. Nevertheless, some linguists 
working within this theory have argued that Universal Grammar 
offers the best perspective from which to understand second language 
acquisition (SLA). Others argue that, although it is good framework 
for understanding first language acquisition, UG is no longer 
available to guide the acquisition of a second language in learners 
who have passed the critical period for language acquisition. In their 
view, this means that second language acquisition has to be explained 
by some other theory, perhaps one of the more recent psychological 
theories. 
2. Those who believe that UG has an important explanatory role in SLA 
do not agree on how UG works in second language development. 
Some argue that, even if second language learners begin learning the 
second language after the end of the critical period and even if many 
fail to achieve complete mastery of the target language, there is still a 
logical problem of (second) language acquisition: learners eventually 
know more about the language than they could reasonably have 
learned if they had to depend entirely on the input they are exposed 
to. They infer from this that UG must be available to second language 
learners as well as to first language learners. Some of the theorists 
who hold this view claim that the nature and availability of UG in 
SLA is no different from that which is hypothesized to guide first 
language learners. Others argue that UG may be present and available 
to the second language learners, but that it’s exact nature as been 
altered by the acquisition of other languages. 
 
2.3.1Krashen’s ‘monitor model’ 
Unit summary The second part of the lesson looks at Krashen’s five 
models. Krashen’s monitor models are part of the innatist theory of 
second language acquisition which has had a very great influence on 
second language teaching practice. The Five ‘hypotheses’ constitute what 
Krashen originally called the ‘monitor model’. He claims that research 
findings from a number of different domains are consistent with these 
hypotheses: (1) the acquisition-learning hypotheses; (2) the monitor 
hypotheses; (3) the natural order hypotheses; (4) the input hypotheses; 
and (5) the affective filter hypotheses. 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 50 
 
a) The acquisition-learning hypotheses 
According to Krashen, there are two ways for adult second language 
learners to develop knowledge of second language: ‘acquisition’ and 
‘learning’. In this view, we acquire as we are exposed to samples of the 
second language which we understand. This happens in much the same 
way that children pick up their frst language—with no conscious attention 
to language form. We learn, on the other hand, via a conscious process of 
study and attention to form and rule learning. 
For Krashen, acquisition is by far the more important process. He asserts 
that only acquired language is readily available for natural, fluent 
communication. Further, he asserts that learning cannot turn into 
acquisition. He cites as learned rules, while other speakers may ‘know’ 
rules but fail to apply them when they are focusing their attention on what 
they are saying it. 
 
b) The monitor hypothesis 
Krashen argues that the acquired system acts to initiate the speaker’s 
utterances and is responsible for fluency and intuitive judgements about 
correctness. The learned system, on the other hand, acts only as an editor 
or ‘monitor’, making minor changes and polishing what the acquired 
system has produced. Moreover, Krashen has especified that learners use 
the monitor only when they are focused more on being ‘correct’ than on 
what they have to say, when they have sufficient time to search their 
memory for the relevant rules, and when they actually know these rules! 
Thus, writing may be more conducive than speaking to monitor use, 
because it usually allows more time for attention to form. He maintains 
that since knowing the rules only helps the speaker supplement what has 
been acquired, the focus of language teaching should be on creating 
conditions for ‘acquisitions’ rather than ‘learning’. 
It is very difficult to show evidence of ‘monitor’ use. In any given 
utterance, it is impossible to determine what has been produced by the 
acquired systemand what is the result of monitor use. Krashen’s claim 
that language which is produced quickly and apparently spontaneously 
must have been acquired rather than learned leaves us with a somewhat 
circular definition. 
 
c) The natural order hypothesis 
Krashen based this hypothesis on the observation that, like first language 
learners, second language learners seem to acquire the features of the 
target language in predictable sequences. Contrary to intuition, the rules 
which are easiest to state (and thus to ‘learn’) are not necessarily the first 
to be acquired. For example, the rule of adding an –s to third person 
singular verbs in the present tense is easy to state, but even some 
advanced second language speakers fail to apply it in rapid conversation. 
 
 
 51 
 
Further, Krashen observes that the natural order is independent of the 
order in which rules have been learned in language classes. Most of 
Krashen’s original evidence for this hypothesis came from the 
‘morpheme studies’, in which learners’ speech was examined for the 
accuracy of certain grammatical morphemes. While there have been 
many criticisms of the morpheme studies, subsequent research has 
confirmed that learners pass through sequences or stages in development. 
 
d) The input hypothesis 
Krashen asserts that one acquires languages in only one way—by 
exposure to comprehensible input. If the input contains forms and 
structures just beyond the learners current level of competence in the 
language (what Krashen calls ‘i + 1’), then both comprehension and 
acquisition will occur. 
Krashen cites many varied lines of evidence for this hypothesis, most of 
which appeal to intuition, but which have not been substantiated by 
empirical studies. In recent years, he has emphasized the value of 
undirected pleasure reading as a source of comprehensible input. While 
he acknowledges that some people who are exposed to intensive 
comprehensible input do not achieve high levels of proficiency in the 
second language, he retains his convictions that input is the source of 
acquisition. He points to the affective filter hypothesis to explain lack of 
success when comprehensible input is available. 
 
e) The affective filter hypothesis 
The ‘affective filter’ is an imaginary barrier which prevents learners from 
acquiring language from the available input. ‘Affect’ refers to such things 
as motives, needs, attitudes, and emotional states. A learner who is tense, 
angry, anxious, or bored may ‘filter out’ input, making it unavailable for 
acquisition. Thus, depending on the learner’s state of mind or disposition, 
the filter limits what is noticed and what is acquired. The filter will be 
‘up’ (blocking input) when the learner is stressed, self-conscious, or 
unmotivated. It will be ‘down’ when the learner is relaxed and motivated. 
What makes this hypothesis attractive to practitioners is that it appears to 
have immediate implications for classroom practice. Teachers can 
understand why some learners, given the same opportunity to learn, may 
be successful while others are not. It also appeals intuitively to those who 
have tried unsuccessfully to learn a language in conditions where they felt 
stressed or uncomfortable. One problem with the hypothesis, however, is 
that it is difficult to be sure that affective factors cause the differences in 
language acquisition. It seems likely that success in acquisition may in 
itself contribute to more positive motivation or, in Krashen’s terms, to a 
‘lowered affective filter’. 
Krashen`s writing has been very influential in supporting communicative 
language teaching (CLT), particularly in North America. On the other 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 52 
 
hand, the theory has also been seriously criticized for failing to propose 
hypotheses which can be tested by empirical research. Most teachers and 
researchers see much of which is intuitively appealing in his views. There 
is little doubt that communicative language teaching, with its primary 
focus on using language for meaningful interaction and for accomplishing 
tasks, rather than on learning rules, has won support from many teachers 
and learners. Nevertheless, it will be seen in Chapter 6 that some 
classroom-centred research shows that attention to language form may be 
more important than Krashen acknowledges. We will also see that 
instruction which focuses on language form can be incorporated within 
communicative language teaching. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
1. After reading the text above on Krashen’s monitor model can you try 
to summarize the main idea in each of the five hypotheses 
 
 
Feedback 
Great! Were you able to tackle the following points? If so, well done 
According to Krashen, there are two ways for adult second language 
learners to develop knowledge of second language: ‘acquisition’ and 
‘learning.’ For Krashen, acquisition is by far the more important process. 
He asserts that only acquired language is readily available for natural, 
fluent communication. 
Concerning to the monitor model, Krashen argues that the acquired 
system acts to initiate the speaker’s utterances and is responsible for 
fluency and intuitive judgements about correctness. The learned system, 
on the other hand, acts only as an editor or ‘monitor’, making minor 
changes and polishing what the acquired system has produced. 
In relation to the natural order of acquisition Krashen based this 
hypothesis on the observation that, like first language learners, second 
language learners seem to acquire the features of the target language in 
predictable sequences. Contrary to intuition, the rules which are easiest to 
state (and thus to ‘learn’) are not necessarily the first to be acquired. 
Retaining the input hypothesis, Krashen asserts that one acquires 
languages in only one way—by exposure to comprehensible input. 
 
 
 53 
 
In relation to the affective filter, Krashen claims that the ‘affective filter’ 
is an imaginary barrier which prevents learners from acquiring language 
from the available input. ‘Affect’ refers to such things as motives, needs, 
attitudes, and emotional states. A learner who is tense, angry, anxious, or 
bored may ‘filter out’ input, making it unavailable for acquisition. 
 
 
Summary 
In this lesson you read about the innatist view on second language 
learning. The text started by outlining Chomsky´s view on how the 
innatist view is valid for second language learning and then the text 
outlined the view from some linguists working within this theory have 
argued that Universal Grammar offers the best perspective from which to 
understand second language acquisition (SLA). The discussion went on 
with the involvement of others scholars who argue that, although the 
universal grammar (UG) is good framework for understanding first 
language acquisition, it is no longer available to guide the acquisition of a 
second language in learners who have passed the critical period for 
language acquisition. In their view, this means that second language 
acquisition has to be explained by some other theory, perhaps one of the 
more recent psychological theories. Towards the end of the lesson you 
read about Krashen’s monitor model and its contribution to the teories of 
second language learning. 
 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 54 
 
Lesson 4: Recent Psychological Theories 
 
Information processing 
Now you are going to read a text that discusses two of the recent 
psychological theories to explain second language known as information 
processing and connectionism. 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 explain the cognitive psychologist and connectionism views on 
second language learning. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes towork on this lesson 
 
Cognitive psychologists working in an information processing model of 
human learning and performance tend to see second language acquisition 
as the building up of knowledge systems that can eventually be called on 
automatically for speaking and understanding. At first, learners have to 
pay attention to any aspect of the language which they are trying to 
understand or produce. It is assumed that there is a limit to the amount of 
information a human can pay attention to at one time. Thus, for example, 
a learner at the earliest stages of second language will probably pay 
attention to the main words in a message and not be able to also notice 
the grammatical morphemes which are attached to some of those words. 
Gradually, through experience and practice, learners become able to use 
certain parts of their knowledge so quickly and automatically that they 
are not even aware that they are doing it. This frees them to focus on 
other aspects of the language which, in turn, gradually become automatic 
(McLaughlin 1987). The performance which will eventually become 
automatic may originate from intentional learning, for example in formal 
study, but this is not always the case. Anything which uses up our mental 
‘processing space’, even if we are not aware of it or attending to it ‘on 
purpose’, is a possible source for information or skills which can 
eventually be available automatically, if there has been enough practice. 
Note that, in this context ‘practice’ is not seen as something mechanical, 
but as something which involves effort on the part of the learner. 
 
 
 55 
 
One theorist who has emphasized the role of ‘noticing’ in second 
language acquisition is Richard Schmidt. He argues that everything we 
come to know about the language was first ‘noticed’ consciously. This 
contrasts sharply with Krashen’s views, of course. Schmidt, like the other 
cognitive psychologists, does not assume that there is a difference 
between acquisition and learning (Schmidt 1990). 
In addiction to the development of automaticity through practice, some 
psychologists suggest that there are changes in skills and knowledge 
which are due to ‘restructuring’. This notion is needed to account for the 
observation that sometimes things which we know and use automatically 
may not be explainable in terms of a gradual build-up of automaticity 
through practice. They seem rather to be based on the interaction of 
knowledge we already have, or on the acquisition of new knowledge 
which—without extensive practice—somehow fits into an existing system 
and causes it to be transformed or ‘restructured’. This may lead to what 
appear to be sudden bursts of progress for the learner, but it can also 
sometimes lead to apparent backsliding when a systematic aspect of 
learner language incorporates too much or incorporates the wrong things. 
For example, when a learner finally masters the use of the regular –ed 
ending to show the past tense, irregular verbs, which had previously been 
‘practised’ correctly, may be affected. Thus, after months of saying ‘I 
saw a film’, the learner may say ‘I seed’ or even ‘I sawed’, overapplying 
the general rule. 
Connectionism 
As seen in the discussion of first language acquisition, connectionists, 
unlike innatists, see no need to hypothesize the existence of a 
neurological module which is designed for language acquisition alone. 
Like most cognitive psychologists, connectionists attribute greater 
importance to the role of the environment than to any innate knowledge 
in the learner, arguing that what is innate is simply to ability to learn, not 
any specifically linguistic structure. 
Connectionists argue that learners gradually build up their knowledge of 
language through exposure to thousands of instances of the linguistics 
features they eventually learn. Thus, while innatists see the language 
input in the environment mainly as a ‘trigger’ to activate innate 
knowledge, connectionists see the input as the principal source of 
linguistic knowledge. After hearing language features in specific 
situational or linguistic contexts over and over again, learners develop 
stronger and stronger mental or neurological ‘connections’ between these 
elements. Eventually, see the presence of one situational or linguistic 
element will activate the other(s) in the learner’s mind. This connections 
may be very strong because the elements have occurred together very 
frequently or they may be relatively weaker because there have been 
fewer opportunities to experience them together. For example, learners 
might get the subject-verb agreement correct, not because they know a 
rule but because they have heard examples such as ‘I say’ and ‘he says’ 
so often that each subject pronoun activates the correct verb form. 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 56 
 
As noted in unit 1, connectionism research has shown that a learning 
mechanism, simulated by a computer program, can not only ‘learn’ what 
it hears but can also generalize, even to the point of making 
overgeneralization errors. These studies have so far dealt almost 
exclusively with the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical 
morphemes, that is, aspects of the language which even innatists will 
grant may be acquired largely through memorization and simple 
generalization. How this model of cumulative learning can lead to 
knowledge of complex syntactic structures is a question which is 
currently under investigation. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
Look back at the text above and answer the following questions 
1. How does the cognitive psychologist view second language learning? 
2. How would the cognitive psychologist view early second language 
learning? 
3. How does the connectivist view second language learning? 
 
Feedback 
Did you face any difficulties in answering the questions above? I 
hope not. Now compare your answers with the ones below. If you 
find that you didn’t get most of the answers, go back to the text again 
and find the answers. 
1. Cognitive psychologists view second language acquisition as the 
building up of knowledge systems that can eventually be called on 
automatically for speaking and understanding. At first, learners have 
to pay attention to any aspect of the language which they are trying to 
understand or produce. 
2. Learners in the earliest stages of second language learning will 
probably pay attention to the main words in a message and not be 
able to also notice the grammatical morphemes which are attached 
to some of those words. Gradually, through experience and practice, 
learners become able to use certain parts of their knowledge so 
quickly and automatically that they are not even aware that they are 
doing it. 
3. Connectionists argue that learners gradually build up their 
knowledge of language through exposure to thousands of instances 
 
 
 57 
 
of the linguistics features they eventually learn. Thus, while innatists 
see the language input in the environment mainly as a ‘trigger’ to 
activate innate knowledge, connectionists the input as the principal 
source of linguistic knowledge. 
 
 
Summary 
This lesson looked at the two of the recent psychological theories to 
explain second language known as information processing and 
connectionism. In the lesson we saw that the Cognitive psychologists 
view second language acquisition as the building up of knowledge 
systems that can eventually be called on automatically for speaking and 
understanding. While the Connectionists argue that learners gradually 
build up their knowledge of language through exposure to thousands of 
instances of the linguistics features they eventually learn. In the next 
lesson we are going to read about the interactionist position in second 
language. 
 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second LanguageLearning 
 
 58 
 
Lesson 5: The Interactionist Position 
 
This lesson is about the interactionist view on second language learning. 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to: 
explain the interactionist view on second language learning; 
 describe the relationship between interaction and comprehensible 
input and the characteristics of modified input 
 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
Some interactionist theorists, while influenced by psychological learning 
theories, have developed their ideas mainly within SLA research itself. 
Evelyn Hatch (1992), Teresa Pica (1994) and Michael Long (1983), 
among others, have argued that much second language acquisition takes 
place through conversational interaction. This is similar to the first 
language theory that gives great importance to child-directed speech. 
Michael Long’s views are based on his observation of interactions 
between learners and native speakers. He agrees with Krashen that 
comprehensible input is necessary for language acquisition. However, he 
is more concerned with the question of how input is made 
comprehensible. He sees modified interaction as the necessary 
mechanism for this to take place (Long 1983). In this view, what learners 
need is not necessarily simplifications of the linguistic forms but rather an 
opportunity to interact with other speakers, in ways which lead them to 
adapt what they are saying until the learner shows signs of understanding. 
According to Long, there are no cases of beginning-level learners 
acquiring a second language from native-speaker talk which has not been 
modified in some way. In fact, he says, research shows that native 
speakers consistently modify their speech in sustained conversation with 
non-native speakers. 
Long infers that modified interaction must be necessary for language 
acquisition. This relationship has been summarized as follows: 
1. Interactional modification makes input comprehensible; 
 
 
 
 59 
 
2. Comprehensible input promotes acquisition. 
Therefore, 
3 Interactional modification promotes acquisition. 
Modified interaction does not always involve linguistic simplification. It 
may also include elaboration, slower speech rate, gesture, or the provision 
of additional contextual cues. Some examples of these conversational 
modifications are: 
1. Comprehension checks—efforts by the native speaker to ensure that 
the learner has understood (for example, ‘The bus leaves at 6:30. Do 
you understand?’). 
2. Clarification requests—efforts by the learner to get the native 
speaker to clarify something which has not been understood (for 
example, ‘Could you repeat please?’). These requests from the 
learner lead to further modifications by the native speaker. 
3. Self-repetition or paraphrase—the native speaker repeats his or her 
sentence either partially or in its entirety (for example, ‘She got lost 
on her way home from school. She was walking home from school. 
She got lost.’) 
Research has demonstrated that conversational adjustments can aid 
comprehension. There is evidence that modification which takes place 
during interaction leads to better understanding than linguistic 
simplification or modification which is planned in advance. While some 
recent research has shown that specific kinds of interaction behaviours 
aid learning in terms of immediate production, more research is needed 
on how access to modified interaction affects second language acquisition 
in the long term. 
Another perspective on the role of interaction in second language 
acquisition is Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of human mental 
processing. As we saw in unit 1, Vygotsky’s theory assumes that all 
cognitive development, including language development, arises as a 
result of social interactions between individuals. Extending Vygotskyan 
theory to second language acquisition, Jim Lantolf and others claim that 
second language learners advance to higher levels of linguistic 
knowledge when they collaborate and interact with speakers of the 
second language who are more knowledgeable than them, for example, a 
teacher or a more advanced learner. Critical to Vygotsky’s theory is the 
notion of the zone of proximal development, the level of performance 
which a learner is capable of when there is support from interaction with 
a more advanced interlocutor. This may be observed in a variety of 
speech strategies used by more advanced speakers to create supportive 
conditions for the second language learner to comprehend and produce 
language (for example, repetition, simplification, modelling). One 
example of this is the conversation below, reported by Richard Donato, 
who investigated how adult learners of French were able to co-construct 
language learning experiences in a classroom setting. 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 60 
 
 Speaker 1 … and then I’ll say … tu as souvenu notre anniversaire 
de mariage … or 
 should I say mon anniversaire? 
 Speaker 2 Tu as … 
 Speaker 3 Tu as … 
 Speaker 4 Tu as souvenu… ‘You remembered?’ 
Speaker 5 Yea, but isn’t that reflexive? Tu t’as … 
 Speaker 1 Ah, tu t’as souvenu. 
 Speaker 2 Oh, it’s tu es 
 Speaker 1 Tu es 
 Speaker 3 Tu es, tu es, tu... 
 Speaker 1 T’es, tu t’es 
 Speaker 3 Tu t’es 
 Speaker 1 Tu t’es souvenu 
 
 (Donato 1994: 44) 
According to Vygotskyan theorists, the difference between this 
perspective and that of other researchers who also view interaction as 
important in second language acquisition is that sociocultural theorists 
assume that language acquisition actually takes place in the interactions 
of learner and interlocutor, whereas other interactionist models assume 
that input modifications provides learners with the linguistic raw material 
which they will process internally and invisibly. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
After reading the lesson above answer the following questions 
1. How do Evelyn Hatch (1992), Teresa Pica (1994) and Michael Long 
(1983) view second language learning? 
2. What is the relationship between interaction and comprehensible 
input? 
3. Describe the characteristics of modified input. 
 
 
 61 
 
 
Feedback 
Did you find the questions difficult? I don’t think so. Now I want you 
to compare your answers to the ones given below 
1. Evelyn Hatch (1992), Teresa Pica (1994) and Michael Long (1983) 
argued that much second language acquisition takes place through 
conversational interaction. This is similar to the first language theory 
that gives great importance to child-directed speech. Michael Long’s 
views are based on his observation of interactions between learners 
and native speakers. He agrees with Krashen that comprehensible 
input is necessary for language acquisition. However, he is more 
concerned with the question of how input is made comprehensible. 
2. The relationship between interaction and comprehensive input is as 
follows: 
a) Interactional modification makes input comprehensible; 
b) Comprehensible input promotes acquisition. 
Therefore, 
c) Interactional modification promotes acquisition. 
3. The characteristics of modified input are as follow: 
a) Comprehensions checks—efforts by the native speaker to 
ensure that the learner has understood (for example, ‘The bus 
leaves at 6:30. Do you understand?’). 
b) Clarification requests—efforts by the learner to get the native 
speaker to clarify something which has not been understood 
(for example, ‘Could you repeat please?’). These requests 
from the learner lead to further modifications by the native 
speaker. 
c) Self-repetition or paraphrase—the native speaker repeats his 
or her sentence either partially or in its entirety (for example,‘She got lost on her way home from school. She was walking 
home from school. She got lost.’) 
 
Summary 
In this lesson we looked at the Interactionists view on second language 
acquisition. We saw that the proponents of this theory emphasize the role 
of the modification of interaction in conversation. This theory has helped 
us to understand some of the ways in which learners can gain access to 
new knowledge about the language when they have support from an 
interlocutor. However, we have also seen that critics of the interactionist 
position argue that there is much which learners need to know which is 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 62 
 
not available in the input, and so they put greater emphasis on innate 
principles of language which learners can draw on. 
 
Unit summary 
 
 
Summary 
In this unit you discussed the relationship between the theories of 
language acquisition and the human mind. All of the theories discussed in 
this unit and in unit 1 use metaphors to represent this invisible reality. 
Both linguists and psychologists draw some of their evidence from 
neurological research. However, in light of the present state of technology 
as well as research ethics, most of the research must be based on other 
kinds of evidence. 
Many claims from behaviourist theory were based on experiments with 
animals learning a variety of responses to laboratory stimuli. Their 
applicability to the natural learning of languages by humans was strongly 
challenged by psychologists and linguists alike, primarily because of the 
inadequacy of behaviourist models to account for the complexity 
involved in language learning. 
Information processing and connectionist research often involves 
computer simulations or very controlled laboratory experiments where 
people learn a specific set of carefully chosen linguists features, often in 
an invented language. Many linguists argue that this does not entitle 
connectionists to generalize to the complexities of normal human 
language learning. 
In contrast, the innatists draw much of their evidence from studies of the 
complexities of the proficient speaker’s language knowledge and 
performance and from analysis of their own intuitions about language. 
Critics of this view argue that it is not enough to know what the final state 
of knowledge is and more attention should be paid to the developmental 
steps leading up to this level of mastery. 
Interactionists emphasize the role of the modification of interaction in 
conversation. This helps us to understand some of the ways in which 
learners can gain access to new knowledge about the language when they 
have support from an interlocutor. However, critics of the interactionist 
position argue that there is much which learners need to know which is 
not available in the input, and so they put greater emphasis on innate 
principles of language which learners can draw on. 
Researchers and educators who are hoping for language acquisition 
theories which give them insight into language teaching are often 
frustrated by the lack of agreement among the ‘experts’. But the 
complexities of SLA, like those of first language acquisition, represent a 
puzzle for linguistic, psychological, and neurological scientists which 
 
 
 63 
 
will not soon be solved. Research which has theory development as its 
goal has very important long-term significance for language teaching and 
learning, but agreement on a ‘complete’ theory of language acquisition is 
probably, at best, a long way off. Even if such agreement were reached, 
there would still be questions about how the theory should be interpreted 
for language teaching. Many teachers watch theory development with 
interest, but must continue to teach and plan lessons and assess students’ 
performance in the absence of comprehensible theory of second language 
learning. 
There is growing body of ‘applied’ research being carried out within 
these different theoretical frameworks, as well as others. This often starts 
from observations of second language acquisition, in both ‘natural’ or 
‘instructional’ settings. The research draws on a wide range of theoretical 
orientations, sometimes explicitly stated, sometimes merely implied. It 
may provide a more immediately accessible basis for teachers’ reflections 
about teaching. In the following chapters, we will look at research which 
as sought to explain the processes and outcomes of second language 
acquisition in a variety of settings. 
 
Assignment 
 
Assignment 
Outline the similarities and differences between first and second language 
learning. Then discuss if there is anything useful that can be derived from 
first language acquisition that can be useful for classroom learning 
 
 
Assessment 
 
Assessment 
TEST 1 
The test below covers the main ideas in unit one and two 
Didactics of languages Test 1 (UNITS 1&2) Time: 90 minutes 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 64 
 
1. Discuss the concept of first language acquisition. Don’t forget to 
mention the types of language acquisition theories that you have 
learnt. 
2. Language is not a cultural artefact that we learn in the same way we 
learn to tell the time or how Federal Governments work. Instead, it is 
a distinct piece of biological make up of our brain… (Pinker´s thesis). 
a) Elaborate on the theory of first language acquisition that would 
support the statement above. Don’t forget to mention its 
weakness. 
 
3 Discuss the weak and strong version of the critical period 
hypotheses. 
4 Discuss the differences between learning a second language in a 
formal and informal settings. 
 
5 Discuss the concept of contrastive analysis. Don’t forget to mention 
its weakness. 
 
6 Give a summary of the main ideas in Krashen´s five central 
hypothesis 
 
Feedback 
Great! I hope you didn’t face many difficulties in answering the 
questions above. Now look at your answers and compare them with 
the ones below 
1. First language acquisition occurs when a child learns a language for 
the first time.The two types of first language acquisition are 
monolingual first language acquisition (when a learner is exposed to 
one language and happens to learn that language), bilingual first 
language acquisition (when a learner is exposed to two or more 
languages and happens to learn them both). 
2. The theory of first language acquisition that would support that 
statement is the innatist position. It argues that people are biological 
programmed to learn languages. Language develops in human beings 
as any other biological functions. Its weakness is that it gives more 
importance to the role of the biological aspects and minimizes the role 
of the linguistic environment. 
 
 
 65 
 
3. The weak version of the critical period states that children must learn 
their first language before puberty, after that it can be difficult or 
incomplete. The strong version argues that children must acquire their 
first language before puberty, after that period it will be impossible. 
4. In formal second language acquisition, learners learn the grammatical 
rules of the language formally, in a classroom setting, with a teacher, 
the time they are exposed to the language is limited and they are 
obliged to use the language. In informal second language learning, 
learners pick up the language in the environment, grammar rules are 
learned subconsciously, there is no time limit for language learning 
and learners can only speak when they feel they are ready to produce 
the language. 
5. The CAH predicts that where there are similarities between the first 
language and the target language, the learner will acquire target-
language structures with ease; where there are differences, the learner 
will have difficulty. The weaknesses of the contrastive analysis are as 
follow: not all errors predicted by the CAH are actually made.Furthermore, many of the errors which learners do make are not 
predictable on the basis of the CAH. 
6. Krashen´s five hypotheses are as follow: 
a) The acquisition and learning hypothesis, states that there are two 
ways for adult second language learners to develop knowledge 
of second language: ‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’. In this view, we 
acquire as we are exposed to samples of the second language 
which we understand. We learn, on the other hand, via a 
conscious process of study and attention to form and rule 
learning. 
b) The monitor hypothesis which argues that the acquired system 
acts to initiate the speaker’s utterances and is responsible for 
fluency and intuitive judgements about correctness. The learned 
system, on the other hand, acts only as an editor or ‘monitor’, 
making minor changes and polishing what the acquired system 
has produced 
c) The natural order hypothesis argues that, like first language 
learners, second language learners seem to acquire the features 
of the target language in predictable sequences. Contrary to 
intuition, the rules which are easiest to state (and thus to ‘learn’) 
are not necessarily the first to be acquired. The natural order is 
independent of theorder in which rules have been learned in 
language classes. 
d) The input hypothesis asserts that one acquires languages in only 
one way—by exposure to comprehensible input. If the input 
contains forms and structures just beyond the learners current 
level of competence in the language (what Krashen calls ‘i + 1’), 
then both comprehension and acquisition will occur. 
e) The affective filter hypothesis which states that there is an 
imaginary barrier which prevents learners from acquiring 
 
 
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language 
Learning 
 
 66 
 
language from the available input. ‘Affect’ refers to such things 
as motives, needs, attitudes, and emotional states. A learner who 
is tense, angry, anxious, or bored may ‘filter out’ input, making 
it unavailable for acquisition. Thus, depending on the learner’s 
state of mind or disposition, the filter limits what is noticed and 
what is acquired. The filter will be ‘up’ (blockinginput) when the 
learner is stressed, self-conscious, or unmotivated. It will be 
‘down’ when the learner is relaxed and motivated. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 67 
 
Unit 3 
Factors affecting second 
language learners 
Introduction 
In this unit, we will look at proposals for how differences among learners 
may lead to differences in their learning success. 
 
Upon completion of this unit you will be able to: 
 
 Outcomes 
develop a broad undertanding on how intelligence, aptitude,personality, 
age, motivation and attitudes affect second language learning. 
 
 
Intelligibility: the degree to which a message can be understood 
Aptitude: the natural ability to learn, not including 
intelligence, motivation,etc. 
Personality: those aspects of an individual´s behaviour, 
attitudes, beliefs, thought, actions and feelings 
which are seen as typical and distinctive of a 
person 
Motivation: the factors that determine a person´s desire to do 
something. 
Attitude: Expressions of positive or negative feelings 
towards something 
 
 
 
Terminology 
 
 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 68 
 
Lesson 1: 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 
In unit 1, it was pointed out that all normal children, given a normal 
upbringing, are successful in the acquisition of their first language. This 
contrasts with our experience of second language learners, whose success 
varies greatly. In this lesson you are going to read about the 
characteristics of a good language learner and about research in second 
language learning. 
 
By the end of the lesson you should be able to 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 explain the characteristics which make one a good language learner 
and you will be awre of the methods that researchers use to find out 
about learners individual factors and the difficulties that these 
instruments face in producing reliable results. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes do work on this lesson 
 
Many of us believe that learners have certain characteristics which lead to 
more or less successful language learning. Such beliefs are usually based 
on anecdotal evidence, often our own experience or that of individual 
people we have known. For example, many teachers are convinced that 
extroverted learners who interact without inhibition in their second 
language and find many opportunities to practise language skills will be 
the most successful learners. In addiction to personality characteristics, 
other factors generally considered to be relevant to language learning are 
intelligence, aptitude, motivation, and attitudes. Another important factor, 
as suggested in our discussion of the Critical Period Hypothesis for first 
language acquisition, is the age at which learners begins. 
In this unit, we will see whether anecdotal evidence is supported by 
research findings. To what extends can we predict differences in the 
success of second language acquisition in two individuals if we have 
information about their personalities, their general and specific abilities, 
their motivation, or their age? 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
 69 
 
 
Activity 2.1 
Characteristics of the ‘good language learner’ 
It seems that some people have a much easier time of learning than 
others. Rate of development varies widely among first language learners. 
Some children can string together five-, six-, and seven-word sentences at 
an age when other children are just beginning to label items in their 
immediate environment. Nevertheless, all normal children eventually 
master their first language. 
In second language learning, it has observed countless times that, in the 
same classroom setting, some students progress rapidly through the initial 
stages of learning a new language while others struggle along making 
very slow progress. Some learners never achieve native-like command of 
a second language. Are there personal characteristics that make one 
learner more successful than another, and if so, what are they? 
The following is a list of some of the characteristics commonly thought to 
contribute to successful language learning. In your experience, − as a 
second language learner and as a teacher − what characteristics seem to 
you most likely to be associated with success in second language 
acquisition in the classroom? Which ones would you be less inclined to 
expect in a successful learner? 
In each case rate the characteristic as follows: 
 
 1 = Very important 
 2 = Quite important 
 3 = Important 
 4 = Not very important 
 5 = Not at all important. 
 
A good language learner: 
 
a) is a willing and accurate guesser 1 2 3 4 5 
 
b) tries to get the message across even if specific 
 language knowledge is lacking 1 2 3 4 5 
 
 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 70 
 
c) is willing to make mistakes 1 2 3 4 5 
 
d) constantly looks for patterns in the language 1 2 3 4 5 
 
e) practises as often as possible 1 2 3 4 5 
f) analyses his or her own speech and the speech 
 of others 1 2 3 4 5 
 
g) attends to whether his or her performance 
 meets the standards he or she has learned 1 2 3 4 5 
h) enjoys grammar exercises 1 2 3 4 5 
 
i) begins learningin childhood 1 2 3 4 5 
 
j) has an above-average IQ 1 2 3 4 5 
 
k) has good academic skills 1 2 3 4 5 
 
l) has a good self-image and lots of confidence 1 2 3 4 5 
 
Feedback 
This activity aimed at exploring your beliefs on what constitute the 
characteristics of a good language learner. At the end of this unit I 
would like to invite you to look back to this activity and compare to 
the knowledge you will have about the subject. 
 
All of the characteristics listed above can be classified into five main 
categories: motivation, aptitude, personality, intelligence, and learner 
preferences. 
 
 
 71 
 
However, many of the characteristics cannot be assigned exclusively to 
one category. For example, the characteristic ‘is willing to make 
mistakes’ can be considered a personality and/or a motivational factor if 
the learner is willing to make mistakes in order to get the message across. 
 
3.2 Research on learner characteristics 
Perhaps the best way to begin our discussion is to describe how research 
on the influence of learner characteristics on second language learning 
has been carried out. When researchers are interested in finding out 
whether an individual factor such as motivation affects second language 
learning, they usually select a group of learners and give them a 
questionnaire to measure the type and degree of their motivation. The 
learners are then given a test to measure their second language 
proficiency. The test and the questionnaire are both scored and the 
researcher performs a correlation on the two measures, to see whether 
learners with high scores on the motivation questionnaire also score high 
on the test. If this is the case, the researcher concludes that high levels of 
motivation are correlated with success in language learning. A similar 
procedure can be used to assess the relationship between intelligence and 
second language acquisition through the use of IQ tests. 
Although this procedure seems straightforward, there are several 
difficulties with it. The first problem is that it is not possible to directly 
observe and measure qualities such as motivation, extroversion, or even 
intelligence. These are just labels for an entire range of behaviours and 
characteristics. Furthermore, because characteristics such as these are not 
independent, it will come as no surprise that different researchers have 
often used the same labels to describe different sets of behavioural traits. 
For example, in motivation questionnaires, learners are often asked 
whether they willingly seek out opportunities to use their second 
language with native speakers and if so, how often they do this. The 
assumption behind such a question is that learners who report that they 
often seek out opportunities to interact with speakers of the second 
language are highly motivated to learn. Although this assumption seems 
reasonable, it is problematic because if a learner responds by saying ‘yes’ 
to this question, we may assume that the learner has more opportunities 
for language practice in informal contexts. Because it is usually 
impossible to separate these two factors (i.e. willingness to interact and 
opportunities to interact), some researchers have been criticized for 
concluding that it is the motivation rather than the opportunity which 
makes the greater contribution to success. 
Another factor which makes it difficult to reach conclusions about 
relationships between individual learner characteristics and second 
language learner is how language proficiency is defined and measured. 
To illustrate this point let us refer once again to ‘motivation’. In the 
second language learning literature, some studies report that learners with 
higher level of motivation are more successful language learners than 
those with lower motivation, while other studies report that highly 
motivated learners do not perform any better on a proficiency test than 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 72 
 
learners with much less motivation to learn the second language. One 
explanation which has been offered for these conflicting findings is that 
the language proficiency tests used in different studies do not measure the 
same kind of knowledge. That is, in informal language learning settings, 
highly motivated learners may be more successful when the proficiency 
tests measure oral communication skills. In other studies, however, 
highly motivated learners may not be more successful because the tests 
are primarily measures of metalinguistic knowledge. Results such as 
these imply that motivation to learn a second language may be more 
related to particular aspects of language proficiency than to others. 
Finally, there is the problem of interpreting the correlation of two factors 
as being due to a casual relationship between them. That is, the fact that 
two things tend to occur together does not necessarily mean that one 
caused the other. While it may be that one factor influences the other, it 
may also be the case that both are influenced by something else entirely. 
Research on motivation is perhaps the best context in which to illustrate 
this. Learners who are successful may indeed be highly motivated. But 
can we conclude that they became successful because of their 
motivation? It is also plausible that early success heightened their 
motivation or that both success and motivation are due to their special 
aptitude for language learning of the favourable context in which they are 
learning. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
1. What methods do researchers use to find out about learners individual 
factor such as motivation etc? 
2. Are the methods mentioned above reliable or straightforward in 
measuring learners’ factors? 
 
Feedback 
1. Researchers use questionnaires to measure the type and degree of 
their motivation or tests to measure their second language 
proficiency. 
2. There are several difficulties in using these methods because it is not 
possible to directly observe and measure qualities such as motivation, 
extroversion, or even intelligence because there are just labels for an 
entire range of behaviours and characteristics. Furthermore, because 
characteristics such as these are not independent, finally, there is the 
problem of interpreting the correlation of two factors as being due to 
a casual relationship between them. 
 
 
 73 
 
 
 
Summary 
In this lesson you have read about the characteristics of a good language 
learner. You saw that characteristics such as motivation, aptitude, 
personality, intelligence, and learner preferences cannot be assigned 
exclusively to one category, that is, some categories tend to overlap. This 
fact makes it difficult to single out their importance when classifying the 
characteristics of a good language learner. In this lesson you also read 
about the methods used by researchers to find out about learners 
individual factors and the difficulties that these instruments/methods 
encounter in producing reliable results. The text outlined some of the 
difficulties such as the difficulties in observing and measuring qualities 
such as motivation, extroversion, or even intelligence in addition to the 
fact that these characteristics are not independent and interpreting the 
correlation between them is not easy. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 74 
 
Lesson 2: 
 
3.3 Intelligence and aptitude 
This lesson discusses the importance of intelligence and aptitude in 
formal and informal language learning. 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 evaluateif people need to be intelligent or have language aptitude to 
learn a language. 
 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
The term ‘intelligence’ has traditionally been used to refer the 
performance on certain kinds of tests. These tests are often associated 
with success in school, and a link between intelligence and second 
language learning has sometimes been reported. Over the years, many 
studies using a variety of intelligence (‘IQ’) tests and different methods of 
assessing language learned have found that IQ scores were a good means 
of predicting how successful a learner would be. Some recent studies 
have shown that these measures of intelligences may be more strongly 
related to certain kinds of second language abilities than to others. For 
example, in a study with French immersion students in Canada, it was 
found that, while intelligence was related to the development of French 
second language reading, grammar, and vocabulary, it was unrelated to 
oral productive skills (Genesee 1976). Similar findings have been 
reported in other studies. What this suggests is that, while intelligence, 
especially as measured by verbal IQ tests, may be a strong factor when it 
comes to learning which involves language analysis and rule learning, 
intelligence may play a less important role in classrooms where the 
instructions focuses more on communication and interaction. 
It is important to keep in mind that ‘intelligence’ is complex and 
individuals have many kinds of abilities and strengths, not all of which 
are measured by traditional IQ tests. In our experience, many students 
whose academic performance has been weak have experienced 
considerable success in second language learning. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
 75 
 
 
Activity 
Now I would like you to answer the following questions 
1. Traditionally, what does the concept of intelligence stand for? 
2. Does intelligence play an important role in informal second language 
learning? 
 
Feedback 
Great! Now compare your answers to the ones given below. How 
many did you get right? 
1. The term ‘intelligence’ has traditionally been used to refer the 
performance on certain kinds of tests. These tests are often associated 
with success in school. 
2. Intelligence, especially as measured by verbal IQ tests, is said to be a 
strong factor when it comes to learning which involves language 
analysis and rule learning, intelligence may play a less important role 
in classrooms where the instructions focuses more on communication 
and interaction. 
Now read this text that looks at the role of aptitude in second 
language learning 
3.4 Aptitude 
There is evidence in the research literature that some individuals have an 
exceptional ‘aptitude’ for language learning. Lorraine Obler (1989) 
reports that a man, whom she calls CJ, has such a specialized ability. CJ 
is a native speaker of English who grew up in an English home. His first 
true experience with a second language came at the age of 15 when he 
began learning French in school. CJ also studied German, Spanish and 
Latin while in high school. At the Age 20, he made a brief visit to 
Germany. CJ reported that just hearing German spoken for a short time 
was enough for him to ‘recover’ the German he had learned in school. 
Later, CJ worked in Morocco where he reported learning Moroccan 
Arabic through both formal instruction and informal immersion. He also 
spent some time in Spain and Italy, where he apparently ‘picked up’ both 
Spanish and Italian in a ‘matter of weeks’. A remarkable talent indeed! 
Learning quickly is the distinguishing feature of aptitude. The ‘aptitude’ 
factor has been investigated most intensively by researchers interested in 
developing tests which can be used to predict whether individuals will be 
efficient learners of a foreign language in a classroom setting the most 
widely used aptitude tests are the Modern Language Aptitude Test 
(MLAT) and the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB). Both tests 
are based on the view that aptitude is composed of different types of 
abilities: 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 76 
 
(1) the ability to identify and memorize new sounds; (2) the ability to 
understand the function of particular words in sentences; (3) the ability 
to figure out grammatical rules from languages samples; and (4) memory 
for new words. While earlier research revealed a substantial relationship 
between performance on the MLAT or PLAB and performance in foreign 
language learning, these studies were conducted at a time when second 
language teaching was based on grammar translation or audiolingual 
methods. With the adoption of a more communicative approach to 
teaching, many teachers and researchers came to see aptitude as irrelevant 
to the process of language acquisition. Unfortunately, this means that 
relatively little research has actually explored whether having a skill such 
as the ‘ability to identify and memorize new sounds’ is advantageous 
when classroom instruction is meaning-oriented rather than focused on 
drills or metalinguistic explanations. 
Successful language learners may not be strong in all of the components 
of aptitude. Some individuals may have strong memories but only 
average abilities in the other components of aptitude. Ideally, one could 
determine learners’ profiles of strengths and weakness and use this 
information to place students in appropriate teaching programs. An 
example of how this can be done is described by Majorie Wesche (1981). 
In a Canadian language program for adult learners of French, students 
were placed in an instructional program which was compatible with their 
aptitude profile and information about their learning experiences. 
Students who were high on analytic ability, but average on memory, were 
assigned to teaching that focused on grammatical structures, while 
learners strong in memory but average on analytic skills were placed in a 
class where the teaching was organized around the functional use of the 
second language in specific situations. Wesche reported a high level of 
student and teacher satisfaction when students were matched with 
compatible teaching environments. In addiction, some evidence indicated 
that matched students were able to attain significantly higher levels of 
achievement than those who were unmatched. 
While few second language teaching contexts are able to offer such 
choices to their students, teachers may find that knowing the aptitude 
profile of their students will help them in selecting appropriate classroom 
activities for particular groups of students. Or, if they do not have such 
information, they may wish to ensure that their teaching activities are 
sufficiently varied to accommodate learners with different aptitudes 
profiles. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 
After reading the text, answer the following questions 
1. What abilities make up the concept of aptitude? 
2. Does aptitude play an important role in second language learning? 
Why? 
 
 
 77 
 
 
Feedback 
Now compare your answers to the ones given below. How many did 
you get right? Great! 
1. Aptitude is composed of the following types of abilities:(1) the 
ability to identify and memorize new sounds; (2) the ability to 
understand the function of particular words in sentences; (3) the 
ability to figure out grammatical rules from languages samples; and 
(4) memory for new words. 
2. No. Because now with the adoption of a more communicative 
approach to teaching, many teachers and researchers came to see 
aptitude as irrelevant to the process of language acquisition. 
 
 
Summary 
This lesson discussed the importance of intelligence and aptitude in 
formal and informal language learning. From the reading we came to the 
conclusion that intelligence,especially as measured by verbal IQ tests, is 
said to be a strong factor when it comes to learning which involves 
language analysis and rule learning, intelligence may play a less 
important role in classrooms where the instructions focuses more on 
communication and interaction. Concerning aptitude we saw that 
nowadays with the adoption of a more communicative approach to 
teaching, aptitude may not determine the success in second language 
learning. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 78 
 
Lesson 3: 
3.5 Personality 
This lesson will discuss the concept of personality and its contribution to 
success in language learning. 
 
By the end of the lesson you should be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
evaluate if personality is an important factor in language learning. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lessson 
 
A number of personality characteristics have been proposed as likely to 
affect second language learning, but it has not been easy to demonstrate 
their effects in empirical studies. As with other research investigating the 
effects of individual characteristics on second language learning, different 
studies measuring a similar personality trait produce different results. For 
example, it is often argued that an extroverted person is well suited to 
language learning. However, research does not always support this 
conclusion. Although some studies have found that success in language 
learning is correlated with learners’ scores on characteristics often 
associated with extroversion such as assertiveness and adventurousness, 
others have found that many successful language learners do not get high 
score on measures of extroversion. 
Another aspect of personality which has been studied is inhibition. It has 
been suggested that inhibition discourages risk-taking which is necessary 
for progress in language learning. This is often considered to be a 
particular problem for adolescents, who are more self-conscious than 
younger learners. In a series of studies, Alexander Guiora and his 
colleagues found support for the claim that inhibition is a negative force, 
at least for second language pronunciation performance. One study 
involved an analysis of the effects of small doses of alcohol on 
pronunciation (Guiora et al. 1972). They found that subjects who 
received small doses of alcohol did better on pronunciation tests than 
those who did not drink any alcohol. While results such as these are 
interesting, as well as amusing, they are not completely convincing, since 
the experiments are far removed from the reality of the classroom 
situation. Furthermore, they may have more to do with performance than 
 
 
 79 
 
with learning. We may also note, in passing, that when larger doses of 
alcohol were administered, pronunciation rapidly deteriorated! 
Several other personality characteristics such as self-esteem, empathy, 
dominance, talkativeness, and responsiveness have also been studied. 
However, in general, the available research does not have a clearly 
defined relationship between personality and second language 
acquisition. And, as indicated earlier, the major difficulty in investigating 
personality characteristics is that of identification and measurement. 
Another explanation which has been offered for the mixed findings of 
personality studies is that personality variables may be a major factor 
only in the acquisition of conversational skills, not in the acquisition of 
literacy skills. The confused picture of the research on personality factors 
may be due in part to the fact that comparisons are made between studies 
that measure communicative ability and studies that measure grammatical 
accuracy or metalinguistic knowledge. Personality variables seem to be 
consistently related to the former, but not to the latter. 
Despite the contradictory results and the problems involved in carrying 
out research in the area of personality characteristics, many researchers 
believe that personality will be shown to have an important influence on 
success in language learning. This relationship is a complex one, 
however, in that it is probably not personality alone, but the way in which 
it combines with other factors, that contributes to second language 
learning. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 
To sumarize the main idea in what you have just read, answer the 
question below 
1. Is there any relationship between personality and second acquisition? 
Why? 
 
Feedback 
Was it easy to work out the answer? Now compare your answer to 
the one provided below. 
1. In general, the available research does not a clearly define a 
relationship between personality and second language acquisition. 
And, as indicated earlier, the major difficulty in investigating 
personality characteristics is that of identification and measurement, 
however, many researchers believe that personality may be an 
important influence on success in language learning 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 80 
 
 
 
Summary 
This lesson has discussed the concept of personality and its contributionto 
success in language acquisition. From the lesson we can come to the 
conclusion that in general, the relationship between personality and 
second language acquisition is not clear. And, as indicated earlier, the 
major difficulty in investigating personality characteristics is that of 
identification and measurement, however, many researchers believe that 
personality may be an important influence on success in language 
learning. 
 
 
Lesson 4: 
3.6 Motivation and attitudes 
This lesson discusses the role of motivation and attitudes in formal and 
informal language learning. 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
explain the concept of motivation as viewed in second language learning 
and outline the difference between integrative and instrumental 
motivation. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
There has been a great deal of research on the role of attitudes and 
motivation in second language learning. The overall findings show that 
positives attitudes and motivation are related to success in second 
language learning (Gardner 1985). Unfortunately, the research cannot 
indicate precisely how motivation is related to learning. As indicated 
above, we do not know whether it is the motivation that produces 
successful learning or successful learning that enhances motivation or 
whether both are affected by other factors. As noted by Peter Skehan 
(1989), the question is, are learners more highly motivated because they 
are successful, or are they successful because they are highly motivated? 
Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which 
can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative needs 
and their attitudes towards the second language community. If learners 
 
 
 81 
 
need to speak the second language in a wide range of social situations or 
to fulfil professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative 
value of the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire 
proficiency in it. Likewise, if learners have favourable attitudes towards 
the speakers of the language, they will desire more contact with them. 
Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972) coined the terms integrative 
motivation to refer to language learning for personal growth and cultural 
enrichment, and instrumental motivation for language learning for more 
immediate or practical goals. Research has shown that these types of 
motivation are related to success in second language learning. 
On the other hand, we should keep in mind that an individual’s identity is 
closely linked with the way he or she speaks. It follows that when 
speaking a new language one is adopting some of the identitymarkers of 
another cultural group. Depending on the learner’s attitudes, learning a 
second language can be a source of enrichment or a source of resentment. 
If the speaker’s only reason for learning the second language is external 
pressure, internal motivation may be minimal and general attitudes 
towards learning may be negative. 
One factor which often affects motivation is the social dynamic or power 
relationship between the languages. That is, members of a minority group 
learning the language of a majority group may have different attitudes 
and motivation from those of a majority group members learning a 
minority language. Even though it is impossible to predict the exact effect 
of such societal factors on second language learning, the fact that 
languages exist in social contexts cannot be overlooked when we seek to 
understand the variables which affect success in learning. Children as 
well as adults are sensitive to social dynamics and power relationships. 
 
3.6.1 Motivation in the classroom setting 
In a teacher’s mind, motivated students are usually those who participate 
actively in class, express interest in the subject-matter, and study a great 
deal. Teachers can easily recognize characteristics such as these. They 
also have more opportunity to influence these characteristics than 
student’s reasons for studying the second language or their attitudes 
toward the language and its speakers. If we can make our classrooms 
places where students enjoy coming because the content is interesting and 
relevant to their age and level of ability, where the learning goals are 
challenging yet manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere is 
supportive and non-threatening, we can make a positive contribution to 
students’ motivation to learn. 
Although little research has been done to investigate how pedagogy 
interacts with motivation in second language classrooms, considerable 
works has been done within the field of educational psychology. In a 
review of some of this work, Graham Crookes and Richard Schmidt 
(1991) point to several areas where educational research has reported 
increased levels of motivation for students in relation to pedagogical 
practices. Including among these are: 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 82 
 
Motivating students into the lessons: At the opening stages of lessons 
(and within transitions), it has been observed that remarks teachers make 
about forthcoming activities can lead to higher levels of interest on the 
part of the students. 
Varying the activities, tasks, and materials: Students are reassured by 
the existence of classroom routines which they can depend on. However, 
lessons which always consist of the same routines, patterns, and formats 
have been shown to lead to a decrease in attention and an increase in 
boredom. Varying the activities, tasks, and materials can help to avoid 
this and increase students’ interest levels. 
Using co-operative rather than competitive goals: Co-operative learning 
activities are those in which students must work together in order to 
complete a task or solve a problem. These techniques have been found to 
increase the self-confidence of students, including weaker ones, because 
every participant in a co-operative task has an important role to play. 
Knowing that their team-mates are counting on them can increase 
students’ motivation. 
Clearly, cultural and age differences will determine the most appropriate 
way for teachers to motivate students. In some classrooms, students may 
thrive on competitive interaction, while in others; co-operative activities 
will be more successful. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 
Now refer back to the text and answer the following questions. 
1. How is the concept of motivation viewed in second language 
learning? 
2. Outline the difference between integrative and instrumental 
motivation? 
Feedback 
Did you get the answers to the two questions? If not refer to the 
answers below. 
1. In second language learning, motivation is viewed as a complex 
phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ 
communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language 
community. If learners need to speak the second language in a wide 
range of social situations or to fulfil professional ambitions, they will 
perceive the communicative value of the second language and will 
therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it. 
 
 
 83 
 
2. The terms integrative motivation to refer to language learning for 
personal growth and cultural enrichment, and instrumental motivation 
for language learning for more immediate or practical goals. 
 
Summary 
This lesson discussed the role of motivation and attitude in formal and 
informal language learning. From the reading it transpired that in second 
language learning, motivation is viewed as a complex phenomenon which 
can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative needs 
and their attitudes towards the second language community. We also saw 
that if learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of 
social situations or to fulfil professional ambitions, they will need to be 
motivated to learn the language. Concerning the two types of motivation 
we saw that the terms integrative motivation refer to language learning 
for personal growth and cultural enrichment, and instrumental motivation 
for language learning for more immediate or practical goals. 
 
Lesson 5: 
3.7 Learner preferences 
This lesson looks at how different learners prefer to learn and what 
influence them to learn in that way they do. 
By the end of this lesson you should be able to: 
 explain the concept of learning style; describe the different types of 
learning styles and understand why learners to prefer to learn in one 
way and not another. 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
Learners have clear preferences for how they go about learning new 
material. The term ‘learning style’ has been used to describe an 
individual’s natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing, 
and retaining new information and skills (Reid 1995). We have all heard 
people say that they cannot learn something until they have seen it. Such 
learners would fall into the group called ‘visual’ learners. Other people, 
who may be called ‘aural’ learners, seem to need only to hear something 
once or twice before they know it. For others, who are referred to as 
‘kinaesthetic’ learners, they need to add a physical action to the learning 
process. In contrast to these perceptually based learning styles, 
considerable research has focused on a cognitive learning style distinction 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 84 
 
between field independent and field dependent learners. This refers to 
whether an individual tends to separate details from the general 
background or to see things more holistically. Another category of 
learning styles is based on the individual’s temperament or personality. 
While recent years have seen the development of many learning style 
assessment instruments, very little research has examined the interaction 
between different learning styles and success in second language 
acquisition. At present, the only learning style that has been extensively 
investigated is the field independence/dependence distinction. The results 
from this research have shown that while field independence is related to 
some degree to performance on certain kinds of tasks, it is not a good 
predictor of performance on others. 
 
Although there is a need for considerably more research on learning 
styles, when learners express a preference for seeing something written or 
for memorizing material which we feel should be learned in a less formal 
way, we should not assume that their waysof working are wrong. 
Instead, we should encourage them to use all means available to them as 
they work to learn another language. At a minimum, research on learning 
styles should make us sceptical of claims that a particular teaching 
method or textbook will suit the needs of all learners. 
 
3.8 Learner beliefs 
Second language learners are not always conscious of their individual 
learning styles, but virtually all learners, particularly older learners, have 
strong beliefs and opinions about how their instruction should be 
delivered. These beliefs are usually based on previous learning 
experiences and the assumption (right or wrong) that a particular type of 
instruction is the best way for them to learn. This is another area where 
little work has been done. However, the available research indicates that 
learner beliefs can be strong mediating factors in their experience in the 
classroom. For example, in a survey of international students learning 
ESL in a highly communicative program at an English-speaking 
university, Carlos Yorio (1986) found high levels of dissatisfaction 
among the students. The type of communicative instruction they received 
focused exclusively on meaning and spontaneous communication in 
group-work interaction. In their responses to a questionnaire, the majority 
of students expressed concerns about several aspects of their instruction, 
most notably, the absence of attention to language form, corrective 
feedback, or teacher-centred instruction. Although this study did not 
directly examine learner’s progress in relation to their opinions about the 
instruction they received, several of them were convinced that their 
progress was negatively affected by an instructional approach which was 
not consistent with their beliefs about the best ways for them to learn. 
Learner’s preferences for learning whether due to their learning style or 
to their beliefs about how languages are learned, will influence the kinds 
of strategies they choose in order to learn new material. Teachers can use 
 
 
 85 
 
this information to help learners expand their repertoire of learning 
strategies and thus develop greater flexibility in their ways of 
approaching language learning. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
After reading the lesson answer the question below 
1. What does the term learning style stand for? 
2. Describe the different types of learners you have read about in this 
text. 
3. What make learners to prefer to learn in one way and not another? 
And what can teachers do to help learners to achieve their best? 
 
Feedback 
Is your answer similar to the one given below? If so, well done. 
1. The term ‘learning style’ has been used to describe an individual’s 
natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing, and 
retaining new information and skills (Reid 1995). 
2. The different types of learning styles I have read about in this lesson 
are as follow: a) visual learners, those say that they cannot learn 
something until they have seen it, b) ‘aural’ learners, those who seem 
to need only to hear something once or twice before they know it, c) 
‘kinaesthetic’ learners, those who need to add a physical action to the 
learning process. 
3. Learner’s preferences for learning are influenced by their learning 
style or their beliefs about how languages are learned. Teachers can 
use this information to help learners expand their repertoire of 
learning strategies and thus develop greater flexibility in their ways of 
approaching language learning. 
 
 
Summary 
This lesson looked at how different learners prefer to learn and what 
influences them to learn in the way they do. From the reading we came to 
the conclusion that learner’s preferences for learning are influenced by 
their learning style or their beliefs about how languages are learned. 
Teachers can use this information that they have about their learners 
learning styles to plan lessons that suit all types of learners. 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 86 
 
 
 
 
 
Lesson 6: 
3.9 Age of acquisition 
The lesson that follows looks at the importance of age in language 
learning. 
By the end of this lesson students will be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 explain the critical period hypothesis view on second language 
learning and evaluate if age affect any areas of second language 
learning or not . 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
We now turn to a learner characteristic of a different type: age. This 
characteristic is easier to define and measure than personality, aptitude, or 
motivation. Nevertheless, the relationship between a learner’s age and his 
or her potential for success in second language acquisition is the subject 
of much lively debate. 
It has been widely observed that children from immigrant families 
eventually speak the language of their new community with native-like 
fluency, but their parents rarely achieve such high levels of mastery of the 
spoken language. To be sure, there are cases where adult second language 
learners have distinguished themselves by their exceptional performance. 
For example, one often sees reference to Joseph Conrad, a native speaker 
of Polish who became a major writer in the English language. Many adult 
second language learners become capable of communicating very 
successfully in the language but, for most, differences of accent, word 
choice, or grammatical features distinguish them from native speakers 
and from second language speakers who began learning the language 
while they were very young. 
One explanation for this difference is that, as in first language acquisition, 
there is a critical period for second language acquisition. As discussed in 
 
 
 87 
 
unit 1, the Critical Period Hypothesis suggests that there is a time in 
human development when the brain is predisposed for success in 
language learning. Developmental changes in the brain, it is argued, 
affect the nature of language acquisition. According to this view, 
language learning which occurs after the end of the critical period may 
not be based on the innate biological structures believed to contribute to 
first language acquisition or second language acquisition in early 
childhood. Rather, older learners depend on more general learning 
abilities − the same ones they might use to learn other kinds or skills of 
information. It is argued that these general learning abilities are not as 
successful for language learning as the more specific, innate capacities 
which are available to the young child. It is most often claimed that the 
critical period ends somewhere around puberty, but some researchers 
suggest it could be even earlier. 
Of course, as we saw in unit 2, it is difficult to compare children and 
adults as second language learners. In addiction to the possible biological 
differences suggested by the Critical Period Hypothesis, the conditions 
for language learning are often very different. Younger learners in 
informal language learning environments usually have more time to 
devote to learning language. They often have more opportunities to hear 
and to use the language in environments where they do not experience 
strong pressure to speak fluently and accurately from the very beginning. 
Furthermore, their early imperfect efforts are often praised or, at least, 
accepted. On the other hand, older learners are often in situations which 
demand much more complex language and the expression of much more 
complicated ideas. Adults are often embarrassed by their lack of mastery 
of the language and they may develop a sense of inadequacy after 
experiences of frustration in trying to say exactly what they mean. 
The Critical Period Hypothesis has been challenged in recent years from 
several different points of view. Some studies of the second language 
development of olderand younger learners who are learning in similar 
circumstances have shown that, at least in the early stages of second 
language development, older learners are more efficient than younger 
learners. In educational research, it has been reported that learners who 
began learning a second language at the primary school level did not fare 
better in the long run than those who began in early adolescence. 
Furthermore, there are countless, anecdotes about older learners 
(adolescents and adults) who have reached high levels of proficiency in a 
second language. Does this mean that there is no critical period for 
second language acquisition? 
In the following sections, we will review some studies designed to 
investigate the Critical Period Hypothesis as it relates to second language 
learning. 
 
3.9.1 Critical Period Hypothesis: More than just 
accent? 
 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 88 
 
Most studies of the relationship between age of acquisition and second 
language development have focused on learners’ phonological 
(pronunciation) achievement. In general, these studies have concluded 
that older learners almost inevitably have a noticeable ‘foreign accent’. 
Is younger really better? 
In 1978, Catherine snow and Marian Hoefnagel-Höhle published an 
article based on a research project they had carried out in Holland. They 
had studied the progress of a group of English speakers who were 
learning Dutch as second language. What made their research especially 
valuable was that the learners they were following included children as 
young as three years old as well as older children, adolescents, and adults. 
Furthermore, a large number of tasks were used, to measure different 
types of language use and language knowledge. 
Pronunciation was tested by having learners pronounce 80 Dutch words 
twice: the first time immediately after hearing a native speaker say the 
word; the second time, a few minutes later, they were asked to say the 
word represented in a picture, without a model to imitate. Tape 
recordings of the learners were rated by the native speaker of Dutch on a 
six-point scale. 
In an auditory discrimination test, learners saw pictures of four objects. 
In each group of four there were two whose names formed a minimal 
pair, that is, alike except for one sound (an example in English would be 
‘ship’ and ‘sheep’). Learners heard one of the words and were asked to 
indicate which picture was named by the word they heard. 
Morphology was tested using a procedure like the ‘wug test’, which 
required learners to complete sentences by adding the correct 
grammatical markers to words which were supplied by the researchers. 
Again, to take an example from English, learners were asked to complete 
sentences such as ‘Here is one boy. Now there are two of them. There are 
two_____.’ 
The sentence repetition, task required learners to repeat 37 sentences of 
increasing length and grammatical complexity. 
For sentence translation, learners were given 60 sentences to translate 
from English to Dutch. A point was given for each grammatical structure 
which was rendered into the correct Dutch equivalent. 
In the sentence judgement task, learners were to judge which of two 
sentences was better. The same content was expressed in both sentences, 
but one sentence was grammatically correct while the other contained 
errors. 
In the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, learners saw four pictures and 
heard one isolated word. Their task was to indicate which picture 
matched the word spoken by the tester. 
 
 
 89 
 
For the story comprehension task, learners heard a story in Dutch and 
were then asked to retell the story in English or Dutch (according to their 
preference). 
 
Finally, the storytelling task required learners to tell a story in Dutch, 
using a set of pictures they were given. Rate of delivery of speech 
mattered more than the expression of content or formal accuracy. 
 
The learners were divided into several age groups, but for our discussions 
we will divide them into just three groups: children (aged 3 to 10), 
adolescents (12 to 15years), and adults (18 to 60years). The children and 
adolescents all attended Dutch schools. Some of the adults worked in 
Dutch work environments, but most of their Dutch colleagues spoke 
English well. Other adults were parents who did not work outside their 
homes and thus had somewhat less contact with Dutch than most of the 
other subjects. 
The learners were tested three times, at four-to-five-month intervals. 
They were first tested within six months of their arrival in Holland and 
within six weeks of their starting school or work in a Dutch-language 
environment. 
At what age should second language instruction begin? 
Even people who know nothing about the critical period research are 
certain that, in school programs for second or foreign language teaching, 
‘younger is better’. However, both experience and research show that 
older learners can attain high, if not ‘native’, levels of proficiency in their 
second language. Furthermore, it is essential to think carefully about the 
goals of an instructional program and the context in which it occurs 
before we jump to conclusions about the necessity − or even the 
desirability − of the earliest possible start. 
The role of the critical period in second language acquisition is still much 
debated. For every researcher who holds that there are maturational 
constraints on language acquisition, there is another who considers that 
the age factor cannot be separated from the factors such as motivation, 
social identity, and the conditions for learning. They argue that older 
learners may well speak with an accent because they want to continue 
being identified with their first language cultural group, and adults rarely 
get access to the same quantity and quality of language input that children 
receive in play settings. 
Many people conclude on the basis of studies such as those by Patkowski 
or Newport and Johnson that it is better to begin second language 
instruction as early as possible. Yet it is very important to bear in mind 
the context of these studies. They deal with the highest possible level of 
second language skills, the level at which a second language speaker 
indistinguishable from a native speaker. But achieving a native-like 
mastery of the second language is not a goal for all second language 
learning, in all contexts. 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 90 
 
When the objective of second language learning is native-like mastery of 
the target language, it is usually desirable for the learner to be completely 
surrounded by the language as early as possible. However, as we saw in 
unit 1, early intensive exposure to the second language may entail the loss 
or incomplete development of the child’s first language. 
When the goal is basic communicative ability for all students in a school 
setting, and when it is assumed that the child’s native language will 
remain the primary language, it may be more efficient to begin second or 
foreign language teaching later. When learners receive only a few hours 
of instruction per week, learners who start later (for example, at age 10, 
11, or 12) often catch up with those who began earlier. We have often 
seen second or foreign language programs which begin with very young 
learners but offer only minimal contact with the language. Even when 
students do make progress in these early-start programs, they sometimes 
find themselves placed in secondary school classes with students who 
have had no previous instruction. After years of classes, learners feel 
frustrated by the lack of progress, and their motivation to continue may 
be diminished. School programs should be based on realistic estimates of 
how long it takes to learn a second language. One or two hours a week 
will not produce very advancedsecond language speakers, no matter how 
young they were when they began. 
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are 
learned.Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
Now look at the questions below and find the answers in the text you 
have just read. 
1. What is the critical period hypothesis view on second language 
learning? 
2. Does age affect any areas of second language learning? 
3. 
Feedback 
Are your answers similar to the ones below? 
1. According to the critical period hypothesis, language learning 
which occurs after the end of the critical period may not be based 
on the innate biological structures believed to contribute to first 
language acquisition or second language acquisition in early 
childhood. Rather, older learners depend on more general 
learning abilities − the same ones they might use to learn other 
kinds or skills of information. It is argued that these general 
learning abilities are not as successful for language learning as 
 
 
 91 
 
the more specific, innate capacities which are available to the 
young child. 
2. Research showed that native-like mastery of the spoken language 
is difficult to attain by older learners. Surprisingly, even the 
ability to distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical 
sentences in a second language appears to be affected by the age 
factor. 
 
 
 
Summary 
This lesson discussed the concept of critical period hypothesis and the 
importance of age in language learning. From the text it transpires that 
second language learning is more influenced by other general abilities 
rather than the biological structures. 
 
 
Unit summary 
 
Summary 
In this unit you learned about how personal and general factors affect 
second language learners. We learned that the learners age is one of the 
factors which determine the way in which an individual approaches 
second language learning. 
 
But the opportunities for learning (both inside and outside the classroom), 
the motivation to learn, and individual differences in aptitude for 
language learning are also important determining factors in both rate of 
learning and eventual success in learning. In this unit you have also 
looked at ways in which intelligence, aptitude, personality and 
motivational characteristics, learners’ preferences, and age have been 
found to influence second language learning. You have learned that the 
study of individual learner variables is not easy and that the results of the 
research are not entirely satisfactory. This is partly because of the lack of 
clear definitions and methods for measuring the individual characteristics. 
It is also due to the fact that these learner characteristics are not 
independent of one another. Nonetheless, in a classroom, a sensitive 
teacher, who takes learner´s individual prsonalities and learning styles 
into account, can create a learning environment in which virtually all 
learners can be successful in learning a second language. 
 
 
 
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners 
 92 
 
Assessment 
 
Assessment 
Test 2 Unit 3 (learner factors) Time: 90 minutes 
This test covers the content of the lessons in unit three only. Please 
read the questions carefully and then provide the answers. 
1. Traditionally, what does the concept of intelligence stand for? 
2. What abilities make up the concept of aptitude? 
3. Is there any relationship between personality and second acquisition? 
Why? 
4. How is the concept of motivation viewed in second language 
learning? 
5. Outline the difference between integrative and instrumental 
motivation? 
6. What does the term learning style stand for? 
7. What is the critical period hypothesis view on second language 
learning? 
8. In your opinion, at what age should second language instruction 
begin? Why? 
Feedback 
Well done! This test covered the most important ideas discussed in 
unit three now compare your answers to the ones given below. 
1. The term ‘intelligence’ has traditionally been used to refer the 
performance on certain kinds of tests. These tests are often associated 
with success in school. 
2. Aptitude is composed of the following types of abilities:(1) the 
ability to identify and memorize new sounds; (2) the ability to 
understand the function of particular words in sentences; (3) the 
ability to figure out grammatical rules from languages samples; and 
(4) memory for new words. 
 
 
 93 
 
3. In general, the available research does not a clearly define a 
relationship between personality and second language acquisition. 
And, as indicated earlier, the major difficulty in investigating 
personality characteristics is that of identification and measurement, 
however, many researchers believe that personality may be an 
important influence on success in language learning 
4. In second language learning, motivation is viewed as a complex 
phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ 
communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language 
community. If learners need to speak the second language in a wide 
range of social situations or to fulfil professional ambitions, they will 
perceive the communicative value of the second language and will 
therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it. 
5. The terms integrative motivation to refer to language learning for 
personal growth and cultural enrichment, and instrumental motivation 
for language learning for more immediate or practical goals. 
6. The term ‘learning style’ has been used to describe an individual’s 
natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing, and 
retaining new information and skills (Reid 1995). 
7. According to the critical period hypothesis, language learning which 
occurs after the end of the critical period may not be based on the 
innate biological structures believed to contribute to first language 
acquisition or second language acquisition in early childhood. Rather, 
older learners depend on more general learning abilities − the same 
ones they might use to learn other kinds or skills of information. It is 
argued that these general learning abilities are not as successful for 
language learning as the more specific, innate capacities which are 
available to the young child. 
8. According to research studies such as those by Patkowski or Newport 
and Johnson, it is better to begin second language instruction as early 
as possible. Yet it is very important to bear in mind the context of 
these studies is different from other settings throughout the world. 
 
 
 
 
 95 
 
Unit 4 
Factors affecting second 
language learners 
Introduction 
This unit presents and discusses well-known language-teaching methods 
that are in use today. Some of these methods have been around for a long 
time. 
Upon completion of this unit you will be able to: 
 
Outcomes 
 describe the history of english language teaching. 
 explain the different roles that teachers and students play within a 
language class. 
 evaluate language teaching methods according to learners needs. 
 select teaching materials for different learning purpose. 
 manage large classes. 
 criticise different language teaching methods. 
 
Approach: Different theories about the nature of language and 
how language are learned. 
Method: A way of teaching a language which is based on 
systematic principles and procedures. 
 Language 
Pedagogy: 
A general term sometimes used to describe the 
teaching of a language as first, second or foreign. 
 
Terminology 
Cognition: the various mental processes used in thinking, 
remembering, perceiving, recognizing, classifying 
 
 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 96 
 
Lesson 1: Grammar translation method 
 
In this lesson you are going to read about one of the oldest method of 
language teaching which was first used to teach Latin and Greek. 
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:evaluate the fundamental reason for learning a foreign language using 
the Grammar Translation Method; 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 to analyse if there any techniques of the Grammar-Translation 
Method that can be used to teach second or foreign language 
nowadays. 
 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
The grammar-translation method is not new. It has had different names, 
but it has been used by language teachers for many years. At one time it 
was called Classical Method since it was first used in the teaching of the 
classical languages, Latin and Greek. Earlier in this century, this method 
was used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign 
language literature. It was also hoped that, trough the study of the 
grammar of the target language, students would become more familiar 
with the grammar of their native language and that this familiarity would 
help them speak and write their native language better. Finally, it was 
thought that foreign language learning would help students grow 
intellectually; it was recognized that students would probably never use 
the target language, but the mental exercise of learning it would be 
beneficial anyway. 
Let us try to understand the Grammar-Translation Method by observing a 
class where the teacher is using it. The class is high-intermediate level 
English class at university in Colombia. There are forty-two students in 
the class. Two-hour classes are conducted three times a week. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 97 
 
EXPERIENCE 
As we enter the classroom, the class is in the middle of reading a passage 
in their textbook. The passage is an excerpt entitled “the boys’ Ambition” 
from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi. Each student is called on to 
read a few lines from the passage. After he has finished reading, he is 
asked to translate into Spanish the few lines he has just read. The teacher 
helps him with new vocabulary items. When the students have finished 
reading and translating the passage, the teacher asks them in Spanish if 
they have any questions. One girl raises her hand and says, “What is 
paddle wheel?” The teacher replies, “Es una rueda de paletas.” Then she 
continues in Spanish to explain how it looked and worked on the 
steamboats which moved up and down the Mississippi River during Mark 
Twain’s childhood. Another student says, “No understand ‘gorgeous’” 
The teacher translates, “primoroso.” 
Since the students have no more questions, the teacher asks them to write 
the answers to the comprehension questions which appear at the end of 
the excerpt. The questions are in English, and the students are instructed 
to write the answers to them in English as well. They do the first one 
together as an example. A student reads out load, “When did Mark Twain 
live?” Another student replies, “Mark Twain lived from 1835 to 1910.” 
“Bueno,” says the teacher, and the students begin working quietly by 
themselves. 
In addition to questions that ask for information contained within the 
reading passage, the students answer two other types of questions. For the 
first type, they have to make inferences based on their understanding of 
the passage. For example, one question is: “Do you think the boy was 
ambitious? Why or why not?” The other type of question requires the 
student to relate the passage to their own experience. For example, one of 
the questions based on this excerpt asks them, “Have you ever thought 
about running away from home?” 
After one-half hour, the teacher, speaking in Spanish, asks the students to 
stop and check their work. One by one each student reads a question and 
then reads his response. If he is correct, the teacher calls on another 
student to read the next question. If the student is incorrect, the teacher 
selects a different student to supply the correct answer, or the teacher 
herself gives the right answer. 
Announcing the next activity, the teacher asks the students to turn the 
page in their textbook. There is a list of words there. The introduction to 
the exercise tells the students that these are words taken from the passage 
they have just read. The students see the words “ambition,” “career,” 
“wharf,” “tranquil,” “gorgeous,” “loathe,” “envy,” and “humbly.” They 
are told that some of these are review words and that others are new to 
them. The students are instructed to give the Spanish word for each of 
them. This exercise the class does together. If no one knows the Spanish 
equivalent, the teacher gives it. In part 2 of this exercise, the students are 
given English words like “love,” “noisy,” “ugly,” and “proudly,” and 
they are directed find the opposites of these words in the passage. 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 98 
 
When they have finished this exercise, the teacher reminds them that 
English words that look like Spanish words are called “cognates.” The 
English “-ty,” she says for example, often corresponds to the Spanish 
endings –dad and –tad. She calls the students’ attention to the word 
“possibility” in the passage and tells them this word is the same as the 
Spanish posibilidad. The teacher asks the students to find other examples 
in the excerpt. Hands go up; a boy answers; “Obscurity.” “Bién,” says the 
teacher. When all of these cognates from the passage have been 
identified, the students are told to turn to the next exercise in the chapter 
and to answer the question, “What do these cognates mean?” there is a 
long list of English words (“curiosity,” opportunity,” “liberty,” etc.), 
which the students translate into Spanish. 
The next session of the chapter deals with grammar. The students follow 
in their books as the teacher reads a description of two-word or phrasal 
verbs. This is a review for them as they have encountered phrasal verbs 
before. Nevertheless, there are some new two-word verbs in the passage 
that the students haven’t learned yet. These are listed following the 
description, and the students are asked to translate them into Spanish. 
Then they are given the rule for the use of a direct object with two-word 
verbs: 
If the two-word verb is separable, the direct object may come between the 
verb and : its particle. However, separation is necessary when 
the directed object is a pronoun. 
If the verb is inseparable, then there is no separation of the verb and 
particle by the 
 object. For example: 
 John put away his book. 
 or 
 John put his book away/John put it away. 
 but not 
 John put away it. 
 (because “put away” is a separable two-word verb) 
 
 The teacher went over the homework. 
 but not 
 The teacher went the homework over. 
 (because “go over” is an inseparable tow-word verb). 
 
 
 99 
 
After reading over the rule and the examples, the students are asked to 
tell which of the following two-word verbs, taken from the passage, are 
separable and which are inseparable. They refer to the passage for clues. 
If they cannot tell from the passage, they use their dictionaries or ask 
their teacher. 
turn up wake up get up take in 
run away fade out lay up 
go away break down turn back 
 
Finally, they are asked to put one of these phrasal verbs in the blank of 
each of the ten sentences they are given. They do the first two together. 
 
1. Mark Twain decided to _______ because his parents wouldn’t let 
him get a job 
 on the river. 
2. The steamboatmen _______ and discharge freight at each port on the 
Mississippi 
 River. 
 
When the students are finished with this exercise, they read their answers 
aloud. 
At the end of the chapter there is a list vocabulary items that appeared ion 
the passage. The list is divided into two parts: the first contains words, 
and the second, idioms like “to give some a cold shoulder.” Next toeach 
is a Spanish word or phrase. For homework, the teacher asks the students 
to memorize the Spanish translation for the first twenty new words and 
write a sentence in English using each word. 
In the two remaining lessons this week, the students will be asked to: 
1. Write out the translation of the reading passage into Spanish. 
2. State the rule for the use of a direct object with two-word verbs, 
and apply it to other phrasal verbs. 
3. Do the remaining exercises in the chapter that include practice 
with one set of irregular past participle forms. The students will 
be asked to memorize the present tense, and past participle forms 
of this irregular paradigm. 
 
drink drank drunk 
sing sang sung 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 100 
 
swim swam swum 
ring rang rung 
begin began begun 
 
4. Write a composition about an ambition they have. 
5. Memorize the remaining vocabulary items and write sentences for 
each. 
6. Take a quiz on the grammar and vocabulary of this chapter. They will 
be asked to translate a Spanish paragraph about steamboats into 
English. 
 
Source: Freeman, D.L. (1986). Techniques and Principles in language 
Teaching. Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 
You have now had an opportunity to examine the principles and 
some of the techniques of the Grammar-Translation Method. Try to 
make a connection between what you have understood and your own 
teaching situation and beliefs. 
1. Do you believe that a fundamental reason for learning a foreign 
language is to be able to read the literature written in the target 
language? 
2. Do you think it is important to learn about the target language? 
3. Should culture be viewed as consisting of literature and the fine arts? 
4. 4Do you agree with any of the other principles underlying the 
Grammar-Translation Method? Which ones? 
5. Is translation a valuable exercise? 
6. Is answering reading comprehension questions of the type described 
here helpful? 
7. Should grammar be presented deductively? 
8. Are these or any of the other techniques of the Grammar-Translation 
Method ones which will be useful to you in your own teaching? 
Which ones? 
 
 
 
 101 
 
Feedback 
These are reflection questions, therefore, there is no one correct answer. 
You should compare your beliefs on how languages are learnt and the 
information from the text that you have just read. 
 
 
Summary 
You have now had an opportunity to examine the principles and some of 
the techniques of the Grammar-Translation Method. You have seen that 
for the proponents of the grammar translation method, the goal of foreign 
language study is to learn a language in order to read its literature or in 
order to benefit from the mental discipline and intellectual development 
that results from foreign-language study. Reading and writing are the 
major focus. Accuracy is emphasized and grammar is taught deductively. 
 
 
 
Lesson 2: The Direct Method 
 
In this lesson you are going to read about the Direct Method. 
By the end of the lesson you should be able to: 
evaluate the fundamental reason for learning a foreign language using the 
Direct Method and; 
 
Outcomes 
 to analyse if there any techniques of the Direct Method that can be 
used to teach second or foreign language nowadays. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
 
 
 
 
Introduction 
As with the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method is not new. 
Its principles have been applied by language teachers for many years. 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 102 
 
Most recently, it was received as a method when the goal of instruction 
became learning how to use a foreign language to communicate. Since 
the Grammar-Translation Method was not very effective in preparing 
students to use the target language communicatively, the Direct Method 
became popular. 
The Direct Method has one very basic rule: No translation is allowed. In 
fact, the Direct Method receives its name from the fact that meaning is to 
be connected directly with the target language, without going through the 
process of translating into the students’ native language. 
We will now try to come to an understanding of the Direct Method by 
observing an English teacher using it in a scuola media (lower-level 
secondary school) class in Italy. The class has thirty students who attend 
English class for one hour, three times a week. The class we observe is at 
the end of its first year of English language instruction in a scuola media. 
 
EXPERIENCE 
 
The teacher is calling the class to order as we find seats toward the back 
of the room. He has placed a big map of the United States in the front of 
the classroom. He asks the students to open their books to a certain page 
number. The lesson is entitled “Looking at a Map.” As the students are 
called one by one, they read a sentence from the reading passage at the 
beginning of the lesson. The teacher points to the part of the map the 
sentence describes after each student has read his sentence. The passage 
begins: 
We are looking at the map of the United States. Canada is the country to 
the north of the United States, and Mexico is the country to the south of 
the United States. Between Canada and the United States are the Great 
Lakes. Between Mexico and the United States is the Rio Grande River. 
On the East Coast is the Atlantic Ocean, and on the West Coast is the 
Pacific Ocean. In the East is a mountain range called the Appalachian 
Mountains. In the West are the Rocky Mountains. 
 
After the students finish reading the passage, they are asked if they have 
any questions. A student asks what a mountain range is. The teacher turns 
to the blackboard and draws a series of inverted cones to illustrate a 
mountain range. 
The students nods and says, “I understand.” Another student asks what 
“between” means. The teacher replies, “You are sitting between Maria 
Pia and Giovanni. Paolo is sitting between Gabriella and Cettina. Now do 
you understand the meaning of ‘between’?” The student answers, “Yes, I 
understand.” 
 
 
 103 
 
After all of the questions have been answered, the teacher asks some of 
his own. “Class, are we looking at a map of Italy?” 
 The class replies in chorus, “No!” 
 The teacher reminds the class to answer in a full sentence. 
 “No, we aren’t looking at a map of Italy,” they respond. 
 The teacher asks, “Are we looking at a map of United States?” 
 “Yes, we are looking at a map of the United States.” 
 “Is Canada a state in the United States?” 
 “No, Canada isn’t a state. It is a country.” 
 “Are the Great Lakes in the North of the United States?” 
 “Yes, the Great Lakes are in the North.” 
 “Is the Mississippi a river or a lake?” 
 “The Mississippi is a river.” 
 “It’s a river. Where is it?” 
 “It’s in the middle of the United States.” 
 “What colour is the Mississippi river in the map?” 
 “It’s blue.” 
 “Points to a mountain range in the West. What mountains are they?” 
 “They are the Rocky Mountains.” 
The question and answer session continues for a few more minutes. 
Finally, the teacher invites the students to ask questions. Hands go up, 
and the teacher calls on students to pose questions one at a time, to which 
the class replies. After several questions have been posed, one girl asks, 
“Where are the Appalachian Mountains?” Before the class has a chance 
to respond, the teacher works with the students on the pronunciation of 
“Appalachian.” Then he includes the rest of the class in this practice as 
well, expecting that they will have the same problem with this long word. 
After insuring thatthe students’ pronunciation is correct, the teacher 
allows the class to answer the question. 
Later another student asks, “What is the ocean in the West Coast?” The 
teacher again interrupts before the class has a chance to reply, saying, 
“What is the ocean in the West Coast? … or on the West Coast?” The 
student hesitates, then says, “On the West Coast.” 
“Correct,” says the teacher. “Now, repeat your questions.” 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 104 
 
 “What is the ocean in the West Coast?” 
The class replies in chorus, “The Ocean on the West Coast is the Pacific.” 
After the students have asked about ten questions, the teacher begins 
asking questions and making statements again. This time, however, the 
questions and statements are about the students in the classroom and 
contain one of the prepositions “on,” “at,” “to,” “in,” or “between,” such 
as, “Antonella, is your book on your desk?” “Antonio, who is sitting 
between Luisa and Teresa?” “Emanuela, points to the clock.” The 
students then make up their own questions and statements and direct them 
to other students. 
The teacher next instructs the students to turn to an exercise in the lesson 
which asks them to fill in the blanks. They read a sentence out loud and 
supply the missing word as they are reading, for example: 
 
 The Atlantic Ocean is _____ the East Coast. 
 The Rio Grande is _____ Mexico and the United States. 
 Edoardo is looking _____ the map. 
Finally, the teacher asks the students to take out their notebooks, and he 
gives them a dictation. The passage he dictates is one paragraph long and 
is about the geography of the United States. 
 During the remaining two classes this week, the class will: 
 
1. Review the features of the United States geography. 
2. Following the teacher’s directions, label blank maps with these 
geographical features. After this, the students will give directions 
to the teacher, who will complete a map on the blackboard. 
3. Practice the pronunciation of “river,” paying particular attention 
to the /I/ in the first syllable (and contrasting it with /i/) and to the 
pronunciation of /r/. 
4. Write a paragraph about the major geographical features of the 
United States. 
5. Discuss the proverb “Time is money.” Students will talk about 
this in order to understand that Americans value punctuality. 
They will compare this attitude with own view of time. 
 
Source: Freeman, D.L. (1986). Techniques and Principles in language 
Teaching. Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
 105 
 
 
 
Activity 
Now that you have considered the principles and the techniques of 
the Direct Method somewhat, see what you can find of use for your 
own teaching situation. 
1. Do you agree that the goal of target language instruction should be to 
teach students how to communicate in the target language? 
2. Does it make sense to you that the students’ native language should 
not be used to give meaning to the target language? 
3. Do you agree that the culture that is taught should be about people’s 
daily lives in addiction to the fine arts? 
4. Should students be encouraged to self-correct? 
5. Are there any other principles of the Direct Method which you 
believe in? Which ones? 
6. Is addiction a worthwhile activity? 
7. Have you used questions-and-answer exercises and conversation 
practice as described here before? If not, should you? 
8. Is paragraph writing useful thing to ask students to do? 
9. Should grammar be presented inductively? 
10. Are there any other techniques of the Direct Method which you 
would consider adopting? Which ones? 
 
Feedback 
These are reflection questions, therefore, there is no one correct answer. 
You should compare your beliefs on how languages are learnt and the 
information from the text that you have just read. 
 
 
 
Summary 
In this lesson you read about the principles and the techniques of the 
Direct Method. From the text it transpired that when teaching language 
using the Direct Method, classroom instruction is conducted exclusively 
in the target language; only everyday vocabulary and sentences are 
taught; grammar is taught inductively and both speech and listening 
comprehension were taught. 
 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 106 
 
Lesson 3: The Audio-Lingual Method 
 
In this lesson you are going to read about the Audio-Lingual Method. 
By the end of the lesson you should be able to: 
evaluate the fundamental reason for learning a foreign language using the 
Audio-Lingual Method and; 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 to analyse if there any techniques of the Audio-lingual Method that can 
be used to teach second or foreign language nowadays. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
 
Introduction 
The Audio-Lingual Method, like the Direct Method we have just 
examined, has a goal very different from that of the Grammar-Translation 
Method. The Audio-Lingual Method was developed in the United States 
during World War II. At that time that was a need for people to learn 
foreign languages rapidly for military purposes. As we have seen, the 
Grammar-Translation Method did not prepare people to use the target 
language. While communication in the target language was the goal of 
the Direct Method, there were at the time exciting new ideas about 
language and learning emanating from the disciplines of descriptive 
linguistics and behavioural psychology. These ideas led to the 
development of the Audio-Lingual Method. Some of the principles are 
similar to those of the Direct Method, but many are different, having been 
based upon conceptions of language and learning from these two 
disciplines. 
In order to come to an understanding of this method, let us now enter a 
classroom where the Audio-Lingual Method is being used. We will sit it 
on a beginning level English class in Mali. There are thirty-four students, 
thirteen to fifteen years of age. The class meets for one hour a day, five 
days a week. 
 
 
 
 
 107 
 
EXPERIENCE 
As we enter the classroom, the first thing we notice is that the students 
are attentively listening as the teacher is presenting a new dialogue, a 
conversation between two people. The students know they will be 
expected to eventually memorize the dialogue the teacher is introducing. 
All of the teacher’s instructions are in English. Sometimes she uses 
actions to convey meaning, but not one word of the students’ mother 
tongue is uttered. After she acts out the dialogue, she says: 
“All right, class. I am going to repeat the dialogue now. Listen carefully, 
but no talking please. 
“Two people are walking along a sidewalk in town. They know each 
other, and as they meet, they stop to talk. One of them is named Sally and 
the other one is named Bill. I will talk for Sally and for Bill. Listen to 
their conversation: 
 SALLY: Good morning, Bill. 
 BILL: Good morning, Sally. 
 SALLY: How are you? 
 BILL: Fine, thanks. And you? 
 SALLY: Fine, where are you going? 
 BILL: I’m going to the post office. 
 SALLY: I am too. Shall we go together? 
 BILL: Sure. Let’s go. 
 
“Listen one more time. This time try to understand all that I am saying.” 
Now she has the whole class repeat each of the lines of the dialogue after 
her model. They repeat each line several times before moving on to the 
next line. When the class comes to the line, “I’m going to the post 
office,” they stumble a bit in their repetition. The teacher, at this point, 
stops the repetition and uses a backward build-up drill (expansion drill). 
The purpose of this drill is to break down the troublesome sentence into 
smaller parts. The teacher starts with the end of the sentence and has the 
class repeat just the last two words. Since they can do this, theteacher 
adds a few more words, and the class repeat this expanded phrase. Little 
by little the teacher builds up the phrases until the entire sentence is being 
repeated. 
 TEACHER: Repeat after me: post office. 
 CLASS: Post office. 
 TEACHER: To the post office. 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
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 CLASS: To the post office. 
 TEACHER: Going to the post office. 
 CLASS: Going to the post office. 
 TEACHER: I’m going to the post office. 
 CLASS: I’m going to the post office. 
Through this step-by-step procedure, the teacher is able to give the 
students help to producing the troublesome line. Having worked on the 
line in small pieces, the students are also able to take note of where each 
word or phrase begins and ends in the sentence. 
After the students have repeated the dialogue several times, the teacher 
gives them a chance to adopt the role of Bill while she says Sally’s lines. 
Before the class actually says each line, the teacher models it. In effect, 
the class is experiencing a repetition drill where the task is to listen 
carefully and attempt to mimic the teacher’s model as accurately as 
possible. 
Next the class and the teacher switch roles in order to practice a little 
more ,the teacher saying Bill’s lines and the class saying Sally’s. Then 
the teacher divides the class in half so that each half gets to try to say on 
their own either Bill’s or Sally’s lines. The teacher stops the students 
from time to time when she feels they are straying too far from the model, 
and once again provides a model, which she has them attempt to copy. To 
further practice the lines of this dialogue, the teacher has all the boys in 
the class take Bill’s part and all the girls take Sally’s. 
She then initiates a chain drill with four of the lines from the dialogue. A 
chain drill gives students an opportunity to say the lines individually. The 
teacher listens and can tell which students are struggling and will need 
more practice. A chain drills also lets students use the expressions in 
communication with someone else, even though the communication is 
very limited. The teacher addresses the student nearest her with, “Good 
morning, Jose.” He, in turns, responds, “Good morning, teacher.” She 
says, “How are you?” Jose answers, “Fine, thanks. And you?” The 
teacher replies, “Fine.” He understands through the teacher’s gestures that 
he is to turn to the student sitting beside him and greet her. That student, 
in turn, says her lines in reply to him. When she has finished, she greets 
the student on the other side of her. This chain continues until of the 
students have a chance to ask and answer the questions. The last student 
directs the greeting to the teacher. 
Finally, the teacher selects two students to perform the entire dialogue for 
the rest of the class. When they are finished, two others do the same. Not 
everyone has a chance to say the dialogue in a pair today, but perhaps 
they will sometime this week. 
The teacher moves next to the second major phase of the lesson. She 
continues to drill the students with language from the dialogue, but these 
drills require more than simple repetition. The first drill the teacher leads 
 
 
 109 
 
is a single-slot substitution drill in which the students will repeat a 
sentence from the dialogue and replace a word or phrase in the sentence 
with the word or phrase the teachers gives them. This word or phrase is 
called the cue. 
The teacher begins by reciting a line from the dialogue, “I’m going to the 
post office.” Following this she shows the students a picture of a bank 
and says the phrase, “The bank.” She pauses, then says, “I am going to 
the bank.” 
From her example the students realize that they are supposed to take the 
cue phrase (“The bank.”), which the teacher supplies, put it into its proper 
place in the sentence. 
Now she gives them their first cue phrase, “The drugstore.” Together the 
students respond, “I am going to the drugstore.” The teacher smiles. 
“Very good!” she exclaims. The teacher cues, “The park.” The students 
chorus, “I am going to the park.” 
Other cues she offers in turn are “the cafe,” “the supermarket,” “the bus 
station,” “the football field,” and “the library.” Each cue is accompanied 
by a picture as before. After the students have gone through the drill 
sequence three times, the teacher no longer provides a spoken cue phrase. 
Instead she simply shows the pictures one at a time, and the students 
repeat the entire sentence putting the name of the place in the picture in 
the appropriate slot in the sentence. 
A similar procedure is followed for another sentence in the dialogue, 
“How are you?” The subject pronouns “he,” “she,” “they,” and “you” are 
used as cue words. This substitution drill is slightly more difficult for the 
students since they have to change the form of the verb “be” to “is,” 
“am,” or “are,” depending on which subject pronoun the teacher gives 
them. The students are apparently familiar with the subject pronouns 
since the teacher is not using any pictures. Instead, after going through 
the drill a few times supplying oral cues, the teacher points to a boy in the 
class and the students understand they are to use the pronoun “he” in the 
sentence. They chorus, “How is he?” “Good!” says the teacher. She 
points to a girl and waits for the class’s response, then points to other 
students until all the subject pronouns are substituted in the sentence. 
Finally, the teacher increases the complexity of the task by leading the 
students in a multi-slot substitution drill. This is essentially the same type 
of drill as the single-slot the teacher just used. However with this drill, 
students must recognize what part of speech the cue word is and where it 
fits into the sentence. The students still listen to only one cue from the 
teacher. Then they must make a decision concerning where the cue word 
or phrase belongs in a sentence also supplied by the teacher. The teacher 
in this class starts off by having the students repeat the original sentence 
from the dialogue, “I am going to the post office.” Then she gives them 
the cue “she.” The students understand and produce, “She is going to the 
post office.” The next cue the teacher offers is “to the park.” The students 
hesitate first; then they respond by correct producing, “She is going to the 
park.” She continues in this manner, sometimes providing a subject 
pronoun, other times naming a location. 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 110 
 
The substitution drills are followed by a transformation drill. This type of 
drill asks students to change one type of sentence into another − an 
affirmative sentence into a negative sentence or an active sentence into a 
passive, for example. In this class, the teacher uses a substitution drill that 
requires the students to change a statement into a yes/no-question. The 
teacher offers an example, “I say, ‘She is going to the post office.’ You 
make a question by saying, ‘Is she going to the post office?’” 
The teacher models two more examples of this transformation, then asks, 
“Does everyone understand? OK, let’s begin. ‘They are going to the 
bank.’” The class replies in turn, “Are they going to the bank?” They 
transform approximately fifteen of these patterns, and then the teacher 
decides they are ready to move on to a question-and-answer drill. 
The teacher holds up one of the pictures she used earlier, the picture of a 
football field, and asks the class, “Are you going to the football field?” 
She answers her own question, “Yes, I’m going to the football field.” She 
poses the next question while holding up a picture of a park, “Are you 
going to the park?” And again answers herself, “Yes, I’m going to the 
park.” She holds up a third picture, the one of a library. Sheposes a 
question to the class, “Are you going to the library?” They respond 
together, “Yes, I am going to the library.” 
“Very good,” the teacher says. Through her actions and examples, the 
students have learned that they are to answer the question following the 
pattern she has modeled. The teacher drills them with this pattern for the 
next few minutes. Since the students can handle it, she poses the question 
to selected individuals rapidly, one after another. The students are 
expected to respond very quickly, without pausing. 
The students are able to keep up with the pace, so the teacher moves on to 
the next step. She again shows the class one of the pictures, a 
supermarket this time. She asks, “Are you going to the bus station?” She 
answers her own question, “No, I am going to the supermarket.” 
The students understand that they are required to look at the picture and 
listen to the question and answer negatively if the place in the question is 
not the same as what they see in the picture. “Are you going to the bus 
station?” The teacher asks while holding up a picture of a cafe. “No, I am 
going to the cafe,” the class answers. 
 “Very good!” exclaims the teacher. After posing a few more questions 
which require negative answers, the teacher produces the picture of the 
post office and asks, “Are you going to the post office?” The students 
hesitate a moment and then chorus, “Yes, I am going to the post office.” 
“Good,” comments the teacher. She works a little longer on this question-
and-answer-drill, sometimes providing her students with situations that 
require a negative answer and sometimes with situations that a positive 
one. She calls on individuals now, smiling encouragement to each 
student. She holds up pictures and poses questions one right after another, 
but the students seem to have no trouble keeping up with her. The only 
times she changes the rhythm is when a student seriously mispronounces 
 
 
 111 
 
a word. When this occurs she restates the word and work briefly with the 
students until his pronunciation is closer to her own. 
For the final few minutes of the class, the teacher returns to the dialogue 
with which she began the lesson. She repeats it once, then has the half the 
class to her left do Bill’s lines and the half of the class to her right do 
Sally’s. This time there is no hesitation at all. The students move through 
the dialogue briskly. They trade roles and do the same. The teacher 
smiles, “Very good. Class dismissed.” 
The lesson ends for the day. Both the teacher and the students have 
worked hard. The students have listened to and spoken only English for 
the period. The teacher is tired from all her action, but she is pleased for 
she feels the lesson went well. The students have learned the lines of the 
dialogue and to respond without hesitation to her cues in the drill pattern. 
 
Source: Freeman, D.L. (1986). Techniques and Principles in language 
Teaching. Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 
We have looked at both the techniques and principles of the Audio-
Lingual Method. Try now to make the bridge between this book and 
your teaching situation. 
1. Does is it makes sense to you that language acquisition results from 
habit formation? If so, will the habits of the native language interfere 
with target language learning? 
2. Should the committing of errors be prevented as much as possible? 
3. Should the major focus be on the structural patterns of the target 
language? 
Feedback 
These are reflection questions, therefore, there is no one correct answer. 
You should contrast your beliefs on how languages are learnt and the 
information from the text that you have just read. 
 
 
Summary 
We’ve looked at both the techniques and the principles of the Audio-
Lingual Method. From the reading text we can come to the conclusion 
that for the proponents of the Audio-lingual method, foreign language 
learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation; analogy 
provides a better foundation for language learning than analysis and the 
meanings that the words of a language have for the native speaker can be 
learned only in a linguistic and cultural context and not in isolation. 
 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 112 
 
 
Lesson 4: The Total Physical Response Method 
 
In this lesson you are going to read about the Total Physical Response 
Method. 
By the end of the lesson you should be able to: 
evaluate the fundamental reason for learning a foreign language using the 
Total Physical Response Method and; 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 to analyse if there any techniques of the Total Physical Response 
Method that can be used to teach second or foreign language 
nowadays. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
 
Introduction 
The method we will consider in this lesson is an example of a new 
general approach to foreign language instruction which has been named 
“the comprehension approach.” It is called this because of the importance 
it gives to listening comprehension. All the other methods we have 
looked at have students speaking in the target language from the first day. 
Methods consistent with the comprehension approach, on the other hand, 
begin with the listening skill. 
The idea of focusing on listening comprehension during early foreign 
language instruction comes from observing how children acquire their 
mother tongue. A baby spends many months listening to the people 
around it long before it ever says a word. The child has the time to try to 
make sense out of the sounds it hears. No one tells the baby that it must 
speak. The child chooses to speak when it is ready. 
There are several methods being practiced today that have in common an 
attempt to apply these observations to foreign language instruction. What 
the methodologists advocate doing during an initial listening period 
varies from method to method. For example, in Krashen and Terrell’s The 
Natural Approach (1983), the students listen to the teacher using the 
 
 
 113 
 
target language communicatively from the beginning of instruction, and 
communicative activities prevail throughout the course. The teacher helps 
her students to understand her by using pictures and occasional words in 
the students’ native language and by being as expressive as possible. In 
many ways the Natural Approach is similar to the Direct Method, which 
we examined in the previous lesson. One of the ways it is different, 
however, is that the students are permitted to use their native language 
along with the target language as they respond to the teacher. This frees 
them to concentrate on listen comprehension. The teacher does not 
correct any student errors during oral communication. In Winitz and 
Reed’s self-instructional program and Winitz’ The Learnables, students 
listen to tape-recorded words, phrases, and sentences while they look at 
accompanying pictures. The meaning of the utterance is clear from the 
context the picture provides. Stories illustrated by pictures are also used 
as a device to convey abstract meaning. In the Total Physical Response 
Method, students listen and respond to the spoken target language 
commands of their teacher. 
It is James Asher’s Total Physical Response Method we have chosen to 
examine in detail here in order to see one way in which the principles of 
the comprehension approach are put into practice. We will learn about 
these through our usual way of observing a class in which the method is 
being used. The class is located in Sweden. It is a beginning class for 
thirty grade 5 students. They study English for one class period three 
times a week. 
 
 
 
EXPERIENCE 
We follow the teacher as she enters the room and we take a seat in the 
back of the room. It is the first class of the year so after the teacher takes 
attendance, she introduces the method they will use to study English. She 
explains in Swedish, “You will be studyingEnglish in a way that is 
similar to the way you learned Swedish. You will not speak at first. 
Rather, you will just listen to me and do as I do. I will give you a 
command to do something in English and you will do the actions with 
me. I will need four volunteers to help me with the lesson.” 
Hands go up and the teacher calls on four students to come to the front of 
the room and sit with her in chairs that are lined up facing the other 
students. She tells the other students to listen and to watch. 
In English the teacher says, “Stand up.” As she says it, she stands up and 
she signals for the four volunteers to rise with her. They all stand up. “Sit 
down,” she says and then all sit. The teacher and the students stand up 
and sit down together several times according to the teacher’s command; 
the students say nothing. The next time that they stand up together, the 
teacher issues a new command, “Turn around.” The students follow the 
teacher’s example and turn so that they are facing their chairs. “Turn 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 114 
 
around,” the teacher says again and this time they turn to face the other 
students as before. “Sit down. Stand up. Turn around. Sit down.” “Walk,” 
and they all begin walking towards the front row of the students’ seats. 
“Stop. Jump. Stop. Turn around. Jump. Stop. Turn around. Sit down.” 
The teacher gives the commands and they all perform the actions 
together. The teacher gives these commands again, changing their order 
and saying them quite quickly. “Stand up. Jump. Sit down. Stand up. 
Turn around. Jump. Stop. Turn around. Walk. Stop. Turn around. Walk. 
Jump. Turn around. Sit down.” 
Once again the teacher gives the commands; this time, however, she 
remains seated. The four volunteers respond to her commands without 
her. “Stand up. Sit down. Walk. Stop. Turn around. Turn around. Walk. 
Turn around. Sit down.” The students respond perfectly. Next, the teacher 
signals that she would like one of the volunteers to follow her commands 
alone. One student raises his hands and performs the actions the teacher 
commands. 
Finally, the teacher approaches the other students who have been sitting 
observing her and their four classmates. “Stand up,” she says and the 
class responds. “Sit down. Stand up. Jump. Stop. Sit down. Stand up. 
Turn around. Turn around. Jump. Sit down.” Even though they have not 
done the actions before, the students are able to perform according to the 
teacher’s commands. 
The teacher is satisfied that the class has mastered these six commands. 
She begins to introduce some new ones. “Point to the door,” she orders. 
She extends her right arm and right index finger in the direction of the 
door at the side of the classroom. The volunteers point with her. “Point to 
the desk.” She points to her own big teacher’s desk at the front of the 
room. “Point to the chair.” She points to the chair behind her desk and the 
students follow. 
“Stand up.” “The students stand up. “Point to the door.” The students 
point. “Walk to the door.” They walk together. “Touch the door.” The 
students touch it with her. The teacher continues to command the students 
as follows: “Point to the desk. Walk to the desk. Touch the desk. Point to 
the door. Walk to the door. Touch the door. Point to the chair. Walk to 
the chair. Touch the chair.” She continues to perform the actions with the 
students, but changes the order of the commands. After practicing these 
new commands with the students several times, the teacher remains 
seated and the four volunteers carry out the commands by themselves. 
Only once do the students seem confused, at which point the teacher 
repeats the command which causes difficult and performs the actions 
with them. 
Next the teacher turns to the rest of the class and gives the following 
commands to the students sitting in the back row: “Stand up. Sit down. 
Stand up. Point to the desk. Point to the door. Walk to the door. Walk to 
the chair. Touch the chair. Walk. Stop. Jump. Walk. Turn around. Sit 
down.” Although she varies the sequence of commands, the students do 
not seem to have any trouble following the orders. 
 
 
 115 
 
Next the teachers turns to the four volunteers and says, “Stand up. Jump 
to the desk.” The students have never heard this command before. They 
hesitate a second and then jump to the desk just as they have been told. 
Everyone laughs at this sight. “Touch the desk. Sit on the desk.” Again, 
the teacher uses a novel command, one they have not practiced before. 
The teacher then issues two commands in the form of a compound 
sentence, “Point to the door and walk to the door.” Again, the group 
performs as it has been commanded. 
As the last step of the lesson, the teacher writes the new commands on the 
blackboard. Each time she writes a command, she acts it out. The 
students copy the sentences from the blackboard into the notebooks. 
The class is over. No one except the teacher has spoken a word. 
However, a few weeks later when we walk by the room we hear a 
different voice. We stop to listen for a moment. One of the students is 
speaking. We hear her say, “Raise your hands. Show me your hands. 
Close your eyes. Put your hands behind you. Open your eyes. Shake hand 
with your neighbour. Raise your left foot.” We look in and see that the 
student is directing the other students and the teacher with these 
commands. They are not saying anything; they are just following the 
students orders. 
 
Source: Freeman, D.L. (1986). Techniques and Principles in language 
Teaching. Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
Activity 2 
Now that we have had a chance to experience a Total Physical 
Response class and to examine its principles and techniques, you 
should try to think about how any of this will be of use to your own 
teaching. Ask yourself the following questions: 
1. Does it make sense to delay the teaching of speaking the target 
language? 
2. Do you believe that students should not be encouraged to speak until 
they are ready to do so? 
3. Should a teacher overlook certain students’ errors in the begining? 
4. Which, if any, of the other principles do you agree with? 
5. Would you use the imperative to present the grammatical structures 
and vocabulary of the target language? 
6. Would you like to dapt any of the techniques of the Total Physical 
Response Method to your teaching situation? 
 
 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 116 
 
Feedback 
These are reflection questions therefore there is no one correct answer. 
You should compare your beliefs on how languages are learnt with the 
information from the text that you have just read. 
 
 
Summary 
In this lesson you read about theTotal Physical Response. From the lesson 
it became clear that the Total physical Response Method is based on three 
influential learning hypotheses: (1) There exists a specific innate bio-
program for language lerning, which defines an optimal path for first and 
second language development. (2) Brain lateralization defines different 
learning functions in the left- and right-brain hemispheres. (3) Stress (an 
affective filter) intervenes between the act of learning and what is to be 
learned; the lower the stress, the greater the learning. 
 
 
 
 
Lesson 5: The Communicative Approach 
 
In this lesson you are going to read about the Communicative approach. 
By the end of the lesson you should be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 evaluate the fundamental reason for learning a foreign language 
using the Communicative approach and; 
 to analyse if every technique of the Communicative approach that 
can be used to teach second or foreign language in the environment 
where you teach. 
 
 
How long? 
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lesson 
 
 
 
 117 
 
Introduction 
 You may have noticed that originators of most of the methods discussed 
in this book take as their primary goal enabling students to communicateusing the target language. Many of these same methodologists emphasize 
the acquisition of linguistic structures or vocabulary. Adherents of the 
communicative approach, which we will consider in this chapter, 
acknowledge that structures and vocabulary are important. However, they 
feel that preparation for communication will be inadequate if only these 
are taught. Students may know the rules of language usage, but will be 
unable to use the language. 
When we communicate, we use the language to accomplish some 
function, such as arguing, persuading, or promising. Moreover, we carry 
out these functions within a social context. A speaker will choose way to 
express his argument not only based upon his intent and his level of 
emotion, but also on whom he is addressing and what his relationship 
with that person is. For example, he may be more direct in arguing with 
his colleague than with his employer. 
Furthermore, since communication is a process, it is insufficient for 
students to simply have knowledge of target language forms, meanings, 
and functions. Students must be able to apply this knowledge in 
negotiating meaning. It is through the interaction between speaker and 
listener (or reader and writer) that meanings become clear. The listener 
gives the speaker feedback as to whether or not he understands what the 
speaker has said. In this way, the speaker can revise what he has said and 
try to communicate his intended meaning again, if necessary. 
Let us see how this notion of communication is put into practice in the 
Communicative Approach. The class we will visit is one being conducted 
for immigrants to the United States. These twenty people have lived in 
the United States for two years and are at a high-intermediate level of 
English proficiency. They meet two evenings a week for two hours each 
class. 
EXPERIENCE 
 
The teacher greets the class and distributes a handout. There is writing on 
both sides. On one side is a copy of a sports column from a recent 
newspaper. The reporter discusses who he thinks will win the World Cup. 
The teacher asks the students to read it and then to underline the 
predictions the reporter has made. He gives them these and all other 
directions in the target language. When the students have finished, they 
read what they have underlined. The teacher writes the predictions on the 
blackboard. Then he and the students discuss which predictions the 
reporter feels more certain about and which predictions he feels certain 
about. 
 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 118 
 
 Malaysia is very likely to win the World Cup this year. 
 Italy can win if they play as well as they have lately. 
 Czechoslovakia probably won’t be a contender. 
 England may have an outside chance. 
 Then he asks the students to look at the first sentence and to tell the class 
another way to express this same prediction. One student says, “Malaysia 
probably will win the World Cup.” “Yes,” says the teacher. “Any 
others?” No one responds. The teacher offers, “Malaysia is almost certain 
to win the World Cup.” “What about the next?” he asks the class. One 
student replies, “It is possible that Italy will win the World Cup.” Another 
student offers, “There’s a possibility that Italy will win the World Cup.” 
Each of the reporter’s predictions is discussed in this manner. All the 
paraphrases the students suggest are evaluated by the teacher and the 
other students to make sure they convey the same degree of certainty as 
the reporter’s original prediction. 
Next, the teacher asks the students to turn to the other side of the handout. 
On it are all the sentences of the article that they have been working on. 
They are, however, out of order. For example, the first two sentences on 
this side of the handout are: 
England may have an outside chance. In the final analysis. The winning 
team may simply be the one with the most experience. 
The first sentence was in the middle of the original sports column. The 
second was the last sentence of the original column. The teacher tells the 
students to unscramble the sentences, to put them in their proper once 
again. When they finish, the students compare what they have done with 
the original on the other side of the handout. 
The teacher next announces that the students will be playing a game. He 
divides the class into small groups containing five people each. He hands 
each group a deck of thirteen cards. Each card has a picture of a piece of 
sports equipment. As the students identify the items, the teacher writes 
each name on the blackboard: basketball, soccer ball, volleyball, tennis 
racket, skis, ice skates, roller skates, football, baseball bat, golf clubs, 
bowling bowl, badminton racket, and hockey stick. 
The cards are shuffled and four of the students in a group are dealt three 
cards each. They do not show their cards to anyone else. The extra card is 
placed face down in the middle of the group. The fifth person in each 
group receives no cards. She is told that she should try to predict what it 
is that Dumduan (one of the students in the class) will be doing the 
following weekend. The fifth student is to make statements like, 
“Dumduan may go skiing this weekend.” If one of the members of his 
group has a card showing skis, the group member would reply, for 
example, “Dumduan can’t go skiing, because I have her skis.” If, on the 
other hand, no one has the picture of the skis, then the fifth student can 
make s strong statement about the likelihood of Dumduan going skiing. 
She can say, for example, “Dumduan will go skiing.” She can check her 
 
 
 119 
 
prediction by turning over the card that was placed face down. If it is the 
picture of the skis, then she knows she is correct. 
 The students seem to really enjoy playing the game. They take turns 
so that each person has a chance to make the predictions about how a 
classmate will spend his or her time. 
For the next activity, the teacher reads a number of predictions like 
the following: 
 In 1992, a woman will be elected president of the United States. 
By 2000, solar energy will replace the world’s reliance on fossil 
fuels. 
 By 2050, people will be living on the moon. 
The students are told to make statements about how probable they think 
the predictions are and why they believe so. They are also asked how 
they feel about the prediction. In discussing one of the predictions, a 
student says he doesn’t think that it’s like that a world government will be 
in place by the twenty-second century. The teacher and students ignore 
his error and the discussion continues. 
Next, the teacher has the students divide into groups of three. Since there 
are twenty students, there are six groups of three students and one group 
of two. One number of each group is given a picture strip story. There are 
six pictures in a row on a piece of paper, but no words. The picture tells a 
story. The student with the story shows the first picture to the other 
members of his group, while covering the remaining five pictures. 
The other students try to predict what they think will happen in the 
second picture. The first student tells them whether they are correct or 
not. He then shows them the second picture and asks them to predict what 
the third picture will look like. After the entire series of pictures has been 
shown, the group gets a new strip story and they change roles, giving the 
first student an opportunity to work with a partner in making predictions. 
The students are told to make statements about how probable they think 
the predictions are and why they believe so. They are also asked how 
they feel about the prediction. In discussing one of the predictions, a 
student says he doesn’t think that it’s like that a world government will be 
in place by the twenty-second century. The teacher and students ignore 
his error and the discussion continues.Next, the teacher has the students divide into groups of three. Since there 
are twenty students, there are six groups of three students and one group 
of two. One number of each group is given a picture strip story. There are 
six pictures in a row on a piece of paper, but no words. The picture tells a 
story. The student with the story shows the first picture to the other 
members of his group, while covering the remaining five pictures. 
The other students try to predict what they think will happen in the 
second picture. The first student tells them whether they are correct or 
not. He then shows them the second picture and asks them to predict what 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 120 
 
the third picture will look like. After the entire series of pictures has been 
shown, the group gets a new strip story and they change roles, giving the 
first student an opportunity to work with a partner in making predictions. 
For the final activity of the class, the students are told that they will do a 
role-play. The teacher tells them that they are to be divided into groups of 
hour. They are to imagine that they are all employees of the same 
company. One of them is the others’ boss. They are having a meeting to 
discuss what will possibly occur as a result of their company merging 
with another company. Before they begin, they discuss some possibilities 
together. They decide that they can talk topics such as whether or not 
some of the people in their company will lose their jobs, whether or not 
they will have to move, whether or not certain policies will change, 
whether or not they will earn more money. “Remember,” reminds the 
teacher, “that one of you in each group is the boss. You should think 
about this relationship if, for example, he makes a prediction that you 
don’t agree with.” 
For fifteen minutes the students perform their role-play. The teacher 
moves from group to group to answer questions and offer any advice on 
that the group can discuss. After it’s over, the students have an 
opportunity to pose any questions. In this way, they elicit some relevant 
vocabulary words. They then discuss what language forms are 
appropriate in dealing with one’s boss. “For example,” the teacher 
explains, “what if you know that your boss doesn’t think that the vacation 
policy will change, but you think it will. How will you state your 
prediction? You are more likely to say something like ‘I think the 
vacation policy might change,’ than ‘The vacation policy will change.’” 
 “What if, however,” the teacher says, “it is your colleague with whom 
you disagree and you are certain that you are right. How will you express 
your prediction then?” One student offers, “I know that the vacation 
policy will change.” Another student says, “I am sure that the vacation 
policy will change.” A third student says simply, “The vacation policy 
will change.” 
The class is almost over. The teacher uses the last few minutes to give the 
homework assignment. The students are to listen to the debate between 
two political candidates on the radio or watch it on television than night. 
They are then to write their prediction of who they think will win the 
election and why they think so. They will read these to their classmates at 
the start of the next class. 
Source: Freeman, D.L. (1986). Techniques and Principles in language 
Teaching. Oxford: OUP. 
 
 
 
 121 
 
 
Activity 2 
Now that we have had a chance to experience a Communicative 
Approach class and to examine its principles and techniques, you 
should try to think about how any of this will be of use to your own 
teaching. Ask yourself the following questions: 
1. Do you agree with the expanded view of communicative 
competence? 
2. Is achieving communicative competence a goal for which you should 
prepare your students? 
3. Should a variety of languaage forms be presented at one time? Are 
there times when you would emphasize fluency over accuracy? 
4. Do these or any other principles of the Communicative Approach 
make sense to you? 
 
Feedback 
These are reflection questions, therefore, there is no one correct answer. 
You should compare your beliefs on how languages are learnt and the 
information from the text that you have just read. 
 
 
Summary 
After reading this lesson it is clear that for teachers using the 
communicative approach, meaning is paramount; language learning is 
learning to communicate; dialogueues center around communicative 
functions and are not normally memorized; contextualization is a basic 
premise for language learning to take place and communicative 
competence, i.e. the ability to use the linguistic system effectively and 
appropriately is the desired goal for language learning. 
 
Unit summary 
 
 
Summary 
In this unit you learned about some of the well-known language teaching 
methods that are in use today. Now you should be able to look at the 
methods and approaches and select those that suit your learners' 
communicative needs. 
 
 
 
 
Unit 4 Factors affecting second language learners 
 122 
 
 
Assignment 
Compare the approaches and methods of language teaching you have read 
about. Don’t forget to mention their strengh and weakness.