EDU133 - Schools-Of-Thought-In-Second-Language-Acquisition

Schools of

thought in second
language
acquisition
Three
different
schools of ▹ Structural Linguistics and Behavioral
thought psychology
▹ Generative Linguistics and Cognitive
Psychology
▹ Constructivism: A multidisciplinary
approach

2
Structural
Linguistics and
Behavioral
Psychology

3
Early 1900s,
1940s and
1950s Structural Linguistics Behavioral Psychology
● Descriptive ● Empirical
● Linguist’s job is to describe ● Focusing on the responses
human languages and to identify that are objectively perceived,
their structural characteristics recorded, and measured.
● Only interested in overtly ● Notions such as intuition,
observable data, ignoring the memory and thinking are
“mind” (meaning and thought) ignored
● Language can be broken ● Learning a behavior:
down into small units, which can Conditioning organisms to
be added up to form the whole. respond in desired ways through
reinforcement (positive/negative)
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Early 1900s,
1940s and
1950s
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Language
Learning
● Conditioning learners with positive/negative
reinforcement to make the right connection
between a stimuli and the desired response
● Drilling in language classroom was a
dominant method
Stimuli → response → reinforcement → habit

formation
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Generative
Linguistics and
Cognitive
Psychology
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1960s, 1970s
and 1980s
Generative Linguistics Cognitive Psychology
● Noam Chomsky ● Seeking to discover underlying
● Linguist’s job is to go beyond motivations and deeper
mere description of the surface structures of human behavior
structure of language ● Meaning, understanding, and
● Studying competence reveals knowing as legitimate data for
the hidden level of meaning and psychology
thought (deep structure) that ● Rational approach, using logic,
generates the observable reason, inference to explain for
performance behavior.
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1960s, 1970s
and 1980s
Generative Linguistics
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Language
Learning ● Language is species-specific
● Language is innate: human beings are born with the
ability to acquire language.
Structural Linguistics/ Generative Linguistics/

Behavioral Psychology Cognitive Psychology
Observable Hidden
Empirical Rational
Descriptive Explanatory
What? Why?
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Constructivism
A multidisciplinary Approach
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1980s, 1990s,
and 2000s
● Post - Structuralist
● Linguistic, Psychology and
sociological paradigms integrated
● The active role learner is
emphasized
● Two branches: Cognitive vs. Social
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Proponent Cognitive Constructivism Social Constructivism
● Jean Piaget ● Lev Vygotsky, Mikahail
● Emphasizes the role of learner Bakhtin
in constructing his/her own ● Emphasizes the role of social
representation of reality interaction and cooperative
● Learner must discover and learning in constructing both
transform complex information cognitive and emotional images
to make it their own (schema, of reality
assimilation, accomodation) ● Language learning is a result
of thinking and meaning-making
that is “socially constructed and
emerges out their social
interactions with their
environment.
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Vygotsky’s
zone of ● The zone between a child’s level of independent and
proximal assisted performance.
development
Level of independent ZPD Level of assisted
performance performance
● What a child can do alone and what he or she can do

with support?
● Often applied to ESL/EFL contexts.
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Constructivism
Cognitive Social
● Development as a ● Unity of learning and
precondition for learning development
● Cognitive development ● Social interaction as
as a solitary act foundation for cognitive
● Biological timetables development
and stages of ● No pre-determined
development stages of development
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Schools of
Thought for
Second Structural Generative
Language Linguistics, Linguistics,
Cognitive
Acquisition Behavioral
Psychology Psychology
Constructivism: A
multidisciplinary
approach
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“
17
“
Bakhtin
Language is “Imersed in a social and cultural
context, and its central function is to serve as a
medium of communication”
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PPT Reference:
References https://prezi.com/zbmusjrej_lc/schools-of-thought-in-second-
language-acquisition/
Other Information Reference:
https://prezi.com/xri4ed3nnns-/linguistics-schools-of-thought/
https://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijsell/v2-i8/13.pdf
https://www.verywellmind.com/behavioral-psychology-4157183
https://currikicdn.s3-us-west
2.amazonaws.com/resourcedocs/55c33aaf3db04.pdf
https://gomaayounis.wordpress.com/1-theories-of-second-
langauge-acquisition/
https://documen.site/download/please-click-here-to_pdf
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-generative-grammar-1690894
https://www.verywellmind.com/cognitive-psychology-
4157181#:~:text=Cognitive%20psychology%20involves%20the%20s
tudy,problem%2Dsolving%2C%20and%20learning. 19
References https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-
9780199772810/obo-9780199772810-
0059.xml#:~:text=Cognitive%20linguistics%20is%20an%20inter
disciplinary,in%20the%20study%20of%20language.
http://ijellh.com/papers/2015/July/23-228-236-July-2015.pdf
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Thank You!
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Schools of

Stimuli → response → reinforcement → habit

Structural Linguistics/ Generative Linguistics/

● What a child can do alone and what he or she can do

Other Information Reference:

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