20th CENTURY APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE LEARNING

20th CENTURY APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE LEARNING

((Be a hero, Be a learner

Touch the future, Be a teacher))

           There are four other approaches to language teaching that have been widely used in 20th century. (Cognitive approach, Affective Humanistic approach, Comprehension Based approach, Communicativa approach)

Anthony:

Approach to language teaching is something that reflects a certain model or research paradigm a theory. The broadest term of the three.

Method is a set of procedures, i.e. a system that spells out rather precisely how to teach a language. Methods are more specific than approaches.

Technique is a classroom device or activity and thus represents the narrowest term of the three concepts.

A) Grammar Translation Approach (extension)

1.           Instruction is given in native language

2.           Little use of target language

3.           Focus on grammar (the form and inflection of words)

4.           Early reading of difficult texts

5.           Translation from target language into mother tongue

6.           There may be inability to use language for communication

7.           Teacher doesn’t have to be able to speak the target language

B) Direct Approach : a reaction to GMT. and its failure of communication

1.           No use of mother tongue

2.           Lesson begins with dialogs and anecdotes in modern conversational style

3.           Literary works are read for pleasure and there is no grammatical analyse

4.           The target culture is also read inductively

5.           Actions and pictures are used for meaning

6.           Grammar is learned inductively (tümevarımsal)

7.           Teacher must be native speaker or have native like proficiency

C) Reading Approach : a reaction to impracticality of direct approach

1.           Grammar useful for reading comprehension is taught

2.           Vocabulary is controlled first, then expanded

3.           Translation is intensive

4.           Reading is the only language skill emphasized

5.           Teacher doesn’t need to have oral profciency

D) Audiolingualism (a reaction to the lack of oral aural (sözel işitsel) skills in reading approach. It is like Direct Approach but adds from structural linguistics and behavioral psychology)

1.           Lessons begin with dialogs

2.           Mimicry and memorization for habit formation

3.           Grammatiacal structures are sequenced and rule are taught inductively

4.           Skills are sequenced (listen, speak, read, writing postponed)

5.           Pronunciation (telaffuz) at the beginning

6.           Vocabulary is limited at the beginning

7.           Preventing from learner errors

8.           Language use without regard tocontext meaning

9.           Teacher must be proficient in thr structures, vocabulary

E) Situational Approach (a reaction to the lack of oral aural skills in Reading Approach. It draws much from direct Approach but adds from Firthian (İskoç) Linguistics and language pedagogy))

1.           Spoken language is primary

2.           Language is practiced orally. After an oral base in lexical and grammatical forms reading and writing comes.

3.           Target language should be used

4.           Most general and useful lexical items are to be ensured.

5.           Grammatical structures are graded from simple to difficult

6.           Lexical and grammatical items should be given in situations (i.e. at the bank, etc.)

F) Cognitive Approach (a reaction to behaviorist features of Audiolingual Approach)

1.           Rule acquisition not habit formation

2.           Individualized instruction

3.           Grammar must be taught but it can be both deductively (rules first practice later) and inductively (rules after practice)

4.           Pronunciation isn emphasized a little

5.           Read and write as well as listen and speak

6.           Vocabulary instruction is important especially in intermadiate and advanced levels

7.           Errors are inevitable and useful for learning

8.           Teacher must have general proficiency and analyzing ability of target language

G) Affective Humanistic Approach (a reaction to the lack of affective considerations of Audiolingua-lism and Cognitive code)

1.           Individual feelings of each student and teacher

2.           Meaningful communication

3.           Instruction in pairs and small groups

4.           Class atmosphere is more important than materials or methods

5.           Peer support and interaction

6.           Learning a foreign language is a self realization

7.           Teacher is counsellor or facilitator

8.           Teacher must be proficient both in target and student’s native language since translation may be used for student’s good feeling

H) Comprehension Based Approach (a researh of foreign language learning is like first language acquisition)

1.           Listening comprehension is very important. It develops speaking, reading and writing.

2.           Listening meaninful speech and respond nonverbally

3.           Not speaking until being ready

4.           Meaningful input

5.           Error correction is unnecessary, understanding is most important

6.           Teacher must be native (or near native) sapeker. If not audiotapes or videotapes.

I) Communicative (konuşkan) Approach (Anthropologic and Firthian linguistics )

1.           The goal is learner ability to communicate

2.           Content of language not just linguistic structures but semantic nations and social functions

3.           To transfer meaning work in pairs and groups

4.           Adjusting the use of target language in different social contexts by role plays and dramatizations

5.           Authentic materials

6.           All skills from the beginning for learners are edicated and literate

7.           Teacher primarily faciliate the communication secondarily correct errors

8.           Teacher uses the target language fluently and appropriately

Cognitive Approach: language is rule governed cognitive behaviour (not habit formation)

Affective Humanistic Approach: language learning is a process of self realization and relating to other people

Comprehension Approah: language acquisition appears when learner comprehends meaninful input

Communicative Approach: purpose of language is communication 

Understanding the concepts of APPROACH, METHOD and TECHNIQUE

Approach is general (e.g. Cognitive), Method is a specific set of procedures more or less compatible with an approach (e.g. Silant Way), Technique is a very specific type of learning activity used in one or more methods (e.g. using rods).  

Grammar Translation Approach,

Direct Approach

Audiolingual Approach         Structual syllabus (organized courses, teaching

Cognitive Approach             materials around grammar)        

Some methods following Comprehension Approach 

Reading Approach              →  Text based syllabus (around texts and

                                                    vocabulary items minor grammar)

Situational Approach          → Dual objective syllabus (around various  

                                                   situation with structure and vocabulary)

Communicative Approach → communicative syllabus (around notions like            

                                                 location, agei degree and functions like asking           

                                                   for information)

Affective Hum. Approach  →     Learner Generated syllabus (learner decide

                                                what to learn, what to do)
 

Behaviorism

What is Behaviorism?

·              School of thought popular in psychology and related fields in the 1930’s-1950’s

·                Holds that objectively observable behavior is the only acceptable means of data analysis

·               Emphasizes the role of environment in learning and development (nurture)

·               Learning consists of habits constructed through stimulus-response associations

Who is Bloomfield?

·                  1887-1949

·                  “Father of American Linguistics”—descriptive tradition, structuralist, behaviorist

·                    Trained as IEist, but went on to Tagalog and Algonquian languages

Passage from Language (1933), 22-26

A.             A.    Practical events preceding the act of speech

B.             B.    Speech

C.             C.    Practical events following the act of speech

S                             R                          (speechless reaction)

S                  r . . . . . . s                   R  (reaction mediated by speech)

What elements of Behaviorism did you find in the Bloomfield passage?

·                   Speech is the practical reaction (response) to some stimulus

·                   Object of study: observable events (behavior)

Language learning seen setting up stimulusàresponse pairs, a.k.a. habits

·                   Babbling sets up stimulusàresponse pairs: you make certain movements with your mouth and hear certain sounds

·              “Imitation” is just a response to the aural stimulus

 Association of vocal patterns and objects also stimulusàresponse pairs

·                   Adult emotion of “asking or wanting” a more advanced stimulusàresponse pairs

·                In addition, Bloomfield claimed that child receives reinforcement for more correct vocal/object pairs

Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

Based in behaviorist thinking:

·                 SLA seen as the development of a new set of habits

·                 Positive vs. Negative transfer (of habits)

Main tenants of CAH (strong version):

·                 Main source of errors in L2 due to transfer of L1 habits

·                  Errors can be predicted by a contrastive analysis of the L1 and L2

·                 The greater the difference between L1 and L2, the more errors that will occur

Problems with CAH:

·                  Errors occur that are not due to L1 (

·                 Errors don’t occur when they are predicted (see exs (3-10)-(3-12))

·                  Problems operationalizing the contrastive analysis—how do you measure “difference” and “distance”

·                  Paradigm shift from behaviorist to mentalist views in psychology and linguistics

o                     Errors in child language part of rule formation and not part of child’s linguistic environment

o                     Imitation and reinforcement/correction don’t seem to be important to language acquisition

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English phonology is the study of the phonology (i.e. the sound system) of the English language. Like all languages, spoken English has wide variation in its pronunciation both diachronically and synchronically from dialect to dialect. This variation is especially salient in English, because the language is spoken over such a wide territory, being the predominant language in Australia, Canada, the Commonwealth Caribbean, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States in addition to being spoken as a first or second language by people in countries on every continent, and notably in South Africa and India. In general the regional dialects of English are mutually intelligible.
Although there are many dialects of English, the following are usually used as prestige or standard accents: Received Pronunciation for the United Kingdom, General American for the United States and General Australian for Australia.

Contents

• 1 Phonemes
• 1.1 Consonants
• 1.2 Vowels
• 1.3 Transcription variants
• 2 Distribution of allophones
• 3 Phonotactics
• 3.1 Syllable structure
• 3.1.1 Onset
• 3.1.2 Nucleus
• 3.1.3 Coda
• 3.2 Syllable-level rules
• 3.3 Word-level rules
• 4 Stress
• 5 Intonation
• 6 History of English pronunciation
• 6.1 æ-tensing
• 6.2 Bad-lad split
• 6.3 Cot-caught merger
• 6.4 Father-bother merger
• 7 See also
• 8 References
• 9 Bibliography
• 10 External links

Phonemes

See IPA chart for English for concise charts of the English phonemes.

The number of speech sounds in English varies from dialect to dialect, and any actual tally depends greatly on the interpretation of the researcher doing the counting. The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary by John C. Wells, for example, using symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet, denotes 24 consonants and 23 vowels used in Received Pronunciation, plus two additional consonants and four additional vowels used in foreign words only. For General American it provides for 25 consonants and 19 vowels, with one additional consonant and three additional vowels for foreign words. The American Heritage Dictionary, on the other hand, suggests 25 consonants and 18 vowels (including r-colored vowels) for American English, plus one consonant and five vowels for non-English terms [1].