Hello, everyone,
welcome to my lecture.
I am from Teachers’ College of Beijing
Union University.
Today we are going to discuss views on language
and language learning.
Now let’s come to the objective of this part.
Upon completion of this part,
you should be able to know about
three different views on language
and he views on language learning.
Now,first
let’s come to the three different views
on language.
What are the three different views on language?
In the past century,
language teaching and learning practices
have been influenced by
three different views on language,
the structural view,
the functional view and the interactional view.
Different views on language generate different
teaching methodologies.
Now let's come to the Structural View:
It sees language as a linguistic system consisting
of syntax (sentence structure),
phonology (sound system),
and lexicon (vocabulary).
Each language
has a finite number of such structural items.
To learn a language means to learn
these structural items to be able to
understand and produce language.
Now let's come to the Functional View:
The functional view on language attaches
importance to the semantic and
communicative dimension instead of
emphasizing merely the grammaticalfeatures of language.
It is for learners to know
how to use the language to perform functions.
Most of our day-to-day language use
involves functional activities:
offering,
suggesting,
advising,
apologizing, etc.
Therefore,
learners learn a language in
order to do things with it.
To perform functions,
learners need to know
how to combine the grammatical rules
and the vocabulary to express notions that
perform the functions.
When setting teaching objectives,
designing teaching activities,
or deciding on teaching materials,
eachers who approach language from the
functional perspective will focus much on
presenting the communicative functions of
language
and developing learners’
communicative competence.
Now let's come to the Interactional View:
It considers language as a communicative tool;
whose main use is to build up
and maintain social relations between people.
Therefore,
learners not only need to know the grammar and
vocabulary of the language,
but also need to know the rules for using them in
a whole range of communicative context.
The interactional dimension is also used in the
teaching of language skills including listening,
speaking,
reading,
and writing.
For example,
teachers can adopt an interactive approach by
combining both top-down and bottom-up processing
to the teaching of reading and listening.
The understanding of the nature of language
may provide the basis for a particular teaching method,
and it is also closely related to the
understanding of language learning.
If language is considered to have a finite number of
structural items,
learning the language means learning these items.
If language is more than just a system of structure,
it is more importantly a tool,
then to learn the language means to use it,
rather than just to study what it is and how it is formed.
Now let’s talk about views on language learning.
What are the views on language learning?
Different views on language lead to different views
on language teaching and learning.
Behaviorist Theory
Behaviorist theory states that
human and animal behavior
can and should be studied only in terms of
physical processes, without reference to mind.
It led to theories of learning
which explained
how an external event (a stimulus) caused a change
in the behavior of an individual (a response),
Behaviorist psychologist Skinner suggested that
language is also a form of behavior.
It can be learned the same way as an animal is
trained to respond to stimuli.
The key point of the theory of conditioning is that
you can train an animal to do anything
if you follow a certain procedure
which has three major stages,
stimulus,
response,
and reinforcement.
One influential result is the audio-lingual method,
which involves the
“listen and repeat”
drilling activities.
The idea of this method is that
language is learned by constant repetition and
the reinforcement of the teacher.
Mistakes are immediately corrected,
and correct utterances are immediately praised.
Now let's come to the Cognitive Theory
The term cognitivism is often used to
describe method in which students are asked to
think rather than simply repeat.
It is Noam Chomsky’ theory.
The key point of Chomsky’s theory is reflected in
his most famous question:
If all language is a learned behavior,
how can a child produce a sentence that
has never been said by others before?
According to Chomsky’s theory,
language is not a form of behavior,
it is an intricate rule-based system and a large part
of language acquisition is the learning of
this system.
There are a finite number of
grammatical rules in the system
and with a knowledge of these rules
an infinite number of sentences can be produced.
A language learner acquires language competence
which enables him to produce language.
One influential idea of this theory is that
students should be allowed to create their own
sentences based on their understanding of
certain rules.
Constructivist Theory
Constructivist theory is a social and
educational philosophy based on the beliefs that
knowledge is actively constructed by learners
and not passively received,
cognition is an
adaptive process that organizes the learner’s
experiential world,
and all knowledge is socially constructed.
Learning is seen as involving reorganization
and reconstruction
and it is through these processes
that people internalize knowledge
and perceive the world.
In language teaching,
constructivism has led to
a focus on learning strategies,
learner beliefs,
teacher thinking and other aspects of
learning which stress the individual
and personal contributions of learners to learning.
A constructivist view of teaching involves teachers
in making their own sense of their classrooms
and taking on the role of a reflective practitioner.
Social-constructivist
theorist Vygotsky
emphasizes interaction
and engagement with the target language
in a social context based on the concept of
“Zone of Proximal Development”
(ZPD and scaffolding.
In other words,
leaning is best achieved
through the dynamic interaction
between the teacher and
the learner and between learners.
With the teacher’s scaffolding
trough questions and explanations,
or with a more capable peers’ support,
the learner can move to a higher level of
understanding and extend his / her skills
and knowledge to the fullest potential.
Now,
let’s give a summary of this part.
In this part,
we have discussed three different views on language,
namely structural view,
functional view and interactional view.
And we have also discussed views on
language learning
such as
behaviorist theory
and cognitive theory,
and constructivist theory.
In our next part we will discuss principles of English language teaching.
See you next time.