REFLECTION -4) ISSUES IN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION &

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

In our lesson we talked about competence & performance, comprehension &

production, nature & nurture, systematicity & variability, language & thought
and the differences between them,and also universals and imitation.

Competence is the nonobservable ability to do something,to perform something

while performance is the observable and concrete manifestation or realization of
competence. While learning, children do not know the rules, they just do it.
They have not developed abstract things as yet. They are more concerned with
performance. They do not care about competence.Chidren seem to undersand
more than they actually produce. Comprehension (listening,reading) can be
equated with competence, while production (speaking,writing) is performance.
While children acquiring language, they are affected both from birth that is
nature, and from the environment that is nurture. Universals include common
things in first and second language acquisition. Rules and repeated patterns are
important while teaching students. No matter how much systematic the rules are
there can be some difference like the different sides of the same coin. We talked
about language and thought and we learnt that language affects cognition and
cognition affects language. But these are just hypothesis so we don’t know for
sure if they are true or not.

According to educational psychology every student has the potential to be

succesful. They can find their own way by the help of their teachers. So teachers
should share the authority with others. The succesful educator is the one who
understand the complexities of the teaching /learning process. And also we
talked about the Positivist School,Behaviorism and Skinner.