Class I 

Language Theories 
It is a fact that a language teacher plans her/ his classes on theoretical foundations. 
In spite of the fact that a teacher resorts to many theories , which delve into different 
fields of knowledge, in this class we are going to discuss which theories of language 
may underpin the strategies a teacher applies. 

Why is it important to analyse this issue related to theories of language? Because 

the teacher should define the object of study before teaching it. The way she / he 
defines it reflects her/ his view of knowledge , thus language. In previous years , we 
saw an introduction to the theories of language and the theories of learning. This 
was in second year. In third year, we set the focus on the theories that are basically 
interested in definining language from a purely linguistic aspect and the theories that 
are interested in making of language a cognitive phenomenon. If a teacher adheres 
to a purely linguistic view, her/ his teaching will reflect so. On the other hand, if a 
teacher believes that language is a cognitive skill, she/ he will teach accordingly. 
Neither theory is better than the other, though; they are just different and a teacher 
may even change the language view because of the school context. What a teacher 
should never do is to teach English "just because " or to teach it "in the way ​she/ he 
was taught". It is important a teacher know the reasons why she/ he is teaching 
English in the way she/ he does since this action should not be taken as something " 
natural" or "inhereted". 

This year we are going to see new theories of language. These theories do not 
bebunk the linguistic and the cognitive theories but add more aspects to these 
features. We are setting the focus on teenagers this year which makes us get into 
new sides of the same object: language. The teenage student has characteristics 
that will enable us to add more aspects to the already known ones for she / he has 
already developed some linguistic knowledge of English (L2) and she / he can go 
deeper into these from new perspectives.  

To start debating about these new language features, you need to read this 
document: 

Class_I__Activity.docx  

  

Then, you should get in pairs and in this forum you shoud post your the answer to 
the activity: 
About language  

  

If you have any doubts, ​Doubts  

Read you soon!!