Division of Taguig and Pateros

TAGUIG CITY UNIVERSITY Gen. Santos Ave., Central Bicutan, 01632 Taguig City

Written Report

Theories of Second
Language Acquisition

Group 3
Ibut, Aira
Intervencion Jessabelle
Llagas, Noime
Malinao, Jessa Mae
Maningo, Ruth
Mendoza, Mikaela Marie
Nini, Ma. Lyka
Oplas, Rosandy
 Division of Taguig and Pateros
TAGUIG CITY UNIVERSITY Gen. Santos Ave., Central Bicutan, 01632 Taguig City

Second Language Acquisition Theories 

 Behind every teaching approach is some kind of a theory of language learning/acquisition  Second
language acquisition theories are intrinsically related to a wide variety of disciplines such as applied
linguistics, sociolinguistics, psychology, neurology, and education.  Various theories and models
have emerged over the years to study the process of language acquisition.

The theory is important because as early as the 1980s, it was influencing all research
into how a second language is acquired.

It is also a theory that seeks to quantify how and by what processes individuals acquire
a second language. The predominant theory of second language acquisition was
developed by the University of Southern California’s Steven Krashen.
Steven Krashen is a specialist in language development and acquisition, and his
influential theory is widely accepted in the language learning community.

Behaviorist learning Theory of Second Language

 It was originated in 20th century (1990's) and based upon the research of Ivan Pavlov, B.F.
Skinner and Jerome Bruner.

 The behaviorist learning theory says second language learners learn from repeated practice
and being rewarded for correct answers

 For the student to acquire the second language, the teacher must use reinforcement (a
positive reward) after the student has produced the second language

 Activities are based upon repeating to form habit

Examples include memorization, chain drill, single slot substitution drill and transformation drill

 The closer the first language is to the second language, the more successful the learner will be
The more practice or repeating, the more success the student will have in the second language

Strategies to use for students

 Reward for student when they are correct

 Encourage students who are incorrect top practicing
 Smile while correcting to assure that you believe that are working towards the goal
 Reassure students that even you as an educator still make mistakes
 Reassure students that they will understand with more practices

 Behaviorist theory that  was proposed for explaining first and  2nd language acquisition
the behavior theory is  based on the idea that humans learn by  imitating ,practicing ,reinforcing,
and forming habits,
 Division of Taguig and Pateros
TAGUIG CITY UNIVERSITY Gen. Santos Ave., Central Bicutan, 01632 Taguig City

The behaviorist theory holds that learning is the result of three elements namely:
-the result of an event (stimulus)
-the reaction to that event(response)
-the consequence for that response 

Operant conditioning.

- According to this theory, if a reward or reinforcement follows the response to a stimulus, then
the response will become more likely in the future.

for example:
a student is behaving in a classroom  the way you want them to behave , sitting quietly listening
and reading  and you the teacher say , I see that child she's sitting quietly and  silently reading
and say well done  well done your behave

Behaviorism

What is Behaviorism? 

Behaviorism - also known as behavioral psychology,

 is a systematic approach that seeks  to understand the behavior of humans and other animals.
-are all learned behaviors that can be learned and unlearned
*It is a learning theory that only focuses on observable behaviours and discounts any
independent activities of the mind.  
-its important to acknowledge that these theories were carried out and  developed through
experiment with animals however the  learning process was hypothesized to be the same for
humans.

behaviorist psychology is based on animals study like PAVLOV famous   DOGS experiment 

-PAVLOV DOGS

It was Ivan Pavlov who investigated classical conditioning with his experiment using dogs: he
rang a bell every time he fed the dogs, teaching them to associate the sound of the bell with
food. As a result the dogs salivated every time the bell rang, whether there was food or not.
Thus Pavlov discovered a process in which a previously neutral stimulus came to provoke a
specific response by being repeatedly paired with another stimulus that evoked the response.

-This method of dog training has been applied to teaching in general; this few has informed 
psychologist  understanding of human  learning and human behavior .

Role of Behavioral psychology in second Language Acquisition

 Teacher have a lot of idea about how 2nd language acquisition was acquired some of
those are ideas based on their intuition , something that languages are acquired through
 Division of Taguig and Pateros
TAGUIG CITY UNIVERSITY Gen. Santos Ave., Central Bicutan, 01632 Taguig City

imitation  the teacher says a word or a phrase and the students repeats that all until 
they learn correctly, in other words the students imitates the teachers behaviors. The
teacher gives positive reinforcement to when the student repeats it correctly the positive
reinforcement can be in the form of a smile,  approval or phrase like saying good job, or
the teacher gives the correction  and the student changes the  behavior the teacher now
reinforces the  correct behavior. A teacher who thinks of this use of  language
acquisition  as acquiring  a series of correct behavior through conditioning .

 This view of second language acquisition is a behaviorist view 

 The behaviorist view of 2nd language  acquisition in rooted in behaviors psychology in

general

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION APPLICATION TO BEHAVIORISM :

-behaviorism made a huge impact on  2nd and foreign language teaching  during the   1940s
and 1970s in north America

-Nelson brooks and Robert lado developed Audiolingual materials .

created a Mimicry and memorization of  dialogues and sentence partners where the most 
common activities in  second language  instruction.

-By the 1970 many researchers were convinced that behaviorism was inadequate for explaining
2nd language acquisition.

-In the 50s and 60s it became popular to apply behaviorism to all types of learning, including
language learning,
-2 psychological ,most known  by applying behavioral psychology to learning especially 
language learning  are watson and skinner  
These applications on behavioral psychology to language learning eventually lead to behaviorist
theory of 2nd language acquisition t.
- The most well-known teaching method that emerged from behaviorism was audiolingualism,
where repetitions and drills formed the basis of learning with the aim of habit formation.

Audiolingualism was widely introduced in schools across the U.S. and reached its peak in the
1960s. But, since the learning method did not achieve the desired results (for example, students
were unable to transfer the learned language skills to a real communication situation), it lost its
popularity quite quickly.
-In the late 60s the American linguistic theory began to take a different direction. Part of the
reason for this change was Chomsky’s rejection of the behaviorist theory of language learning.
Chomsky said that language is not a habit structure, and argued that much of human language
is not imitated behavior, “but is created from new underlying knowledge of abstract rules.”
 Division of Taguig and Pateros
TAGUIG CITY UNIVERSITY Gen. Santos Ave., Central Bicutan, 01632 Taguig City

Sociocultural theory
 Sociocultural theory is a theory of human development based on the work of Russian
psychologist, Lev Yygotsky (1895-1934)
 Vygotsky theorised that learning including second language acquisition (SLA), depends
on other humans.
 "Human thinking is mediated by cultural organizer and transmitted symbolic meaning"
(Lantolf, 2012,p.78)
 Humans use physical and symbolic tools, which we learn from other people, to form our
consciousness and interact with the world.
 Language is one of the tools we use to mediate with ourselves and the world
 ZPD: The Zone of Proximal Development
 Language learning happens when you work with others to build on your existing
knowledge, and stretch just a little further than you can go on your own.
 Applications of sociocultural Theory in SLA, Mind and body Combined
 Language doesn't just happen in the mind it happens in the real world and includes
symbolic gestures (and tools like computers!)
 Theory and practice combined (praxis)
 Vygotsky (1987) argues that theory and practice must happen together in the actual
classroom.
 "The worry of whether or not theory/research applies to teaching is mitigated by the
very nature of praxis itself..."
 Teaching and assessment combined (Dynamic Assessment)
 Teachers must assess while teaching, because students are constantly learning and
changing their ZPD...
 and if students are constantly learning, then not teaching during assessments is a waste
of an opportunity for instruction
 Sociocultural Theory doesn't scale very well. Each student has a different, constantly
changing ZPD causing "a great deal of time and effort on the part of the
mediator/teacher to support [...] individual learners"
 SLA theories (Complexity Theory, Identity Theory, Sociocognitive Approach) respond to
and adapt Vygotsky's work.
 A very influential theory in the classroom, often seen with the practice of scaffolding
Provides a theoretical basis for peer collaboration and tutoring Provides a theoretical
basis for peer collaboration and tutoring Sociocultural Theory and Secondary
Language Acquisition You, Me, and the ZPD

CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY

• Constructivism theory is the response to the behaviorism theory (asia e university, 2012:106).

 Division of Taguig and Pateros
TAGUIG CITY UNIVERSITY Gen. Santos Ave., Central Bicutan, 01632 Taguig City

•  It means that the role of constructivism theory is in the opposite of behaviorism. The students’
role is to construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing
things and reflecting on those experiences. 

• Students construct the meaning of certain thing by assimilating and accommodating through
their own experience.

• The other function of constructivism theory is it can create problem solving, if the students find
problem, they can discuss with other friends to get the solution. That is the point of view about
constructivism theory. 

• Constructivism is a theory of how learning occurs (Henson, 1996 in asia e university, 2012:143).
It means that this theory determines how learning happens. It is one of the useful learning in
which it determines the lives of learners; try to look for their own understanding about
something that they are curious to know.

Boris &Tombari (1996) in asiaeuniversity (2012:144) stated that constructivism is an approach to

learning in which learners are provided the opportunity  to construct their own sense of what is being
learned by building internal connection or relationship among ideas and facts being taught. 

According to Cheeks (1992) in asiaeuniversity (2012:145) humans are not passive information receiver.
Humans are active information receivers. They build network of information with their previous
information and they assimilate or accommodate new knowledge with the prior information in order to
build their own understanding of new information.

 Types of Constructivism  Types of Constructivism

    Constructivism is a theory of learning to help the learners to construct something based on their own
understanding by assimilating prior knowledge and new ones. According to Kanselaar (2002) there are
two major constructivist perspectives. They are Jean Piaget from Swiss and Lev Vygotsky from Russia

• 1.Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Cognitive Constructivism as individual perspective

•    Piaget is a Swiss psychologist who describes knowledge development from a holistic and
cognitive perspective, emphasizing that there are many channels that are used to construct
understanding e.g reading, listening, exploring, and experiencing (Savery & Duffy,1995).

Examples:

In Piaget theory, Assimilating meaning old experience plus new experience is equals to new
outlook of knowldge.

Accomodation is reframing the world and new experiences into the mental capacity or
depressive it means we must accomodate an different expectation with new outcome.

When it comes to this theory teachers role is important they should not be a lecturer but rather
a facilitators whose role is to aid the student when it comes to their own understanding.

2. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) Social Cultural Constructivism (socio-constructivist perspective

 Division of Taguig and Pateros
TAGUIG CITY UNIVERSITY Gen. Santos Ave., Central Bicutan, 01632 Taguig City

 Vygotsky is a Russian psychologist who introduces the constructivism through socio-

constructivist perspective. In this case, the theory of Vygotsky emphasized in the learning based
on context through the interaction with others. According to Safery & Duffy (1995) constructing
understanding through interaction with others in social environments in which knowledge is to
be applied.

Examples: Vygotsky rejected Piaget’s theory that children develop independently of

specific stages as the result of social interactions.

Attention

Sensation

Perception

Memory

•This development happens in the zone of proximal development.

3. Bruner  (Constructivist theory)

• In this case, Jerome Bruner, one of the psychologists of constructivism who supports the
cognitive constructivism based on Piaget. It means that Bruner also has the same thinking about
individual constructivism that it focuses on how the individual process occurs and it relates new
information to information already in the mind.

•  The theoretical framework of Bruner is that learning is an active process in which learners
construct new ideas or concept based on their current or past knowledge.

• In this case, Jerome Bruner, one of the psychologists of constructivism who supports the
cognitive constructivism based on Piaget. It means that Bruner also has the same thinking about
individual constructivism that it focuses on how the individual process occurs and it relates new
information to information already in the mind.

•  The theoretical framework of Bruner is that learning is an active process in which learners
construct new ideas or concept based on their current or past knowledge.

INNATIST COGNITIVE APPOACH

The innatist theory is mainly concerned with first language acquisition. It asserts that human
have access to the knowledge that is processed innately. One of its main pioneers is Naom Chomsky.
Chomsky hypothesizes that infants must be born with some special built-in ability to learn language.

Meaning to say, innatist theory is natural for human being. In other words, it is inborn device.
THE INNATIST THEORY Meaning to say,

innatist theory is natural for human being. In other words, it is inborn device.language
acquisition as an innate capacity, where a child's brain contains special language learning devices at
birth. This means that when a child is born, he/she has the ability to learn any languages.
 Division of Taguig and Pateros
TAGUIG CITY UNIVERSITY Gen. Santos Ave., Central Bicutan, 01632 Taguig City