Didactics of Language Universidade Pedagogica Beira

MODULE
Didactics of Languages
Distance Educaction
Universidade Pedagógica
Rua Comandante Augusto Cardoso n˚ 135
Copyright
This Module cannot be printed for commercial purposes. In case of photocopying, reference should be
made to Universidade Pedagógica and to the Authors of the module.
Universidade Pedagógica
Rua Comandante Augusto Cardoso, nº 135

Telefone: 21-320860/2
Telefone: 21 – 306720
Fax: +258 21-322113

Acknowledgements
To COMMONWEALTH of LEARNING (COL) for providing the Template used for the productions
designing the modules
To Instituto Nacional de Educação a Distância (INED) for the support and guidance provided
To Magnificent Rector, Dean of Faculty, Heads of Department for support provided during whole
process.
Technical Assistance
Author: Lopés Nazaré
Instructional Designing: Andrea Serra
Language Review: Trindade Nahara
Graphic Designing: Fátima Alberto Nhantumbo
Edition: Anilda Ibrahimo Khan

Contents
About this Module 1
How this Module is structured.......................................................................................... 1
Course overview 3
Welcome to Didactics of Language Module .................................................................... 3
Didactics of Language Module -is this course for you? ................................................... 3
Course outcomes............................................................................................................... 4
Timeframe......................................................................................................................... 4
Study skills........................................................................................................................ 5
Need help? ........................................................................................................................ 6
Assignments...................................................................................................................... 6
Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 7
Getting around this MODULE 8

Margin icons ..................................................................................................................... 8
Unit 1 9
First Language Acquisition............................................................................................... 9
Introduction ............................................................................................................. 9
Lesson 1: Introduction into First Language Acquisition....................................... 10
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 12
Lesson 2: Early Childhood Bilingualism .............................................................. 14
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 16
Lesson 3: Behaviourism in First Language Acquisition ....................................... 17
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 20
Lesson 4: Innatism Position in First Language Learning...................................... 21
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 25
Lesson 2: The Biological Basis for the Innatist Position ...................................... 27
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 30
Lesson 6: The Interactionist Position on First Language Acquisition .................. 31
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 34
Unit summary ................................................................................................................. 35
Unit 2 36
Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language Learning .............................. 36
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 36
Lesson 1: Second Language Learning and Learners Factors ................................ 37
Activity feedback............................................................................................................ 41
Lesson 2: Behaviourism Position in Second Language Learning......................... 43
ii Contents
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 44
Lesson 3: Innatism Position in Second Language Learning ................................. 46
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 48
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 51
Lesson 4: Recent Psychological Theories ............................................................. 53
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 55
Lesson 5: The Interactionist Position .................................................................... 57
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 60
Unit summary ................................................................................................................. 61
Assignment ..................................................................................................................... 62
Assessment...................................................................................................................... 62
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 63
Unit 3 66
Factors affecting second language learners .................................................................... 66
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 66
Lesson 1: 3 Factors affecting second language learners ....................................... 67
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 69
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 71
Lesson 2:................................................................................................................ 73
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 74
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 76
Lesson 3:................................................................................................................ 77
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 78
Lesson 4:................................................................................................................ 79
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 81
Lesson 5:................................................................................................................ 82
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 84
Lesson 6:................................................................................................................ 85
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 89
Unit summary ................................................................................................................. 90
Assessment...................................................................................................................... 91
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 91
Unit 4 93
Factors affecting second language learners .................................................................... 93
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 93
Lesson 1: Grammar translation method ............................................................... 94
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 99
Lesson 2: The Direct Method............................................................................... 99
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 99
Feedback ....................................................................................................................... 103
Lesson 3: The Audio-Lingual Method ............................................................... 104
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 104
Feedback ....................................................................................................................... 109
Lesson 4: The Total Physical Response Method................................................. 110
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 110
Feedback ....................................................................................................................... 114
Lesson 5: The Communicative Approach ........................................................... 114
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 115
Feedback ....................................................................................................................... 119
Unit summary ............................................................................................................... 119
Didactics of languages
About this Module

Didactics of language method has been produced by Universidade
Pedagógica. All Modules produced by Universidade Pedagógica are
structured in the same way, as outlined below.
How this Module is structured

The course overview
The course overview gives you a general introduction to the course.
Information contained in the course overview will help you determine:
If the course is suitable for you.
What you will already need to know.
What you can expect from the course.
How much time you will need to invest to complete the course.
The overview also provides guidance on:
Study skills.
Where to get help.
Course assignments and assessments.
Activity icons.
Units.
We strongly recommend that you read the overview carefully before

starting your study.
The course content

The course is broken down into units. Each unit comprises:
An introduction to the unit content.
Unit outcomes.
1
About this Module
New terminology.
Core content of the unit with a variety of learning activities.
A unit summary.
Assignments and/or assessments, as applicable.
Resources
For those interested in learning more on this subject, we provide you with
a list of additional resources at the end of this MODULE; these may be
books, articles or web sites.
Your comments
After completing Distance Educaction we would appreciate it if you
would take a few moments to give us your feedback on any aspect of this
course. Your feedback might include comments on:
Course content and structure.
Course reading materials and resources.
Course assignments.
Course assessments.
Course duration.
Course support (assigned tutors, technical help, etc.)
Your constructive feedback will help us to improve and enhance this

course.
2
Course overview
Welcome to Didactics of
Language Module
Welcome to Didactics of Languages Module. You will see that this
module is divided into four units. You should see this handbook as the
main reading to help you to answer the questions in the tests and
assignments. I suggest you begin your studies with an overall skim
reading of the handbook.
Didactics of Language Module -is

this course for you?
This course is designed to address the needs of people who are working
in the field of ELT with no prior training and with no possibility of doing
so on a class based course. This means that, wherever necessary,
instructions are given clearly so you know what to do although there is no
teacher to ask. The course gives you an opportunity to practise many of
the skills you will need in order to study a subject in English. It does not
contain traditional language exercises. Make sure you have a good
dictionary and a good grammar book to refer to when existing knowledge
is not enough.
You should be an upper- intermediate (the level of the Cambridge First

Certificate in English) user of English and need either to learn the skills
of study or to learn how to use familiar skills in the unfamiliar medium of
English to handle the material in this module satisfactorily.
3
Course overview
Course outcomes
Upon completion of Didactics of Languages Module you will be able to:
provide overall accounts of the historical developments of English

language teaching;.
explain the difference between first and second language acquisition;.

Outcomes
describe the factors that affect second language learners;
explain the characteristics of various teaching methods and

approaches;
identify approaches being followed by teachers in lessons being

observed.
Timeframe
Each unit will depend on your own speed and how well you are
organised.
You should spend at least 2 hours a day to read each lesson.

How long? You should take at least two hours on self-study.
4
Study skills
As an adult learner your approach to learning will be different to that
from your school days: you will choose what you want to study, you will
have professional and/or personal motivation for doing so and you will
most likely be fitting your study activities around other professional or
domestic responsibilities.
Study skills
Essentially you will be taking control of your learning environment. As a
consequence, you will need to consider performance issues related to
time management, goal setting, stress management, etc. Perhaps you will
also need to reacquaint yourself in areas such as essay planning, coping
with exams and using the web as a learning resource.
Your most significant considerations will be time and space i.e. the time
you dedicate to your learning and the environment in which you engage
in that learning.
We recommend that you take time now—before starting your self-

study—to familiarize yourself with these issues. There are a number of
excellent resources on the web. A few suggested links are:
http://www.how-to-study.com/
The “How to study” web site is dedicated to study skills resources.
You will find links to study preparation (a list of nine essentials for a
good study place), taking notes, strategies for reading text books,
using reference sources, test anxiety.
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html
This is the web site of the Virginia Tech, Division of Student Affairs.
You will find links to time scheduling (including a “where does time
go?” link), a study skill checklist, basic concentration techniques,
control of the study environment, note taking, how to read essays for
analysis, memory skills (“remembering”).
http://www.howtostudy.org/resources.php
Another “How to study” web site with useful links to time
management, efficient reading, questioning/listening/observing skills,
getting the most out of doing (“hands-on” learning), memory building,
tips for staying motivated, developing a learning plan.
The above links are our suggestions to start you on your way. At the time
of writing these web links were active. If you want to look for more go to
www.google.com and type “self-study basics”, “self-study tips”, “self-
study skills” or similar.
5
Course overview
Need help?
In case of difficulties, please contact the following:
In Maputo:
Help Universidade Pedagógica - Centro de Educação Aberta e à Distância

(CEAD)
Faculty of Languages: English Department
Rua: Comandante Augusto Cardoso no. 135 Maputo
Telephone: 21 420860-2 or 21 306720
Monday to Friday: 8:00 to 12:00
Email: f:linguas@yahoo.com.br
In the provinces:
In each province there is a resource centre available and a local Provincial

English Advisor to help you.
Assignments
Throughout each unit, you will have to carry out a number of activities
that will help you consolidate the matters reviewed.
We recommend that you go through all exercises indicated without

Assignments immediately resorting to the key answers/correction guide.
6
Assessments
A minimum of four (4) tests should be written in this course; two (2) tests
each semester. A Final Exam will take place at the end of the academic
year.
Assessments
Throughout each lesson in every unit you will have to do exercises or

activities to check your progress. Make sure that you resolve all exercises
and activities without immediately resorting to the answers key. If you do
start by the answers key before doing the exercises/activities you will be
fooling yourself!
7
Getting around this MODULE
Getting around this MODULE
Margin icons
While working through this MODULE you will notice the frequent use of
margin icons. These icons serve to “signpost” a particular piece of text, a
new task or change in activity; they have been included to help you to
find your way around this MODULE.
A complete icon set is shown below. We suggest that you familiarize

yourself with the icons and their meaning before starting your study.
Activity Assessment Assignment Case study
Discussion Group activity Help Note it!
Outcomes Reading Reflection Study skills
Summary Terminology Time Tip
8
Unit 1
First Language Acquisition
Introduction
This unit is designed to provide you with a more critical awareness of the
issues underlying the theories of first language acquisition.
Upon completion of this unit you should have:
explain the milestones and patterns in language development;
describe the main characteristics of early childhood bilingualism;
provide short accounts of developmental sequences in language

Outcomes
acquisition;
analyse the theoretical approaches to explaining first language learning;
describe the main characteristics of child directed speech.
Allomorph: any of the different forms of a morpheme
Automaticity: the ability to use a language using automatic

processing
Terminology
Morpheme: the smallest meaningful unit in a language
Metalinguistic: related to knowledge of the forms, structure and

other aspects of a language
9
Unit 1 First Language Acquisition
Lesson 1: Introduction into First Language Acquisition
This lesson is about how children learn their first language.
By the end of the lesson you should be able to:
describe early child vocalization;
explain the main characteristics of child telegraphic language and
describe the level of proficiency in young children.

Lesson Outcomes
You will need 45 minutes to work on this lesson
How long?
Language acquisition is one of the most impressive and fascinating

aspects of human development. We listen with pleasure to the ̒coos̓ and
̒gurgles̓ of a three-month-old baby. We laugh and ̒answer̓ the
conversational ̒ba-ba-ba̓ babbling of older babies, and we share in the
pride and joy of parents whose one-year-old has uttered the first ̒bye-bye̓.
Indeed, learning a language is an amazing feat—one which has attracted
the attention of linguists and psychologists for generations. How do
children accomplish this? What is it that enables a child not only to learn
words, but to put them together in meaningful sentences? What pushes
children to go on developing complex grammatical language even though
their early simple communication is successful for most purposes?
In this unit, we will look briefly at some of the characteristics of the

language of the young children. We will then consider several theories
which have been offered as explanation for how language is learned.
One remarkable thing about first language acquisition is the high degree
of similarity which we see in the early language of children all over the
world.
The earliest vocalizations are simply the involuntary crying that babies do
when they are hungry or uncomfortable. Soon, however, we hear the
cooing and gurgling sounds of contented babies, lying in their beds
looking at bright shapes and colours around them. Even in these early
weeks and months of life, however, infants are able to hear very subtle
differences between sounds of human language. In cleverly designed
10
experiments, scientists have been able to show that tiny babies can hear
the difference of ̒pa̓ and ̒ ba̓, for example. And yet, it will be many
months before their own vocalizations (babbling) begin to reflect the
characteristics of the different languages they are learning.
By the end of their first year, most babies understand quite a few
frequently repeated words. They wave when someone says ̒ bye-bye̓; they
clap when someone says ̒pat-a-cake̓; they eagerly hurry to the kitchen
when ̒ juice and cookies̓ are announced. At 12 months, most babies will
have begun to produce a word or two that everyone recognizes. From this
time on, the number of words they understand and produce grows rapidly.
By the age of two, most children reliably produce at least fifty different
words and some many many more. About this time, they begin to
combine words into simply sentences such as ̒ Mommy juice̓ and ̒ baby
fall down̓. These sentences are sometimes called ̒telegraphic̓ because they
often leave out such things as articles, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs.
We recognize them as sentences because, even though function words
and grammatical morphemes are missing, the word order reflects the
word order of the language they are hearing and the combined words
have a meaning relationship between them which makes them more than
just a list of words. Thus, for an English-speaking child, ̒ kiss baby̓ does
not mean the same thing as ̒ baby kiss̓. Remarkably, we also see
evidence, even in these early sentences that children are doing more than
imperfectly imitating what they have heard. Their two and three-word
sentences show signs that are creatively combining words: ̒more outside̓
in a situation where the meaning seems to be ̒ I want to go outside again̓
or ̒ Daddy uh-oh̓ which seems to mean ̒ Daddy fell down̓.
By the age of three-and-a-half or four years, most children can ask

questions, give commands, report real events, and create stories about
imaginary ones—complete with correct grammatical morphemes. In fact,
it is generally accepted that by age four, children have mastered the basic
structures of the language (or languages) which have been spoken to them
in these early years. In addiction to the evidence we have from simply
talking and listening to children, some carefully designed procedures
have been developed to explore children’s knowledge of language. One
of the best known is the so-called ̒wug test̓ developed by Jean Berko
Gleason. In this ̒test̓, children are shown pictures of imaginary creatures
with novels names or people performing mysterious actions. For
example, they are told: ̒ Here is a wug. Now there are two of them. There
are two____.̓ or ̒ Here is a man who knows how to bod. Yesterday he did
the same thing. Yesterday he____.̓ By completing these sentences with
̒ ugs̓ and ̒bodded̓, children demonstrate that they actually know the rules
w
for the formation of plural and simple past in English, not just a list of
memorized word pairs such as ̒ book/books̓ and ̒nod/nodded̓, and can
apply these rules to words which they have never heard before.
Children’s ability to understand language and to use it to express

themselves develops rapidly in the pre-school years. Metalinguistic
awareness—the ability to treat language as an object, separate from the
meaning it conveys—develops more slowly. A dramatic development in
metalinguistic awareness occurs when children begin to learn to read.
Although metalinguistic awareness begins to develop well before this
11
time, seeing words represented by letters on a page leads children to a

new level of awareness of language as separate from the meaning it
represents. Three-year-old children can tell you that it’s ̒wrong̓ to say
̒drink the chair̓, but while they would never say ̒cake the eat̓ they will not
be able to say what is wrong with it. A five-year-old on the other hand,
knows that ̒drink the chair̓ is silly in a different way from ̒cake the eat̓.
Unlike a three-year-old, a child who can read comes to understand that
̒caterpillar̓ is a longer word than ̒ train̓ even though the object it
represents is substantially shorter! Metalinguistic awareness also includes
the discovery of such things as ambiguity—words and sentences that have
multiple meaning. This gives children access to word jokes, trick
questions, and riddles which they love to share with their friends and
family.
Source: Lightbrown, P. M. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are

learned.Oxford: OUP.
After you have read the text above answer the following questions.
1. Describe the earliest vocalization in first language acquisition.

Activity 1
2. Describe the main characteristics of telegraphic speech.
3. Describe the level of proficiency of a three and half or four year old.
4. What do you understand by metalinguistic awareness?
Feedback
Great! Now you can reefer to the answers given below. How many
questions did you get right?
1. The earliest vocalizations are simply the involuntary crying that

babies do when they are hungry or uncomfortable.
2. Telegraphic speech often leave out such things as articles,

prepositions, and auxiliary verbs. We recognize them as sentences
because, even though function words and grammatical morphemes
are missing, the word order reflects the word order of the language.
The combined words have a meaning relationship between them
which makes them more than just a list of words.
12
3. By the age of three-and-a-half or four years, most children can ask

questions, give commands, report real events, and create stories about
imaginary ones—complete with correct grammatical morphemes. In
fact, it is generally accepted that by age four, children have mastered
the basic structures of the language (or languages) which have been
spoken to them in these early years.
4. Metalinguistic awareness is the ability to treat language as an object,

separate from the meaning it conveys. A dramatic development in
metalinguistic awareness occurs when children begin to learn to read.
Although metalinguistic awareness begins to develop well before this
time, seeing words represented by letters on a page leads children to a
new level of awareness of language as separate from the meaning it
represents.
In the lesson above you have learnt about how children learn their first
language. Among many aspects of early first language acquisition the
lesson summarized the main characteristics of earliest vocalization and
telegraphic speech and then looked at the level of proficiency in young
Summary children.
13
Lesson 2: Early Childhood Bilingualism
You are going to read about the main characteristics of early child
bilingualism.
By the end of this lesson you should be able to:
outline the differences between simultaneous and sequential

bilingualisms;
understand what is meant by subtractive bilingualism and have an idea on

possible solutions that educators often propose to parents whose children
Lesson Outcomes
are facing subtractive bilingualism.
How long?
Many children, perhaps the majority of children in the world, are exposed
to more than one language in early childhood. Children who hear more
than one language virtually from birth are sometimes referred to as ̒
simultaneous bilinguals̓, whereas those who begin to learn a second
language later are referred to as ̒sequential bilinguals̓. There is a
considerable body of research on the ability of young children to learn
more than one language in their earliest years. The evidence suggest that,
when simultaneous bilinguals are in contact with both languages in a
variety of settings, there is every reason to expect that they will progress
in their development of both languages at a rate and in a manner which
are not different from those of monolingual children. Naturally, when
children go on to have schooling in only one of those languages, there
may be considerable differences in the amount of metalinguistic
awareness they develop and in the type and extent of the vocabulary they
eventually acquire in the two languages. Nevertheless, there seems to be
little support for the myth that learning more than one language in early
childhood slows down the child’s linguistic or cognitive development.
There may be reason to be concerned, however, about situations where

children are virtually cut off from their family language when they are
̒submerged̓ in a second language for long periods in early schooling or
day care. In such cases, children may begin to lose the family language
before they have developed an age-appropriate mastery of the new
language. This is referred to as subtractive bilingualism, and it can have
serious negative consequences for children from minority groups. In
some cases, children seem to continue to be caught between two
14
languages: not having mastered the second language, they have not
continued to develop the first. Unfortunately, the ̒solution̓ which
educators often propose to parents is that they should stop speaking the
family language at home and concentrate instead on speaking the
majority language with their children. The evidence seems to suggest that
the opposite suggestion would be more effective. That is, parents who
themselves are learners of the majority language should continue to use
the language which is most comfortable for them. The children may
eventually prefer to answer in the majority language, but at least they will
maintain their comprehension of their family language. This also permits
the parents to express their knowledge and ideas in ways that are likely to
be richer and more elaborate than they can manage in their second
language.
There is no evidence that a child’s brain has a limited capacity for

languages such that their knowledge of one language must shrink if their
knowledge of the other one grows. Most minority language children do
eventually master the majority language, but the second language
acquisition takes time. It may take many years for children to know the
language well enough to use it for school learning with the same ease as
children who have learned the language from the birth. Eventually,
however, it is likely to become their preferred language. Demographic
research shows that minority languages are usually lost in the second
generation after immigration. Children who have the opportunity to learn
multiply languages from early childhood and to maintain them
throughout their lives are fortunate indeed, and families that can offer this
opportunity to their children should be encouraged to do so.

learned. Oxford: OUP.
Now you have a chance to check you level of comprehension. Answer

the questions below before referring to the feedback
Activity 2 1. Outline the differences between simultaneous and sequential

bilingualisms.
2. What do you understand by subtractive bilingualism?
3. What solution do educators often propose to parents whose children

are facing subtractive bilingualism?
15
Feedback
1. Simultaneous bilingualism occurs in children who hear more than
one language virtually from birth, whereas sequential bilingualism
occurs to those who begin to learn a second language later.
2. Subtractive bilingualism occurs in situations where children are

virtually cut off from their family language when they are ̒submerged̓
in a second language for long periods in early schooling or day care.
In such cases, children may begin to lose the family language before
they have developed an age-appropriate mastery of the new language.
3 The solution educators often propose to parents is that they should

stop speaking the family language at home and concentrate instead
on speaking the majority language with their children.
Was it difficult? Idon’t think so. If you couldn’t get all the answers
right, read the text again and see if you can correct what went wrong.
In the lesson above you read about the main characteristics of early child
bilingualism. The text outlined the differences between simultaneous and
sequential bilingualism, described the main characteristics of subtractive
bilingualism and finally gave possible solutions that educators often
Summary propose to parents whose children are facing subtractive bilingualism.
16
Lesson 3: Behaviourism in First Language Acquisition
In this lesson you are going to read about one of the theories that try
to explain how children learn a first language
explain the main view of behaviourism into first language learning

and
outline the strength and weakness of behaviourism in explaining how

children learn a first language.
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
Behaviourism is a psychological theory of learning which was very

influential in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in the United States.
Traditional behaviourists believed that language learning is the result of
imitation, practise, feedback on success, and habit formation. Children
imitate the sounds and patterns which they hear around them and receive
positive reinforcement (which could take the form of praise or just
successful communication) for doing so. Thus encouraged by their
environment, they continue to imitate and practise these sounds and
patterns until they form ̒ habits̓ of correct language use. According to this
view, the quality and quantity of the language which the child hears, as
well as the consistency of the reinforcement offered by others in the
environment, should have an effect on the child’s success in language
learning.
The behaviourist view of how language is learned is an intuitive appeal.

And there is no doubt that it can offer a partial explanation of some
aspects of children’s early language learning. However, it is useful to
examine actual language data to see how well this view accounts for the
development of some more complex aspects of their language.
The behaviourists view imitation and practise as primary processes in

language development. To clarify what is meant by these two terms,
consider the following definitions and examples.
Imitation: Word-for-word of all or part of someone else’s utterance.
Mother: Would you like some bread and peanut butter?
Katie: Some bread and peanut butter.
17
Practice: Repetitive manipulation of form.
Michel: I can handle it. Hannah can handle it. We can handle it.
Analyzing children’s speech
Examine these transcripts from Peter, Cindy, and Kathryn, who are about
the same age. The transcripts are based on recordings made while the
children were playing with a visiting adult. Look for examples of
Activity imitation and practice.
Transcription conventions:
xxx = incomprehensible speech
… = pause
parentheses = description of non-verbal events
Peter (24 months)
(Peter is playing with a dump truck while two adults, Patsy and Lois, look
on.)
Peter: Get more.
Lois: You’re going to put more wheels in the dump truck?
Peter: Dump truck. Wheels. Dump truck.
(later)
Patsy: What happened to it (the truck)?
Peter: (looking under chair for it) Lose it. Dump truck! Dump
truck!
Fall! Fall!
Lois: Yes, the dump truck fell down.
Peter: Dump truck fell down. Dump truck.
Peter (25 months)
18
(Peter, Patsy, and Lois are playing with pencil and paper.)
Peter: (indicating he wants Patsy to draw) Lois. Lois too.

Patsy. Lois too!
Patsy: You want me to make a car? Ok.
(Patsy draws a tiny car like Lois’s.)
Patsy: Oh, you want Lois to have some paper?
Peter: Lois have some paper?
(later)
Patsy: Let’s see if I can draw what you drew. Draw

something!
Peter: Draw something!
(Unpublished data from P.M. Lightbown)
It is easy to see that Peter imitates a great deal. However, it should be

stressed that not all children imitate to the extent that Peter does. Some 30
̶ 40 per cent of Peter’s speech consists of imitation while, for some
children, the rate of imitation may be les than 10 per cent.
It is also important to note that children’s imitations are not random; they
don’t imitate everything they hear. Very detailed analyses showed that
Peter imitated new words and sentences structures until they became
solidly grounded in his language system, and then he stopped imitating
these and went on to imitate other new words and structures. Thus, unlike
a parrot that imitates the familiar and continues to repeat the same things
again and again, children’s imitation is selective and based on what they
are currently learning. In other words, even when other child imitates, the
choice of what to imitate seems to be based on something the child has
already begun to understand, not simply on what is ̒available̓ in the
environment.

After reading the text above, try to answer the following questions.
You should try to do that before looking at the answers provided in
the feedback section below.
Activity 1
1. What is the main view of behaviourism into first language learning?
2. Outline the weakness of behaviourism in explaining how children

learn a first language?
19
Feedback
Great! Now compare your answers to the ones given below. Did you
get all of them right? If not read the text again and see what went
wrong.
1. Language learning is the result of imitation, practise, feedback on

success, and habit formation. Children imitate the sounds and
patterns which they hear around them and receive positive
reinforcement (which could take the form of praise or just successful
communication) for doing so. Thus encouraged by their environment,
they continue to imitate and practise these sounds and patterns until
they form ̒ habits̓ of correct language use.
2. Children do not learn language by simple imitation. Children’s

imitations are not random; they don’t imitate everything they hear.
Thus, unlike a parrot who imitates the familiar and continues to
repeat the same things again and again, children’s imitation is
selective and based on what they are currently learning. In other
words, even when other child imitates, the choice of what to imitate
seems to be based on something the child has already begun to
understand, not simply on what is ̒available̓ in the environment.
In this lesson we discussed the behaviourist view on first language

acquisition. We saw that proponents of the behaviourist position see
language learning as the result of imitation, practise, feedback on success,
and habit formation.
Summary
We also looked at the weaknesses of the behaviourist position in
explaining first language learning. The point is that children do not learn
language by simple imitation.
20
Lesson 4: Innatism Position in First Language Learning
You are going to read about the second theory that tries to explain how
children learn their first language. The second theory is the result of the
reaction to the first theory that you read about in the previous lesson.
By the end of this lesson you should be able to
explain the innatist claim on first language learning;
describe role that the environment play in first language learning;
evaluate the critism of the behaviourist theory and understand

Lesson Outcomes
Chomsky’s view of language acquisition device (LAD) and
Universal grammar.
How long?
The linguist Noam Chomsky claims that children are biologically

programmed for language and that language develops in the child in just
the same way that other biological functions develop. For example, every
child will learn to walk as long as adequate nourishment and reasonable
freedom of movement are provided. The child does not have to be taught.
Most children learn to walk at the same age, and walking is essentially
the same in all normally human beings. For Chomsky, language
acquisition is very similar. The environment makes a basic contribution—
in this case, the availability of people who speak to the child. The child,
or rather, the child’s biological endowment, will do the rest. This is
known as the innatism position. Chomsky proposed his theory in reaction
to what he saw as the inadequacy of the behaviourist theory of learning
based on imitation and habit formation (Chomsky 1959).
Chomsky argues that the behaviourist theory fails to recognize what has
come to be called ̒the logical problem of language acquisition̓. This
logical problem refers to the fact that children come to know more about
the structure of their language then they could reasonably be expected to
learn on the basis of the samples of language which they hear. According
to Chomsky, the language the child is exposed to in the environment is
full of confusing information (for example, false starts, incomplete
sentences, or slips of the tongue) and does not provide all the information
21
which the child needs. Furthermore, the evidence seems very strong that
children are by no means systematically corrected or instructed on
language. Parental corrections of language errors have been observed to
be inconsistent or even non-existent for children of pre-school age. When
parents do correct, they tend to focus on meaning and not on language
form, often simply repeating the child’s incorrect utterance in a more
complete grammatical form. When parents do correct errors, children
often ignore the correction, continuing to use their own ways of saying
things.
According to Chomsky, children’s minds are not blank slates to be filled

merely by imitating language they hear in the environment. Instead he
claims that children are born with a special ability to discover for
themselves the underlying rules of language system.
Chomsky originally referred to this special ability as a language

acquisition device (LAD). This device was often described as an
imaginary ̒ black box̓, which exists somewhere in the brain. This ̒ black
box̓, thought to contain all and only the principles which are universal to
all human languages, prevents the child from going off on lots of wrong
trails in trying to discover the rules of the language. For the LAD to work,
the child needs access only to samples of a natural language. These
languages samples serve as a trigger to activate the device. Once it is
activated, the child is able to discover the structure of the language to be
learned by matching the innate knowledge of basic grammatical
relationships to the structures of the particular language in the
environment. In recent writings, Chomsky and his followers no longer
use the term LAD, but refer to the child’s innate endowment as Universal
Grammar (UG). UG is considered to consist of a set of principles which
are common to all languages. If children are pre-equipped with UG, then
what they have to learn is the ways which their own language makes use
of this principles and the variations on those principles which may exist
in the particular language which they hear spoken around them (Chomsky
1981, Cook 1988, White 1989).
Chomsky drew attention to the fact that children seem to develop

language in similar ways and on a similar schedule, in a way not very
different from the way all children learn to walk. Environmental
differences may be associated with some variation in the rate of
acquisition (how quickly children learn), but adult linguistic competence
(the knowledge of how their language works) is very similar for all
speakers of one dialect or language. In acquiring the intricate and
complex systems that make up a language, young children, whose
cognitive abilities are fairly limited in many ways, accomplish something
which adult second language learners may envy.
Here is a summary of the kinds of evidence which has been used to

support Chomsky’s innatist position:
1 Virtually all children successfully learn their native language at a

time in life when they would not be expected to learn anything
else so complicated. Children who are profoundly deaf will learn
sign language if they are exposed to it in infancy and their
progress in language acquisition is similar to that of hearing
22
children. Even children with very limited cognitive ability

develop quite complex language systems if they are brought up in
environments which people talk to them and engage them in
communication.
2 Children successfully master the basic structure of their native

language or dialect in variety of conditions: some which would
be expected to enhance language development (for example,
caring, attentive parents who focus on the child’s language), and
some which might be expected to inhibit it (for example, abusive
or rejecting parents). Children achieve different levels of
vocabulary, creativity, social grace, and so on, but virtually all
achieve mastery of the structure of the language spoken around
them. This is seen as support for the hypotheses that language is
somehow separate from other aspects of cognitive development
and may even be located in a different part of the brain. The term
̒modular̓ is sometimes used to represent the notion that the brain
has different ̒modules̓ which serves different kinds of knowledge
and learning.
3 The language children are exposed to does not contain examples

(or, in any case, not very many examples) of all the linguistic
rules and patterns which they eventually know.
4 Animals—even primates receiving intensive training from

humans—cannot learn to manipulate a symbol as complicated as
the natural number of a three-or four-year-old human child.
5 Children seem to accomplish the complex task of language

acquisition without having someone consistently point out to
them which of the sentences they hear and produce are ̒correct̓
and which are ̒ungrammatical̓.
One example of the kind of complex language system which children

seem to learn without special guidance is the system of reflexive
pronouns. This system of pronouns has been studied by a number of
linguists working from a Chomskyan perspective.
Consider the following sentences which we have taken from a book by

Lydia White (1989). These English sentences contain the reflexive
pronoun ̒ himself ̓. Both the pronoun and the noun it refers to (the
antecedent) are printed in italics. An asterisk at the beginning of a
sentence indicates that the sentence is ungrammatical.
What do children have to discover about the relationship between the

reflexive pronoun and its antecedent? Could they learn what they need to
know by imitation of sentences they hear?
a. John saw himself.
b. *Himself saw John.
In (a) and (b), it looks as if the reflexive pronoun must follow the noun it
refers to. But (c) disproves this:
23
c. Looking after himself bores John.
If we consider sentences such as:
d. John said that Fred liked himself.
e. *John said that Fred liked himself.
f. John told Bill to wash himself.
*John told Bill to wash himself
We might conclude that the closest noun phrase is usually the antecedent.
However, (h) shows that this rule won’t work either:
g. John promised Bill to wash himself.
And it’s even more complicated than that. Usually the reflexive must be
in the same clause as the antecedent as in (a) and (d), but not always, as
in (h). Furthermore, the reflexive can be in the subject position in (i) but
not in (j).
h. John believes himself to be intelligent (non-finite clause).
i. * John believes that himself is intelligent (finite clause).
In some cases, more than one antecedent is possible, as in (k) where the
reflexive could refer to either John or Bill:
k. John showed Bill a picture of himself.
By now, you are probably quite convinced of the complexity of the rules
pertaining to interpreting reflexives pronouns in English. The innatists
argue that children could not discover the rules about reflexives pronouns
by trial and error, even if parents did systematically correct children’s
errors. In fact, they simply do not make enough mistakes for this
explanation to be plausible. The innatists conclude that a child’s
acquisition of these grammatical rules is guided by principles of an innate
Universal Grammar which could apply to all languages. Children come to
̒ know̓ certain things about the specific language being learned through
exposure to a limited number of examples. Different languages have
different rules about, for example, reflexives, and children seem able to
learn, on hearing some sentences, which other ones are possible and
which are not in the language they are learning.

24
After reading the text on the innatist position on learning first

language I want you to draw on the main points of this lesson by
answering the questions below
1. What is the innatist claim on first language learning?

Activity 2
2. According to Chomsky what role does the environment play in first
language learning?
3. What are Chomsky´s critism of the behaviourist theory?
4. According to Chomsky what is language acquisition device (LAD)?
5. What do you understand by Universal grammar?
Feedback
How did you find the questions? If you managed to answer most of
them, it means you have understood the main idea of the innatist
position. Now check your answers to the ones given below.
1. Children are biologically programmed for language and that language

develops in the child in just the same way that other biological
functions develop. For example, every child will learn to walk as
long as adequate nourishment and reasonable freedom of movement
are provided. The child does not have to be taught. Most children
learn to walk at the same age, and walking is essentially the same in
all normal human beings.
2. The environment makes a basic contribution—in this case, the

availability of people who speak to the child. The child, or rather, the
child’s biological endowment, will do the rest.
3. Chomsky argues that the behaviourist theory fails to recognize what

has come to be called ̒the logical problem of language acquisition̓.
This logical problem refers to the fact that children come to know
more about the structure of their language then they could reasonably
be expected to learn on the basis of the samples of language which
they hear. According to Chomsky, the language the child is exposed
to in the environment is full of confusing information (for example,
false starts, incomplete sentences, or slips of the tongue) and does not
provide all the information which the child needs. Furthermore, the
evidence seems very strong that children are by no means
systematically corrected or instructed on language. Parental
corrections of language errors have been observed to be inconsistent
or even non-existent for children of pre-school age. When parents do
correct, they tend to focus on meaning and not on language form,
often simply repeating the child’s incorrect utterance in a more
complete grammatical form.
25
4. Language acquisition device (LAD) was often described as an

imaginary ̒ black box̓, which exists somewhere in the brain. This ̒
black box̓, thought to contain all and only the principles which are
universal to all human languages, prevents the child from going off
on lots of wrong trails in trying to discover the rules of the language.
5. The Universal Grammar (UG) is considered to consist of a set of

principles which are common to all languages. If children are pre-
equipped with UG, then what they have to learn is the ways which
their own language makes use of this principles and the variations on
those principles which may exist in the particular language which
they hear spoken around them.
In this lesson we looked at the innatist position on first language learning.

We saw that the innatists believe that children are biologically
programmed for language and that language develops in the child in just
the same way that other biological functions develop. We then moved to
Summary look at Chomsky’s criticism to the behaviourist. Chomsky argues that the
behaviourist theory fails to recognize what has come to be called ̒the
logical problem of language acquisition̓. This logical problem refers to
the fact that children come to know more about the structure of their
language then they could reasonably be expected to learn on the basis of
the samples of language which they hear. Finally we look at the
description of the language acquisition devicve. According to Chomsky
(LAD) was often described as an imaginary ̒ black box̓, which exists
somewhere in the brain. This ̒ black box̓, thought to contain all and only
the principles which are universal to all human languages, prevents the
child from going off on lots of wrong trails in trying to discover the rules
of the language.
26
Lesson 2: The Biological Basis for the Innatist Position
In this lesson you are going to read about the biological basis for the
innatist theory.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
explain the biological basis for the innatist theory and
explain the difference between the weak and strong versions of the
critical period hypothesis
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
Chomsky’s ideas are compatible with those of biologist Eric Lenneberg,

who also compares learning to talk with learning to walk: children who
for medical reasons cannot move about when they are infants may soon
stand and walk if their problems are corrected at the age of a year or so.
Similarly, children who can hear but who cannot speak can nevertheless
learn language, understanding even complex sentences.
The Critical Period Hypothesis
Lenneberg observed that this ability to develop normal behaviours and

knowledge in a variety of environments does not continue indefinitely
and that children who have never learned language (because of deafness
or extreme isolation) cannot do so if these deprivations go on for too
long. He argued that the language acquisition device, like other biological
functions, works successfully only when it is stimulated on the right
time—a time called the ̒critical period̓. This notion that there is a specific
and limited time period for language acquisition is referred to as the
Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH). Read the following cases studies and
think about whether they support the CPH.
27
Natural Experiments: Victor and Genie
It is understandably difficult to find evidence for the Critical Period

Hypothesis. Since all normal children are exposed to language at an early
age and consequently acquire language. However, history has
documented a few ̒natural experiments̓ where children have been
deprived of contact with language. One of the most famous cases is that
of a child called Victor. François Truffaut created a film, L’Enfant
sauvage (The Untamed Child), about him and about the efforts to teach
him to speak.
In 1799, a boy at about 12 years old was found wandering naked in the
woods of Aveyron in France. Upon capture, he was found to be
completely wild, apparently having had no contact with humankind. A
young doctor, Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, devoted five years to the task of
socializing Victor and trying to teach him language.
Although Itard succeeded to some extent in developing Victor’s

sociability, memory, judgement, and all the functions of his senses,
Victor remained unreceptive to all sounds other than those which had
meaning for him in the forest, such has a cracking of a nut, animal
sounds, or the sound of rain. He only succeeded in speaking two words,
his favourite food ̒ lait̓ (milk) and his governess’s frequent exclamation ̒
O Dieu!̓ (Oh God!). Moreover, his use of ̒ lait̓ was only uttered as an
excited exclamation at the sight of a glass of milk. He never uttered the
word to request milk, even though it was the one thing he could name,
and something of which he was very fond. Even when Itard took Victor’s
milk away in hopes of making him asking for it, Victor never used the
word to communicate his need. Finally Itard gave up.
Another famous case of a child who did not learn language normally in
her early years is that of Genie. Genie was discovered in California in
1970, a 13-year-old girl who had been isolated, deprived, neglected, and
abused. Because of the irrationals demands of a disturbed father and the
submission and fear of an abused mother, Genie had spent more than
eleven years tied to a chair or a crib in a small, darkened room. Her father
had forbidden his wife and son to speak to her and had himself only
growled and barked at her. She was beaten every time she vocalized or
made any kind of noise, and she had long since resorted to complete
silence. Genie was unsocialized, primitive, and undeveloped physically,
emotionally, and intellectually. Needless to say, she had no language.
After she was discovered, Genie was cared for and educated in the most
natural surroundings possible, and to the fullest extent possible, with the
participation of many teachers and therapists. After a brief period in a
rehabilitation centre, Genie lived in a foster home and attended special
schools. Although far from being ̒normal̓, Genie made remarkable
progress in becoming socialized and cognitively aware. She developed
deep personal relationships and strong individual tastes and traits. But
despite the supportive environment for language acquisition, Genie’s
language development has not paralleled natural first language
development. After five years of exposure to language, a period during
which a normal child would have acquired an elaborated language
system, Genie’s language contained many of the features of abnormal
28
language development. These include a larger than normal gap between a

comprehension and production, inconsistency in the use of grammatical
forms, a slow rate of development, overuse of formulaic and routine
speech, and absence of some specific syntactic forms and mechanisms
always present in normal grammatical development ( Curtiss 1977). For
discussion of further developments in Genie’s life, see Rymer (1993).
Genie’s language shares features of language development exhibited by

adults with brain damage who have to relearn language in adulthood, by
children in the earliest stage of language acquisition, and by chimps
attempting to learn language. It is the most carefully documented and
tested case of a child brought up in isolation, allowing linguists to study
the hypotheses regarding the critical period.
Although these cases appear to support the CPH, it is difficult to argue

that the hypothesis is confirmed on the basis of evidence from such
unusual children and the unknown circumstances of their early lives. We
cannot know that other factors besides biological maturity (for example,
social isolation or physical abuse) might have contributed to their
inability to learn language. For now, the best evidence for the CPH is that
virtually every child learns language on a schedule which is very similar
in spite of quite different circumstances of life.
Both Victor and Genie were deprived of a normal home environment,

which may account for their abnormal language development. There are
other individuals, however, who comes from loving homes, yet do not
receive exposure to language at the usual time. This is the case of many
profoundly deaf children who have hearing parents.
Natural experiments: Deaf signers
Elissa Newport and her colleagues have studied deaf users of American
Sign Language (ASL) who acquired it as their first language at different
ages. Such a population exists because only 5−10 per cent of the
profoundly deaf are born to deaf parents, and only these children would
be likely to ASL from birth. The remainder of the profoundly deaf
population begin learning ASL at different ages, often when they start
attending a residential school where sign language is used for day-to-day
communication.
In one study, there were three distinct groups of ASL users: Native
signers who were exposed to sign language from birth, Early learners
whose first exposure to ASL began at ages four to six at school, and Late
learners who first came into contact with ASL after the age of 12
(Newport 1990).
Just like oral languages, ASL makes use of grammatical markers (like –ed
and –ing in English); the only difference is that these markers are
indicated through specifics hand and body movements. The researchers
were interested in whether there was any difference between Native
signers, Early learners and Late learners in the ability to produce and
comprehend grammatical markers.
29
Results of the research showed a clear pattern. On word order, there was
no difference between the groups. But on test focusing on grammatical
markers, the Native group outperformed the Early learner group who
outperformed the Late learner group. The Native signers were highly
consistently in their use of the grammatical forms. Although the other
two groups used many of the same forms as the Native group, they also
used forms which are considered ungrammatical by the Native signers.
For example, they would omit certain grammatical forms, or use them in
some obligatory contexts but not in others. The researchers conclude that
their study supports the hypothesis there is a critical period for first
language acquisition.

Here are some questions that lead you to the main ideas of the
biological basis of the innatist theory. Work out the answers before
refering to the feedback.
Activity
1. What is the biological basis for the innatist theory?
2. Explain what you understand by critical period hypothesis.
Feedback
Great! Now compare your answers to the ones given below.
1. Children who for medical reasons cannot move about when they are
infants may soon stand and walk if their problems are corrected at the
age of a year or so. Similarly, children who can hear but who cannot
speak can nevertheless learn language, understanding even complex
sentences.
2. The critical period is the notion that there is a specific and limited
time period for language acquisition.
In this lesson you have seen that the innatist position has been very
persuasive in pointing out how complex the knowledge of adult speakers
is and how difficult or impossible it is to learn a language after puberty.
In the next lesson you are going to read about the third theory of first
Summary language acquisition
30
Lesson 6: The Interactionist Position on First Language Acquisition
In this lesson you are going to read about the third theory of language
acquisition that focuses on the role of the linguistic environment in
interaction with the child’s innate capacities in determining language
development.
expalin the interactionist claim on first language learning and
Vygotsky’s idea on child language development.
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
The interactionists’ position is that language develops as a result of the

complex interplay between the uniquely human characteristics of the
child and the environment in which the child develops. Interactionists
attribute considerably more importance to the environment than the
innatists do. For example, unlike the innatists, most interactionists claim
that language which is modified to suit the capability of the learner is a
crucial element in the language acquisition process. They emphasize the
importance of child-directed speech—the language which is not only
addressed to children but adjusted in ways that make it easier for them to
understand. In addiction, interactionists are inclined to see language
acquisition as similar to and influenced by the acquisition of other kinds
of skill and knowledge, rather than as something which is largely
independent of the child’s experience and cognitive development.
However, interactionists represent a wide range of theories about the
relative contributions of innate structures of the human mind and the
environment which provides the samples of the language to be learned.
Among interactionists positions we could include those which were

articulated much earlier in this century by the Swiss
psychologist/epistomologist, Jean Peaget (see Ginsburg and Opper 1969).
Piaget observed infants and children in their interactions with adults. He
was able to trace the development of their cognitive understanding of
such things as object permanence (knowing that things which are hidden
31
from sight are still there), the stability of quantities regardless of changes
in their appearance (knowing that ten pennies spread out to form a long
line are not more numerous than ten pennies in a tightly squeezed line),
and logical inferencing (figuring out which properties of a set of rods—
size, weight, material, etc—cause some rods to sink and others to float on
water). It is easy to see from this how children’s cognitive development
would partly determine how they use language. For example, the use of
certain terms such as ̒ bigger̓ or ̒more̓ depends on the children’s
understanding of the concepts they represent. The development cognitive
understanding is built on the interaction between the child and the things
which can be observed, touched, and manipulated.
Unlike the innatists, Piaget did not see language as based on a separate
module of the mind. For him, language was one of a number of symbol
systems which are developed in childhood. Language can be used to
represent knowledge that children have acquired through physical
interaction with the environment.
A strongly interactionist view was the sociocultural theory of human

mental processing held by the psychologist Lev Vygotsky whop worked
in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s (Vygotsky 1978). He
concluded that language develops entirely from social interaction. He
argued that in a supportive interactive environment, the child is able to
advance to a higher level of knowledge and performance than he or she
would be capable of independently. Vygotsky referred to what the child
could do in interaction with another, but no alone, as the child’s zone of
proximal development. He observed the importance of conversations
which children have with adults and with other children and saw in these
conversations the origins of both language and thought. Vygotsky’s view
differs from Piaget’s. Piaget hypothesized that language development as a
symbol system to express knowledge acquired through interaction with
the physical world. For Vygotsky, thought was essentially internalized
speech, and speech emerged in social interaction.
Child-directed speech
Many researchers have studied child-directed speech, the language which

adults use with children. We are all familiar with the ways adults
frequently modify the way they speak when addressing little children. In
English, child-directed speech involves a slower rate of delivery, higher
pitch, more varied intonation, shorter, simpler sentence patterns, frequent
repetition, and paraphrase. Furthermore, topics of conversation may be
limited to the child’s immediate environment, the ̒ here and now̓, or to
experiences which the adult knows the child has had. Adults often repeat
the content of a child’s utterance, but they expand it into a grammatically
correct sentence. If you examine the transcripts presented earlier in this
chapter, you will see examples of some of these features. For example,
when Peter says, ̒Dump truck! Dump truck! Fall! Fall! ̓, Lois responds, ̒
Yes, the dump truck fell down.’
Researchers working among parents and children from a variety of

cultural groups have found that the child-directed speech which was
32
described on the basis of studies of families in middle-class American

homes is not universal. In some societies, adult do not engage in
conversation or verbal play with very young children. And yet these
children achieve full competence in the community language. Thus, it is
difficult to judge the importance of these modifications which some
adults make in speech addressed to children. Children whose parents do
not consistently provide such modified interaction will still learn
language; however, they may have access to modified language when
they are in the company of older siblings or other children. To the
theorist, this suggests that more important than simplification is the
conversational give-and-take in which the more proficient speaker
intuitively responds to the clues the child provides as to the level of
language he or she is capable of processing. The importance of such
interaction becomes abundantly clear in the atypical cases where it is
missing. Such is the case of Jim.
Case study: Jim.
Jim, the hearing child of deaf parents, had little contact with
hearing/speaking adults up to the age of three years and nine months
(3,9). His only contact with oral language was through television, which
he watched frequently. The family was unusual in that the parents did not
use sign language with Jim. Thus, although in other respects he was well
cared for, Jim did not begin his linguistic development in a normal
environment in which a parent communicated with him in either oral or
sign language. Language tests administered indicated that he was very
much below age level in all aspects of language. Although he attempted
to express ideas appropriate to his age, he used unusual, ungrammatical
word order.
When Jim began conversational sessions with an adult, his expressive

abilities began to improve. By the age of 4,2 most of the unusual speech
patterns had disappeared, replaced by structures more typical at Jim’s
age. It is interesting to note that Jim’s younger brother Glenn did not
display the same type of lag and performed normally on language tests
when he was at the age which was first tested. Glenn’s linguistics
environment was different in that he had his older brother as a
conversational partner (Sachs, Bard, and Johnson 1981).
Jim showed very rapid acquisition of the structures of English once he

began to interact with an adult on a one-to-one basis. The fact that he had
failed to acquire language normally prior to this experience suggests that
the problem laid in the environment, not the child. That is, it seems that
exposure to impersonal sources of language such as television or radio
alone is insufficient for the child to learn the structure of a particular
language.
One-to-one interaction gives the child access to language which is

adjusted to his or her level of comprehension. When a child does not
understand, the adult may repeat or paraphrase. The response of the adult
may also allow children to find out when their own utterances are
understood. Televisions for obvious reasons, does not provide such
interactions. Even in children’s programs, where simpler language is used
and topics are relevant to younger viewers, there is no immediate
adjustment made for the needs of an individual child.
33

Now that you have finished reading the text above try to find the
answers to the two questions below
Activity 2 1. What is the interactionist claim on first language learning?
2. According to Vygotsky how does language develop?
Feedback
Well done, how did you find the two questions? Difficult? Now you
can compare your answers to the ones given below
1. The interactionists’ position is that language develops as a result of

the complex interplay between the uniquely human characteristics of
the child and the environment in which the child develops.
Interactionists attribute considerably more importance to the
environment than the innatists do.
2. Vygotsky argues that language develops entirely from social

interaction. He argued that in a supportive interactive environment,
the child is able to advance to a higher level of knowledge and
performance than he or she would be capable of independently.
In this lesson you read about the third theory of language acquisition.The
lesson explained the interactionist claim on first language learning saying
that language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the
uniquely human characteristics of the child and the environment in which
Summary the child develops. The lesson also discussed Vygotsky’s idea on child
language development Vygotsky argues that language develops entirely
from social interaction. As long as thre is a supportive interactive
environment available, the child will able to advance to a higher level of
knowledge and performance than he or she would be capable of
independently.
34
Unit summary
In this unit you learned about the early milestones in first language
acquisition and the three broad theoretical approaches to explaining first
Summary language acquisition, each of which was corroborated by evidence.
Discuss the three theories of first language acquisition (behaviourist,

innatist and interactionist). Dont forget to outline the strength and
weakness of each of them
Guidance notes: In each of the theories outline the main view of the
proponents and show its strength and weakness. Your assignment should
Assignment
be made up of three main sections, representing the three theories, an
introduction and a conclusion. You should not forget to include a title
page and a table of contents.
35
Unit 2 Theoretical Approaches to Explaining Second Language
L i
Unit 2
Theoretical Approaches to
Explaining Second Language
Learning
Introduction
In this unit we look at some of the theories that have been proposed to
account for second language acquisition (SLA). In many ways, theories
which have been developed for SLA are closely related to those discussed
for first language acquisition in unit 1. That is, some theories give
primary importance to learners’ innate characteristics; some emphasize
the essential role of the environment in shaping language learning; still
others seek to integrate learner characteristics and environmental factors
in an explanation for how second language acquisition takes place.
Upon completion of this unit you will be able to:
describe the difference between a child and an adult learning a second

language.
differentiate theories of first language acquisition from theories of second

language learning.
Outcomes
explain the effects of the factors that affect second language learning.
explain the characteristics of a good language learner.
Acquisition: the learning and dvelopment of a person´s native

language
Learning: the process by which people develop poficiency in

Terminology
a second or foreign language
Cognition: the various mental processes used in thinking,

remembering, perceiving, recognizing, classifying
Metalinguistic: the forms, structure and other aspects of a

language
Competence: a person´s internalized grammar of a language
Performance: a person´s actual use of language
36
Lesson 1: Second Language Learning and Learners Factors
Introduction into second language learning
In this lesson you are going to look at the characteristics of first and
second language learners.
By the end of this lesson you should be able to
describe the differences between child learning a first language and a

child or adult learning a second language in relation to learners’
characteristics and learning conditions.
Lesson Outcomes
You will need 90 minutes to work on this unit
How long?
The questions below that show that, it is clear that a child or adult
learning a second language is different from a child acquiring a first
language in terms of both personal characteristics and conditions for
learning. First of all look at the first table (2.1) on the learner’s profile
below and then consider the questions
1. Does the learner already know a language?
2. Is the learner cognitively mature, that is, is he or she able to engage in

problem solving, deduction, and complex memory tasks?
3. How well developed is the learner’s metalinguistic awareness? That

is, can the learner treat language as an object—for example, define a
word, say what sounds make up that word, or state a rule such as ‘add
an –s to form the plural’?
4. How extensive is the learner’s general knowledge of the world? This

kind of knowledge makes it easier to understand because one can
sometimes make good guesses about what the interlocutor is
probably saying even when the language carrying the message is
new.
5. Is the learner nervous about making mistakes and sounding ‘silly’

when speaking the language?
37
Learning
6. Does the learning environment allow the learner to be silent in the

early stages of learning, or is he or she expected to speak from the
beginning?
7. Is there plenty of time available for language learning to take place,

plenty of contact with proficient speakers of the language?
8. Does the learner receive corrective feedback when he or she makes

errors in grammar or pronunciations, or does the listener overlook
these errors and pay attention to the message?
9. Does the learner receive corrective feedback when he or she uses the
wrong word, or does the listener usually try to guess the intended
meaning?
10. Is the learner exposed to language which is modified, in terms of

speed of delivery, complexity of grammatical structure, and
vocabulary, so that it matches the learner’s ability to comprehend and
interact?
Learner profiles
Table 2.1 (below) helps to illustrate possible answers to these questions

with respect to the profiles of four languages learners:
Activity Fill in the chart, giving your opinion about the presence or absence of
the characteristics or conditions referred to in the questions above.
Use the following notation:
− a child learning a first language (L1)
− a child learning a second language (L2) informally
− an adolescent learning a second language in a formal language

learning setting
− an adult learning a second language informally (in the workplace or

among friends).
+ = a characteristic which is usually present
− = a characteristic which is usually absent
? = where the characteristic or condition is sometimes present, sometimes

absent, or where you are not sure
38
Table 2.1
L1 L2
Leaner Child Child Adolescent Adult

(informal) (formal) (informal)
characteristics
1 knowledge of another
Language
2 cognitive maturity
3 metalinguistuc
awareness
4 knowledge of the
world
5 nervousness about
speaking
Learning conditions
6 freedom to be silent
7 ample time
8 corrective feedback:
grammar and
pronunciation
9 corrective feedback:
Word choice
10 modified input
The discussion below summarizes our views about the profiles of these
four language learners in terms of their characteristics and the conditions
in which their learning takes place.
Learner characteristic
All second language learners, regardless of age, have by definition

already acquired at least one language. This prior knowledge may be an
advantage in the sense that the learner has an idea of how languages
39
Learning
work. On the other hand, as we shall see, knowledges of other languages

can also lead learners to make incorrect guesses about how the second
language works and this may cause errors which a first language learner
would not make.
Young language learners begin the task of language learning without the
benefit of some of the skills and knowledge which adolescent and adult
learners have. The first language learner does not have the same cognitive
maturity, metalinguistic awareness, or world knowledge as older second
language learners. Although young second language learners have begun
to develop cognitive maturity and metalinguistic awareness, they will still
have far to go in these areas, as well as in the area of world knowledge,
before they reach the levels already attained by adults and adolescent.
Most child learners do not feel nervous about attempting to use the
language—even when their proficiency is quite limited, but adults and
adolescents often find it very stressful when they are unable to express
themselves clearly and correctly. Nevertheless, even very young (pre-
school) children differ in their nervousness when faced with speaking a
language they do not know well. Some children happily chatter away in
their new language; others prefer to listen and participate silently in social
interaction with their peers. Fortunately for these children, the learning
environment rarely puts pressure on them to speak when they are not
ready.
Learning conditions
Younger learners, in an informal second language learning environment,

are usually allowed to be silent until they are ready to speak. Older
learners are often forced to speak—to meet the requirements of a
classroom or to carry out everyday tasks such as shopping, medical visits,
or job interviews, young children in informal settings are usually exposed
to the second language for many hours everyday. Older learners,
especially students in language classrooms, are more likely to receive
only limited exposure to the second language.
One condition which appears to be common to learners of all ages—

though perhaps not in equal quantities—is access to modified input. This
adjustd speech style, which is called child-directed speech for first
language, is sometimes called foreigner talk or teacher talk for second
languages. Many people who interact regularly with language learners
seem to have an intuitive sense of what adjustments are needed to help
learners understand. Of course, some people are better at this than others.
We have all witness those painful conversations in which insensitive
people seem to think that they can make learners understand better if they
simply talk louder! Some Canadian friends recently told us of an
experience they had in China. They were visiting some historic temples
and wanted to get more information about them than they could glean
from their guidebook. They asked their guide some questions about the
monuments. Unfortunately, their limited Chinese and his non-existent
English made it difficult for them to exchange information. The guide
40
kept speaking louder and louder, but our friends understood very little.
Finally, in frustraction, the guide concluded that it would help if these
hopeless foreigners could see the information—so he took a stick and
began writing on the sand ̶ in Chinese characters!
As we saw in unit 1, error correction in first language acquisition tends be

limited to corrections of meaning—including errors in vocabulary choice.
In informal second language acquisition, errors which do not interfere
with meaning are usually overlooked. Most people would feel they were
being impolite if they interrupted and corrected someone who was trying
to have a conversation with them! Nevertheless, they may react to an
error if they cannot understand what the speaker is trying to say. Thus,
errors of grammar and pronunciation are rarely remarked on, but the
wrong word choice may receive comment from a puzzled interlocutor.
The only place where feedback on error is typically present with high
frequency is the language classroom. As we shall see, however, it is not
present in all classrooms.
Activity feedback
Now compare your answers to the ones given in the table below
L1 L2
Leaner Child Child Adolescent Adult

(informal) (formal) (informal)
Characteristics
1 knowledge of another - + + +
Language
2 cognitive maturity - - + +
3 metalinguistuc - - + +
awareness
4 knowledge of the - - + +
world
5 nervousness about - - + +
speaking
Learning conditions
6 freedom to be silent + + - -
7 ample time + + - +
41
Learning
8 corrective feedback: - - + -
grammar and
pronunciation
9 corrective feedback: + + + +
Word choice
10 modified input + + + +

A general theory of SLA needs to account for language acquisition by

learners with a variety of characteristics, learning in a variety of contexts.
The emphasis in the following section is on the theories which have been
proposed to explain the learning mechanisms which are common to all
Summary second language learners.
42
Lesson 2: Behaviourism Position in Second Language Learning
In this lesson you are going to read about the behaviourist view on second
language learning.
By the end of this unit you should be able to:
discuss the behaviourist view on second language learning and;
explain the role of contrastive analysis in second language learning

including its weakness in explaining the origin of second language
Lesson Outcomes errors.
How long?
As we saw in unit 1, the behaviourists account for learning in terms of

imitation, practice, reinforcement (or feedback on success), and habit
formation. According to the behaviourists, all learning, whether verbal or
non-verbal, takes place through the same underlying processes. Learners
receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment and they form
‘associations’ between words and objects or events. These associations
become stronger as experiences are repeated. Learners receive
encouragement for their correct imitations, and corrective feedback on
their errors. Because language development is viewed as the formation of
habit, it is assumed that the person learning a second language starts off
with the habits formed in the first language and that these habits
interferewith the new ones needed for the second language (Lado 1964).
Behaviourism was often linked to the Contrastive Analisys Hyphothesis

(CAH) which was developed by stuctural linguists in Europe and North
America. The CAH predicts that where there are similarities between the
first language and the target language, the learner will acquire target-
language structures with ease; where there are differences, the learner
will have difficulty.
There is little doubt that a learner’s first language influences the

acquisition of a second language. However, researchers have found that
43
Learning
not all errors predicted by the CAH are actually made. Furthermore, many
of the errors which learners do make are not predictable on the basis of
the CAH. For example, adult beginers use simple structures in the target
language just as children do: ‘No understand,’ or ‘Yesterday I meet my
teacher.’ Such sentences look more like a child’s first language sentences
than like translations from another language. Indeed, many of the
sentences produced by the second language learners in the early stages of
development would be quite ungrammatical in their first language. What
is more, some characteristics of these simple structures are very similar
across learners from a variety of backgrounds, even if the structures of
their respective first languages are different from each other and different
from the target language.
For second language acquisition, as for first language acquisition, the

behaviourist account has proven to be at best an incomplete explanation
for language learning. Psychologists have proposed new, more complex
theories of learning. Some of these are discussed later in this unit.

After this lesson can you see any difference between learning a first
and second language? Answer the questions below to reflect on your
beliefs of how people learn a language
Activity 2 1. What is the behaviourist view about second language learning?
2. What is the contrastive analysis view on language learning?
What are the weaknesses of contrastive analysis in explaining the origin

of second language errors?
Feedback
Was it difficult to get the answers right? Now compare your answers
to the ones given below. If you didn’t manage to get all the answers
correct, read the text again and see if you can get them right.
1. Behaviourists account for learning in terms of imitation, practice,

reinforcement (or feedback on success) and habit formation.
According to the behaviourists, all learning, whether verbal or non-
verbal, takes place through the same underlying processes. Learners
receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment and they
form ‘associations’ between words and objects or events. These
44
associations become stronger as experiences are repeated. Learners

receive encouragement for their correct imitations, and corrective
feedback on their errors. Because language development is viewed as
the formation of habit, it is assumed that the person learning a second
language starts off with the habits formed in the first language and
that these habits interfere with the new ones needed for the second
language.
2. The CAH predicts that where there are similarities between the first
language and the target language, the learner will acquire target-
will have difficulty.
3. The researchers have found that not all errors predicted by the CAH
are actually made. Furthermore, many of the errors which learners do
make are not predictable on the basis of the CAH.
In this lesson you read about the behaviourist view on second language
learning. You saw that the bahaviourist theory explains second language
learning in terms of imitation, practice, reinforcement (or feedback on
Summary success) and habit formation. You also discussed the reasons why
contrastive analysis failed to explain the origin of second language errors.
45
Learning
Lesson 3: Innatism Position in Second Language Learning
This lesson is about the innatist view on second language learning.
explain Chomsky´s claim on second language learning and;
outline the different views on the role the universal grammar on second
language learning.
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
The Universal Grammar
As we saw in unit 1, Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition is based

on the hyphotesis that innate knowledge of the principles of Universal
Grammar (UG) permits all children to acquire the language of their
environment, during a critical period in their development. Chomsky has
not made specific claims about the implications of this theory for second
language learning. Nevertheless, some linguists working within this
theory have argued that Universal Grammar offers the best perspective
from which to understand second language acquisition (SLA). Others
argue that, although it is good framework for understanding first language
acquisition, UG is no longer available to guide the acquisition of a second
language in learners who have passed the critical period for language
acquisition. In their view, this means that second language acquisition has
to be explained by some other theory, perhaps one of the more recent
psychological theories described below.
Even those who believe that UG has an important explanatory role in SLA
do not agree on how UG works in second language development. Some
argue that, even if second language learners begin learning the second
language after the end of the critical period and even if many fail to
achieve complete mastery of the target language, there is still a logical
problem of (second) language acquisition: learners eventually know more
about the language than they could reasonably have learned if they had to
depend entirely on the input they are exposed to. They infer from this that
UG must be available to second language learners as well as to first
language learners. Some of the theorists who hold this view claim that the
46
nature and availability of UG in SLA is no different from that which is

hypothesized to guide first language learners. Others argue that UG may
be present and available to the second language learners, but that it’s
exact nature as been altered by the acquisition of other languages.
Researchers working within the UG framework also differ in their

hypotheses about how formal instruction or error correction will affect
the learner’s knowledge of the second language. Some argue that, like
young children, adult second language learners neither need nor benefit
from error correction and metalinguistic information. They conclude that
these things change only the superficial appearence perfomance and do
not really affect the underlying systematic knowledge of the new
language (Schwartz 1993 and see the discussion of Krashen’s theory, on
next pages). Other UG linguists, especially those who think that UG has
been affected by the prior acquisition of the first language, suggest that
second language learners may need to be given some explicit information
about what is not grammatical in the second. Otherwise, they may assume
that some structures of the first language have equivalents in the second
language when, in fact, they do not.
Researchers who study SLA from the UG perspective are usually

interested in the language competence (knowledge) of advanced learners
rather than in the simple language of early stage learners. They argue
that, while a variety of different theories might be sufficient to explain
some early language perfomance (use), a theory such as UG is necessary
to explain learners’ knowledge of complex syntax. They are interested in
whether the competence which underlies the language perfomance of
second language learners resembles the competence which underlies the
language perfomance of native speakers. Thus their investigations often
involve comparing the judgements of grammatically made by two groups,
rather than observations of actual speaking. In doing this, they hope to
gain insight into what learners actually know about the language, using a
task which avoids at least some of the many things which affect the way
we ordinarily use language.

After reading the first part of this lesson I would like you to answer
the questions below
1. What are Chomsky´s claim on second language learning?

Activity 2
2. Outline the different views on the role the universal grammar on

second language learning?
47
Learning
Feedback
Great! Are your answers similar to the ones below? If not try to trace
the answers again in the reading text
1. Chomsky has not made specific claims about the implications of this
theory for second language learning. Nevertheless, some linguists
working within this theory have argued that Universal Grammar
offers the best perspective from which to understand second language
acquisition (SLA). Others argue that, although it is good framework
for understanding first language acquisition, UG is no longer
available to guide the acquisition of a second language in learners
who have passed the critical period for language acquisition. In their
view, this means that second language acquisition has to be explained
by some other theory, perhaps one of the more recent psychological
theories.
2. Those who believe that UG has an important explanatory role in SLA

do not agree on how UG works in second language development.
Some argue that, even if second language learners begin learning the
second language after the end of the critical period and even if many
fail to achieve complete mastery of the target language, there is still a
logical problem of (second) language acquisition: learners eventually
know more about the language than they could reasonably have
learned if they had to depend entirely on the input they are exposed
to. They infer from this that UG must be available to second language
learners as well as to first language learners. Some of the theorists
who hold this view claim that the nature and availability of UG in
SLA is no different from that which is hypothesized to guide first
language learners. Others argue that UG may be present and available
to the second language learners, but that it’s exact nature as been
altered by the acquisition of other languages.
2.3.1Krashen’s ‘monitor model’

Unit summary The second part of the lesson looks at Krashen’s five
models. Krashen’s monitor models are part of the innatist theory of
second language acquisition which has had a very great influence on
second language teaching practice. The Five ‘hypotheses’ constitute what
Krashen originally called the ‘monitor model’. He claims that research
findings from a number of different domains are consistent with these
hypotheses: (1) the acquisition-learning hypotheses; (2) the monitor
hypotheses; (3) the natural order hypotheses; (4) the input hypotheses;
and (5) the affective filter hypotheses.
48
a) The acquisition-learning hypotheses
According to Krashen, there are two ways for adult second language
learners to develop knowledge of second language: ‘acquisition’ and
‘learning’. In this view, we acquire as we are exposed to samples of the
second language which we understand. This happens in much the same
way that children pick up their frst language—with no conscious attention
to language form. We learn, on the other hand, via a conscious process of
study and attention to form and rule learning.
For Krashen, acquisition is by far the more important process. He asserts

that only acquired language is readily available for natural, fluent
communication. Further, he asserts that learning cannot turn into
acquisition. He cites as learned rules, while other speakers may ‘know’
rules but fail to apply them when they are focusing their attention on what
they are saying it.
b) The monitor hypothesis
Krashen argues that the acquired system acts to initiate the speaker’s
utterances and is responsible for fluency and intuitive judgements about
correctness. The learned system, on the other hand, acts only as an editor
or ‘monitor’, making minor changes and polishing what the acquired
system has produced. Moreover, Krashen has especified that learners use
the monitor only when they are focused more on being ‘correct’ than on
what they have to say, when they have sufficient time to search their
memory for the relevant rules, and when they actually know these rules!
Thus, writing may be more conducive than speaking to monitor use,
because it usually allows more time for attention to form. He maintains
that since knowing the rules only helps the speaker supplement what has
been acquired, the focus of language teaching should be on creating
conditions for ‘acquisitions’ rather than ‘learning’.
It is very difficult to show evidence of ‘monitor’ use. In any given

utterance, it is impossible to determine what has been produced by the
acquired system and what is the result of monitor use. Krashen’s claim
that language which is produced quickly and apparently spontaneously
must have been acquired rather than learned leaves us with a somewhat
circular definition.
c) The natural order hypothesis
Krashen based this hypothesis on the observation that, like first language
learners, second language learners seem to acquire the features of the
target language in predictable sequences. Contrary to intuition, the rules
which are easiest to state (and thus to ‘learn’) are not necessarily the first
to be acquired. For example, the rule of adding an –s to third person
singular verbs in the present tense is easy to state, but even some
advanced second language speakers fail to apply it in rapid conversation.
49
Learning
Further, Krashen observes that the natural order is independent of the

order in which rules have been learned in language classes. Most of
Krashen’s original evidence for this hypothesis came from the
‘morpheme studies’, in which learners’ speech was examined for the
accuracy of certain grammatical morphemes. While there have been
many criticisms of the morpheme studies, subsequent research has
confirmed that learners pass through sequences or stages in development.
d) The input hypothesis
Krashen asserts that one acquires languages in only one way—by

exposure to comprehensible input. If the input contains forms and
structures just beyond the learners current level of competence in the
language (what Krashen calls ‘i + 1’), then both comprehension and
acquisition will occur.
Krashen cites many varied lines of evidence for this hypothesis, most of
which appeal to intuition, but which have not been substantiated by
empirical studies. In recent years, he has emphasized the value of
undirected pleasure reading as a source of comprehensible input. While
he acknowledges that some people who are exposed to intensive
comprehensible input do not achieve high levels of proficiency in the
second language, he retains his convictions that input is the source of
acquisition. He points to the affective filter hypothesis to explain lack of
success when comprehensible input is available.
e) The affective filter hypothesis
The ‘affective filter’ is an imaginary barrier which prevents learners from

acquiring language from the available input. ‘Affect’ refers to such things
as motives, needs, attitudes, and emotional states. A learner who is tense,
angry, anxious, or bored may ‘filter out’ input, making it unavailable for
acquisition. Thus, depending on the learner’s state of mind or disposition,
the filter limits what is noticed and what is acquired. The filter will be
‘up’ (blocking input) when the learner is stressed, self-conscious, or
unmotivated. It will be ‘down’ when the learner is relaxed and motivated.
What makes this hypothesis attractive to practitioners is that it appears to

have immediate implications for classroom practice. Teachers can
understand why some learners, given the same opportunity to learn, may
be successful while others are not. It also appeals intuitively to those who
have tried unsuccessfully to learn a language in conditions where they felt
stressed or uncomfortable. One problem with the hypothesis, however, is
that it is difficult to be sure that affective factors cause the differences in
language acquisition. It seems likely that success in acquisition may in
itself contribute to more positive motivation or, in Krashen’s terms, to a
‘lowered affective filter’.
50
Krashen`s writing has been very influential in supporting communicative

language teaching (CLT), particularly in North America. On the other
hand, the theory has also been seriously criticized for failing to propose
hypotheses which can be tested by empirical research. Most teachers and
researchers see much of which is intuitively appealing in his views. There
is little doubt that communicative language teaching, with its primary
focus on using language for meaningful interaction and for accomplishing
tasks, rather than on learning rules, has won support from many teachers
and learners. Nevertheless, it will be seen in Chapter 6 that some
classroom-centred research shows that attention to language form may be
more important than Krashen acknowledges. We will also see that
instruction which focuses on language form can be incorporated within
communicative language teaching.

1. After reading the text above on Krashen’s monitor model can you try
to summarize the main idea in each of the five hypotheses
Activity 2
Feedback
Great! Were you able to tackle the following points? If so, well done
According to Krashen, there are two ways for adult second language
learners to develop knowledge of second language: ‘acquisition’ and
‘learning.’ For Krashen, acquisition is by far the more important process.
He asserts that only acquired language is readily available for natural,
fluent communication.
Concerning to the monitor model, Krashen argues that the acquired

system acts to initiate the speaker’s utterances and is responsible for
fluency and intuitive judgements about correctness. The learned system,
on the other hand, acts only as an editor or ‘monitor’, making minor
changes and polishing what the acquired system has produced.
In relation to the natural order of acquisition Krashen based this

hypothesis on the observation that, like first language learners, second
language learners seem to acquire the features of the target language in
predictable sequences. Contrary to intuition, the rules which are easiest to
state (and thus to ‘learn’) are not necessarily the first to be acquired.
51
Learning
Retaining the input hypothesis, Krashen asserts that one acquires

languages in only one way—by exposure to comprehensible input.
In relation to the affective filter, Krashen claims that the ‘affective filter’
is an imaginary barrier which prevents learners from acquiring language
from the available input. ‘Affect’ refers to such things as motives, needs,
attitudes, and emotional states. A learner who is tense, angry, anxious, or
bored may ‘filter out’ input, making it unavailable for acquisition.
In this lesson you read about the innatist view on second language
learning. The text started by outlining Chomsky´s view on how the
innatist view is valid for second language learning and then the text
outlined the view from some linguists working within this theory have
Summary argued that Universal Grammar offers the best perspective from which to
understand second language acquisition (SLA). The discussion went on
with the involvement of others scholars who argue that, although the
universal grammar (UG) is good framework for understanding first
language acquisition, it is no longer available to guide the acquisition of a
second language in learners who have passed the critical period for
language acquisition. In their view, this means that second language
acquisition has to be explained by some other theory, perhaps one of the
more recent psychological theories. Towards the end of the lesson you
read about Krashen’s monitor model and its contribution to the teories of
second language learning.
52
Lesson 4: Recent Psychological Theories
Information processing
Now you are going to read a text that discusses two of the recent
psychological theories to explain second language known as information
processing and connectionism.
explain the cognitive psychologist and connectionism views on

Lesson Outcomes
How long?
Cognitive psychologists working in an information processing model of

human learning and performance tend to see second language acquisition
as the building up of knowledge systems that can eventually be called on
automatically for speaking and understanding. At first, learners have to
pay attention to any aspect of the language which they are trying to
understand or produce. It is assumed that there is a limit to the amount of
information a human can pay attention to at one time. Thus, for example,
a learner at the earliest stages of second language will probably pay
attention to the main words in a message and not be able to also notice
the grammatical morphemes which are attached to some of those words.
Gradually, through experience and practice, learners become able to use
certain parts of their knowledge so quickly and automatically that they
are not even aware that they are doing it. This frees them to focus on
other aspects of the language which, in turn, gradually become automatic
(McLaughlin 1987). The performance which will eventually become
automatic may originate from intentional learning, for example in formal
study, but this is not always the case. Anything which uses up our mental
‘processing space’, even if we are not aware of it or attending to it ‘on
purpose’, is a possible source for information or skills which can
eventually be available automatically, if there has been enough practice.
Note that, in this context ‘practice’ is not seen as something mechanical,
but as something which involves effort on the part of the learner.
One theorist who has emphasized the role of ‘noticing’ in second

language acquisition is Richard Schmidt. He argues that everything we
53
Learning
come to know about the language was first ‘noticed’ consciously. This
contrasts sharply with Krashen’s views, of course. Schmidt, like the other
cognitive psychologists, does not assume that there is a difference
between acquisition and learning (Schmidt 1990).
In addiction to the development of automaticity through practice, some

psychologists suggest that there are changes in skills and knowledge
which are due to ‘restructuring’. This notion is needed to account for the
observation that sometimes things which we know and use automatically
may not be explainable in terms of a gradual build-up of automaticity
through practice. They seem rather to be based on the interaction of
knowledge we already have, or on the acquisition of new knowledge
which—without extensive practice—somehow fits into an existing system
and causes it to be transformed or ‘restructured’. This may lead to what
appear to be sudden bursts of progress for the learner, but it can also
sometimes lead to apparent backsliding when a systematic aspect of
learner language incorporates too much or incorporates the wrong things.
For example, when a learner finally masters the use of the regular –ed
ending to show the past tense, irregular verbs, which had previously been
‘practised’ correctly, may be affected. Thus, after months of saying ‘I
saw a film’, the learner may say ‘I seed’ or even ‘I sawed’, overapplying
the general rule.
Connectionism
As seen in the discussion of first language acquisition, connectionists,

unlike innatists, see no need to hypothesize the existence of a
neurological module which is designed for language acquisition alone.
Like most cognitive psychologists, connectionists attribute greater
importance to the role of the environment than to any innate knowledge
in the learner, arguing that what is innate is simply to ability to learn, not
any specifically linguistic structure.
Connectionists argue that learners gradually build up their knowledge of

language through exposure to thousands of instances of the linguistics
features they eventually learn. Thus, while innatists see the language
input in the environment mainly as a ‘trigger’ to activate innate
knowledge, connectionists see the input as the principal source of
linguistic knowledge. After hearing language features in specific
situational or linguistic contexts over and over again, learners develop
stronger and stronger mental or neurological ‘connections’ between these
elements. Eventually, see the presence of one situational or linguistic
element will activate the other(s) in the learner’s mind. This connections
may be very strong because the elements have occurred together very
frequently or they may be relatively weaker because there have been
fewer opportunities to experience them together. For example, learners
might get the subject-verb agreement correct, not because they know a
rule but because they have heard examples such as ‘I say’ and ‘he says’
so often that each subject pronoun activates the correct verb form.
54
As noted in unit 1, connectionism research has shown that a learning

mechanism, simulated by a computer program, can not only ‘learn’ what
it hears but can also generalize, even to the point of making
overgeneralization errors. These studies have so far dealt almost
exclusively with the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical
morphemes, that is, aspects of the language which even innatists will
grant may be acquired largely through memorization and simple
generalization. How this model of cumulative learning can lead to
knowledge of complex syntactic structures is a question which is
currently under investigation.

Look back at the text above and answer the following questions
1. How does the cognitive psychologist view second language learning?
2. How would the cognitive psychologist view early second language

Activity 2 learning?
3. How does the connectivist view second language learning?
Feedback
Did you face any difficulties in answering the questions above? I
hope not. Now compare your answers with the ones below. If you
find that you didn’t get most of the answers, go back to the text again
and find the answers.
1. Cognitive psychologists view second language acquisition as the

building up of knowledge systems that can eventually be called on
automatically for speaking and understanding. At first, learners have
to pay attention to any aspect of the language which they are trying to
understand or produce.
2. Learners in the earliest stages of second language learning will

probably pay attention to the main words in a message and not be
able to also notice the grammatical morphemes which are attached
to some of those words. Gradually, through experience and practice,
learners become able to use certain parts of their knowledge so
quickly and automatically that they are not even aware that they are
doing it.
3. Connectionists argue that learners gradually build up their

knowledge of language through exposure to thousands of instances
of the linguistics features they eventually learn. Thus, while innatists
see the language input in the environment mainly as a ‘trigger’ to
55
Learning
activate innate knowledge, connectionists the input as the principal

source of linguistic knowledge.
This lesson looked at the two of the recent psychological theories to

explain second language known as information processing and
connectionism. In the lesson we saw that the Cognitive psychologists
view second language acquisition as the building up of knowledge
Summary systems that can eventually be called on automatically for speaking and
understanding. While the Connectionists argue that learners gradually
build up their knowledge of language through exposure to thousands of
instances of the linguistics features they eventually learn. In the next
lesson we are going to read about the interactionist position in second
language.
56
Lesson 5: The Interactionist Position
This lesson is about the interactionist view on second language learning.
explain the interactionist view on second language learning;
describe the relationship between interaction and comprehensible

input and the characteristics of modified input
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
Some interactionist theorists, while influenced by psychological learning

theories, have developed their ideas mainly within SLA research itself.
Evelyn Hatch (1992), Teresa Pica (1994) and Michael Long (1983),
among others, have argued that much second language acquisition takes
place through conversational interaction. This is similar to the first
language theory that gives great importance to child-directed speech.
Michael Long’s views are based on his observation of interactions
between learners and native speakers. He agrees with Krashen that
comprehensible input is necessary for language acquisition. However, he
is more concerned with the question of how input is made
comprehensible. He sees modified interaction as the necessary
mechanism for this to take place (Long 1983). In this view, what learners
need is not necessarily simplifications of the linguistic forms but rather an
opportunity to interact with other speakers, in ways which lead them to
adapt what they are saying until the learner shows signs of understanding.
According to Long, there are no cases of beginning-level learners
acquiring a second language from native-speaker talk which has not been
modified in some way. In fact, he says, research shows that native
speakers consistently modify their speech in sustained conversation with
non-native speakers.
Long infers that modified interaction must be necessary for language

acquisition. This relationship has been summarized as follows:
1. Interactional modification makes input comprehensible;
57
Learning
2. Comprehensible input promotes acquisition.
Therefore,
3 Interactional modification promotes acquisition.
Modified interaction does not always involve linguistic simplification. It

may also include elaboration, slower speech rate, gesture, or the provision
of additional contextual cues. Some examples of these conversational
modifications are:
1. Comprehension checks—efforts by the native speaker to ensure that

the learner has understood (for example, ‘The bus leaves at 6:30. Do
you understand?’).
2. Clarification requests—efforts by the learner to get the native

speaker to clarify something which has not been understood (for
example, ‘Could you repeat please?’). These requests from the
learner lead to further modifications by the native speaker.
3. Self-repetition or paraphrase—the native speaker repeats his or her

sentence either partially or in its entirety (for example, ‘She got lost
on her way home from school. She was walking home from school.
She got lost.’)
Research has demonstrated that conversational adjustments can aid

comprehension. There is evidence that modification which takes place
during interaction leads to better understanding than linguistic
simplification or modification which is planned in advance. While some
recent research has shown that specific kinds of interaction behaviours
aid learning in terms of immediate production, more research is needed
on how access to modified interaction affects second language acquisition
in the long term.
Another perspective on the role of interaction in second language

acquisition is Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of human mental
processing. As we saw in unit 1, Vygotsky’s theory assumes that all
cognitive development, including language development, arises as a
result of social interactions between individuals. Extending Vygotskyan
theory to second language acquisition, Jim Lantolf and others claim that
second language learners advance to higher levels of linguistic
knowledge when they collaborate and interact with speakers of the
second language who are more knowledgeable than them, for example, a
teacher or a more advanced learner. Critical to Vygotsky’s theory is the
notion of the zone of proximal development, the level of performance
which a learner is capable of when there is support from interaction with
a more advanced interlocutor. This may be observed in a variety of
speech strategies used by more advanced speakers to create supportive
conditions for the second language learner to comprehend and produce
language (for example, repetition, simplification, modelling). One
example of this is the conversation below, reported by Richard Donato,
who investigated how adult learners of French were able to co-construct
language learning experiences in a classroom setting.
58
Speaker 1 … and then I’ll say … tu as souvenu notre anniversaire

de mariage … or
should I say mon anniversaire?
Speaker 2 Tu as …
Speaker 3 Tu as …
Speaker 4 Tu as souvenu… ‘You remembered?’
Speaker 5 Yea, but isn’t that reflexive? Tu t’as …
Speaker 1 Ah, tu t’as souvenu.
Speaker 2 Oh, it’s tu es
Speaker 1 Tu es
Speaker 3 Tu es, tu es, tu...
Speaker 1 T’es, tu t’es
Speaker 3 Tu t’es
Speaker 1 Tu t’es souvenu
(Donato 1994: 44)
According to Vygotskyan theorists, the difference between this

perspective and that of other researchers who also view interaction as
important in second language acquisition is that sociocultural theorists
assume that language acquisition actually takes place in the interactions
of learner and interlocutor, whereas other interactionist models assume
that input modifications provides learners with the linguistic raw material
which they will process internally and invisibly.

After reading the lesson above answer the following questions
1. How do Evelyn Hatch (1992), Teresa Pica (1994) and Michael Long
(1983) view second language learning?
Activity 2 2. What is the relationship between interaction and comprehensible
input?
3. Describe the characteristics of modified input.
59
Learning
Feedback
Did you find the questions difficult? I don’t think so. Now I want you
to compare your answers to the ones given below
1. Evelyn Hatch (1992), Teresa Pica (1994) and Michael Long (1983)
argued that much second language acquisition takes place through
conversational interaction. This is similar to the first language theory
that gives great importance to child-directed speech. Michael Long’s
views are based on his observation of interactions between learners
and native speakers. He agrees with Krashen that comprehensible
input is necessary for language acquisition. However, he is more
concerned with the question of how input is made comprehensible.
2. The relationship between interaction and comprehensive input is as

follows:
a) Interactional modification makes input comprehensible;
b) Comprehensible input promotes acquisition.
Therefore,
c) Interactional modification promotes acquisition.
3. The characteristics of modified input are as follow:
a) Comprehensions checks—efforts by the native speaker to

ensure that the learner has understood (for example, ‘The bus
leaves at 6:30. Do you understand?’).
b) Clarification requests—efforts by the learner to get the native

speaker to clarify something which has not been understood
(for example, ‘Could you repeat please?’). These requests
from the learner lead to further modifications by the native
speaker.
c) Self-repetition or paraphrase—the native speaker repeats his

or her sentence either partially or in its entirety (for example,
‘She got lost on her way home from school. She was walking
home from school. She got lost.’)
In this lesson we looked at the Interactionists view on second language

acquisition. We saw that the proponents of this theory emphasize the role
of the modification of interaction in conversation. This theory has helped
us to understand some of the ways in which learners can gain access to
Summary new knowledge about the language when they have support from an
interlocutor. However, we have also seen that critics of the interactionist
position argue that there is much which learners need to know which is
not available in the input, and so they put greater emphasis on innate
60
principles of language which learners can draw on.
Unit summary
In this unit you discussed the relationship between the theories of

language acquisition and the human mind. All of the theories discussed in
Summary this unit and in unit 1 use metaphors to represent this invisible reality.
Both linguists and psychologists draw some of their evidence from
neurological research. However, in light of the present state of technology
as well as research ethics, most of the research must be based on other
kinds of evidence.
Many claims from behaviourist theory were based on experiments with

animals learning a variety of responses to laboratory stimuli. Their
applicability to the natural learning of languages by humans was strongly
challenged by psychologists and linguists alike, primarily because of the
inadequacy of behaviourist models to account for the complexity
involved in language learning.
Information processing and connectionist research often involves

computer simulations or very controlled laboratory experiments where
people learn a specific set of carefully chosen linguists features, often in
an invented language. Many linguists argue that this does not entitle
connectionists to generalize to the complexities of normal human
language learning.
In contrast, the innatists draw much of their evidence from studies of the
complexities of the proficient speaker’s language knowledge and
performance and from analysis of their own intuitions about language.
Critics of this view argue that it is not enough to know what the final state
of knowledge is and more attention should be paid to the developmental
steps leading up to this level of mastery.
Interactionists emphasize the role of the modification of interaction in

conversation. This helps us to understand some of the ways in which
learners can gain access to new knowledge about the language when they
have support from an interlocutor. However, critics of the interactionist
position argue that there is much which learners need to know which is
not available in the input, and so they put greater emphasis on innate
principles of language which learners can draw on.
Researchers and educators who are hoping for language acquisition

theories which give them insight into language teaching are often
frustrated by the lack of agreement among the ‘experts’. But the
complexities of SLA, like those of first language acquisition, represent a
puzzle for linguistic, psychological, and neurological scientists which
will not soon be solved. Research which has theory development as its
goal has very important long-term significance for language teaching and
61
Learning
learning, but agreement on a ‘complete’ theory of language acquisition is

probably, at best, a long way off. Even if such agreement were reached,
there would still be questions about how the theory should be interpreted
for language teaching. Many teachers watch theory development with
interest, but must continue to teach and plan lessons and assess students’
performance in the absence of comprehensible theory of second language
learning.
There is growing body of ‘applied’ research being carried out within

these different theoretical frameworks, as well as others. This often starts
from observations of second language acquisition, in both ‘natural’ or
‘instructional’ settings. The research draws on a wide range of theoretical
orientations, sometimes explicitly stated, sometimes merely implied. It
may provide a more immediately accessible basis for teachers’ reflections
about teaching. In the following chapters, we will look at research which
as sought to explain the processes and outcomes of second language
acquisition in a variety of settings.
Assignment
Outline the similarities and differences between first and second language
learning. Then discuss if there is anything useful that can be derived from
first language acquisition that can be useful for classroom learning
Assignment
Assessment
TEST 1
The test below covers the main ideas in unit one and two
Assessment
Didactics of languages Test 1 (UNITS 1&2) Time: 90 minutes
62
1. Discuss the concept of first language acquisition. Don’t forget to

mention the types of language acquisition theories that you have
learnt.
2. Language is not a cultural artefact that we learn in the same way we

learn to tell the time or how Federal Governments work. Instead, it is
a distinct piece of biological make up of our brain… (Pinker´s thesis).
a) Elaborate on the theory of first language acquisition that would
support the statement above. Don’t forget to mention its
weakness.
3 Discuss the weak and strong version of the critical period

hypotheses.
4 Discuss the differences between learning a second language in a

formal and informal settings.
5 Discuss the concept of contrastive analysis. Don’t forget to mention

its weakness.
6 Give a summary of the main ideas in Krashen´s five central

hypothesis
Feedback
Great! I hope you didn’t face many difficulties in answering the
questions above. Now look at your answers and compare them with
the ones below
1. First language acquisition occurs when a child learns a language for

the first time.The two types of first language acquisition are
monolingual first language acquisition (when a learner is exposed to
one language and happens to learn that language), bilingual first
language acquisition (when a learner is exposed to two or more
languages and happens to learn them both).
2. The theory of first language acquisition that would support that

statement is the innatist position. It argues that people are biological
programmed to learn languages. Language develops in human beings
as any other biological functions. Its weakness is that it gives more
importance to the role of the biological aspects and minimizes the role
of the linguistic environment.
63
Learning
3. The weak version of the critical period states that children must learn
their first language before puberty, after that it can be difficult or
incomplete. The strong version argues that children must acquire their
first language before puberty, after that period it will be impossible.
4. In formal second language acquisition, learners learn the grammatical

rules of the language formally, in a classroom setting, with a teacher,
the time they are exposed to the language is limited and they are
obliged to use the language. In informal second language learning,
learners pick up the language in the environment, grammar rules are
learned subconsciously, there is no time limit for language learning
and learners can only speak when they feel they are ready to produce
the language.
5. The CAH predicts that where there are similarities between the first
language and the target language, the learner will acquire target-
will have difficulty. The weaknesses of the contrastive analysis are as
follow: not all errors predicted by the CAH are actually made.
Furthermore, many of the errors which learners do make are not
predictable on the basis of the CAH.
6. Krashen´s five hypotheses are as follow:
a) The acquisition and learning hypothesis, states that there are two
ways for adult second language learners to develop knowledge
of second language: ‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’. In this view, we
acquire as we are exposed to samples of the second language
which we understand. We learn, on the other hand, via a
conscious process of study and attention to form and rule
learning.
b) The monitor hypothesis which argues that the acquired system

acts to initiate the speaker’s utterances and is responsible for
fluency and intuitive judgements about correctness. The learned
system, on the other hand, acts only as an editor or ‘monitor’,
making minor changes and polishing what the acquired system
has produced
c) The natural order hypothesis argues that, like first language

learners, second language learners seem to acquire the features
of the target language in predictable sequences. Contrary to
intuition, the rules which are easiest to state (and thus to ‘learn’)
are not necessarily the first to be acquired. The natural order is
independent of theorder in which rules have been learned in
language classes.
d) The input hypothesis asserts that one acquires languages in only

one way—by exposure to comprehensible input. If the input
contains forms and structures just beyond the learners current
level of competence in the language (what Krashen calls ‘i + 1’),
then both comprehension and acquisition will occur.
64
e) The affective filter hypothesis which states that there is an

imaginary barrier which prevents learners from acquiring
language from the available input. ‘Affect’ refers to such things
as motives, needs, attitudes, and emotional states. A learner who
is tense, angry, anxious, or bored may ‘filter out’ input, making
it unavailable for acquisition. Thus, depending on the learner’s
state of mind or disposition, the filter limits what is noticed and
what is acquired. The filter will be ‘up’ (blockinginput) when the
learner is stressed, self-conscious, or unmotivated. It will be
‘down’ when the learner is relaxed and motivated.
65
Unit 3 Factors affecting second language learners
Unit 3
Factors affecting second

language learners
Introduction
In this unit, we will look at proposals for how differences among learners
may lead to differences in their learning success.
develop a broad undertanding on how intelligence, aptitude,personality,

age, motivation and attitudes affect second language learning.
Outcomes
Intelligibility: the degree to which a message can be understood
Aptitude: the natural ability to learn, not including

intelligence, motivation,etc.
Terminology
Personality: those aspects of an individual´s behaviour,
attitudes, beliefs, thought, actions and feelings
which are seen as typical and distinctive of a
person
Motivation: the factors that determine a person´s desire to do

something.
Attitude: Expressions of positive or negative feelings

towards something
66
Lesson 1: 3 Factors affecting second language learners
In unit 1, it was pointed out that all normal children, given a normal
upbringing, are successful in the acquisition of their first language. This
contrasts with our experience of second language learners, whose success
varies greatly. In this lesson you are going to read about the
characteristics of a good language learner and about research in second
language learning.
By the end of the lesson you should be able to
explain the characteristics which make one a good language learner

and you will be awre of the methods that researchers use to find out
about learners individual factors and the difficulties that these
instruments face in producing reliable results.
Lesson Outcomes
You will need 90 minutes do work on this lesson
How long?
Many of us believe that learners have certain characteristics which lead to

more or less successful language learning. Such beliefs are usually based
on anecdotal evidence, often our own experience or that of individual
people we have known. For example, many teachers are convinced that
extroverted learners who interact without inhibition in their second
language and find many opportunities to practise language skills will be
the most successful learners. In addiction to personality characteristics,
other factors generally considered to be relevant to language learning are
intelligence, aptitude, motivation, and attitudes. Another important factor,
as suggested in our discussion of the Critical Period Hypothesis for first
language acquisition, is the age at which learners begins.
In this unit, we will see whether anecdotal evidence is supported by

research findings. To what extends can we predict differences in the
success of second language acquisition in two individuals if we have
information about their personalities, their general and specific abilities,
their motivation, or their age?

67
Characteristics of the ‘good language learner’
It seems that some people have a much easier time of learning than
others. Rate of development varies widely among first language learners.
Some children can string together five-, six-, and seven-word sentences at
Activity 2.1 an age when other children are just beginning to label items in their
immediate environment. Nevertheless, all normal children eventually
master their first language.
In second language learning, it has observed countless times that, in the

same classroom setting, some students progress rapidly through the initial
stages of learning a new language while others struggle along making
very slow progress. Some learners never achieve native-like command of
a second language. Are there personal characteristics that make one
learner more successful than another, and if so, what are they?
The following is a list of some of the characteristics commonly thought to

contribute to successful language learning. In your experience, − as a
second language learner and as a teacher − what characteristics seem to
you most likely to be associated with success in second language
acquisition in the classroom? Which ones would you be less inclined to
expect in a successful learner?
In each case rate the characteristic as follows:
1 = Very important
2 = Quite important
3 = Important
4 = Not very important
5 = Not at all important.
A good language learner:
a) is a willing and accurate guesser 1 2 3 4 5
b) tries to get the message across even if specific
language knowledge is lacking 1 2 3 4 5
68
c) is willing to make mistakes 1 2 3 4 5
d) constantly looks for patterns in the language 1 2 3 4 5
e) practises as often as possible 1 2 3 4 5
f) analyses his or her own speech and the speech
of others 1 2 3 4 5
g) attends to whether his or her performance
meets the standards he or she has learned 1 2 3 4 5
h) enjoys grammar exercises 1 2 3 4 5
i) begins learning in childhood 1 2 3 4 5
j) has an above-average IQ 1 2 3 4 5
k) has good academic skills 1 2 3 4 5
l) has a good self-image and lots of confidence 1 2 3 4 5
Feedback
This activity aimed at exploring your beliefs on what constitute the
characteristics of a good language learner. At the end of this unit I
would like to invite you to look back to this activity and compare to
the knowledge you will have about the subject.
All of the characteristics listed above can be classified into five main
categories: motivation, aptitude, personality, intelligence, and learner
preferences.
69
However, many of the characteristics cannot be assigned exclusively to

one category. For example, the characteristic ‘is willing to make
mistakes’ can be considered a personality and/or a motivational factor if
the learner is willing to make mistakes in order to get the message across.
3.2 Research on learner characteristics

Perhaps the best way to begin our discussion is to describe how research
on the influence of learner characteristics on second language learning
has been carried out. When researchers are interested in finding out
whether an individual factor such as motivation affects second language
learning, they usually select a group of learners and give them a
questionnaire to measure the type and degree of their motivation. The
learners are then given a test to measure their second language
proficiency. The test and the questionnaire are both scored and the
researcher performs a correlation on the two measures, to see whether
learners with high scores on the motivation questionnaire also score high
on the test. If this is the case, the researcher concludes that high levels of
motivation are correlated with success in language learning. A similar
procedure can be used to assess the relationship between intelligence and
second language acquisition through the use of IQ tests.
Although this procedure seems straightforward, there are several

difficulties with it. The first problem is that it is not possible to directly
observe and measure qualities such as motivation, extroversion, or even
intelligence. These are just labels for an entire range of behaviours and
characteristics. Furthermore, because characteristics such as these are not
independent, it will come as no surprise that different researchers have
often used the same labels to describe different sets of behavioural traits.
For example, in motivation questionnaires, learners are often asked

whether they willingly seek out opportunities to use their second
language with native speakers and if so, how often they do this. The
assumption behind such a question is that learners who report that they
often seek out opportunities to interact with speakers of the second
language are highly motivated to learn. Although this assumption seems
reasonable, it is problematic because if a learner responds by saying ‘yes’
to this question, we may assume that the learner has more opportunities
for language practice in informal contexts. Because it is usually
impossible to separate these two factors (i.e. willingness to interact and
opportunities to interact), some researchers have been criticized for
concluding that it is the motivation rather than the opportunity which
makes the greater contribution to success.
Another factor which makes it difficult to reach conclusions about

relationships between individual learner characteristics and second
language learner is how language proficiency is defined and measured.
To illustrate this point let us refer once again to ‘motivation’. In the
second language learning literature, some studies report that learners with
higher level of motivation are more successful language learners than
those with lower motivation, while other studies report that highly
70
motivated learners do not perform any better on a proficiency test than

learners with much less motivation to learn the second language. One
explanation which has been offered for these conflicting findings is that
the language proficiency tests used in different studies do not measure the
same kind of knowledge. That is, in informal language learning settings,
highly motivated learners may be more successful when the proficiency
tests measure oral communication skills. In other studies, however,
highly motivated learners may not be more successful because the tests
are primarily measures of metalinguistic knowledge. Results such as
these imply that motivation to learn a second language may be more
related to particular aspects of language proficiency than to others.
Finally, there is the problem of interpreting the correlation of two factors

as being due to a casual relationship between them. That is, the fact that
two things tend to occur together does not necessarily mean that one
caused the other. While it may be that one factor influences the other, it
may also be the case that both are influenced by something else entirely.
Research on motivation is perhaps the best context in which to illustrate
this. Learners who are successful may indeed be highly motivated. But
can we conclude that they became successful because of their
motivation? It is also plausible that early success heightened their
motivation or that both success and motivation are due to their special
aptitude for language learning of the favourable context in which they are
learning.

1. What methods do researchers use to find out about learners individual

factor such as motivation etc?
2. Are the methods mentioned above reliable or straightforward in

measuring learners’ factors?
Activity 2
Feedback
1. Researchers use questionnaires to measure the type and degree of
their motivation or tests to measure their second language
proficiency.
2. There are several difficulties in using these methods because it is not

possible to directly observe and measure qualities such as motivation,
extroversion, or even intelligence because there are just labels for an
entire range of behaviours and characteristics. Furthermore, because
characteristics such as these are not independent, finally, there is the
problem of interpreting the correlation of two factors as being due to
a casual relationship between them.
71
In this lesson you have read about the characteristics of a good language
learner. You saw that characteristics such as motivation, aptitude,
personality, intelligence, and learner preferences cannot be assigned
exclusively to one category, that is, some categories tend to overlap. This
Summary fact makes it difficult to single out their importance when classifying the
characteristics of a good language learner. In this lesson you also read
about the methods used by researchers to find out about learners
individual factors and the difficulties that these instruments/methods
encounter in producing reliable results. The text outlined some of the
difficulties such as the difficulties in observing and measuring qualities
such as motivation, extroversion, or even intelligence in addition to the
fact that these characteristics are not independent and interpreting the
correlation between them is not easy.
72
Lesson 2:
3.3 Intelligence and aptitude

This lesson discusses the importance of intelligence and aptitude in
formal and informal language learning.
evaluate if people need to be intelligent or have language aptitude to

learn a language.
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
The term ‘intelligence’ has traditionally been used to refer the

performance on certain kinds of tests. These tests are often associated
with success in school, and a link between intelligence and second
language learning has sometimes been reported. Over the years, many
studies using a variety of intelligence (‘IQ’) tests and different methods of
assessing language learned have found that IQ scores were a good means
of predicting how successful a learner would be. Some recent studies
have shown that these measures of intelligences may be more strongly
related to certain kinds of second language abilities than to others. For
example, in a study with French immersion students in Canada, it was
found that, while intelligence was related to the development of French
second language reading, grammar, and vocabulary, it was unrelated to
oral productive skills (Genesee 1976). Similar findings have been
reported in other studies. What this suggests is that, while intelligence,
especially as measured by verbal IQ tests, may be a strong factor when it
comes to learning which involves language analysis and rule learning,
intelligence may play a less important role in classrooms where the
instructions focuses more on communication and interaction.
It is important to keep in mind that ‘intelligence’ is complex and

individuals have many kinds of abilities and strengths, not all of which
are measured by traditional IQ tests. In our experience, many students
whose academic performance has been weak have experienced
considerable success in second language learning.
73

Now I would like you to answer the following questions
1. Traditionally, what does the concept of intelligence stand for?
2. Does intelligence play an important role in informal second language

Activity learning?
Feedback
Great! Now compare your answers to the ones given below. How
many did you get right?
1. The term ‘intelligence’ has traditionally been used to refer the

with success in school.
2. Intelligence, especially as measured by verbal IQ tests, is said to be a

strong factor when it comes to learning which involves language
analysis and rule learning, intelligence may play a less important role
in classrooms where the instructions focuses more on communication
and interaction.
Now read this text that looks at the role of aptitude in second
language learning
3.4 Aptitude
There is evidence in the research literature that some individuals have an
exceptional ‘aptitude’ for language learning. Lorraine Obler (1989)
reports that a man, whom she calls CJ, has such a specialized ability. CJ
is a native speaker of English who grew up in an English home. His first
true experience with a second language came at the age of 15 when he
began learning French in school. CJ also studied German, Spanish and
Latin while in high school. At the Age 20, he made a brief visit to
Germany. CJ reported that just hearing German spoken for a short time
was enough for him to ‘recover’ the German he had learned in school.
Later, CJ worked in Morocco where he reported learning Moroccan
Arabic through both formal instruction and informal immersion. He also
spent some time in Spain and Italy, where he apparently ‘picked up’ both
Spanish and Italian in a ‘matter of weeks’. A remarkable talent indeed!
Learning quickly is the distinguishing feature of aptitude. The ‘aptitude’

factor has been investigated most intensively by researchers interested in
developing tests which can be used to predict whether individuals will be
efficient learners of a foreign language in a classroom setting the most
widely used aptitude tests are the Modern Language Aptitude Test
74
(MLAT) and the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB). Both tests
are based on the view that aptitude is composed of different types of
abilities:
(1) the ability to identify and memorize new sounds; (2) the ability to
understand the function of particular words in sentences; (3) the ability
to figure out grammatical rules from languages samples; and (4) memory
for new words. While earlier research revealed a substantial relationship
between performance on the MLAT or PLAB and performance in foreign
language learning, these studies were conducted at a time when second
language teaching was based on grammar translation or audiolingual
methods. With the adoption of a more communicative approach to
teaching, many teachers and researchers came to see aptitude as irrelevant
to the process of language acquisition. Unfortunately, this means that
relatively little research has actually explored whether having a skill such
as the ‘ability to identify and memorize new sounds’ is advantageous
when classroom instruction is meaning-oriented rather than focused on
drills or metalinguistic explanations.
Successful language learners may not be strong in all of the components

of aptitude. Some individuals may have strong memories but only
average abilities in the other components of aptitude. Ideally, one could
determine learners’ profiles of strengths and weakness and use this
information to place students in appropriate teaching programs. An
example of how this can be done is described by Majorie Wesche (1981).
In a Canadian language program for adult learners of French, students
were placed in an instructional program which was compatible with their
aptitude profile and information about their learning experiences.
Students who were high on analytic ability, but average on memory, were
assigned to teaching that focused on grammatical structures, while
learners strong in memory but average on analytic skills were placed in a
class where the teaching was organized around the functional use of the
second language in specific situations. Wesche reported a high level of
student and teacher satisfaction when students were matched with
compatible teaching environments. In addiction, some evidence indicated
that matched students were able to attain significantly higher levels of
achievement than those who were unmatched.
While few second language teaching contexts are able to offer such
choices to their students, teachers may find that knowing the aptitude
profile of their students will help them in selecting appropriate classroom
activities for particular groups of students. Or, if they do not have such
information, they may wish to ensure that their teaching activities are
sufficiently varied to accommodate learners with different aptitudes
profiles.

75
After reading the text, answer the following questions
1. What abilities make up the concept of aptitude?
2. Does aptitude play an important role in second language learning?

Activity Why?
Feedback
Now compare your answers to the ones given below. How many did
you get right? Great!
1. Aptitude is composed of the following types of abilities:(1) the

ability to identify and memorize new sounds; (2) the ability to
understand the function of particular words in sentences; (3) the
ability to figure out grammatical rules from languages samples; and
(4) memory for new words.
2. No. Because now with the adoption of a more communicative

approach to teaching, many teachers and researchers came to see
aptitude as irrelevant to the process of language acquisition.
This lesson discussed the importance of intelligence and aptitude in

formal and informal language learning. From the reading we came to the
conclusion that intelligence, especially as measured by verbal IQ tests, is
said to be a strong factor when it comes to learning which involves
Summary language analysis and rule learning, intelligence may play a less
important role in classrooms where the instructions focuses more on
communication and interaction. Concerning aptitude we saw that
nowadays with the adoption of a more communicative approach to
teaching, aptitude may not determine the success in second language
learning.
76
Lesson 3:
3.5 Personality
This lesson will discuss the concept of personality and its contribution to
success in language learning.
evaluate if personality is an important factor in language learning.
Lesson Outcomes
You will need 90 minutes to work on this lessson
How long?
A number of personality characteristics have been proposed as likely to

affect second language learning, but it has not been easy to demonstrate
their effects in empirical studies. As with other research investigating the
effects of individual characteristics on second language learning, different
studies measuring a similar personality trait produce different results. For
example, it is often argued that an extroverted person is well suited to
language learning. However, research does not always support this
conclusion. Although some studies have found that success in language
learning is correlated with learners’ scores on characteristics often
associated with extroversion such as assertiveness and adventurousness,
others have found that many successful language learners do not get high
score on measures of extroversion.
Another aspect of personality which has been studied is inhibition. It has

been suggested that inhibition discourages risk-taking which is necessary
for progress in language learning. This is often considered to be a
particular problem for adolescents, who are more self-conscious than
younger learners. In a series of studies, Alexander Guiora and his
colleagues found support for the claim that inhibition is a negative force,
at least for second language pronunciation performance. One study
involved an analysis of the effects of small doses of alcohol on
77
pronunciation (Guiora et al. 1972). They found that subjects who

received small doses of alcohol did better on pronunciation tests than
those who did not drink any alcohol. While results such as these are
interesting, as well as amusing, they are not completely convincing, since
the experiments are far removed from the reality of the classroom
situation. Furthermore, they may have more to do with performance than
with learning. We may also note, in passing, that when larger doses of
alcohol were administered, pronunciation rapidly deteriorated!
Several other personality characteristics such as self-esteem, empathy,

dominance, talkativeness, and responsiveness have also been studied.
However, in general, the available research does not have a clearly
defined relationship between personality and second language
acquisition. And, as indicated earlier, the major difficulty in investigating
personality characteristics is that of identification and measurement.
Another explanation which has been offered for the mixed findings of
personality studies is that personality variables may be a major factor
only in the acquisition of conversational skills, not in the acquisition of
literacy skills. The confused picture of the research on personality factors
may be due in part to the fact that comparisons are made between studies
that measure communicative ability and studies that measure grammatical
accuracy or metalinguistic knowledge. Personality variables seem to be
consistently related to the former, but not to the latter.
Despite the contradictory results and the problems involved in carrying

out research in the area of personality characteristics, many researchers
believe that personality will be shown to have an important influence on
success in language learning. This relationship is a complex one,
however, in that it is probably not personality alone, but the way in which
it combines with other factors, that contributes to second language
learning.

To sumarize the main idea in what you have just read, answer the
question below
1. Is there any relationship between personality and second acquisition?

Why?
Activity
Feedback
Was it easy to work out the answer? Now compare your answer to
the one provided below.
78
1. In general, the available research does not a clearly define a

relationship between personality and second language acquisition.
And, as indicated earlier, the major difficulty in investigating
personality characteristics is that of identification and measurement,
however, many researchers believe that personality may be an
important influence on success in language learning
This lesson has discussed the concept of personality and its contributionto
success in language acquisition. From the lesson we can come to the
conclusion that in general, the relationship between personality and
second language acquisition is not clear. And, as indicated earlier, the
Summary major difficulty in investigating personality characteristics is that of
identification and measurement, however, many researchers believe that
personality may be an important influence on success in language
learning.
Lesson 4:
3.6 Motivation and attitudes
This lesson discusses the role of motivation and attitudes in formal and
informal language learning.
explain the concept of motivation as viewed in second language learning

and outline the difference between integrative and instrumental
motivation.
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
There has been a great deal of research on the role of attitudes and
motivation in second language learning. The overall findings show that
positives attitudes and motivation are related to success in second
language learning (Gardner 1985). Unfortunately, the research cannot
indicate precisely how motivation is related to learning. As indicated
above, we do not know whether it is the motivation that produces
successful learning or successful learning that enhances motivation or
79
whether both are affected by other factors. As noted by Peter Skehan

(1989), the question is, are learners more highly motivated because they
are successful, or are they successful because they are highly motivated?
Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which

can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative needs
and their attitudes towards the second language community. If learners
need to speak the second language in a wide range of social situations or
to fulfil professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative
value of the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire
proficiency in it. Likewise, if learners have favourable attitudes towards
the speakers of the language, they will desire more contact with them.
Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972) coined the terms integrative
motivation to refer to language learning for personal growth and cultural
enrichment, and instrumental motivation for language learning for more
immediate or practical goals. Research has shown that these types of
motivation are related to success in second language learning.
On the other hand, we should keep in mind that an individual’s identity is

closely linked with the way he or she speaks. It follows that when
speaking a new language one is adopting some of the identity markers of
another cultural group. Depending on the learner’s attitudes, learning a
second language can be a source of enrichment or a source of resentment.
If the speaker’s only reason for learning the second language is external
pressure, internal motivation may be minimal and general attitudes
towards learning may be negative.
One factor which often affects motivation is the social dynamic or power
relationship between the languages. That is, members of a minority group
learning the language of a majority group may have different attitudes
and motivation from those of a majority group members learning a
minority language. Even though it is impossible to predict the exact effect
of such societal factors on second language learning, the fact that
languages exist in social contexts cannot be overlooked when we seek to
understand the variables which affect success in learning. Children as
well as adults are sensitive to social dynamics and power relationships.
3.6.1 Motivation in the classroom setting

In a teacher’s mind, motivated students are usually those who participate
actively in class, express interest in the subject-matter, and study a great
deal. Teachers can easily recognize characteristics such as these. They
also have more opportunity to influence these characteristics than
student’s reasons for studying the second language or their attitudes
toward the language and its speakers. If we can make our classrooms
places where students enjoy coming because the content is interesting and
relevant to their age and level of ability, where the learning goals are
challenging yet manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere is
supportive and non-threatening, we can make a positive contribution to
students’ motivation to learn.
80
Although little research has been done to investigate how pedagogy

interacts with motivation in second language classrooms, considerable
works has been done within the field of educational psychology. In a
review of some of this work, Graham Crookes and Richard Schmidt
(1991) point to several areas where educational research has reported
increased levels of motivation for students in relation to pedagogical
practices. Including among these are:
Motivating students into the lessons: At the opening stages of lessons

(and within transitions), it has been observed that remarks teachers make
about forthcoming activities can lead to higher levels of interest on the
part of the students.
Varying the activities, tasks, and materials: Students are reassured by

the existence of classroom routines which they can depend on. However,
lessons which always consist of the same routines, patterns, and formats
have been shown to lead to a decrease in attention and an increase in
boredom. Varying the activities, tasks, and materials can help to avoid
this and increase students’ interest levels.
Using co-operative rather than competitive goals: Co-operative learning

activities are those in which students must work together in order to
complete a task or solve a problem. These techniques have been found to
increase the self-confidence of students, including weaker ones, because
every participant in a co-operative task has an important role to play.
Knowing that their team-mates are counting on them can increase
students’ motivation.
Clearly, cultural and age differences will determine the most appropriate
way for teachers to motivate students. In some classrooms, students may
thrive on competitive interaction, while in others; co-operative activities
will be more successful.

Now refer back to the text and answer the following questions.
1. How is the concept of motivation viewed in second language

learning?
Activity 2. Outline the difference between integrative and instrumental
motivation?
Feedback
Did you get the answers to the two questions? If not refer to the
answers below.
81
1. In second language learning, motivation is viewed as a complex

phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’
communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language
community. If learners need to speak the second language in a wide
range of social situations or to fulfil professional ambitions, they will
perceive the communicative value of the second language and will
therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it.
2. The terms integrative motivation to refer to language learning for

personal growth and cultural enrichment, and instrumental motivation
for language learning for more immediate or practical goals.
This lesson discussed the role of motivation and attitude in formal and
informal language learning. From the reading it transpired that in second
language learning, motivation is viewed as a complex phenomenon which
can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative needs
Summary and their attitudes towards the second language community. We also saw
that if learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of
social situations or to fulfil professional ambitions, they will need to be
motivated to learn the language. Concerning the two types of motivation
we saw that the terms integrative motivation refer to language learning
for personal growth and cultural enrichment, and instrumental motivation
Lesson 5:
3.7 Learner preferences
This lesson looks at how different learners prefer to learn and what
influence them to learn in that way they do.
explain the concept of learning style; describe the different types of

learning styles and understand why learners to prefer to learn in one
way and not another.
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
Learners have clear preferences for how they go about learning new
material. The term ‘learning style’ has been used to describe an
individual’s natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing,
82
and retaining new information and skills (Reid 1995). We have all heard
people say that they cannot learn something until they have seen it. Such
learners would fall into the group called ‘visual’ learners. Other people,
who may be called ‘aural’ learners, seem to need only to hear something
once or twice before they know it. For others, who are referred to as
‘kinaesthetic’ learners, they need to add a physical action to the learning
process. In contrast to these perceptually based learning styles,
considerable research has focused on a cognitive learning style distinction
between field independent and field dependent learners. This refers to
whether an individual tends to separate details from the general
background or to see things more holistically. Another category of
learning styles is based on the individual’s temperament or personality.
While recent years have seen the development of many learning style
assessment instruments, very little research has examined the interaction
between different learning styles and success in second language
acquisition. At present, the only learning style that has been extensively
investigated is the field independence/dependence distinction. The results
from this research have shown that while field independence is related to
some degree to performance on certain kinds of tasks, it is not a good
predictor of performance on others.
Although there is a need for considerably more research on learning

styles, when learners express a preference for seeing something written or
for memorizing material which we feel should be learned in a less formal
way, we should not assume that their ways of working are wrong.
Instead, we should encourage them to use all means available to them as
they work to learn another language. At a minimum, research on learning
styles should make us sceptical of claims that a particular teaching
method or textbook will suit the needs of all learners.
3.8 Learner beliefs

Second language learners are not always conscious of their individual
learning styles, but virtually all learners, particularly older learners, have
strong beliefs and opinions about how their instruction should be
delivered. These beliefs are usually based on previous learning
experiences and the assumption (right or wrong) that a particular type of
instruction is the best way for them to learn. This is another area where
little work has been done. However, the available research indicates that
learner beliefs can be strong mediating factors in their experience in the
classroom. For example, in a survey of international students learning
ESL in a highly communicative program at an English-speaking
university, Carlos Yorio (1986) found high levels of dissatisfaction
among the students. The type of communicative instruction they received
focused exclusively on meaning and spontaneous communication in
group-work interaction. In their responses to a questionnaire, the majority
of students expressed concerns about several aspects of their instruction,
most notably, the absence of attention to language form, corrective
feedback, or teacher-centred instruction. Although this study did not
83
directly examine learner’s progress in relation to their opinions about the

instruction they received, several of them were convinced that their
progress was negatively affected by an instructional approach which was
not consistent with their beliefs about the best ways for them to learn.
Learner’s preferences for learning whether due to their learning style or

to their beliefs about how languages are learned, will influence the kinds
of strategies they choose in order to learn new material. Teachers can use
this information to help learners expand their repertoire of learning
strategies and thus develop greater flexibility in their ways of
approaching language learning.

After reading the lesson answer the question below
1. What does the term learning style stand for?
2. Describe the different types of learners you have read about in this
Activity 2 text.
3. What make learners to prefer to learn in one way and not another?
And what can teachers do to help learners to achieve their best?
Feedback
Is your answer similar to the one given below? If so, well done.
1. The term ‘learning style’ has been used to describe an individual’s

natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing, and
retaining new information and skills (Reid 1995).
2. The different types of learning styles I have read about in this lesson
are as follow: a) visual learners, those say that they cannot learn
something until they have seen it, b) ‘aural’ learners, those who seem
to need only to hear something once or twice before they know it, c)
‘kinaesthetic’ learners, those who need to add a physical action to the
learning process.
3. Learner’s preferences for learning are influenced by their learning

style or their beliefs about how languages are learned. Teachers can
use this information to help learners expand their repertoire of
learning strategies and thus develop greater flexibility in their ways of
approaching language learning.
84
This lesson looked at how different learners prefer to learn and what
influences them to learn in the way they do. From the reading we came to
the conclusion that learner’s preferences for learning are influenced by
their learning style or their beliefs about how languages are learned.
Summary Teachers can use this information that they have about their learners
learning styles to plan lessons that suit all types of learners.
Lesson 6:
3.9 Age of acquisition
The lesson that follows looks at the importance of age in language
learning.
By the end of this lesson students will be able to:
explain the critical period hypothesis view on second language

learning and evaluate if age affect any areas of second language
learning or not .
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
We now turn to a learner characteristic of a different type: age. This

characteristic is easier to define and measure than personality, aptitude, or
motivation. Nevertheless, the relationship between a learner’s age and his
or her potential for success in second language acquisition is the subject
of much lively debate.
It has been widely observed that children from immigrant families

eventually speak the language of their new community with native-like
fluency, but their parents rarely achieve such high levels of mastery of the
spoken language. To be sure, there are cases where adult second language
learners have distinguished themselves by their exceptional performance.
For example, one often sees reference to Joseph Conrad, a native speaker
of Polish who became a major writer in the English language. Many adult
second language learners become capable of communicating very
85
successfully in the language but, for most, differences of accent, word

choice, or grammatical features distinguish them from native speakers
and from second language speakers who began learning the language
while they were very young.
One explanation for this difference is that, as in first language acquisition,

there is a critical period for second language acquisition. As discussed in
unit 1, the Critical Period Hypothesis suggests that there is a time in
human development when the brain is predisposed for success in
language learning. Developmental changes in the brain, it is argued,
affect the nature of language acquisition. According to this view,
language learning which occurs after the end of the critical period may
not be based on the innate biological structures believed to contribute to
first language acquisition or second language acquisition in early
childhood. Rather, older learners depend on more general learning
abilities − the same ones they might use to learn other kinds or skills of
information. It is argued that these general learning abilities are not as
successful for language learning as the more specific, innate capacities
which are available to the young child. It is most often claimed that the
critical period ends somewhere around puberty, but some researchers
suggest it could be even earlier.
Of course, as we saw in unit 2, it is difficult to compare children and

adults as second language learners. In addiction to the possible biological
differences suggested by the Critical Period Hypothesis, the conditions
for language learning are often very different. Younger learners in
informal language learning environments usually have more time to
devote to learning language. They often have more opportunities to hear
and to use the language in environments where they do not experience
strong pressure to speak fluently and accurately from the very beginning.
Furthermore, their early imperfect efforts are often praised or, at least,
accepted. On the other hand, older learners are often in situations which
demand much more complex language and the expression of much more
complicated ideas. Adults are often embarrassed by their lack of mastery
of the language and they may develop a sense of inadequacy after
experiences of frustration in trying to say exactly what they mean.
The Critical Period Hypothesis has been challenged in recent years from
several different points of view. Some studies of the second language
development of older and younger learners who are learning in similar
circumstances have shown that, at least in the early stages of second
language development, older learners are more efficient than younger
learners. In educational research, it has been reported that learners who
began learning a second language at the primary school level did not fare
better in the long run than those who began in early adolescence.
Furthermore, there are countless, anecdotes about older learners
(adolescents and adults) who have reached high levels of proficiency in a
second language. Does this mean that there is no critical period for
second language acquisition?
In the following sections, we will review some studies designed to

investigate the Critical Period Hypothesis as it relates to second language
learning.
86
3.9.1 Critical Period Hypothesis: More than just

accent?
Most studies of the relationship between age of acquisition and second

language development have focused on learners’ phonological
(pronunciation) achievement. In general, these studies have concluded
that older learners almost inevitably have a noticeable ‘foreign accent’.
Is younger really better?
In 1978, Catherine snow and Marian Hoefnagel-Höhle published an

article based on a research project they had carried out in Holland. They
had studied the progress of a group of English speakers who were
learning Dutch as second language. What made their research especially
valuable was that the learners they were following included children as
young as three years old as well as older children, adolescents, and adults.
Furthermore, a large number of tasks were used, to measure different

types of language use and language knowledge.
Pronunciation was tested by having learners pronounce 80 Dutch words

twice: the first time immediately after hearing a native speaker say the
word; the second time, a few minutes later, they were asked to say the
word represented in a picture, without a model to imitate. Tape
recordings of the learners were rated by the native speaker of Dutch on a
six-point scale.
In an auditory discrimination test, learners saw pictures of four objects.

In each group of four there were two whose names formed a minimal
pair, that is, alike except for one sound (an example in English would be
‘ship’ and ‘sheep’). Learners heard one of the words and were asked to
indicate which picture was named by the word they heard.
Morphology was tested using a procedure like the ‘wug test’, which
required learners to complete sentences by adding the correct
grammatical markers to words which were supplied by the researchers.
Again, to take an example from English, learners were asked to complete
sentences such as ‘Here is one boy. Now there are two of them. There are
two_____.’
The sentence repetition, task required learners to repeat 37 sentences of

increasing length and grammatical complexity.
For sentence translation, learners were given 60 sentences to translate

from English to Dutch. A point was given for each grammatical structure
which was rendered into the correct Dutch equivalent.
In the sentence judgement task, learners were to judge which of two

sentences was better. The same content was expressed in both sentences,
but one sentence was grammatically correct while the other contained
errors.
87
In the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, learners saw four pictures and
heard one isolated word. Their task was to indicate which picture
matched the word spoken by the tester.
For the story comprehension task, learners heard a story in Dutch and
were then asked to retell the story in English or Dutch (according to their
preference).
Finally, the storytelling task required learners to tell a story in Dutch,

using a set of pictures they were given. Rate of delivery of speech
mattered more than the expression of content or formal accuracy.
The learners were divided into several age groups, but for our discussions
we will divide them into just three groups: children (aged 3 to 10),
adolescents (12 to 15years), and adults (18 to 60years). The children and
adolescents all attended Dutch schools. Some of the adults worked in
Dutch work environments, but most of their Dutch colleagues spoke
English well. Other adults were parents who did not work outside their
homes and thus had somewhat less contact with Dutch than most of the
other subjects.
The learners were tested three times, at four-to-five-month intervals.

They were first tested within six months of their arrival in Holland and
within six weeks of their starting school or work in a Dutch-language
environment.
At what age should second language instruction begin?
Even people who know nothing about the critical period research are
certain that, in school programs for second or foreign language teaching,
‘younger is better’. However, both experience and research show that
older learners can attain high, if not ‘native’, levels of proficiency in their
second language. Furthermore, it is essential to think carefully about the
goals of an instructional program and the context in which it occurs
before we jump to conclusions about the necessity − or even the
desirability − of the earliest possible start.
The role of the critical period in second language acquisition is still much
debated. For every researcher who holds that there are maturational
constraints on language acquisition, there is another who considers that
the age factor cannot be separated from the factors such as motivation,
social identity, and the conditions for learning. They argue that older
learners may well speak with an accent because they want to continue
being identified with their first language cultural group, and adults rarely
get access to the same quantity and quality of language input that children
receive in play settings.
Many people conclude on the basis of studies such as those by Patkowski

or Newport and Johnson that it is better to begin second language
instruction as early as possible. Yet it is very important to bear in mind
88
the context of these studies. They deal with the highest possible level of
second language skills, the level at which a second language speaker
indistinguishable from a native speaker. But achieving a native-like
mastery of the second language is not a goal for all second language
learning, in all contexts.
When the objective of second language learning is native-like mastery of

the target language, it is usually desirable for the learner to be completely
surrounded by the language as early as possible. However, as we saw in
unit 1, early intensive exposure to the second language may entail the loss
or incomplete development of the child’s first language.
When the goal is basic communicative ability for all students in a school
setting, and when it is assumed that the child’s native language will
remain the primary language, it may be more efficient to begin second or
foreign language teaching later. When learners receive only a few hours
of instruction per week, learners who start later (for example, at age 10,
11, or 12) often catch up with those who began earlier. We have often
seen second or foreign language programs which begin with very young
learners but offer only minimal contact with the language. Even when
students do make progress in these early-start programs, they sometimes
find themselves placed in secondary school classes with students who
have had no previous instruction. After years of classes, learners feel
frustrated by the lack of progress, and their motivation to continue may
be diminished. School programs should be based on realistic estimates of
how long it takes to learn a second language. One or two hours a week
will not produce very advanced second language speakers, no matter how
young they were when they began.

Now look at the questions below and find the answers in the text you
have just read.
1. What is the critical period hypothesis view on second language

learning?
Activity 2
2. Does age affect any areas of second language learning?
3.
Feedback
Are your answers similar to the ones below?
1. According to the critical period hypothesis, language learning

which occurs after the end of the critical period may not be based
on the innate biological structures believed to contribute to first
language acquisition or second language acquisition in early
89
childhood. Rather, older learners depend on more general

learning abilities − the same ones they might use to learn other
kinds or skills of information. It is argued that these general
learning abilities are not as successful for language learning as
the more specific, innate capacities which are available to the
young child.
2. Research showed that native-like mastery of the spoken language

is difficult to attain by older learners. Surprisingly, even the
ability to distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical
sentences in a second language appears to be affected by the age
factor.
This lesson discussed the concept of critical period hypothesis and the
importance of age in language learning. From the text it transpires that
second language learning is more influenced by other general abilities
rather than the biological structures.
Summary
Unit summary
In this unit you learned about how personal and general factors affect
second language learners. We learned that the learners age is one of the
factors which determine the way in which an individual approaches
Summary
But the opportunities for learning (both inside and outside the classroom),
the motivation to learn, and individual differences in aptitude for
language learning are also important determining factors in both rate of
learning and eventual success in learning. In this unit you have also
looked at ways in which intelligence, aptitude, personality and
motivational characteristics, learners’ preferences, and age have been
found to influence second language learning. You have learned that the
study of individual learner variables is not easy and that the results of the
research are not entirely satisfactory. This is partly because of the lack of
clear definitions and methods for measuring the individual characteristics.
It is also due to the fact that these learner characteristics are not
independent of one another. Nonetheless, in a classroom, a sensitive
teacher, who takes learner´s individual prsonalities and learning styles
into account, can create a learning environment in which virtually all
learners can be successful in learning a second language.
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Assessment
Test 2 Unit 3 (learner factors) Time: 90 minutes
Assessment
This test covers the content of the lessons in unit three only. Please
read the questions carefully and then provide the answers.
1. Traditionally, what does the concept of intelligence stand for?
2. What abilities make up the concept of aptitude?
3. Is there any relationship between personality and second acquisition?

Why?
4. How is the concept of motivation viewed in second language

learning?
5. Outline the difference between integrative and instrumental

motivation?
6. What does the term learning style stand for?
7. What is the critical period hypothesis view on second language

learning?
8. In your opinion, at what age should second language instruction

begin? Why?
Feedback
Well done! This test covered the most important ideas discussed in
unit three now compare your answers to the ones given below.
1. The term ‘intelligence’ has traditionally been used to refer the

with success in school.
2. Aptitude is composed of the following types of abilities:(1) the

ability to identify and memorize new sounds; (2) the ability to
understand the function of particular words in sentences; (3) the
ability to figure out grammatical rules from languages samples; and
(4) memory for new words.
3. In general, the available research does not a clearly define a

relationship between personality and second language acquisition.
And, as indicated earlier, the major difficulty in investigating
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personality characteristics is that of identification and measurement,

however, many researchers believe that personality may be an
important influence on success in language learning
4. In second language learning, motivation is viewed as a complex

phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’
communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language
community. If learners need to speak the second language in a wide
range of social situations or to fulfil professional ambitions, they will
perceive the communicative value of the second language and will
therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it.
5. The terms integrative motivation to refer to language learning for

personal growth and cultural enrichment, and instrumental motivation
6. The term ‘learning style’ has been used to describe an individual’s

natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing, and
retaining new information and skills (Reid 1995).
7. According to the critical period hypothesis, language learning which

occurs after the end of the critical period may not be based on the
innate biological structures believed to contribute to first language
acquisition or second language acquisition in early childhood. Rather,
older learners depend on more general learning abilities − the same
ones they might use to learn other kinds or skills of information. It is
argued that these general learning abilities are not as successful for
language learning as the more specific, innate capacities which are
available to the young child.
8. According to research studies such as those by Patkowski or Newport

and Johnson, it is better to begin second language instruction as early
as possible. Yet it is very important to bear in mind the context of
these studies is different from other settings throughout the world.
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Unit 4
Factors affecting second

language learners
Introduction
This unit presents and discusses well-known language-teaching methods
that are in use today. Some of these methods have been around for a long
time.
describe the history of english language teaching.
explain the different roles that teachers and students play within a
language class.
Outcomes
evaluate language teaching methods according to learners needs.
select teaching materials for different learning purpose.
manage large classes.
criticise different language teaching methods.
Approach: Different theories about the nature of language and

how language are learned.
Method: A way of teaching a language which is based on

Terminology
systematic principles and procedures.
Language A general term sometimes used to describe the

Pedagogy: teaching of a language as first, second or foreign.
Cognition: the various mental processes used in thinking,

remembering, perceiving, recognizing, classifying
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Lesson 1: Grammar translation method
In this lesson you are going to read about one of the oldest method of
language teaching which was first used to teach Latin and Greek.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
evaluate the fundamental reason for learning a foreign language using

the Grammar Translation Method;
to analyse if there any techniques of the Grammar-Translation

Method that can be used to teach second or foreign language
Lesson Outcomes
nowadays.
How long?
The grammar-translation method is not new. It has had different names,

but it has been used by language teachers for many years. At one time it
was called Classical Method since it was first used in the teaching of the
classical languages, Latin and Greek. Earlier in this century, this method
was used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign
language literature. It was also hoped that, trough the study of the
grammar of the target language, students would become more familiar
with the grammar of their native language and that this familiarity would
help them speak and write their native language better. Finally, it was
thought that foreign language learning would help students grow
intellectually; it was recognized that students would probably never use
the target language, but the mental exercise of learning it would be
beneficial anyway.
Let us try to understand the Grammar-Translation Method by observing a

class where the teacher is using it. The class is high-intermediate level
English class at university in Colombia. There are forty-two students in
the class. Two-hour classes are conducted three times a week.
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EXPERIENCE
As we enter the classroom, the class is in the middle of reading a passage
in their textbook. The passage is an excerpt entitled “the boys’ Ambition”
from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi. Each student is called on to
read a few lines from the passage. After he has finished reading, he is
asked to translate into Spanish the few lines he has just read. The teacher
helps him with new vocabulary items. When the students have finished
reading and translating the passage, the teacher asks them in Spanish if
they have any questions. One girl raises her hand and says, “What is
paddle wheel?” The teacher replies, “Es una rueda de paletas.” Then she
continues in Spanish to explain how it looked and worked on the
steamboats which moved up and down the Mississippi River during Mark
Twain’s childhood. Another student says, “No understand ‘gorgeous’”
The teacher translates, “primoroso.”
Since the students have no more questions, the teacher asks them to write
the answers to the comprehension questions which appear at the end of
the excerpt. The questions are in English, and the students are instructed
to write the answers to them in English as well. They do the first one
together as an example. A student reads out load, “When did Mark Twain
live?” Another student replies, “Mark Twain lived from 1835 to 1910.”
“Bueno,” says the teacher, and the students begin working quietly by
themselves.
In addition to questions that ask for information contained within the

reading passage, the students answer two other types of questions. For the
first type, they have to make inferences based on their understanding of
the passage. For example, one question is: “Do you think the boy was
ambitious? Why or why not?” The other type of question requires the
student to relate the passage to their own experience. For example, one of
the questions based on this excerpt asks them, “Have you ever thought
about running away from home?”
After one-half hour, the teacher, speaking in Spanish, asks the students to
stop and check their work. One by one each student reads a question and
then reads his response. If he is correct, the teacher calls on another
student to read the next question. If the student is incorrect, the teacher
selects a different student to supply the correct answer, or the teacher
herself gives the right answer.
Announcing the next activity, the teacher asks the students to turn the
page in their textbook. There is a list of words there. The introduction to
the exercise tells the students that these are words taken from the passage
they have just read. The students see the words “ambition,” “career,”
“wharf,” “tranquil,” “gorgeous,” “loathe,” “envy,” and “humbly.” They
are told that some of these are review words and that others are new to
them. The students are instructed to give the Spanish word for each of
them. This exercise the class does together. If no one knows the Spanish
equivalent, the teacher gives it. In part 2 of this exercise, the students are
given English words like “love,” “noisy,” “ugly,” and “proudly,” and
they are directed find the opposites of these words in the passage.
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When they have finished this exercise, the teacher reminds them that
English words that look like Spanish words are called “cognates.” The
English “-ty,” she says for example, often corresponds to the Spanish
endings –dad and –tad. She calls the students’ attention to the word
“possibility” in the passage and tells them this word is the same as the
Spanish posibilidad. The teacher asks the students to find other examples
in the excerpt. Hands go up; a boy answers; “Obscurity.” “Bién,” says the
teacher. When all of these cognates from the passage have been
identified, the students are told to turn to the next exercise in the chapter
and to answer the question, “What do these cognates mean?” there is a
long list of English words (“curiosity,” opportunity,” “liberty,” etc.),
which the students translate into Spanish.
The next session of the chapter deals with grammar. The students follow
in their books as the teacher reads a description of two-word or phrasal
verbs. This is a review for them as they have encountered phrasal verbs
before. Nevertheless, there are some new two-word verbs in the passage
that the students haven’t learned yet. These are listed following the
description, and the students are asked to translate them into Spanish.
Then they are given the rule for the use of a direct object with two-word
verbs:
If the two-word verb is separable, the direct object may come between the
verb and : its particle. However, separation is necessary when
the directed object is a pronoun.
If the verb is inseparable, then there is no separation of the verb and

particle by the
object. For example:
John put away his book.
or
John put his book away/John put it away.
but not
John put away it.
(because “put away” is a separable two-word verb)
The teacher went over the homework.
but not
The teacher went the homework over.
(because “go over” is an inseparable tow-word verb).
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After reading over the rule and the examples, the students are asked to
tell which of the following two-word verbs, taken from the passage, are
separable and which are inseparable. They refer to the passage for clues.
If they cannot tell from the passage, they use their dictionaries or ask
their teacher.
turn up wake up get up take in
run away fade out lay up
go away break down turn back
Finally, they are asked to put one of these phrasal verbs in the blank of
each of the ten sentences they are given. They do the first two together.
1. Mark Twain decided to _______ because his parents wouldn’t let

him get a job
on the river.
2. The steamboatmen _______ and discharge freight at each port on the

Mississippi
River.
When the students are finished with this exercise, they read their answers
aloud.
At the end of the chapter there is a list vocabulary items that appeared ion
the passage. The list is divided into two parts: the first contains words,
and the second, idioms like “to give some a cold shoulder.” Next to each
is a Spanish word or phrase. For homework, the teacher asks the students
to memorize the Spanish translation for the first twenty new words and
write a sentence in English using each word.
In the two remaining lessons this week, the students will be asked to:
1. Write out the translation of the reading passage into Spanish.
2. State the rule for the use of a direct object with two-word verbs,
and apply it to other phrasal verbs.
3. Do the remaining exercises in the chapter that include practice
with one set of irregular past participle forms. The students will
be asked to memorize the present tense, and past participle forms
of this irregular paradigm.
drink drank drunk
sing sang sung
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swim swam swum
ring rang rung
begin began begun
4. Write a composition about an ambition they have.

5. Memorize the remaining vocabulary items and write sentences for
each.
6. Take a quiz on the grammar and vocabulary of this chapter. They will
be asked to translate a Spanish paragraph about steamboats into
English.
Source: Freeman, D.L. (1986). Techniques and Principles in language

Teaching. Oxford: OUP.
You have now had an opportunity to examine the principles and

some of the techniques of the Grammar-Translation Method. Try to
make a connection between what you have understood and your own
teaching situation and beliefs.
Activity 1. Do you believe that a fundamental reason for learning a foreign
language is to be able to read the literature written in the target
language?
2. Do you think it is important to learn about the target language?
3. Should culture be viewed as consisting of literature and the fine arts?
4. 4Do you agree with any of the other principles underlying the
Grammar-Translation Method? Which ones?
5. Is translation a valuable exercise?
6. Is answering reading comprehension questions of the type described

here helpful?
7. Should grammar be presented deductively?
8. Are these or any of the other techniques of the Grammar-Translation

Method ones which will be useful to you in your own teaching?
Which ones?
98
Feedback
These are reflection questions, therefore, there is no one correct answer.
You should compare your beliefs on how languages are learnt and the
information from the text that you have just read.
You have now had an opportunity to examine the principles and some of
the techniques of the Grammar-Translation Method. You have seen that
for the proponents of the grammar translation method, the goal of foreign
language study is to learn a language in order to read its literature or in
Summary order to benefit from the mental discipline and intellectual development
that results from foreign-language study. Reading and writing are the
major focus. Accuracy is emphasized and grammar is taught deductively.
Lesson 2: The Direct Method
In this lesson you are going to read about the Direct Method.
evaluate the fundamental reason for learning a foreign language using the
Direct Method and;
to analyse if there any techniques of the Direct Method that can be

used to teach second or foreign language nowadays.
Outcomes
How long?
Introduction
As with the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method is not new.
Its principles have been applied by language teachers for many years.
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Most recently, it was received as a method when the goal of instruction

became learning how to use a foreign language to communicate. Since
the Grammar-Translation Method was not very effective in preparing
students to use the target language communicatively, the Direct Method
became popular.
The Direct Method has one very basic rule: No translation is allowed. In
fact, the Direct Method receives its name from the fact that meaning is to
be connected directly with the target language, without going through the
process of translating into the students’ native language.
We will now try to come to an understanding of the Direct Method by

observing an English teacher using it in a scuola media (lower-level
secondary school) class in Italy. The class has thirty students who attend
English class for one hour, three times a week. The class we observe is at
the end of its first year of English language instruction in a scuola media.
EXPERIENCE
The teacher is calling the class to order as we find seats toward the back
of the room. He has placed a big map of the United States in the front of
the classroom. He asks the students to open their books to a certain page
number. The lesson is entitled “Looking at a Map.” As the students are
called one by one, they read a sentence from the reading passage at the
beginning of the lesson. The teacher points to the part of the map the
sentence describes after each student has read his sentence. The passage
begins:
We are looking at the map of the United States. Canada is the country to
the north of the United States, and Mexico is the country to the south of
the United States. Between Canada and the United States are the Great
Lakes. Between Mexico and the United States is the Rio Grande River.
On the East Coast is the Atlantic Ocean, and on the West Coast is the
Pacific Ocean. In the East is a mountain range called the Appalachian
Mountains. In the West are the Rocky Mountains.
After the students finish reading the passage, they are asked if they have
any questions. A student asks what a mountain range is. The teacher turns
to the blackboard and draws a series of inverted cones to illustrate a
mountain range.
The students nods and says, “I understand.” Another student asks what
“between” means. The teacher replies, “You are sitting between Maria
Pia and Giovanni. Paolo is sitting between Gabriella and Cettina. Now do
you understand the meaning of ‘between’?” The student answers, “Yes, I
understand.”
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0
After all of the questions have been answered, the teacher asks some of
his own. “Class, are we looking at a map of Italy?”
The class replies in chorus, “No!”
The teacher reminds the class to answer in a full sentence.
“No, we aren’t looking at a map of Italy,” they respond.
The teacher asks, “Are we looking at a map of United States?”
“Yes, we are looking at a map of the United States.”
“Is Canada a state in the United States?”
“No, Canada isn’t a state. It is a country.”
“Are the Great Lakes in the North of the United States?”
“Yes, the Great Lakes are in the North.”
“Is the Mississippi a river or a lake?”
“The Mississippi is a river.”
“It’s a river. Where is it?”
“It’s in the middle of the United States.”
“What colour is the Mississippi river in the map?”
“It’s blue.”
“Points to a mountain range in the West. What mountains are they?”
“They are the Rocky Mountains.”
The question and answer session continues for a few more minutes.
Finally, the teacher invites the students to ask questions. Hands go up,
and the teacher calls on students to pose questions one at a time, to which
the class replies. After several questions have been posed, one girl asks,
“Where are the Appalachian Mountains?” Before the class has a chance
to respond, the teacher works with the students on the pronunciation of
“Appalachian.” Then he includes the rest of the class in this practice as
well, expecting that they will have the same problem with this long word.
After insuring that the students’ pronunciation is correct, the teacher
allows the class to answer the question.
Later another student asks, “What is the ocean in the West Coast?” The
teacher again interrupts before the class has a chance to reply, saying,
“What is the ocean in the West Coast? … or on the West Coast?” The
student hesitates, then says, “On the West Coast.”
“Correct,” says the teacher. “Now, repeat your questions.”
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“What is the ocean in the West Coast?”
The class replies in chorus, “The Ocean on the West Coast is the Pacific.”
After the students have asked about ten questions, the teacher begins
asking questions and making statements again. This time, however, the
questions and statements are about the students in the classroom and
contain one of the prepositions “on,” “at,” “to,” “in,” or “between,” such
as, “Antonella, is your book on your desk?” “Antonio, who is sitting
between Luisa and Teresa?” “Emanuela, points to the clock.” The
students then make up their own questions and statements and direct them
to other students.
The teacher next instructs the students to turn to an exercise in the lesson
which asks them to fill in the blanks. They read a sentence out loud and
supply the missing word as they are reading, for example:
The Atlantic Ocean is _____ the East Coast.
The Rio Grande is _____ Mexico and the United States.
Edoardo is looking _____ the map.
Finally, the teacher asks the students to take out their notebooks, and he
gives them a dictation. The passage he dictates is one paragraph long and
is about the geography of the United States.
During the remaining two classes this week, the class will:
1. Review the features of the United States geography.

2. Following the teacher’s directions, label blank maps with these
geographical features. After this, the students will give directions
to the teacher, who will complete a map on the blackboard.
3. Practice the pronunciation of “river,” paying particular attention
to the /I/ in the first syllable (and contrasting it with /i/) and to the
pronunciation of /r/.
4. Write a paragraph about the major geographical features of the
United States.
5. Discuss the proverb “Time is money.” Students will talk about
this in order to understand that Americans value punctuality.
They will compare this attitude with own view of time.

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2
Now that you have considered the principles and the techniques of
the Direct Method somewhat, see what you can find of use for your
own teaching situation.
1. Do you agree that the goal of target language instruction should be to

Activity teach students how to communicate in the target language?
2. Does it make sense to you that the students’ native language should
not be used to give meaning to the target language?
3. Do you agree that the culture that is taught should be about people’s
daily lives in addiction to the fine arts?
4. Should students be encouraged to self-correct?
5. Are there any other principles of the Direct Method which you
believe in? Which ones?
6. Is addiction a worthwhile activity?
7. Have you used questions-and-answer exercises and conversation

practice as described here before? If not, should you?
8. Is paragraph writing useful thing to ask students to do?
9. Should grammar be presented inductively?
10. Are there any other techniques of the Direct Method which you
would consider adopting? Which ones?
Feedback
In this lesson you read about the principles and the techniques of the
Direct Method. From the text it transpired that when teaching language
using the Direct Method, classroom instruction is conducted exclusively
in the target language; only everyday vocabulary and sentences are
Summary taught; grammar is taught inductively and both speech and listening
comprehension were taught.
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Lesson 3: The Audio-Lingual Method
In this lesson you are going to read about the Audio-Lingual Method.
Audio-Lingual Method and;
to analyse if there any techniques of the Audio-lingual Method that can

be used to teach second or foreign language nowadays.
Lesson Outcomes
How long?
Introduction
The Audio-Lingual Method, like the Direct Method we have just
examined, has a goal very different from that of the Grammar-Translation
Method. The Audio-Lingual Method was developed in the United States
during World War II. At that time that was a need for people to learn
foreign languages rapidly for military purposes. As we have seen, the
Grammar-Translation Method did not prepare people to use the target
language. While communication in the target language was the goal of
the Direct Method, there were at the time exciting new ideas about
language and learning emanating from the disciplines of descriptive
linguistics and behavioural psychology. These ideas led to the
development of the Audio-Lingual Method. Some of the principles are
similar to those of the Direct Method, but many are different, having been
based upon conceptions of language and learning from these two
disciplines.
In order to come to an understanding of this method, let us now enter a

classroom where the Audio-Lingual Method is being used. We will sit it
on a beginning level English class in Mali. There are thirty-four students,
thirteen to fifteen years of age. The class meets for one hour a day, five
days a week.
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4
EXPERIENCE
As we enter the classroom, the first thing we notice is that the students
are attentively listening as the teacher is presenting a new dialogue, a
conversation between two people. The students know they will be
expected to eventually memorize the dialogue the teacher is introducing.
All of the teacher’s instructions are in English. Sometimes she uses
actions to convey meaning, but not one word of the students’ mother
tongue is uttered. After she acts out the dialogue, she says:
“All right, class. I am going to repeat the dialogue now. Listen carefully,
but no talking please.
“Two people are walking along a sidewalk in town. They know each
other, and as they meet, they stop to talk. One of them is named Sally and
the other one is named Bill. I will talk for Sally and for Bill. Listen to
their conversation:
SALLY: Good morning, Bill.
BILL: Good morning, Sally.
SALLY: How are you?
BILL: Fine, thanks. And you?
SALLY: Fine, where are you going?
BILL: I’m going to the post office.
SALLY: I am too. Shall we go together?
BILL: Sure. Let’s go.
“Listen one more time. This time try to understand all that I am saying.”
Now she has the whole class repeat each of the lines of the dialogue after
her model. They repeat each line several times before moving on to the
next line. When the class comes to the line, “I’m going to the post
office,” they stumble a bit in their repetition. The teacher, at this point,
stops the repetition and uses a backward build-up drill (expansion drill).
The purpose of this drill is to break down the troublesome sentence into
smaller parts. The teacher starts with the end of the sentence and has the
class repeat just the last two words. Since they can do this, the teacher
adds a few more words, and the class repeat this expanded phrase. Little
by little the teacher builds up the phrases until the entire sentence is being
repeated.
TEACHER: Repeat after me: post office.
CLASS: Post office.
TEACHER: To the post office.
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CLASS: To the post office.
TEACHER: Going to the post office.
CLASS: Going to the post office.
TEACHER: I’m going to the post office.
CLASS: I’m going to the post office.
Through this step-by-step procedure, the teacher is able to give the

students help to producing the troublesome line. Having worked on the
line in small pieces, the students are also able to take note of where each
word or phrase begins and ends in the sentence.
After the students have repeated the dialogue several times, the teacher
gives them a chance to adopt the role of Bill while she says Sally’s lines.
Before the class actually says each line, the teacher models it. In effect,
the class is experiencing a repetition drill where the task is to listen
carefully and attempt to mimic the teacher’s model as accurately as
possible.
Next the class and the teacher switch roles in order to practice a little
more ,the teacher saying Bill’s lines and the class saying Sally’s. Then
the teacher divides the class in half so that each half gets to try to say on
their own either Bill’s or Sally’s lines. The teacher stops the students
from time to time when she feels they are straying too far from the model,
and once again provides a model, which she has them attempt to copy. To
further practice the lines of this dialogue, the teacher has all the boys in
the class take Bill’s part and all the girls take Sally’s.
She then initiates a chain drill with four of the lines from the dialogue. A
chain drill gives students an opportunity to say the lines individually. The
teacher listens and can tell which students are struggling and will need
more practice. A chain drills also lets students use the expressions in
communication with someone else, even though the communication is
very limited. The teacher addresses the student nearest her with, “Good
morning, Jose.” He, in turns, responds, “Good morning, teacher.” She
says, “How are you?” Jose answers, “Fine, thanks. And you?” The
teacher replies, “Fine.” He understands through the teacher’s gestures that
he is to turn to the student sitting beside him and greet her. That student,
in turn, says her lines in reply to him. When she has finished, she greets
the student on the other side of her. This chain continues until of the
students have a chance to ask and answer the questions. The last student
directs the greeting to the teacher.
Finally, the teacher selects two students to perform the entire dialogue for
the rest of the class. When they are finished, two others do the same. Not
everyone has a chance to say the dialogue in a pair today, but perhaps
they will sometime this week.
The teacher moves next to the second major phase of the lesson. She
continues to drill the students with language from the dialogue, but these
drills require more than simple repetition. The first drill the teacher leads
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6
is a single-slot substitution drill in which the students will repeat a

sentence from the dialogue and replace a word or phrase in the sentence
with the word or phrase the teachers gives them. This word or phrase is
called the cue.
The teacher begins by reciting a line from the dialogue, “I’m going to the
post office.” Following this she shows the students a picture of a bank
and says the phrase, “The bank.” She pauses, then says, “I am going to
the bank.”
From her example the students realize that they are supposed to take the
cue phrase (“The bank.”), which the teacher supplies, put it into its proper
place in the sentence.
Now she gives them their first cue phrase, “The drugstore.” Together the
students respond, “I am going to the drugstore.” The teacher smiles.
“Very good!” she exclaims. The teacher cues, “The park.” The students
chorus, “I am going to the park.”
Other cues she offers in turn are “the cafe,” “the supermarket,” “the bus
station,” “the football field,” and “the library.” Each cue is accompanied
by a picture as before. After the students have gone through the drill
sequence three times, the teacher no longer provides a spoken cue phrase.
Instead she simply shows the pictures one at a time, and the students
repeat the entire sentence putting the name of the place in the picture in
the appropriate slot in the sentence.
A similar procedure is followed for another sentence in the dialogue,

“How are you?” The subject pronouns “he,” “she,” “they,” and “you” are
used as cue words. This substitution drill is slightly more difficult for the
students since they have to change the form of the verb “be” to “is,”
“am,” or “are,” depending on which subject pronoun the teacher gives
them. The students are apparently familiar with the subject pronouns
since the teacher is not using any pictures. Instead, after going through
the drill a few times supplying oral cues, the teacher points to a boy in the
class and the students understand they are to use the pronoun “he” in the
sentence. They chorus, “How is he?” “Good!” says the teacher. She
points to a girl and waits for the class’s response, then points to other
students until all the subject pronouns are substituted in the sentence.
Finally, the teacher increases the complexity of the task by leading the
students in a multi-slot substitution drill. This is essentially the same type
of drill as the single-slot the teacher just used. However with this drill,
students must recognize what part of speech the cue word is and where it
fits into the sentence. The students still listen to only one cue from the
teacher. Then they must make a decision concerning where the cue word
or phrase belongs in a sentence also supplied by the teacher. The teacher
in this class starts off by having the students repeat the original sentence
from the dialogue, “I am going to the post office.” Then she gives them
the cue “she.” The students understand and produce, “She is going to the
post office.” The next cue the teacher offers is “to the park.” The students
hesitate first; then they respond by correct producing, “She is going to the
park.” She continues in this manner, sometimes providing a subject
pronoun, other times naming a location.
107
The substitution drills are followed by a transformation drill. This type of

drill asks students to change one type of sentence into another − an
affirmative sentence into a negative sentence or an active sentence into a
passive, for example. In this class, the teacher uses a substitution drill that
requires the students to change a statement into a yes/no-question. The
teacher offers an example, “I say, ‘She is going to the post office.’ You
make a question by saying, ‘Is she going to the post office?’”
The teacher models two more examples of this transformation, then asks,
“Does everyone understand? OK, let’s begin. ‘They are going to the
bank.’” The class replies in turn, “Are they going to the bank?” They
transform approximately fifteen of these patterns, and then the teacher
decides they are ready to move on to a question-and-answer drill.
The teacher holds up one of the pictures she used earlier, the picture of a
football field, and asks the class, “Are you going to the football field?”
She answers her own question, “Yes, I’m going to the football field.” She
poses the next question while holding up a picture of a park, “Are you
going to the park?” And again answers herself, “Yes, I’m going to the
park.” She holds up a third picture, the one of a library. She poses a
question to the class, “Are you going to the library?” They respond
together, “Yes, I am going to the library.”
“Very good,” the teacher says. Through her actions and examples, the
students have learned that they are to answer the question following the
pattern she has modeled. The teacher drills them with this pattern for the
next few minutes. Since the students can handle it, she poses the question
to selected individuals rapidly, one after another. The students are
expected to respond very quickly, without pausing.
The students are able to keep up with the pace, so the teacher moves on to
the next step. She again shows the class one of the pictures, a
supermarket this time. She asks, “Are you going to the bus station?” She
answers her own question, “No, I am going to the supermarket.”
The students understand that they are required to look at the picture and
listen to the question and answer negatively if the place in the question is
not the same as what they see in the picture. “Are you going to the bus
station?” The teacher asks while holding up a picture of a cafe. “No, I am
going to the cafe,” the class answers.
“Very good!” exclaims the teacher. After posing a few more questions
which require negative answers, the teacher produces the picture of the
post office and asks, “Are you going to the post office?” The students
hesitate a moment and then chorus, “Yes, I am going to the post office.”
“Good,” comments the teacher. She works a little longer on this question-
and-answer-drill, sometimes providing her students with situations that
require a negative answer and sometimes with situations that a positive
one. She calls on individuals now, smiling encouragement to each
student. She holds up pictures and poses questions one right after another,
but the students seem to have no trouble keeping up with her. The only
times she changes the rhythm is when a student seriously mispronounces
10
8
a word. When this occurs she restates the word and work briefly with the
students until his pronunciation is closer to her own.
For the final few minutes of the class, the teacher returns to the dialogue
with which she began the lesson. She repeats it once, then has the half the
class to her left do Bill’s lines and the half of the class to her right do
Sally’s. This time there is no hesitation at all. The students move through
the dialogue briskly. They trade roles and do the same. The teacher
smiles, “Very good. Class dismissed.”
The lesson ends for the day. Both the teacher and the students have
worked hard. The students have listened to and spoken only English for
the period. The teacher is tired from all her action, but she is pleased for
she feels the lesson went well. The students have learned the lines of the
dialogue and to respond without hesitation to her cues in the drill pattern.

We have looked at both the techniques and principles of the Audio-

Lingual Method. Try now to make the bridge between this book and
your teaching situation.
1. Does is it makes sense to you that language acquisition results from

Activity habit formation? If so, will the habits of the native language interfere
with target language learning?
2. Should the committing of errors be prevented as much as possible?
3. Should the major focus be on the structural patterns of the target

language?
Feedback
You should contrast your beliefs on how languages are learnt and the
We’ve looked at both the techniques and the principles of the Audio-
Lingual Method. From the reading text we can come to the conclusion
that for the proponents of the Audio-lingual method, foreign language
learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation; analogy
Summary provides a better foundation for language learning than analysis and the
meanings that the words of a language have for the native speaker can be
learned only in a linguistic and cultural context and not in isolation.
109
Lesson 4: The Total Physical Response Method
In this lesson you are going to read about the Total Physical Response
Method.
Total Physical Response Method and;
to analyse if there any techniques of the Total Physical Response

Method that can be used to teach second or foreign language
Lesson Outcomes
nowadays.
How long?
Introduction
The method we will consider in this lesson is an example of a new
general approach to foreign language instruction which has been named
“the comprehension approach.” It is called this because of the importance
it gives to listening comprehension. All the other methods we have
looked at have students speaking in the target language from the first day.
Methods consistent with the comprehension approach, on the other hand,
begin with the listening skill.
The idea of focusing on listening comprehension during early foreign

language instruction comes from observing how children acquire their
mother tongue. A baby spends many months listening to the people
around it long before it ever says a word. The child has the time to try to
make sense out of the sounds it hears. No one tells the baby that it must
speak. The child chooses to speak when it is ready.
There are several methods being practiced today that have in common an
attempt to apply these observations to foreign language instruction. What
the methodologists advocate doing during an initial listening period
varies from method to method. For example, in Krashen and Terrell’s The
Natural Approach (1983), the students listen to the teacher using the
11
0
target language communicatively from the beginning of instruction, and

communicative activities prevail throughout the course. The teacher helps
her students to understand her by using pictures and occasional words in
the students’ native language and by being as expressive as possible. In
many ways the Natural Approach is similar to the Direct Method, which
we examined in the previous lesson. One of the ways it is different,
however, is that the students are permitted to use their native language
along with the target language as they respond to the teacher. This frees
them to concentrate on listen comprehension. The teacher does not
correct any student errors during oral communication. In Winitz and
Reed’s self-instructional program and Winitz’ The Learnables, students
listen to tape-recorded words, phrases, and sentences while they look at
accompanying pictures. The meaning of the utterance is clear from the
context the picture provides. Stories illustrated by pictures are also used
as a device to convey abstract meaning. In the Total Physical Response
Method, students listen and respond to the spoken target language
commands of their teacher.
It is James Asher’s Total Physical Response Method we have chosen to

examine in detail here in order to see one way in which the principles of
the comprehension approach are put into practice. We will learn about
these through our usual way of observing a class in which the method is
being used. The class is located in Sweden. It is a beginning class for
thirty grade 5 students. They study English for one class period three
times a week.
EXPERIENCE
We follow the teacher as she enters the room and we take a seat in the
back of the room. It is the first class of the year so after the teacher takes
attendance, she introduces the method they will use to study English. She
explains in Swedish, “You will be studying English in a way that is
similar to the way you learned Swedish. You will not speak at first.
Rather, you will just listen to me and do as I do. I will give you a
command to do something in English and you will do the actions with
me. I will need four volunteers to help me with the lesson.”
Hands go up and the teacher calls on four students to come to the front of
the room and sit with her in chairs that are lined up facing the other
students. She tells the other students to listen and to watch.
In English the teacher says, “Stand up.” As she says it, she stands up and
she signals for the four volunteers to rise with her. They all stand up. “Sit
down,” she says and then all sit. The teacher and the students stand up
and sit down together several times according to the teacher’s command;
the students say nothing. The next time that they stand up together, the
teacher issues a new command, “Turn around.” The students follow the
teacher’s example and turn so that they are facing their chairs. “Turn
111
around,” the teacher says again and this time they turn to face the other
students as before. “Sit down. Stand up. Turn around. Sit down.” “Walk,”
and they all begin walking towards the front row of the students’ seats.
“Stop. Jump. Stop. Turn around. Jump. Stop. Turn around. Sit down.”
The teacher gives the commands and they all perform the actions
together. The teacher gives these commands again, changing their order
and saying them quite quickly. “Stand up. Jump. Sit down. Stand up.
Turn around. Jump. Stop. Turn around. Walk. Stop. Turn around. Walk.
Jump. Turn around. Sit down.”
Once again the teacher gives the commands; this time, however, she
remains seated. The four volunteers respond to her commands without
her. “Stand up. Sit down. Walk. Stop. Turn around. Turn around. Walk.
Turn around. Sit down.” The students respond perfectly. Next, the teacher
signals that she would like one of the volunteers to follow her commands
alone. One student raises his hands and performs the actions the teacher
commands.
Finally, the teacher approaches the other students who have been sitting
observing her and their four classmates. “Stand up,” she says and the
class responds. “Sit down. Stand up. Jump. Stop. Sit down. Stand up.
Turn around. Turn around. Jump. Sit down.” Even though they have not
done the actions before, the students are able to perform according to the
teacher’s commands.
The teacher is satisfied that the class has mastered these six commands.
She begins to introduce some new ones. “Point to the door,” she orders.
She extends her right arm and right index finger in the direction of the
door at the side of the classroom. The volunteers point with her. “Point to
the desk.” She points to her own big teacher’s desk at the front of the
room. “Point to the chair.” She points to the chair behind her desk and the
students follow.
“Stand up.” “The students stand up. “Point to the door.” The students
point. “Walk to the door.” They walk together. “Touch the door.” The
students touch it with her. The teacher continues to command the students
as follows: “Point to the desk. Walk to the desk. Touch the desk. Point to
the door. Walk to the door. Touch the door. Point to the chair. Walk to
the chair. Touch the chair.” She continues to perform the actions with the
students, but changes the order of the commands. After practicing these
new commands with the students several times, the teacher remains
seated and the four volunteers carry out the commands by themselves.
Only once do the students seem confused, at which point the teacher
repeats the command which causes difficult and performs the actions
with them.
Next the teacher turns to the rest of the class and gives the following
commands to the students sitting in the back row: “Stand up. Sit down.
Stand up. Point to the desk. Point to the door. Walk to the door. Walk to
the chair. Touch the chair. Walk. Stop. Jump. Walk. Turn around. Sit
down.” Although she varies the sequence of commands, the students do
not seem to have any trouble following the orders.
11
2
Next the teachers turns to the four volunteers and says, “Stand up. Jump
to the desk.” The students have never heard this command before. They
hesitate a second and then jump to the desk just as they have been told.
Everyone laughs at this sight. “Touch the desk. Sit on the desk.” Again,
the teacher uses a novel command, one they have not practiced before.
The teacher then issues two commands in the form of a compound
sentence, “Point to the door and walk to the door.” Again, the group
performs as it has been commanded.
As the last step of the lesson, the teacher writes the new commands on the
blackboard. Each time she writes a command, she acts it out. The
students copy the sentences from the blackboard into the notebooks.
The class is over. No one except the teacher has spoken a word.
However, a few weeks later when we walk by the room we hear a
different voice. We stop to listen for a moment. One of the students is
speaking. We hear her say, “Raise your hands. Show me your hands.
Close your eyes. Put your hands behind you. Open your eyes. Shake hand
with your neighbour. Raise your left foot.” We look in and see that the
student is directing the other students and the teacher with these
commands. They are not saying anything; they are just following the
students orders.

Now that we have had a chance to experience a Total Physical

Response class and to examine its principles and techniques, you
should try to think about how any of this will be of use to your own
teaching. Ask yourself the following questions:
Activity 2 1. Does it make sense to delay the teaching of speaking the target
language?
2. Do you believe that students should not be encouraged to speak until

they are ready to do so?
3. Should a teacher overlook certain students’ errors in the begining?
4. Which, if any, of the other principles do you agree with?
5. Would you use the imperative to present the grammatical structures

and vocabulary of the target language?
6. Would you like to dapt any of the techniques of the Total Physical
Response Method to your teaching situation?
113
Feedback
These are reflection questions therefore there is no one correct answer.
You should compare your beliefs on how languages are learnt with the
In this lesson you read about theTotal Physical Response. From the lesson
it became clear that the Total physical Response Method is based on three
influential learning hypotheses: (1) There exists a specific innate bio-
program for language lerning, which defines an optimal path for first and
Summary second language development. (2) Brain lateralization defines different
learning functions in the left- and right-brain hemispheres. (3) Stress (an
affective filter) intervenes between the act of learning and what is to be
learned; the lower the stress, the greater the learning.
Lesson 5: The Communicative Approach
In this lesson you are going to read about the Communicative approach.
evaluate the fundamental reason for learning a foreign language

using the Communicative approach and;
to analyse if every technique of the Communicative approach that

can be used to teach second or foreign language in the environment
Lesson Outcomes
where you teach.
How long?
11
4
Introduction
You may have noticed that originators of most of the methods discussed
in this book take as their primary goal enabling students to communicate
using the target language. Many of these same methodologists emphasize
the acquisition of linguistic structures or vocabulary. Adherents of the
communicative approach, which we will consider in this chapter,
acknowledge that structures and vocabulary are important. However, they
feel that preparation for communication will be inadequate if only these
are taught. Students may know the rules of language usage, but will be
unable to use the language.
When we communicate, we use the language to accomplish some

function, such as arguing, persuading, or promising. Moreover, we carry
out these functions within a social context. A speaker will choose way to
express his argument not only based upon his intent and his level of
emotion, but also on whom he is addressing and what his relationship
with that person is. For example, he may be more direct in arguing with
his colleague than with his employer.
Furthermore, since communication is a process, it is insufficient for

students to simply have knowledge of target language forms, meanings,
and functions. Students must be able to apply this knowledge in
negotiating meaning. It is through the interaction between speaker and
listener (or reader and writer) that meanings become clear. The listener
gives the speaker feedback as to whether or not he understands what the
speaker has said. In this way, the speaker can revise what he has said and
try to communicate his intended meaning again, if necessary.
Let us see how this notion of communication is put into practice in the
Communicative Approach. The class we will visit is one being conducted
for immigrants to the United States. These twenty people have lived in
the United States for two years and are at a high-intermediate level of
English proficiency. They meet two evenings a week for two hours each
class.
EXPERIENCE
The teacher greets the class and distributes a handout. There is writing on
both sides. On one side is a copy of a sports column from a recent
newspaper. The reporter discusses who he thinks will win the World Cup.
The teacher asks the students to read it and then to underline the
predictions the reporter has made. He gives them these and all other
directions in the target language. When the students have finished, they
read what they have underlined. The teacher writes the predictions on the
blackboard. Then he and the students discuss which predictions the
reporter feels more certain about and which predictions he feels certain
about.
115
Malaysia is very likely to win the World Cup this year.
Italy can win if they play as well as they have lately.
Czechoslovakia probably won’t be a contender.
England may have an outside chance.
Then he asks the students to look at the first sentence and to tell the class
another way to express this same prediction. One student says, “Malaysia
probably will win the World Cup.” “Yes,” says the teacher. “Any
others?” No one responds. The teacher offers, “Malaysia is almost certain
to win the World Cup.” “What about the next?” he asks the class. One
student replies, “It is possible that Italy will win the World Cup.” Another
student offers, “There’s a possibility that Italy will win the World Cup.”
Each of the reporter’s predictions is discussed in this manner. All the
paraphrases the students suggest are evaluated by the teacher and the
other students to make sure they convey the same degree of certainty as
the reporter’s original prediction.
Next, the teacher asks the students to turn to the other side of the handout.
On it are all the sentences of the article that they have been working on.
They are, however, out of order. For example, the first two sentences on
this side of the handout are:
England may have an outside chance. In the final analysis. The winning
team may simply be the one with the most experience.
The first sentence was in the middle of the original sports column. The
second was the last sentence of the original column. The teacher tells the
students to unscramble the sentences, to put them in their proper once
again. When they finish, the students compare what they have done with
the original on the other side of the handout.
The teacher next announces that the students will be playing a game. He
divides the class into small groups containing five people each. He hands
each group a deck of thirteen cards. Each card has a picture of a piece of
sports equipment. As the students identify the items, the teacher writes
each name on the blackboard: basketball, soccer ball, volleyball, tennis
racket, skis, ice skates, roller skates, football, baseball bat, golf clubs,
bowling bowl, badminton racket, and hockey stick.
The cards are shuffled and four of the students in a group are dealt three
cards each. They do not show their cards to anyone else. The extra card is
placed face down in the middle of the group. The fifth person in each
group receives no cards. She is told that she should try to predict what it
is that Dumduan (one of the students in the class) will be doing the
following weekend. The fifth student is to make statements like,
“Dumduan may go skiing this weekend.” If one of the members of his
group has a card showing skis, the group member would reply, for
example, “Dumduan can’t go skiing, because I have her skis.” If, on the
other hand, no one has the picture of the skis, then the fifth student can
make s strong statement about the likelihood of Dumduan going skiing.
She can say, for example, “Dumduan will go skiing.” She can check her
11
6
prediction by turning over the card that was placed face down. If it is the
picture of the skis, then she knows she is correct.
The students seem to really enjoy playing the game. They take turns
so that each person has a chance to make the predictions about how a
classmate will spend his or her time.
For the next activity, the teacher reads a number of predictions like
the following:
In 1992, a woman will be elected president of the United States.
By 2000, solar energy will replace the world’s reliance on fossil

fuels.
By 2050, people will be living on the moon.
The students are told to make statements about how probable they think
the predictions are and why they believe so. They are also asked how
they feel about the prediction. In discussing one of the predictions, a
student says he doesn’t think that it’s like that a world government will be
in place by the twenty-second century. The teacher and students ignore
his error and the discussion continues.
Next, the teacher has the students divide into groups of three. Since there
are twenty students, there are six groups of three students and one group
of two. One number of each group is given a picture strip story. There are
six pictures in a row on a piece of paper, but no words. The picture tells a
story. The student with the story shows the first picture to the other
members of his group, while covering the remaining five pictures.
The other students try to predict what they think will happen in the
second picture. The first student tells them whether they are correct or
not. He then shows them the second picture and asks them to predict what
the third picture will look like. After the entire series of pictures has been
shown, the group gets a new strip story and they change roles, giving the
first student an opportunity to work with a partner in making predictions.
The students are told to make statements about how probable they think
the predictions are and why they believe so. They are also asked how
they feel about the prediction. In discussing one of the predictions, a
student says he doesn’t think that it’s like that a world government will be
in place by the twenty-second century. The teacher and students ignore
his error and the discussion continues.
Next, the teacher has the students divide into groups of three. Since there
are twenty students, there are six groups of three students and one group
of two. One number of each group is given a picture strip story. There are
six pictures in a row on a piece of paper, but no words. The picture tells a
story. The student with the story shows the first picture to the other
members of his group, while covering the remaining five pictures.
The other students try to predict what they think will happen in the
second picture. The first student tells them whether they are correct or
not. He then shows them the second picture and asks them to predict what
117
the third picture will look like. After the entire series of pictures has been
shown, the group gets a new strip story and they change roles, giving the
first student an opportunity to work with a partner in making predictions.
For the final activity of the class, the students are told that they will do a
role-play. The teacher tells them that they are to be divided into groups of
hour. They are to imagine that they are all employees of the same
company. One of them is the others’ boss. They are having a meeting to
discuss what will possibly occur as a result of their company merging
with another company. Before they begin, they discuss some possibilities
together. They decide that they can talk topics such as whether or not
some of the people in their company will lose their jobs, whether or not
they will have to move, whether or not certain policies will change,
whether or not they will earn more money. “Remember,” reminds the
teacher, “that one of you in each group is the boss. You should think
about this relationship if, for example, he makes a prediction that you
don’t agree with.”
For fifteen minutes the students perform their role-play. The teacher
moves from group to group to answer questions and offer any advice on
that the group can discuss. After it’s over, the students have an
opportunity to pose any questions. In this way, they elicit some relevant
vocabulary words. They then discuss what language forms are
appropriate in dealing with one’s boss. “For example,” the teacher
explains, “what if you know that your boss doesn’t think that the vacation
policy will change, but you think it will. How will you state your
prediction? You are more likely to say something like ‘I think the
vacation policy might change,’ than ‘The vacation policy will change.’”
“What if, however,” the teacher says, “it is your colleague with whom
you disagree and you are certain that you are right. How will you express
your prediction then?” One student offers, “I know that the vacation
policy will change.” Another student says, “I am sure that the vacation
policy will change.” A third student says simply, “The vacation policy
will change.”
The class is almost over. The teacher uses the last few minutes to give the
homework assignment. The students are to listen to the debate between
two political candidates on the radio or watch it on television than night.
They are then to write their prediction of who they think will win the
election and why they think so. They will read these to their classmates at
the start of the next class.
11
8
Now that we have had a chance to experience a Communicative

Approach class and to examine its principles and techniques, you
should try to think about how any of this will be of use to your own
teaching. Ask yourself the following questions:
Activity 2 1. Do you agree with the expanded view of communicative
competence?
2. Is achieving communicative competence a goal for which you should

prepare your students?
3. Should a variety of languaage forms be presented at one time? Are

there times when you would emphasize fluency over accuracy?
4. Do these or any other principles of the Communicative Approach

make sense to you?
Feedback
After reading this lesson it is clear that for teachers using the
communicative approach, meaning is paramount; language learning is
learning to communicate; dialogueues center around communicative
functions and are not normally memorized; contextualization is a basic
Summary premise for language learning to take place and communicative
competence, i.e. the ability to use the linguistic system effectively and
appropriately is the desired goal for language learning.
Unit summary
In this unit you learned about some of the well-known language teaching
methods that are in use today. Now you should be able to look at the
Summary methods and approaches and select those that suit your learners'
communicative needs.
Compare the approaches and methods of language teaching you have

read about. Don’t forget to mention their strengh and weakness.
Assignment
119

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MODULE

Rua Comandante Augusto Cardoso, nº 135

Fax: +258 21-322113

Author: Lopés Nazaré

Instructional Designing: Andrea Serra

Language Review: Trindade Nahara

Graphic Designing: Fátima Alberto Nhantumbo

Edition: Anilda Ibrahimo Khan

Getting around this MODULE 8

About this Module

How this Module is structured

If the course is suitable for you.

What you will already need to know.

What you can expect from the course.

The overview also provides guidance on:

Where to get help.

Course assignments and assessments.

We strongly recommend that you read the overview carefully before

The course content

An introduction to the unit content.

Core content of the unit with a variety of learning activities.

Assignments and/or assessments, as applicable.

Course content and structure.

Course reading materials and resources.

Course support (assigned tutors, technical help, etc.)

Your constructive feedback will help us to improve and enhance this

Didactics of Language Module -is

You should be an upper- intermediate (the level of the Cambridge First

 provide overall accounts of the historical developments of English

 explain the difference between first and second language acquisition;.

 explain the characteristics of various teaching methods and

 identify approaches being followed by teachers in lessons being

You should spend at least 2 hours a day to read each lesson.

We recommend that you take time now—before starting your self-

Help Universidade Pedagógica - Centro de Educação Aberta e à Distância

Faculty of Languages: English Department

Rua: Comandante Augusto Cardoso no. 135 Maputo

Telephone: 21 420860-2 or 21 306720

Monday to Friday: 8:00 to 12:00

In each province there is a resource centre available and a local Provincial

We recommend that you go through all exercises indicated without

Throughout each lesson in every unit you will have to do exercises or

Getting around this MODULE

A complete icon set is shown below. We suggest that you familiarize

Activity Assessment Assignment Case study

Discussion Group activity Help Note it!

Outcomes Reading Reflection Study skills

Summary Terminology Time Tip

First Language Acquisition

Upon completion of this unit you should have:

explain the milestones and patterns in language development;

describe the main characteristics of early childhood bilingualism;

provide short accounts of developmental sequences in language

analyse the theoretical approaches to explaining first language learning;

describe the main characteristics of child directed speech.

Allomorph: any of the different forms of a morpheme

Automaticity: the ability to use a language using automatic

Metalinguistic: related to knowledge of the forms, structure and

Lesson 1: Introduction into First Language Acquisition

This lesson is about how children learn their first language.

By the end of the lesson you should be able to:

 describe early child vocalization;

 explain the main characteristics of child telegraphic language and

 describe the level of proficiency in young children.

provide overall accounts of the historical developments of English

explain the difference between first and second language acquisition;.

explain the characteristics of various teaching methods and

identify approaches being followed by teachers in lessons being

describe early child vocalization;

explain the main characteristics of child telegraphic language and

describe the level of proficiency in young children.

explain the main view of behaviourism into first language learning

outline the strength and weakness of behaviourism in explaining how

explain the innatist claim on first language learning;

describe role that the environment play in first language learning;

evaluate the critism of the behaviourist theory and understand