DISPELLING MYTHS

 In language teaching, we must practice and practice again

and again. Just watch a small child learning his mother
tongue. He repeats things repeatedly. During the language
learning stage, he practices all the time. This is what we must
also do when we learn a foreign language.

 Language learning is mainly a matter of imitation. You must

be mimic. Just like a small child. He imitates everything.

 First, we practice the separate sounds, then words, then

sentences. That is the natural order and is therefore right for
learning a foreign language.

 Watch a small child’s speech development. First, he listens,

then he speaks. Understanding always precedes speaking.
Therefore, this must be the right order of presenting the skills in
a foreign language.

 A small child listens and speaks and no one would dream of

making him read or write. Reading and writing are advanced
stages of language development. The natural order for first
and second language learning is listening, speaking, reading,
writing.

 You did not have to translate when you were small. If you
were able to learn you own language without translation, you
should be able to learn a foreign language in the same way.

 A small child simple uses language. He does not learn formal

grammar. You don’t tell him about verbs and nouns. Yet he
learns the language perfectly. It is equally unnecessary to use
grammatical conceptualization in teaching a foreign
language.

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 CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS
Claims that there is such a biological timetable.
Initially the notion of a critical period was connected only
to first language acquisition.
Critical point for second language acquisition occurs
around puberty, beyond which people seem to be
relatively incapable of acquiring a second language.

HEMISPHERIC LATERALIZATION
 As the human brain matures, certain functions appear to be
largely located in the LEFT HEMISPHERE, while the right
hemisphere controls functions related to emotional and social
needs.

 Lateralization is a slow process that begins around the age of

two and is completed around puberty.

 During this time the child is neurologically assigning functions

little to one side of the brain or the other; included in these
functions, of course, language.

THOMAS SCOVEL (1969)

 these findings to propose a relationship between
lateralization and second language acquisition. He
suggested that the plasticity of the brain prior to puberty
enables children to acquire not only their first language but
also a second language.

NORMAN GESCGWIND (1970)

 suggested a much earlier age.

STEPHEN KRASHEN (1973)

 cited the completion of lateralization around age five.

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 BIOLOGICAL TIMETABLES
Lower-order processes such as pronunciation are
dependent on early maturing and less adaptive
microneural circuits, which makers foreign accents difficult
to overcome after childhood.

Higher-order language functions, such as semantics

relations, are more dependent on late maturing neural
circuits, which may explain why college students can learn
many times the amount of grammar and vocabulary that
elementary school students can learn in each period of
time.

RIGHT HEMISPHERIC PARTICIPATION

OBLER (1981)
 noted that in second language learning, there is significant
right hemisphere participation and that this participation is
particularly active during the early stages of learning the
second language.

GENESEE (1982)
 conclude that there may be greater right hemisphere
involvement in language processing in bilinguals who acquire
their second language late relative to their first language and
in bilinguals who learn it in informal context.

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 ANTHROPOLOGICAL EVIDENDE
 Some adults have been known to acquire an authentic
accent in a second language after the age of puberty.

JANE HILL (1970)

 Yielded evidence that adults can in the normal course of their
lives, acquire second languages perfectly.

SORENSON (1967)
 People must marry outside their group and hence always
marry someone who speaks another language.

 That during adolescence, individuals actively and almost

suddenly began to speak two or three other languages to
which they had been exposed at some point.

 In adulthood person, may acquire more languages; as he

approaches old age, field observation indicates, he will go on
to perfect his knowledge of all the languages at his disposal.

COGNITIVE CONSIDERATIONS
 Sensorimotor stage (Birth to 2 yrs. Old)
 Preoperational Stage (ages 2 to 7 yrs. Old)
 Operational Stage (ages 7 to 16 yrs. Old)
 Concrete Operational Stage (ages 7 to 11 yrs. Old)
 Formal Operational Stage (ages 11 to 16 yrs. Old)

Young children are generally not aware that they are acquiring a
language, nor are they aware of societal values and attitudes
placed on one language or another.

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AFFECTIVENESS CONSIDERATIONS
 They develop inhibitions about self-identity, fearing to expose
too much self-doubt.

 As intellectual as we would like to think we are, we are

influenced by our emotions.

LINGUISTICS CONSIDERATIONS
BILINGUALISM – Children learn two languages
simultaneously acquire them by the use of similar
strategies.
 Coordinate Bilinguals – they have two meaning
system from which both languages operate.

 Compound Bilinguals – who have one meaning

system from which both languages operate.

 Code Switching – Communicating with another

bilingual.

INTERFERENCE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND

LANGUAGE
 Research confirms that the linguistic and cognitive
processes of second language learning in young
children are in general similar to first language processes.

 That similar strategies and linguistic features are present

in both first and second language learning in children.

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 INTERFER IN ADULTS
 Adult second language linguistics process are more
vulnerable to the effect of the first language on the
second.

ORDER OF ACQUISITION

HEIDI DULAY and MARINA BURT (1972) – claim

that transfer of L1 syntactic patterns rarely occurs in child second
language acquisition.

 They claim that children learning a second language use a

creative construction process, just as they do in their first
language.

CURRENT ISSUES IN SECOND

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
In second language acquisition (SLA) may be initially
approached as a multitude of questions that are being asked
about this complex process.
WHO – Who does the learning and teaching?

WHAT
– What is that the learner must learn, and the teacher teach?
– What does it mean when we say someone knows how to use a
language?
WHEN – When does second language learning take place?

WHERE – Where is the best place to learn the second language?

WHY – Why are learners attempting to acquire the second

language?

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Language Learning:
 It is a conscious process that takes place through formal
instruction of

There are several terms used to refer to additional

languages to the L1:
 Second Language.
It is the official language of a speech community, used mainly
in education, work and media. It is the language that other
minority groups of speakers must learn in order to
communicate.

 Foreign Language.
It is the language that is not part of the immediate social and
communicative context, but that is studied or learned
because of educational, cultural or working purposes.

 Target Language.
It is the language that a non-native speaker is in the process
of learning

LANGUAGE
Is a complex, specialized skill which develops in the child
spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction.

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 DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE
1. Language is systematic
– rule-governed

2. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols

– unpredictable

3. Those symbols are primarily vocal but may also be

visual.
Visual – gestures/symbols/signs
Vocal – with sound

4. The symbols have conventionalized meanings to

which they refer.

5. Language is used for communication.

6. Language operates in a speech community or culture

– inseparable

7. Language is essentially human, although possibly not

limited to humans
- Because language is unique because we say what we
want to say.

8. Language is acquired by all people in much the same

way, language learning both have universal
characteristics
– we acquire language unless we’re abnormal.

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 LEARNING AND TEACHING
LEARNING – is relatively permanent change in a behavioral
tendency and is the result of reinforced practice, (Kimble &
Garmezy, 1963)

TEACHING – which is implied in the first definition of learning

may defined as “showing or helping someone to learn how to do
something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something,
providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand .

DEFINITION OF LEARNING
1. Learning is acquisition or getting.

2. Learning is retention of information or skill.

3. Retention implies storage system, memory,

cognitive organization.

4. Learning involves active, conscious focus on and

acting upon events outside or inside the organism.

5. Learning is relatively permanent but subject to

forgetting.

6. Learning involves some from of practice, perhaps

reinforced practice.

7. Learning is a change in behavior.

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 STRUCTURALISM
Linguistics started to
be
studied as a science by
Ferdinand de Saussure, a
Swiss linguist.

Among his numerous

contributions, we can mention
the following:

 Language is a system that functions according to rules

established conventionally by speakers.

 The linguistic sign is the most elemental unit of language,

and it is composed by an acoustic aspect (signified) and
a semantic component (signifier)

 There is a distinction between ‘parole’ (the use of

language) and ‘langue’ (the theoretical system).

 This approach implied that language teaching was

centered on grammatical aspects, and in learning formal
linguistic elements and rules. Only by means of this
knowledge, are speakers able to use language correctly.
Along with these studies, there was research in
psychology, especially within the behaviorist approach.

 Language can be dismantled into small pieces or units

and these units could be described scientifically
contrasted and added up again to form the whole form.

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 BEHAVIORISM
B.F SKINNERS
thought, particularly in Verbal
Behavior (1957), in which he said
that any notion if “idea “or
“meaning” is explanatory fiction
and that the speaker is merely
the locus of verbal behavior, not
the cause.

CHARLES OSGOOD (1957)

reinstated meaning in VERBAL

BEHAVIOR explaining it as a
“representational mediation
process,” but still did not depart
from a generally nonmentalistic
view of language.

 BEHAVIORISTIC PARADIGM also focused on publicly

observable responses-those that can be objectively
perceived, recorded and measured.

 SCIENTIFIC METHOD was rigorously adhered to and

therefore such concepts as consciousness and intuition were
regarded as “mentalistic” illegitimate domains of inquiry.

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 BEHAVIORISTIC MODELS
1. Classical and Operant Conditioning.
2. Rote verbal learning
3. Instrumental learning
4. Discrimination learning
5. Empirical approaches to studying human behavior.

RATIONALISM AND COGNITIVE

PSYCHOLOGY

NOAM CHOMSKY (1964-63)

Trying to show that human
language cannot be scrutinized
simply in terms of observable stimuli
and responses or the volumes of
raw data gathered by field linguist.

GENERATIVE LINGUIST
– interested not only in describing
language (achieving the level of
descriptive adequacy) but also arriving at an explanatory level
of adequacy in the study of language, that is a “principled basis,
independent of any particular language, for the selection of the
descriptively adequate grammar of each language”.

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 FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE (1916)

Claimed that there was a difference between parole (what

Skinner’s observes and what Chomsky called performance)
and langue (the concept of competence, or our underlying
unobservable language ability)

 A language, Une Langue, is the virtual system possessed

by all those who form part of the same speech community
that makes it possible for them to understand and be
understood by other members of that community.

 LA PAROLE is the utterances, the texts, that individuals

produce and understand making use of the system that is
la langue.

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 DAVID AUSUBEL (1965)
 Ausubel believed that
understanding concepts, principles,
and ideas are achieved through
deductive reasoning. Similarly, he
believed in the idea of meaningful
learning as opposed to rote
memorization.

 He asserted that meaning,

understanding and knowing were
significant data for psychological study. Instead of
focusing rather mechanically on stimulus-response
connections, cognitivists tried to discover psychological
principles of organization and functioning.

 Ausubel believes that learning of new knowledge relies on

what is already known. That is, construction of knowledge
begins with our observation and recognition of events
and objects through concepts we already have. We learn
by constructing a network of concepts and adding to
them.

 Ausebel’s theory also focuses on meaningful learning.

According to his theory, to learn meaningfully, individuals
must relate new knowledge to relevant concepts they
already know. New knowledge must interact with the
learner’s knowledge structure.

 Accordingly, Ausubel believes that knowledge is

hierarchically organized; that new information is
meaningful to the extent that it can be related (attached,
anchored) to what is already known.

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 CONSTRUCTIVISM

 Is hardly a new school of thought.

 Constructivist argue that all human beings construct their own

version of reality. Their perspective in tis emphasis on the
beyond the rationalist/innatist.

JEAN PIAGET (1972)

 Stressed the importance of individual cognitive development

as a relatively solitary (Social Interaction) was claimed only to
trigger development at the right moment in time.

 A central component of Piaget's developmental theory of

learning and thinking is that both involve the participation of
the learner. Knowledge is not merely transmitted verbally but
must be constructed and reconstructed by the learner.

 Piaget asserted that for a child to know and construct

knowledge of the world, the child must act on objects and it
is this action which provides knowledge of those objects
(Sigel, 1977); the mind organizes reality and acts upon it.

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 LEV VYGOTSKY (1978)

 Described as a social constructivist, that social interaction

was foundational in cognitive development and rejected the
notion of predetermined stages.

 Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social

interaction in the development of cognition as he believed
strongly that community plays a central role in the process of
"making meaning."

Grammar Translation Method

 Known as Classical Method
 Was adopted as the chief means for teaching foreign
languages.

Characteristic of Grammar Translation

1. Classes are taught in the mother tongue with little active
use of the target language.

2. Much vocabulary is taught in the form of list of isolated

words.

3. Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar

are given.

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 4. Grammar provides the rules for putting words together and
instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of
words.

5. Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early.

6. Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are

treated as exercises in grammatical analysis.

7. Often the only drills are exercises in translating

disconnected sentences from the target language into the
mother tongue.

8. Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.

THEORIES OF FIRST
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

TABULA RASA – a clean slate bearing no preconceived

notions about the world or about language.

Rationalist/Cognitivist Approached

 Claimed that children come into this world with specific

innate knowledge.

Behaviorist Approached

 Language is a fundamental part of total human behavior.

 Focused on the immediately perceptible aspects of linguistics

behavior

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B.F SKINNER (1957) – known for his theory operant
conditioning.

OPERANT CONDITIONING - Refers to conditioning in

which the organism emits a response or operant.

Verbal Behavior – controlled by its consequences

Consequences Are Rewarding – behavior is maintained and is
increased in strength and frequency.

Consequences Are Punishing – there is a total lack of

reinforcement the behavior is weakened.

CHARLES OSGOOD (1953)

 Called the mediation theory a self-stimulation. A

representational meditation process that really convert
and invisible, acting within the learner.

MEDITATION THEORY – which meaning was accounted

for by the claim that the linguistic stimulus (a word sentence)
elicits a mediating response/self-stimulating.

NATIVIST APPROACH – Derived from the fundamental

assertion that language acquisition is innately determined. That
we are born with genetic capacity resulting in the construction
of language.

ERIC LENNEBERG (1967)

 Proposed that language is a species-specific behavior.

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NOAM CHOMSKY (1965)

 Claimed the existence of innate properties of language to

explain the child’s mastery of native language in such a
short time despite the highly abstract nature of the rules of
language.

MCNIELL (1966)

 Described LAD as consisting of four innate linguistic

properties.

LINGUISTIC/INNATIST THEORY OF
NOAM CHOMSKY

NOAM CHOMSKY
 Is perhaps the best known and the most influential linguist
of second half of twentieth century.

 He was made a number od strong claims about language.

 He rekindled the debate over whether language exists in

the mind before experience.

 Children are born with the UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR WIRED into

their brains.

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 When the child begins to listen to his parents, he will
unconsciously recognize which kind of a language he is
dealing with and he will set his “setting the parameters.

 The set of language learning tools; provided at birth is referred

to by Chomsky as the LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD)

 Principle of language are inborn not learned.

ASSUMPTION OF THE INNATIST THEORY:

 Every human child possesses innate knowledge of
language structured to detect and reproduce language.
That is, language acquisition depends on an unobservable
mechanism called LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE.

 Language learning is distinct from other cognitive

capacities.

 Young children learn and apply grammatical rules and

vocabulary as they are exposed to them and do not
require initial formal teaching.

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 JIM CUMMINS’THEORY ON SECOND
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
DR. JIM CUMMINS
 Is a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
of the University of Toronto where he works on language
development and literacy development of learners of English
as an additional language.

 He introduced the acronyms BICS and CALP that refer to a

distinction between basic interpersonal communicative skills
and cognitive academic language proficiency.

 The distinction was intended to draw attention to the very

different time periods typically required by immigrant
children to acquire conversational fluency in their second
language as compared to grade-appropriate academic
proficiency in that language.

 Conversational fluency is often acquired to a functional

level within about two years of initial exposure to the
second language whereas at least five years usually
required to catch up to native speakers in academic
aspects of the second language (Collier, 1987). (Klezmer,
1994) (Cummins, 1981).

BICS (Basic Interpersonal

Communication Skills)
 The social and conversational language that students first
learn to communicate orally in their second language.

 BICS are language skills needed in social situations.

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 It is the day-to-day language needed to interact socially with
other people.

 English language learners (ELLs) employ BICS skills when they

are on the playground, in the lunchroom, on the school bus,
at parties, playing sports and talking on the telephone.

WHAT IS SOCIAL LANGUAGE?

Language that develop (relatively easily) from social activities
(play, TV/movies/radio, informal or conversational
exchanges)
 Retelling events
 Talking about experiences
 Describing activities
 Giving personal opinions

Social language is Context-Embedded, that is,

comprehension is aided by context clues, like facial
expressions, body language, modelling or demonstrations,
visual clues.

Because it is embedded in social interaction, social language

is thought to be cognitively undemanding.

English language learners acquire BICS by:

Observing students and teachers’ non-verbal behaviors such
as gestures, facial expressions, eye movements and distances
between speakers.

Observing students and teachers’ reactions to social

conversation.

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 CALP (Cognitive Academic Language
Proficiency

It refers to developing proficiency in the “Context Reduced”

“language of the academic classroom or specialized text.

Academic language takes English language learners up to

seven or more years to become proficient.

Research shown that is a child has no prior schooling or has no

support in native language development, it may take seven to
ten years for ELLs to catch up to their peers. (Thomas & Collier,
2000)

WHAT IS ACADEMIC LANGUAGE?

The kind of abstract, higher-level academic discourse that
might be found in more formal settings, like a classroom

Forms of Academic Language Include:

 Computing and Contrasting

 Listing, defining, classifying
 Predicting, explaining, analyzing, justifying
 Inferring, deducting
 Integrating, evaluating
 Arguing, persuading, defending.

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  Typically, academic language is context-reduced, meaning
that there are fewer clues or supports to help students
comprehend content information.

 Because of the lack if environment clues, academic

language is thought to be more cognitively demanding than
social language.

CALP refers to formal academic learning.

 Includes listening, speaking, reading and writing about
subject area content material.

 Students need time and support to become proficient

in academic areas.

The reason that academic and technical language so

difficult for the ELL to master is that:
There are few if any non-verbal cues to provide a content for learning.
Academic and technical language, unlike interpersonal language, has a
higher degree of abstract concepts and content specific vocabulary.

EXAMPLE OF SOCIAL AND ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

SOCIAL LANGUAGE ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

What did you like about this book? Compare and contrast the main
character in the book?
Is there an easier way to do this? Can you propose and support an
alternative technique to facilitate
this procedure?
What do you think will happen? Can you formulate a hypothesis
that predicts the most probable
outcome?
What do you mean? What is reasoning here?

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 (CUP) COMMON UNDERLYING PROFICIENCY
 Researchers theorize that although the first and second
languages have different surface characteristics, they both
operate through a central processing system in the student’s
brain.
 Regardless of the language the person is using the thinking
behind the language production comes from the underlying
cognitive ability.
 Concepts is learned in one language are therefore
transferable to the second language.
 Speaking, listening, reading and writing in the first language,
therefore, helps the student develop the same skills in the
second language.
 Researchers believe that educators can help a student learn
more efficiently if they tap into the student’s prior academic
knowledge, concepts, vocabulary, word cognates and
grammatical structures from the first language to develop to
help develop fluency in the second language.
 This theory is illustrated through a visual representation known
as the ICEBERG MODEL

 In the iceberg model, the two icebergs are separated at the

top (representing the different surface features of the two
languages

 Under the water, the icebergs are attached, forming one

large iceberg, symbolizing the common underlying
(cognitive) proficiency that exists in bilingualism.

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Levie P. Alpos
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 CUP
LINGUISTIC INTERDEPENDENCE AND
LANGUAGE SKILLS CONCEPTS

acquire in L1 will from L1 transfer easily

develop more readily to L2.
in L2

TRANSFER

According to Cummins…
We dramatically increase our ELLs academic language when
we make their learning tasks

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 CONTEXT EMBEDDED
We produced lots of higher
supports and clues t0 Unlock
the meaning of the fact We
make the information more
comprehensive.
COGNITIVELY
DEMANDING
We have our students use
order thinking skills: analysis,
synthesis and evaluation.

Some example:
Academic presentation with visuals demonstration of a process,
hands-on activities. Making models, maps, charts, graphs using
math manipulatives illustrations accompanying word problem.

L1 & L2 function and Skills and abilities in

develop independently in
the brain and knowledge
and skills acquired in one
language are not
transferable to the other.
L1 confuses kids while
they’re learning L2
different language inhabit
the same part of the brain,
reinforcing each other at
the base while differing at
the surface.

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 STEPHEN KRASHEN’S THEORY OF
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Language acquisition does not require extensive use
conscious grammatical rules and does not require tedious
drill.

Who is STEPHEN KRASHEN?

 From University of Southern California. Expert in the field of
linguistics, specializing in theories of language acquisition
and development.

 Much of his recent research has involved the study of

language acquisition, during the past 20 years, he has
published will over 100 books and articles and has been
invited to universities throughout the United States and
Canada.

FIVE (5) HYPOTHESIS IN A THEORY OF SECOND

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
1. Acquisition-learning hypothesis
2. Monitor hypothesis
3. Natural order hypothesis
4. Input hypothesis
5. Affective filter hypothesis
 The hypothesis is contending that language development
is largely a result of acquisition and not learning.

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 ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS
Acquisition – is a subconscious process that leads to
fluency.

Learning – is a more conscious act that involves focus on

formal knowledge (rules) of the language.
 Learning a language versus acquiring it leads to grammatical
and mechanical knowledge of the language, but it does not
lead to fluency.

 The implication here is that second language learning s much

more like first language learning in which parents do not focus
in explicit instruction of the language, rather they focus on
communication and meaning.

MONITOR HYPOTHESIS
 The monitor hypothesis seeks to elucidate how the acquired
system is affected by the learned system.

 When second language learners monitor their speech, they

are applying their understanding of learned grammar to edit,
plan and initiate their communication.

 This action only occurs when speakers have ample time to

think about the form and structure of their sentences.

 The amount of monitoring occurs on a continuum.

 Some language learners over-monitor and some use very little

of their learned knowledge an are said to under-monitor.
Ideally speakers strike a balance and monitor at a level where
they use their knowledge but are not overly inhibited by it.

 He distinguishes those learners that use the ‘monitor’ all the

time (over-users) those learners who have not learned or who
prefer not to use their conscious knowledge (under-users) and

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 those learners that use ‘monitor’ appropriately (optimal
users).

 Usually introverts are under-users while introverts and

perfectionist are over-users. Lack of self-confidence is
frequently related to the over-use of the “monitor”.

NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS

 This hypothesis argues that there is a natural order to the way
second language learners acquire their target language.
Research suggest that this natural order seems to transcend
age, the learner’s native language, the target language and
the conditions under which the second language is being
learned.

1. They produce single word

2. They string words together based on meaning and not
syntax.
3. They began to identify elements that begin and end
sentences.
4. They began to identify different elements within sentences
and can rearrange them to produce questions.

COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT HYPOTHESIS

 Input must be at a level that slightly challenges the learners
but that is not so difficult that it overwhelms the learner.

 It is based on the notion that the learner can only acquire

language that she is able to understand.

 The task facing the teacher is to consider ways to make

information more comprehensible to the learner by using
strategies such as connecting new information to prior

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 knowledge and using gestures, drawing and other non-
linguistic cues to convey information.

 It is equally important that teachers not dummy down

information such that the learner is never challenged or
exposed to new linguistic forms in the new language.

 For the reason, this hypothesis is often referred to as the

(information + 1) hypothesis such as that the teacher is
constantly assessing a student’s current language and
considering when and how-to best challenge these.

 When learners are exposed to grammar a little beyond their

current level those grammatical features are “acquired”.

AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS

 This hypothesis argues that students acquire knowledge
through a filter that determines how much of a second
language a person learns.

 The filter is made up of factors such as attitudes, motivation,

self-confidence and anxiety.

 Likened to a car window when the filter is down information

can pass through and learning can occur.

 However, when there are high levels of anxiety the filter can
rise thus blocking information from reaching learners.
According to Krashen, the study of the structure of the language can
gave general educational advantages and values that high schools
and colleges may want to include in their language programs.

Levie P. Alpos
BSED – ENGLISH
ROBERT M. GAGNE (1956)
Proposed a system of classifying
different types of learning in terms
of degree of complexity of the
processes involved.

He identified eight basic types

and arranged these in a hierarchy.

The higher order of learning in this

hierarchy build upon the lower
levels requiring progressively
greater amounts of previous learning for their success.

Eight (8) types of learning (Gagne, 1965)

1. SIGNAL LEARNING
this is the simplest form of learning and consists essentially of
the classical conditioning first described by Pavlov.

 This type of learning, the animal or individual acquires a

conditioned response to given signal.

 The responses are diffuse and emotional, and the learning

is involuntary.
Example: Withdrawal of hand upon the sight of a hot object, the
salivation of a big poured into his feeding dish, tearing of the eyes
upon the sight of an onion.

Levie P. Alpos
BSED – ENGLISH
2. STIMULUS RESPONSE LEARNING
this is somewhat more sophisticated form of learning which is
also known as operant conditioning originally developed by
Skinner.

 The learner acquires a precise response to a discriminated

stimulus.
 What is learned is a connection or in Skinnerian terms a
discriminated sometimes called an instrumental response.
 In this kind of learner, the animal makes precise responses
to specific stimuli.
 At first this training usually requires the use of a leash and
choke chain.
 As the learner, particular responses for particular jerks of the
leash and chain his master rewards him pats and praise.
 Later the master does not have to use the leash and chain;
the animal sits, stays or lies down upon hearing the simple
verbal command.

3. CHAINING
this is more advanced form of learning in which the subject
develops the ability to connect two or more previously-
learned stimulus response bonds into a linked sequence.

 It is the process by whereby most complex psychomotor

skills (eg., riding a bicycle or playing the piano) are learned.
 The person links together previously learned.
 The links may involve physical reactions such as an animal
learning a series of tricks each of which gives the cue to
perform the next trick.
 This type of learning often seems to occur so naturally that
we do not notice the specific series of events which led to
it.

Example: A child who learns to say “doll” at the sight of a doll,

then to lie down, hug the doll, and say “doll”.

Levie P. Alpos
BSED – ENGLISH
4. VERBAL ASSOCIATION
this is a form of chaining in which the links between the items
being connected are verbal in nature.

 Verbal association is one of the key processes in the

development of language skills.
 This learning is a type of chaining, but the links are verbal
units.
 The simplest verbal association is the activity of naming an
object, which involves a chain of two links; An observing
response enables the child to identify property the object
he sees; and an internal stimulus enables the child to say
the proper name.
 When the child can name an object “ball” and also say
“the red ball” he has learned a verbal association of three
links.

5. MULTIPLE DISCRIMINATION
this involves developing the ability to make appropriate
responses to a series of similar stimuli that differ in a systematic
way.

 The individual learns to make a number of different

identifying responses to many different stimuli, which may
resemble each in physical appearance to a greater or
lesser degree.
 The process is made more complex by the phenomenon of
interference, whereby one piece of learning inhibits
another.
 In this type of learning the student must learn different
reponses for stimuli which might be confused.

Levie P. Alpos
BSED – ENGLISH
6. CONCEPT LEARNING
this involves developing the ability to make a consistent
response to different stimuli that form a common class or
category of some sort.

 It forms the basis of the ability to generalize classify, etc.

 In learning a concept, we respond to stimuli in terms of
abstract characteristics like color, shape, position and
number as opposed to concrete physical properties like
specific wavelengths or intensities.
 In concept learning the student’s behavior is not under
control of stimuli but of the abstract properties of each
stimulus.
 Concepts have concrete references even though they are
learned with the use of language.
 The learner acquires the ability to make a common
response to a class of stimuli even though the individual
members of that class may differ widely form each other.

7. PRINCIPLE LEARNING
this is very-high cognitive process that involves being able to
learn relationships between concepts and apply these
relationships in different situations, including situations not
previously encountered.

 It forms the basis of the learning of general rules,

procedures, etc.
 In learning a rule, we relate two or more concepts.
 We may represent knowledge as a hierarchy of rules in
which we must learn two or more rules before learning a
higher order rule which embraces them.
 If the student has learned the component concepts and
rules, the teacher can use verbal instruction alone in
leading the student to put the rules together.

Levie P. Alpos
BSED – ENGLISH
8. PROBLEM SOLVING
this is the highest level of cognitive process.

 It involves developing the ability to invent a complex rules,

algorithm or procedure for the purpose of solving one
particular problem, and then using the method to solve
other problems of a similar nature.
 In the set events called problem solving, individuals use rule
to achieve some goal.
 When the goal is reached, the student has learned
something more and is then capable of new knowledge.

TRANSFER, INTERFERENCE, AND

OVERGENERALIZATION
Transfer
 It is a general term describing the carryover of previous
performance or knowledge to subsequent learning.

Positive transfer – occurs when the prior knowledge

benefits the learning task-that is, when a previous item is
correctly applied to present subject matter.

Negative Transfer – occurs when previous

performance disrupts the performance of a second task.

Interference
 Occurs when a previous item is incorrectly transferred or
associated with an item to be learned.

Levie P. Alpos
BSED – ENGLISH
Generalization
 Means to infer or derive a law, rule, or conclusion, usually from
the observation of particular instances.

 A child who has been exposed to various kinds of animals

gradually acquires a generalized concept of “animal”.
That same child at an early stage of generalization might
in his or her familiarity with dog see a horse for the first time
and overgeneralize the concept of “dog” and call the
horse a dog.

Overgeneralization
 A process that occurs as the second language learner acts
within the target language, generalizing a particular rule or
item in the second language beyond legitimate bounds.

TWO POLAR ASPECTS OF

GENERALIZATION
Inductive – one stores a number of specific instances and
induces a general law or rule or conclusion that governs or
subsumes the specific instances.
Deductive – is a movement from a generalization to
specific instances.

APTITUDE
 it refers to the potential that a person has for learning
languages. This potential is often evaluated using formal
aptitude test.

Example: Modern Language Aptitude Test

Levie P. Alpos
BSED – ENGLISH
 INTELLIGENT
 it has been defined in many ways: including the capacity for
logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional
knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, and problem-
solving.

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
1. LINGUISTICS – finding the right words to express what you
mean.
2. LOGICAL – mathematical, quantifying things, making
hypothesis and proving them.
3. SPATIAL – the ability to find one’s way around an
environment, to form mental image. Visualizing.
4. MUSICAL – the ability to perceive and create pitch and
rhythmic patterns. Discerning sounds, their pitch, tone rhythm
and timbre.
5. BODILY-KINESTHETIC – fine motor movement.
Coordinating your mind with your body.
6. INTERPERSONAL – the ability to understand others. Sensing
people feelings and motives.
7. INTRAPERSONAL – the ability to see oneself.
Understanding yourself what you feel and what you want.
8. EXISTENTIALIST – the ability to question why we live
and why we die.
9. NATURALIST – understanding living things and reading
nature.

Levie P. Alpos
BSED – ENGLISH
 Robert Sternberg (1985-1988)

proposed three types of “smartness”.

1. COMPONENTIAL ABILITY – analytical thinking.

2. EXPERIENTIAL ABILITY – creative thinking
3. CONTEXTUAL ABILITY – enables people to play the
game of manipulating their environment.

Levie P. Alpos
BSED – ENGLISH