TOPIC 3: SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

IN SECOND LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION

STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS
&
BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY

Submitted by:
Shaier R. Alum

Submitted to:
Mrs. Imelda Buburan
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

- A set of idea or opinions that a group of people share about a matter.

- Also called as intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of
people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a
philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural
movement, or art movement.
- A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group
of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a
philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural
movement, or art movement.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

- Second language acquisition, or sequential language acquisition, is
learning a second language after a first language is already established.
- It is the name of the theory of the process by which we acquire - or pick
up - a second language. This is mainly a subconscious process which
happens while we focus on communication. It can be compared with
second language learning, which describes how formal language
education helps us learn language through more conscious processes.
 STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS AND BEHAVIORAL
PSYCHOLOGY

STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS
- Defined as the study of language based on the theory that language is a
structured system of formal units such as grammar, sentence, and syntax.
- An application of scientific observations of human languages.
- Only “publicly observable responses could be the subject to
investigation”.
- Structural linguistics is, observable, can be perceive by human. If it is
perceivable therefore, is it easy to study.
- In the 1950s, the structural, or descriptive, school of linguistics, with its
advocates – Leonard Bloomfield, Edward Sapir, Charles Hockett, Charles
Fries, and others – prided itself in a rigorous application of scientific
observations of human languages.
- An important axiom of structural linguistics was that languages can differ
from each other without limit, and that no preconceptions could apply
across languages.
- Of further importance to the structural or descriptive linguist was the
notion that language could be dismantled into small pieces or units and
that these units could be described scientifically, contrasted, and added up
again to form the whole. From this principle emerged an unchecked rush
of linguists, in the1940s and 1950s, to the far reaches of the earth to
engage in the rigorous production of detailed descriptions of “exotic”
languages.
- “SURFACE STRUCTURE” relationships by Noam Chomsky
ADVOCATES OF STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS
1. Leonard Bloomfield
- Promote physicalism wherein it states that linguistics should avoid
mentalism (process of mind) and concentrate upon the directly
observable.

2. Edward Sapir
- Classified indigenous language and determine how culture affects the
languages.

3. Charles Hockett
- Differentiate human language for non-human languages and determine its
features.

4. Charles Fries
- Explored grammar as a tool for communication meaning.

This structural linguistic theory has been opposed by Freeman Twaddell

(1935) as he stated that this principle in perhaps its most extreme terms:

“Whatever our attitude toward mind, spirit, soul, etc.as, realities, we must
agree that the scientist proceeds as though there were no such things, as though
there were acquired through processes of his physiological nervous system.
Insofar as he occupies himself with psychical, nonmaterial forces, the scientist
is not a scientist. The scientific method is quite simply the convention that mind
does not exist.”
CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Descriptive
2. Linguist’s job is to describe human language and to identify their
structural characteristics.
3. Only interested in observable data.
4. Language can be broken down into small units which can be added up to
form the whole.

STRENGTHS OF SRUCTURALISM IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

1. Helps learners grasp grammar in an easier way.
2. Supports proper use of the language in verbal and written expression.
3. Knowledge of foundation of the basic structure before complex grammar.
4. Inductive method goes from the parts to the whole comprehension.

 The structuralist approach implies that in order for anyone to

understand a concept such as language (Linguistics), they must first
understand the sub sets and how these fit into the structure.
Additionally, an important factor in the structuralist approach is
understanding that these sub sets all fit and work together
collaboratively.
 BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY

BEHAVIORAL
- The way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially toward others.

PSYCHOLOGY
- The scientific study of mind and behaviour. This includes the study of
conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts.

BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY
- A behavioral paradigm also focused on publicly observable responses —
those that can be objectively perceived, recorded, and measured.
- The behaviourist, Russian Psychologist Paviov and American
Psychologist B.F Skinner proposed this theory as an explanation for
language acquisition in humans.
- Behaviourism is the theory that psychology should invoke only
observable and measurable phenomena.
- Skinner suggested that a child imitates the languages of its parents of
carers. Successful attempts are rewarded because an adult who recognizes
a word spoken by a child will praise the child and/or give it what is it
asking for. Successful utterances are therefore reinforced while
unsuccessful ones are forgotten.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY

1. Empirical
2. Focusing on responses that are objectively perceived, recorded and
measured such as intuition, memory, and thinking are ignored.
3. Learning behaviour by conditioning.
 B.F Skinner
- developed the behavioral psychology
- one of the most important psychologists of 20th century in the process
- “Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.”

Skinner’s Theory
- Positive Consequences = Positive Feedback
- Negative Consequences = Negative Feedback

B.F Skinner’s Verbal Behavior (1937)

- A method of teaching language that focuses on the idea that a
meaning of a word is found in their function.

BEHAVIORAL MODELS
1. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
- This theory is based on the habit formation developed by Ivan
Pavlov, a Russian physiologist.
- Pavlov says that human or any creature gives response due to
stimulus.
- Stimuli are those things which create excitement in creature. It means
that human learn due to stimulus.
- Pavlov has done one experiment on a dog. In which when at first
Pavlov rings a bell before a dog and the dog hears it. With it, it is
given food then it drops larva. Just after he rings the bell, then it
drops larva, after again the food is given. In this condition, we look
that dog is given stimulus and it gives response. Thus student can
also be taught according to this theory.
- Classical conditioning is simply defined as the association of a
conditioned stimulus (such as food), with a neutral stimulus.
2. OPERANT CONDITIONING
- This theory is also based on the habit formation developed by B.F
Skinner.
- B. F Skinner says that human or any creature gives response and
learns due to Reinforcement.
 - Skinner has done an experiment on Pigeons and Rats. When they are
reinforced, they get their target or food. It means student can be
taught very effectively if they are given reinforcement.

The structuralist believed that in the pattern of practice. They say that
teacher should motivate to their students so that he could get his all desired
objectives. The motivated learner learns fast and effectively.
FEW ESSENTIAL POINTS
1. Language is learnt only through practice. The more the learner is exposed to
the use of language, the better chance of learning it.
2. Producing the correct linguistic response to a stimulus requires efforts. If
the learner is not called upon to make this effort, there is no learning.
3. Producing correct response also requires attention.
4. The spoken language comes earlier that the written and the passive
experience of language is necessary before any productive (active) use can
begin.
5. Learning takes place fast if a correct response is given to the students. The
learner must know at once if his effort is right or wrong.
6. Every new item must be learnt by reinforcement by further practice before
learning begins.

 Both the structural linguist and the behavioural psychologist were interested
in description, in answering what questions about human behaviour;
objective measurement of behaviour in controlled circumstances.
SOURCES:
https://studylib.net/doc/26133895/schools-of-thoughts-in-second-language-
acquisition-group-...#google_vignette
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-operant-
conditioning#:~:text=Operant%20conditioning%20was%20first
%20described,was%20based%20on%20two%20assumptions.
https://www.verywellmind.com/classical-conditioning-
2794859#:~:text=Discovered%20by%20Russian%20physiologist
%20Ivan,of%20unconscious%20or%20automatic%20learning.
https://youtu.be/-knfXGCkoHA?si=-MpoVkiR5ay7eEYL
https://youtu.be/a0uVnjuqM7A?si=Ml4sjZ3MgB-pFJSp