HABIT FORMATION

OF LANGUAGE
LEARNING
WHAT IS ACTUALLY A HABIT
FORMATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING?
 Habit formation was defined by contemporary
foreign language educators as the "production
of linguistics responses to stimuli by imitation
and repetition in pattern drill" (Rivers, 2001).
 Habit is a pattern of behaviour that is regular
and which has become almost automatic as a
result of repetition. Linguists and
psychologists disagree about how much habit
formation is involved in language learning.
The behaviourists hold that language
acquisition is a product of habit formation.
WHO DEFINED LEARNING AS
HABIT FORMATION?
 Behaviourism: Learning as habit formation.
The first coherent theory of learning. Based
on the work of Pavlov.
 The basic exercise technique of a
behaviourist methodology is pattern
practice. Particularly in the form of
language laboratory drills.
THEORY OF ‘HF’
 Learning is a mechanic process of habit
formation and proceeds by means of the
frequent reinforcement of a stimulus-
response sequence.
 It provided the theoretical underpinning of
the widely used audio lingual method
 The method is based firstly on the behaviorist
stimulus-response concept and secondly on
assumption that second language learning
should reflect and imitate the perceived
process of mother tongue learning.
HOW ARE HABITS FORMED?
 Habit formation is the process by which a
behavior, through regular repetition,
becomes automatic or habitual.
 This is modelled as an increase in
automaticity with number of repetitions up
to an asymptote. This process of habit
formation can be slow.
 Some perceptions:
Never translate
New language should always be dealt
with in the sequence

Hear Speak Read Write

 Frequent repetition is essential to

effective learning
 All errors must be immediately corrected
 The basic technique of a
behaviorist methodology is
pattern practice.
 Particularly in the form of
language laboratory drills.
 Such drills are still used in
ESP
PIAGET’S THEORY
ON LANGUAGE
LEARNING
WHO WAS JEAN PIAGET?
 Born in August, 9 of 1896 in Neuchatel,
Switzerland
 Psychologist and Biologist identified stages
of mental development
WHAT IS PIAGET'S THEORY OF LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT?
 Piaget's theory describes the mental structures or
“schemas” of children as they develop from infants
to adults. ...
 Piaget's theory purports that children's language
reflects the development of their logical thinking
and reasoning skills in "periods" or stages, with each
period having a specific name and age reference.
 Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development
suggests that children move through four different
stages of mental development. His theory focuses
not only on understanding how children acquire
knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of
intelligence.
 Jean Piaget based his theory on
the idea that children do not
think like adults.
 He concluded that through their
interactions with their
environment, children actively
construct their own
understanding of the world.
FOUR STAGES OF PIAGET’S
THEORY
Piaget separates the language acquisition into
four stages:
1. Sensory-motor stage
2. Preoperational stage
3. The concrete operational stage
4. The formal operational stage
SENSORY-MOTOR STAGE
AGE: BIRTH - 2 YEARS OLD
 The emphasis on movement and physical
reactions. Language skills are basically
physical. In the process the baby hears its
parents and learn how to imitate sounds
 He described the sensory-motor period (from
birth to 2 years) as the time when children
use action schemas to "assimilate"
information about the world.
 Example:
Opening their fingers, weaving their legs
THE PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
AGE: 2 – 7 YEARS OLD

 The defining feature is egocentricity. He/she shows no

awareness of the possibility that others have a view point of
their own. The child describe what he is doing even though you
can see what he is doing.
 Piaget observed that during this period (between the ages of 2
and 7 years), children’s language makes rapid progress.
 The development of their mental schemas lets them quickly
"accommodate" new words and situations.
 From using single words (for example, “milk”), they begin to
construct simple sentences (for example, “mommy go out”).
 Piaget's theory describes children’s language as “symbolic,”
allowing them to venture beyond the “here and now” and to
talk about such things as the past, the future, people, feelings
and events. During this time, children’s language often shows
instances of what Piaget termed “animism” and “egocentrism.”
THE CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
AGE: 7 – 12 YEARS OLD
 Capable of using logic. Language used to refer
specific or concrete facts, not mental concepts.
According to Piaget, some people stay in this
stage for the remainder of their lives.
 According to Piaget, children’s language
development at this stage reveals the
movement of their thinking from immature to
mature and from illogical to logical.
 It is at this point that children's language starts
to become "socialized," showing characteristics
such as questions, answers, criticisms and
commands.
THE FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
AGE: STARTS AT 12 YEARS OLD AT THE EARLIEST

 Abstract reason and mental distinction

between someone’s self and an idea he/she
is considering. They can use language to
express and debate abstract theoretical
concepts.

 Example:
Explaining complex concepts as time, emotions,
and consciousness in depth.
WHY IS PIAGET'S THEORY
IMPORTANT?
 Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive
development provides a framework for
understanding how cognition, or thinking
develops. ... So providing ample
opportunities for children to interact with
the environment through all their senses
allows them to gain a better understanding
of the world around them.
VYGOTSKY THEORY
OF LANGUAGE
LEARNING
VYGOTSKY’S THEORY OF LANGUAGE
LEARNING
 Language is a social context that is developed
through social interactions.
 According to Lev Vygotsky, a 20th century
Soviet psychologist, language acquisition
involves not only a child’s exposure to words,
but also an independent process of growth
between thought and language.
 Vygotsky influential theory of the “Zone of
Proximal Development” asserts that teachers
should consider a child prospective learning
power before trying to expand the child’s grasp
of learning.
WHAT IS VYGOTSKY’S ZPD
MEANT?
 The zone of proximal development
(sometimes abbreviated ZPD), is the difference
between what a learner can do without help
and what he or she can do with help.
 The zone of proximal development is an
important concept in the fields of both
education and psychology. By understanding
how the ZPD works, educators and
instructional designers can be better prepared
to create instruction and learning programs
that maximize the tools and resources
available to students.
ZPD VS SCAFFOLDING
 Scaffolding is a term that sprung out of the
concept of the ZPD. It refers to the help or
guidance from an adult or more competent peer to
allow the child to work within the ZPD. Just as in a
building project, the scaffolding is erected to
support the building process, but then removed
when it is no longer needed.
 Example of scaffolding:
 Ifstudents are not at the reading level required to
understand a text being taught in a course, the teacher
might use instructional scaffolding to incrementally
improve their reading ability until they can read the
required text independently and without assistance
 Vygotsky theory of language is based on
constructivist learning theory, which
contends that children acquire knowledge as
a result of engaging in social experiences.

 “Through social and interactions, older or

more experience members of community
teach younger and less experience members
of the community”, says Harry Daniels,
author of “Introduction to Vygotsky”.
 According to Vygotsky, words are signals.
Rather than engage children in a primary
signal system, in which objects are offered
to merely as themselves, adult engage
children in a secondary signal system, in
which words represent objects and ideas.
COGNITION
 A child intellectual development is crucial to
his language development.
 By interacting with this environment, a child
develops the ability to develop private, inner
speech.
 Inner speech is thinking in pure meanings; it
is the link between the second signal system
of the social world and the thought of the
individual.
 Through the development of inner speech,
children straddle the divide between thought
and language, eventually being able to
express their thoughts coherently to others.
DEVELOPMENT
 The language learning process occurs as a
result of ‘give and take’
 Parents and teachers usher a child through a
process of guided discovery, addressing her
learning potential. Eventually children
internalize language skills.
 As young leaners language experience
language development, they can “reflect
better on their own thinking and behaviour
and reach greater level of control,” says
Adam Winsler
CONSIDERATIONS
 Vygotsky constructivist language theory exist
in opposition to Jean Piaget’s theory of
language acquisition.
 According to Piaget, children construct
knowledge about language through a
complex process of assimilation, stressing
the inherent capability of child’s brain to
adapt to simulation.
 By contrast, Vygotsky stresses the social
nature of language learning, emphasizing the
environment within which a child is raised.
VYGOTSKY’S VS PIAGET’S THEORY
OF LANGUAGE LEARNING
 Vygotsky believed that the child is a social being, and cognitive
development is led by social interactions. Piaget, on the other
hand, felt that the child was more independent and that
development was guided by self-centered, focused activities.
 Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky believed that development can't be
detached from social context while children can create
knowledge and lead their development. He also claimed that
language plays an important role in cognitive development.
Piaget only viewed language as a plain milestone in
development.
 Vygotsky focuses more on being open to learn from others
whereas Piaget focuses more on concrete operational thought.
According to Vygotsky, where and how does cognitive
development occur? Vygotsky believed cognitive development
occurs in social interaction and instruction via parents,
teachers, and other children.
HOW DO YOU APPLY LEV VYGOTSKY'S
THEORY IN THE CLASSROOM?
 Vygotsky's theory can be very beneficial in
helping teachers to plan out their
instruction. It helps them to think the
through the knowledge and skills that their
students are expected to master and
determine the order in which to teach those
things.
THANK YOU . . .