My teaching philosofy

As a teacher I expect to be able to control the class, to be understood and the most important motivate my students. In order to do that, I would like to have a good relationship with them and create clasess in which every student can participate and share their opinions. I also believe in a strict method, where respect reigns the class.

"First Language Acquisition". By H. Douglas Brown

Dietrich Tiedemann recorded his observation of the physiological and linguistic development of his young son.  A years later researchers begin to analyze child language  systematically and to try to discover the nature of the psycholinguistic process that enable every human being to gain fluent control of an exceedingly complex system of communication.

Children acquire languages fluently and efficiently without special instruction but not without significant effort and attention to language.

THEORIES OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

As small babies, children babble and coo and cry and vocally or nonvocally send an extraordinary number of messages. When they end their first year make specific attempts to imitate words and speech sounds they hear around them. At the age of three, children can comprehend an incredible quantity of linguistic input.

Behavioristic approaches

Language is a part of total human behavior. This approach focused on the immediately perceptible aspects of linguistic behavior.  It claimed that the language behavior is the production of correct responses to stimuli. If a particular response is reinforced, it then becomes habitual or conditioned. One learns to comprehend an utterance by responding appropriately to it and by being reinforces for what response.

Skinner claimed that verbal behavior is controlled by its consequences. When consequences are rewarding, behavior is maintained, when consequences are punishing, the behavior is weakened and eventually extinguished.

The Nativist Approach

 Nativist argues that we are born with a genetic capacity that predisposes us to a systemic perception of language around us.

Eric Lenneberg proposed that language is a species-specific” behavior and those certain modes of perception, categorizing abilities and other language-related mechanism are biologically determined.

Chomsky claimed the existence of innate properties of language and this innate knowledge is embodied in a “little black box”.

Researchers in the nativist tradition have continued this child language acquisition research that focuses on what come to be known as universal grammar. According to them, all human beings are genetically equipped with abilities that enable them to acquire a language.

The child’s language at any stage is systematic in that the child is constantly forming hypotheses on the basis of the input received and the testing those hypotheses in speech.

Functional approaches

More recently we have seen a shift in patterns of research. The shift has not been so much away from the generative /cognitive side of language. Two emphases have emerged 1.- Language was one manifestation of the cognitive and affective ability to deal with the word. 2.- Generative rules that were proposed under the nativistic framework were abstract, formal, explicit and quite logical.

Cognition and Language development: Lois Bloom pointed out that the relationships in which words occur in telegraphic utterances are only superficially similar. Bloom concluded that children learn underlying structures, and not superficial word order.

Bloom’s research paved the way for a new wave of child language study, this time centering on the relationship of cognitive development to firs language acquisition. What children learn about language is determined by what they already know about the word.

Social Interaction and Language Development: social constructivist emphasis of the functional perspective. Holzman proposed that “a reciprocal behavioral system operates between the language-developing infant-child and the competent (adult) language user in a socializing-teaching-nurturing role”

ISSUES IN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE

Competences refers to one’s underlying knowledge of a system of language (its rules of grammar, its vocabulary, all the pieces of a language and how those pieces fit together) It is the no observable ability to do something. Performance is the overtly observable and concrete manifestation or realization of competences; it is the actual production or the comprehension of linguistic events.

COMPREHENSION AND PRODUCTION

Comprehension and production can be aspects of both performance and competence. Research evidence point to the general superiority of comprehension over production: children seem to understand more than they actually produce.

NATURE OR NURTURE

 Nativist contends that a child is born with an innate knowledge, the innateness hypothesis presented a number of problems itself. Environmental factor cannot by any means be ignored. Derek Bickerton proposed that human beings are “bio-programmed” to proceed from stage to stage.

UNIVERSALS

Language is universally acquired in the same manners and moreover that the deep structure of language at its deepest level may be common to all languages. Maratsos enumerated some of the universal linguistic categories under investigation by a number of different researchers.

Word order

Morphological marking tone

Agreement

Reduced reference

Verbs and verb classes

Predication

Negation

Question formation

SYSTEMATICITY AND VARIABILITY

Children exhibit a remarkable ability to infer the phonological, structural, lexical and semantic system of language; it has been found that young children who have not yet mastered the past-tense morpheme tend first to learn past tenses as separate items without knowledge of the difference between regular and irregular verbs.

LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

Vygotsky claimed that social interaction, through language, is a prerequisite to cognitive development. Thought and language were seen as two distinct cognitive operation that grow together

IMITATION

Children are good imitator; in fact imitation is one of the important strategies a child uses in the acquisition of language. The earliest stages of child language acquisition may manifest a good deal of surface imitation since the baby may not possess the necessary semantic categories to assign “meaning” to utterances. Researches has also shown that children, when explicitly asked to repeat a sentence in a test situation, will often repeat the correct underlying deep structure with a change in the surface rendition.

PRACTICE

Closely related to the notion of imitation is practice, children practice language constantly. A Behavioristic model of first language acquisition would claim that practice is the key to the formation of habits by operant conditioning. Practice is usually thought of as referring to speaking only. But one can also think in terms of comprehension practice.

INPUT

The role of input in the child’s acquisition of language is undeniably crucial. The speech that young children hear is primarily the speech heard in home. Linguists one claimed that most adult s` speech is basically semi grammatical, that children are exposed to a chaotic sample of language.

DISCOURSE

 While conversation is a universal human activity performed routinely in the course of daily living, the means by which children learn to take part in a conversation appear to be very complex. The child learns not only how to initiate a conversation but how to respond to another’s initiating utterance.

"First Language Acquisition". By George Yule.

1. - Which are two important features of the caretaker speech?

The caretakers have a singular way to talk; they simplify their speech style by using exaggerated intonation, simplified words and simple sounds. However the two important features of the caretaker speech are to use simple sentences structures and a lot of repetition.

2. - What is the term used to describe the process where a child uses one word like “Ball” to refer to an apple, an egg and a ball?

That process is called holophrastic stage, it happened when the baby is twelve months and eighteen months.  This period is also called “one-word stage” and it is characterized by speech in which single terms are uttered for everyday objects. For example: The baby will call ball to everything what looks like a ball (apple, eggs), or he will use a word to call things which are related; For example: He will call Katy to the bed where Katy sleeps.

3. - Why saying that children learn because they imitate is controversial?

Children do learn because they imitate us. When they say a word o named a thing badly we tend to correct them and then they repeat what we say. They think that what we say is correct so they began to imitate us in every ways, but, in our normal environment we usually speak badly and they will imitate our bad habit. It is controversial because when they began to speak they will do it just like us, and it will create them a bad habit.

4. - Do children change behavior when they are corrected?

No. when children acquire the ability to communicate they also acquire the ability to create new words. When we correct them while we talk they don’t realized that they are wrong so they repeat the word incorrectly. 

Example: (Fragment taken from “The study of Language” by George Yule)

Child: My teacher holded the baby rabbits.

Mother: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?

Child: Yes.

Mother: What did you say she did?

Child: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.

5. - What is the role of feedback in children learning?

Feedback is very important when we want to acquire a language because when the child want to express an idea by using just one or two words and the caretaker understand it and do not correct them he will think the sentence will be good and he will learn it. So, it is important to let the kids know when they are making mistakes and teach them the correct form of the sentence they wanted to express.

"Language, Learning and Teaching". By H. Douglas Brown

1. What is a permanent struggle in teaching / learning?

The permanent struggle in teaching/learning is to reach beyond the confines of the first language and a new language, a new way of thinking and acting; with it a new culture.

2. Are we equipped with a do-it-yourself-kit to acquire languages?

Language learning is not a set of easy steps that can be programmed in a quick do-it-yourself kit.  Many variables are involved in the acquisition process. Few if any people achieve fluency in a foreign language solely within the confines of the classroom.

3. Why do people learn or fail to learn a language?

The teacher can teach a foreign language successfully if he knows something about that intricate web of variable that are spun together to affect how and why one learns or fails to learn a second language.

4. Name the issues to consider in second language acquisition?

We have to consider who is learning and who is teaching, the experience or training of the teacher and how teacher and student interact to each other. Also we have to pay attention on what we are teaching.  The teacher needs to understand the system and functioning in order to explain it to the student. Besides that is important to know how we are going to teach that knowledge, we have to know what cognitive process are utilized in second language learning and whether the students are children or adults.  Because it is known that children know more easily than adults do. So, if we are going to teach to adults we will need more commitment.  But the key of all this process is the reason of their learning.  Why are students learning? Which are their motivations? Do they want to know about the culture? Are they motivated? Or do they do it just to pass the course?

5. What are the motivations to learn a language?

The motivations to learn a language could be the achievement of a successful career, or passing a foreign language requirement, or wishing to identify closely with the culture and people of the target language.

These motivations must be known by the teacher to encourage students to better learning. 

6. Give 3 definitions for LANGUAGE.

• “Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitative the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave intelligently”.

• “Language is a system of arbitrary conventionalized vocal, written, or gestural symbols that enable members of a given community to communicate intelligibly with one another”.

•  “1. - Language is systematic. 2. - Language is a set of arbitrary symbols. 3. - Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual. 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. 7. - Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans. 8. - Language is acquired by all people in much the same way; language and language learning both have universal characteristics”.

7. What is the relation between language and cognition?

The teacher has to be aware of the cognition of the student in order to provide a good teaching. He should know what his student is able of, and according to that organize the class and make activities in which the student could reach the final goal.

8. Which are some LEARNING definitions?

• “Learning is acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by study, experience, or instruction”

• “Learning is relatively permanent change in behavioral tendency and is the result of reinforced practice”

9. Can we define TEACHING apart from learning?

Teaching cannot be defined apart from learning. Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting the conditions for learning. 

10. What is the importance of our PEDAGOGICAL PHILOSPHY?

Our pedagogical philosophy reflects our personal values and the needs of our student. It is a sign of what we expect from us as teachers. It is important because it will determine your teaching style, your approach, methods and classroom techniques. 

11. Refer to the 3 schools of thought in SLA?

Structuralism/ Behaviorism:  The linguist’s task was to describe human language and to identify structural characteristics of those languages. It was said that any notion of “idea” or “meaning” is explanatory fiction, and that the speaker is merely the locus of verbal behavior. The behavioristic paradigm also focused on publicly observable responses. The “scientific method” was rigorously adhered to, as “mentalistic”, illegitimate domains of inquiry.

Rationalism and cognitive psychology: Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) claimed that there was difference between parole (performance) and langue (competence). Descriptive linguists chose largely to ignore langue and to study parole

Constructivism: Constructivists argue that all human beings construct their own version of reality, and therefore multiple contrasting ways of knowing and describing are equally legitimate

What you know when you know a Language

People are not consciously aware of most of the knowledge we have.

Linguistic competence is the hidden knowledge and resides in the mind. The job of linguists is to figure out all the hidden knowledge.

Linguistic performance is the way that people produce and comprehend language. It's revealed in your speech but revealing doesn't mean that we are conscious of how it works. It's common to make performance error which means being unable to remember a word, mispronouncing something.

The use of language is to communicate an idea from your mind. There are many types of communication systems (picture, screaming) it includes one person as a transmitter, a signal and  a receiver.

In order to communicate an idea first you have you make a physical expression to the mental representation, and then the listener must use mental knowledge of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Phonetics: Knowledge of sounds in your language

Phonology: Knowledge of how these sounds work together as a system

                   This allows you to identify which sequences of sounds are possible.

Morphology: How to break individual words into smaller parts. How to create words by

                      combining these smaller parts.

Syntax: How to combine words to form phrases and sentences.

             It allows you to recognize whether a sentence is well formed or not.

Semantics: It’s when you interpret meaning; it has to do with your ability to determine

                  the meaning of sentences.

Pragmatics: Understanding of how the context of utterance influences their meaning.

Language isn’t tangible, it exist only in the minds of speaker. This knowledge has two parts:

 Lexicon: Collection of all the words that you know (functions, pronunciation)

Grammar: It’s the set of all the elements and rules. These rules are stored in the form of a mental grammar.

It helps you to produce well-formed utterances and to interpret the utterances of others.

All human are capable of acquiring the language that they are exposed to as children.