LANE 423 - Applied Linguistics

Chapter 1: Language, Learning, and Teaching

Lecturer: Haifa Alroqi

Core Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

Core Linguistics (general/ theoretical/ pure/ mainstream):

General (or theoretical) linguistics encompasses a number of

sub-fields, such as the study of:
 grammar (morphology + syntax)
 semantics
 phonology
 phonetics

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Core Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

o Theoretical linguistics are concerned with finding and

describing generalities both within particular languages and
among all languages.

o Applied linguistics take the results of those findings and

applies them to other areas.

Core Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

o Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that

identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-
related real life problems.

o Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are

education, linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and
sociology.

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Core Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

Major branches of applied linguistics include:

 Bilingualism
 Multilingualism
 Computer-mediated communication (CMC)
 Conversation analysis (CA)
 Language assessment
 Discourse analysis
 Language pedagogy
 Sociolinguistics
 Second language acquisition (SLA)
 Language planning and policies
 Pragmatics
 Forensic linguistics
 Translation.

Language

 Is there one definition for language?

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Language cont.

 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (2003, p. 699):

“a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of

conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood
meanings”

 Pinker’s The language Instinct (1994, p.18):

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 qualitatively the same in every
individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or
behave intelligently.

Language cont.

A consolidation of a number of possible definitions yields the following:

1. Language is systematic.

2. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.

3. Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may 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.

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Language cont.

These definitions should not mask the sophistication of linguistic

research underlying each concept:
1. Language is systematic.
Explicit and formal accounts of the system of language on several possible levels
(e.g. phonological, syntactic, lexical, & semantic).
2. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.
The symbolic nature of language; the relationship between language and reality; the
philosophy of language; the history of language.
3. Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual.
Phonetics; phonology; writing systems; gesture, distance, eye contact, and other
paralinguistic features of language.

Language cont.

4. The symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer.

Semantics; language and cognition; psycholinguistics

5. Language is used for communication.

Communication systems; speaker-hearer interaction; sentence processing

6. Language operates in a speech community or culture.

Sociolinguistics; language & culture; bilingualism & SLA

7. Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans.

Human language & nonhuman communication; neurolinguistics; innate factors;
genetic transmission; nature vs. nurture
8. Language is acquired by most people in the same way.
Language universals; First language acquisition

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Learning and Teaching

Defining learning:

 In some dictionaries:
“acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by
study, experience, or instruction.”

 Slavin (2003, p. 138)

“ a change in an individual caused by experience”

Learning and Teaching cont.

Defining teaching:

 Can be 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.”

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 Learning and Teaching cont.

Domains of research and inquiry:

1. Learning is acquisition or “getting.”

2. Learning is retention of information or skill.
3. Retention implies storage systems, memory, cognitive organization.
4. Learning involves active, conscious focus on acting upon events outside
or inside the organism.
5. Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.
6. Learning involves some form of practice, perhaps reinforced practice.
7. Learning is a change in behavior.

Learning and Teaching cont.

 Teaching cannot be defined apart from learning.

 Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to

learn, setting the conditions for learning.

 Your understanding of how the learner learns will determine your

philosophy of education, your teaching style, your approach, methods,

and classroom techniques.

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 Schools of Thought in SLA

 Structural Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology

 Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology

 Constructivism

Structuralism/Behaviorism

 Time Frame: Early 1900s and 1940s and 1950s

 Also known as the structural or descriptive school of

linguistics

 Advocates: Leonard Bloomfield, Edward Sapir, Charles

Hockett, Charles Fries, and others

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Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

Charles Hockett Edward Sapir

Charles Fries Leonard Bloomfield

Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

B. F. Skinner Ivan Pavlov

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Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

Characteristics of this school of thought:

 Scientific observations of human languages

 Only the publicly observable responses could be subject to investigation

(those that can be objectively perceived, recorded, and measured).

 The linguist‟s task was to:

 describe human languages

 identify the structural characteristics of those languages.

Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

 The scientific method was strictly adhered to

 Such concepts as consciousness, thinking, & intuition were regarded

as mentalist, unreliable, illegitimate domains of inquiry.

 Language could be broken up into small units and these units could

be described scientifically, contrasted, and added up again to form

the whole.

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Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

 Behaviorists saw learning as behavior change through habit

formation.

 Behaviorist learning theories describe and explain behaviors using

an SR-model.

 A connection is established between a stimulus (S) and the

organism‟s response (R) to the stimulus.

Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

Typical behavioral models were:

 Classical conditioning
 Pavlov‟s dog Ivan Pavlov

 Operant conditioning
 Skinner‟s box

 Rote verbal learning

 Instrumental learning
 Discrimination learning B. F. Skinner

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 Classical Conditioning (Pavlov‟s dog)

Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

Classical Conditioning (Pavlov’s dog):

 Classical conditioning is a form of associative learning that was first

demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov (1927).

 The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves:

presentations of a neutral stimulus (e.g. bell) along with a stimulus of

some significance (e.g. food). [ + ]

 The neutral stimulus could be any event that does not result in an overt

behavioral response from the organism under investigation. Pavlov

referred to this as a conditioned stimulus (CS) .

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Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

Classical Conditioning (Pavlov’s dog):

 Presentation of the significant stimulus necessarily evokes an innate,

often reflexive, response.

 Pavlov called these the unconditioned stimulus (US) and

unconditioned response (UR) , respectively.

 If the CS and the US are repeatedly paired, eventually the

two stimuli become associated and the organism begins to produce a

behavioral response to the CS . Pavlov called this the conditioned

response (CR) .

Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

Operant Conditioning (Skinner’s box):

 Operant conditioning is the use of a behavior's

consequence to influence the occurrence and form of

behavior .

 Operant conditioning is distinguished from classical

conditioning in that operant conditioning deals with the

modification of "voluntary behavior" or operant behavior.

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Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

Operant Conditioning (Skinner’s box):

 Operant behavior operates on the environment and is maintained by its

consequences , while classical conditioning deals with the

conditioning of reflexive (reflex) behaviors which are elicited

by antecedent conditions [ + ].
 Behaviors conditioned via a classical conditioning procedure are not

maintained by consequences.

Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

Operant Conditioning (Skinner’s box):

Skinner defined the notion of reinforcement

 Positive reinforcement: an increase in the probability of occurrence
of a response to a stimulus as a result of the fact that this response,
being correct, is rewarded

 Negative reinforcement: a decrease in the probability of occurrence

as a result of the fact that this response, being wrong, is punished

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Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

 In other words, humans are exposed to many things in

their environment. The response they give to such stimuli

will be:
 reinforced if successful and will become a habit or

 abandoned if unsuccessful.

 Habit-formation

Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.

 When children imitated the language produced by those around them, their

attempts to reproduce what they heard received „positive reinforcement‟.

 This could take the form of praise or just successful communication.

 Thus encouraged by their environment, children would continue to imitate and

practice these sounds and patterns until they formed „habits‟ of correct language
use.

 The behaviorists viewed imitation and practice as the primary processes in

language development.
 Imitation - word for word repetition of parts of someone else utterance.

 Practice - repetitive manipulation of form that being uttered

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Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.
Example 1:
Peter (24 months) is playing with a dump truck while two adults, Patsy and Lois, look on.

Peter Get more.

Lois You’re gonna 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.

Structuralism/Behaviorism cont.
Example 2:
Cindy (24 months) is looking at a picture of a carrot in a book and trying to get Patsy’s attention.
Cindy Kawo? kawo? kawo? kawo? kawo?
Patsy What are the rabbits eating?
Cindy They eating … kando?
Patsy No, that’s a carrot.
Cindy Carrot. (pointing to each carrot on the page) The other …
carrot. The other carrot. The other carrot.
(a few minutes later, Cindy brings Patsy a stuffed toy rabbit.)
Patsy What does this rabbit like to eat?
Cindy (incomprehensible) eat the carrots.
(Cindy gets another stuffed rabbit.)
Cindy He (incomprehensible) eat carrots. The other one eat
carrots. They both eat carrots.

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 Generative Linguistics & Cognitive Psychology

 Time frame: 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s

 Also known as generative-transformational school of

linguistics

 Advocate: Noam Chomsky

Generative Linguistics & Cognitive Psychology cont.

 Chomsky argued that:

 all human languages are fundamentally innate and that the same
universal principles underlie all of them. children are biologically
programmed for language

 language develops in the child in just the same way that other biological
functions develop

 children need not to be taught but the environment will make the
basic contribution and the innate self of the child will do the rest.

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Generative Linguistics & Cognitive Psychology cont.

 He challenged the behaviorists‟ explanation for language

acquisition.

 He argued that:

 they failed to account for the „Logical problem of language acquisition‟

which is the fact that children come to know more about the structure
of their language than they could reasonably be expected to learn on
the basis of the samples of language which they hear.

 children minds are not blank slates to be filled by imitating language

they hear.

Generative Linguistics & Cognitive Psychology cont.

 He hypothesized; children are born with specific innate ability to

discover for themselves the underlying rules of language system on the

basis of the samples of a natural language they are exposed to.

 This innate ability was seen as a template, containing the principles that

are universal to all human languages.

 This was called Universal Grammar (UG)

 If children are pre-equipped with UG, then what they have to learn is the

way in which the language they are acquiring makes use of these
principles.

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 Generative Linguistics & Cognitive Psychology cont.

They were interested in both performance & competence

(Chomsky) or what is also known as Parole & Langue
(Ferdinand de Saussure):

Generative Linguistics & Cognitive Psychology cont.

Noam Chomsky (1965)

Linguistic competence: the system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of
a language. This system makes it possible for speakers to produce and understand an
infinite number of sentences in their language, and to distinguish grammatical sentences
from ungrammatical sentences.

Linguistic performance: Language production (parole), with an emphasis upon how this is
different from Competence, or the mental knowledge of language itself.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1986)

Langue: the social, impersonal phenomenon of language as a system of signs

Parole: the individual, personal phenomenon of language as a series of speech acts made by a
linguistic subject.

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 Constructivism

 Time frame: 1980s,1990s & early 2000

 Advocates:

Jean Piaget Lev Vygotsky

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Constructivism cont.

There are two main branches of Constructivism:

 Cognitive Constructivism

 Social Constructivism

Constructivism cont.

Cognitive Constructivism:
 Learners are thought to „construct‟ internal representations as „mental
pictures‟ of the target language (TL).
 These internal representations are thought to develop, in predictable
stages, in the direction of the full second language system.
 Piaget stressed:
 the importance of individual cognitive development
 that biological timetables and stages of development were basic
 that social interaction is only to trigger development at the right moment.
 e.g. the use of certain terms such as „bigger‟ and „more‟ depend on the children‟s
understanding of the concepts they represent.

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Constructivism cont.

Social Constructivism:
 Emphasizes the importance of social interaction & the cooperative

learning in constructing both cognitive and emotional images of reality.

 Vygotsky:

 maintained that social interaction was foundational in cognitive development

 rejected the notion of predetermined stages.

 argued that in a supportive interactive environment, children are able to

advance to a higher level of knowledge and performance.

 He referred to this level as Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Constructivism cont.

Social Constructivism:

Zone of proximal development (ZPD):

 The distance between learner‟s existing developmental state and their potential

development.

 It describes tasks that a learner has not yet learned but is capable of learning

with appropriate stimuli.

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All three positions are important in creating
balanced descriptions of human linguistic behavior

Language Teaching Methodologies

 The Grammar-Translation Method

 The Direct Method

 The Audiolingual Method (ALM)

 The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)/

Communicative Approach

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 Language Teaching Methodologies cont.

 In the western world:

Foreign language teaching = learning Latin or Greek

Language Teaching Methodologies cont.

Latin was taught by means of what has been called

the Classical Method:

 Focus on grammatical rules

 Memorization of vocabulary and of various

declensions and conjugations

 Translation of texts

 Doing written exercises

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 Language Teaching Methodologies cont.

The Classical Method (cont.)

 As other languages started to be taught in educational institutions, in
the 18th & 19th centuries, the same method was used.
 At that time:

 little thought was given to teaching oral use of languages;

 languages were not being taught primarily to learn oral
communication, but to learn for the sake of being “scholarly” or for
gaining a reading proficiency in a foreign language.

 Late in the 19th century, the Classical Method came to be known as the
Grammar Translation Method

Language Teaching Methodologies cont.

Characteristics of the Grammar Translation Method:

Prator & Celce-Murcia (1979, p.3) listed the following characteristics:

1. Classes taught in the mother tongue, little use of the target language L2.

2. Much vocabulary taught in the form of lists of isolated words.

3. Elaborate explanations of the complex grammatical rules.

4. Reading of difficult classical texts begun early.

5. Texts treated as exercises in grammatical analysis.

6. Occasional drills and exercises in translating sentences from L1 to L2.

7. Little or no attention to pronunciation

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 Language Teaching Methodologies cont.

Criticism of the Grammar Translation Method:

 It does virtually nothing to enhance a student‟s communicative ability in the

language.

According to Richard & Rodgers :

 It is “remembered with distaste by thousands of school learners, for

memorizing endless lists of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary and

attempting to produce perfect translation of stilted or literary prose.”

 It has no advocates.

 It is a method of which there is no theory.

 There is no literature that offers a rationale or justification for it or that

attempt to relate it to issues in linguistic, psychology, or educational theory.

Language Teaching Methodologies cont.

Why was it popular?

 It requires few specialized skills on the part of teachers.

 Tests of grammar rules and of translation are easy to

construct and scored.

 It is sometimes successful in leading a student toward a

reading knowledge of a second language.

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Thank you

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