RESPONSE AND REPORT OF CHAPTER 5 of Fundamental Concept of Language Teaching

RESPONSE  AND REPORT OF

CHAPTER 5 : “CONCEPTS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING ”

Title                        : Fundamental Concept of Language Teaching Author                         : H. H. Stern Genre                          : Non Fiction (scientific book) Publication year          : 1991 (seventh editions) Number of pages         : 126 pages (289 – 415)

Reaction                     :  I feel quite confuse, but interesting because it discuss about the concepts of language learning include psychological approaches, development of a psychological perspective, models of second language learning and the concept of proficiency, learners factors, and conditions and process of learning. Because the relevant discipline to develop a language teaching theory is psychology.

Level of difficulty      : I gave a scale of difficult of this book 8 = quite difficult

                                    Some difficult abbreviation like OISE n TESOL (page 330), NFER (385), GUME (page 403), etc. I also didn’t understand whole of the content because it’s too complicated to understand for me. There are also many difficult vocabularies, the difference of the use of word. Every writer have their own style to write and to use the words.

Predictions                  : it will develop the second language learners’ sufficient background and an overview on the psychology, and the learning process so that our language teaching theory includes the necessary psychological perspective

In this chapter, the author discusses about 5 important points and also it each sub points that covered the explanation of this chapter.

14. Psychological Approaches To Language and Learning

            This point show about how did we tackle language learning? Did we find it easy or hard? And what was easy or hard about it? Were we successful or unsuccessful? Did our view of language learning change as we progressed? If more than one language was involved did we approach the different languages in the same way or differently? How do we explain our own learning experiences? What did we learn from them about language learning?’

            In discussing these questions we are almost bound to use psychological concepts, because our thinking on learning is inevitably influenced by the psychological knowledge that is part of the common understanding of human behavior in our culture. No doubt, such psychological terms as ‘remembering’, ‘forgetting’, ’ ‘skill’, ‘motivation’, ‘frustration’, ‘inhibitions’ and soon have been forming part of this analysis of this book.

            There is also the explanation of language in psychology since before war I, in the interwar period, after world war II (the growth of psycholinguistics). The net effect for a psychological approach to language behavior was a recognition of the complexity of that behavior. While these psychological studies did not produce a satisfactory explanation of how a native speaker produces or interprets utterances they made it clear that the rather simple views of language competence current among some language educators, particularly among second-language teachers who had adopted the audio lingual theory, were inadequate. This critique was in some ways salutary but at the same time it created the intellectual confusion that was so acutely felt by many language teachers around

             

15. Development of psychological perspective in language teaching : a selective review

            It is improve the development of psychological perspective in language teaching because it is hardly imaginable that one could teach a language without a psychological theory of the language learner and of the language learning process; and so it is not surprising to find in the writings of most language teaching theorists reflections of a psychological nature.

            This point explain that language teaching theory has been in contact with psychology, and more recently with psycholinguistics, for a sufficiently long period of years to draw certain conclusions from this experience. The general function of psychology in language teaching theory is no longer in doubt, and a broad demarcation from linguistics and sociolinguistics can be indicated. Since language teaching is concerned with the acquisition by individuals of a dual language command, its theory is bound to operate with psychological concepts of language use and language learning, and psychological thinking on these topics forms an essential part of any language teaching theory. The need for direct psychological studies of second language learning has been recognized. As a result a more reciprocal relationship between psychology and language pedagogy has developed.

16. models of second language learning and the concept of proficiency

            Our goal in this chapter is to obtain sufficient background and an overview on the psychology of the second language learner and the learning process so that our language teaching theory includes the necessary psychological perspective.

There are 3 sub point: 1) The kind of models of second language learning is  a synthesis. 2) proficiency : native like proficiency, Approaches to second language proficiency, Theoretically-based conceptions of proficiency, Description of proficiency levels on rating scales, Proficiency as measured by standardized tests, interlanguage studies.

Second language proficiency as a concept has not yet found a completely satisfactory expression.

17. Learners Factors

a)      Optimal Age (one of the most debated issues in language teaching theory)

Language learning may occur at different maturity levels from the early years into adult life. No age or stage stands out as optimal or critical for all aspects of second language learning. Age is not a problem in second language learning.

b)      Language Learning Aptitude And Other Cognitive Factor

Second language learning, which is only one among several learning activities involving language aptitude, has much in common with language learning activities in the native language, the acquisition of ‘special languages’, codes, and other symbol systems in mathematics and in other areas of the curriculum. Therefore, those psychological qualities that come into play in formal schooling generally, particularly in the learning of verbal material. The definition of second language aptitude and its measurement depend upon underlying language teaching theories and interpretations of learner characteristics and of the language learning process.

Cognitive style has been defined as a ‘characteristic self-consistent mode of functioning which individuals show in their perceptual and intellectual activities’. Several cognitive style features which may have bearing on second language learning have been identified In a test of field dependence, that a subject must break up an organized visual field in order to isolate a part of it.

These studies have focused on learners’ social attitudes, values, and the motivation of learners in relation to other learner factors and the learning outcome.

c)      Motivation And Attitude

It is a kinds of affective and personality factors. These studies have focused on learners’ social attitudes, values, and the motivation of learners in relation to other learner factors and the learning outcome. The studies have investigated not only the attitudes and motivation that prompted learning prior to language study, but also the attitudes that the learning process had engendered and the degree of motivation maintained during the progress of a language course

d)     Personality

Studies on personality, prejudice, and child training suggest that the attitudes to countries, ethnic groups and languages, and the motives for and against language learning should be considered against the background of more deep-seated generalized attitudes or personality factors than as mere responses to immediate experiences alone. Another group of personality characteristics relates to the social and communicative nature of language.   

18. Conditions of learning and learning process

            The two main conditions to be considered are language learning either inside the target language environment or away from it, and that means mostly in the language classroom. The language environment (language context or setting) in which a learner finds himself is psychologically, i.e., from the learner’s perspective, not an absolute. It is divided into:

a.       Language learning as a developmental process

b.      Three central issues of language learning:

1. The L1 and L2 connection : the learner Should be encouraged to exploit his first language knowledge and learn the new language ‘crosslingually’, that is, through his first language, or should he keep his second language learning completely separate and learn the target language entirely within and through the second language, that is, ‘intralingually’

2. The explicit-implicit option: language learning (explicit) and language acquisition (implicit),

3. The code-communication dilemma: The use of communication as a deliberate teaching strategy is a relatively recent development.

c. Strategy

Strategy is best reserved for general tendencies or overall characteristics of the approach employed by the language learner, leaving learning techniques as the term to refer to particular forms of observable learning behavior, more or less consciously employed by the learner. The strategy is coping effectively with the emotional and motivational problems of language learning. Classroom learning as well as immersion in the target language environment each entail specific affective problems which have been characterized as language shock and stress, and as culture shock and stress.

Learners of different languages, educational and cultural background, and of different age and maturity levels are likely to learn languages with different emphases on one or the other strategy and with different degrees of skill in applying these strategies.