The University Guide

The Main Five Aspects Of Language Development

 

In this paper I will discuss the main aspects of language development for L2 classrooms. My paper will be divided into 5 sections; input, output, interaction, scaffolding and interlanguage. First, I will talk about input and output and their importance in language development process, furthermore, which is more important to the L2 students in their language development process. Second, I will discuss the interaction aspect relying mainly on Richard-Amato and Vygotskys’ studies. Third, I am going to explain the scaffolding technique and how it benefits the L2 learners in learning their second language. Finally, my talk will cover the interlanguage aspect in the second classroom.

 

First I would like to start my talk by discussing the input and the output and their importance in language development process. Behaviorists view input as an important factor in learning a second language, while others see it less important. Ellis (1994) argues that input is indeterminate, which means the information that it supplies is, by itself “insufficient to enable learners to arrive at the rules of the target language” (p. 243). However, Swain (1995) argues that the importance to learning of output could be that output forces the learner to process language more deeply “with more mental effort than does input” (p. 126), thus, with output the learner is in control. She also assumes that by focusing on output “we may be focusing on ways in which learners can play more active, responsible roles in their learning” (p.126). According to Swain (1995), output has to do with accuracy more than fluency, although practice may increase fluency but it does not necessarily improve accuracy. However, Swain sees focusing on output is better than focusing on input, because output may improve second language learner in much more ways than what input does. Thus, she argues that output has three functions which are:

 

1. Noticing

In this function Swain discusses that output increases noticing for the second language learner. Because when L2 learners speak, they notice their problems in the language, therefore, they try to do something about them. Furthermore, when learners encounter problems or difficulties in producing the L2 language, “they do engage in thought processes of a sort which may play a role in second language learning” (Swain, 1995: p. 130), therefore, noticing raises learner’s awareness of his or her gaps in the target language, it plays “a consciousness-raising role” (p. 130) and trigger cognitive processes that have drawn in second language learning.

2. Hypothesis-testing function

In Hypothesis-testing function, Swain (1995) argues that some errors appear in L2 students’ written and spoken production of the target language “reveal hypotheses held by them about how the target language works” (p. 131). Thus, in order the learner test a hypothesis, he or she needs to do something; otherwise, changes in the output would not be expected following feedback. Swain suggests in this function that second language learners may use their output to try out “new language forms and structures as they stretch their interlanguage to meet communicative needs; they may output just to see what works and what does not” (p. 132).

3. Conscious reflection

In this function, Swain illustrates that learners should communicate about language, in the circumstance of producing something they want to say in the L2 language. Swain argues that learners negotiate meaning, but the content of that negotiation is language form “and its relation to the meaning they are trying to express” (p. 133). As a result, learners produce language and after that they reflect upon it, by using the language to “negotiate about form” (p.133).

Second, I would like to discuss the interaction in language development which has a close relative to target language input. Richard-Amato (1988) discusses Piaget (1979) and Vygotskys’ (1978) view regarding interaction in the target language. Richard-Amato argues that Piaget’s view on how the L2 learners develop a language is that L2 learners must be exposed to input that adequate to their level of development. On the other hand, according to Richard-Amato, Vygotsky has different point of view. Vygotsky believes that the L2 learner has two levels of development “which have interacted with learning since the time of birth” (p. 88). Furthermore, Vygotsky illustrated that learning is a social process rather than an individual one which occurs in the interaction between individuals. Thus, Vygotsky asserted society as the determiner in universal stages of development. However, Vygotsky pointed out that each person has different opportunities of interaction. He explained that children always behave beyond their age. Thus, they do not do anything without having rules. This view leads him to create the Zone of Proximal Development theory, which I am not going to talk about it today. Furthermore, the L2 social interactions with speakers from the target language will strength the L2 language for learners. However, for the L2 learners according to Ellis (1994), the most important thing in managing discourse with native speakers is to ensure that the topic of the conversation is understood. Otherwise, the communication process will not be so helpful (for the L2 students). Moreover, the native speaker should make sure that the conversation (or the talking) is done by both, native and non-native speakers in an equal amount. Richard-Amato gives an interesting example from John-Steiner who mentioned that Finnish immigrant children entering Swedish schools and experienced severe difficulties in their language development process because “they were at first placed in very structured classrooms where there was little chance for meaning interaction” (p. 90), where the teacher did most the talking and the children where only receiving input without any interaction. However, Richard-Amato argues that interaction is an important to the learner’s language development process, because interaction increases the level of proficiency for learners in the target language.

Now I will move to the scaffolding technique in language development. This technique has been widely used in ESL classes. Hammond and Gibbons (2005) mention that Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) were the first to introduce the term ‘scaffolding’ as a metaphor “to capture the nature of support and guidance in learning, where they used this term to describe how parents teach their young children the language. I have to mention here that Vygotsky did not use the term ‘scaffolding’, but “its theoretical basis lies very much within a Vygotskian framework” (p. 8). However, I think scaffolding is an important technique for L2 learners because its ability to make the student know “not only what to think and do, but how to think and do” (Hammond and Gibbons, 2005:p.5). Thus, Hammond and Gibbons (2005) described scaffolding as temporary help from a professional (the teacher) until the learner reaches the required level of knowledge, because what the teacher do is fostering the students to complete the task, first, by giving help and support, then leave them to complete it without his or her intervention. Furthermore, Mercer (1994) pointed out that when the teacher for example, gives a question and answer that question, then after that he or she gives a new question to the students to answer it by themselves without help, the teacher here attempts to bring the learners into a state of competence which enables them to accomplish the required task by their own, in order to “grasp a particular concept or achieve a particular level of understanding” (p.97). No doubt that this technique is good and popular in teaching second language, but it characterised by how the teacher “is able to judge the need and quality of assistance required by the learner” (Hammond and Gibbons, 2005:p. 5).

Finally, I will talk about interlanguage and error correction aspect of language development. Interlanguage refers to the separateness of a second language learner’s system, a system which is not the native language or the target language; but instead falls between the two. Thus, interlanguage is the type of language produced by L2 learners. In language learning, learner’s errors are caused by several different processes, according to Richards et al (1992: p.186), which they are:

– Borrowing patterns from the target language. – Extending patterns form the target language. – Expressing meanings using the words and grammar which already known.

Furthermore, Brown (1994) in his paper about interlanguage and error analysis mentioned some theories regard error correction pattern, which I think they are really helpful for ESL teacher in L2 learners teaching process. One of them, (which I found it as the most important) is the Vigil and Oller’s model which depends on using green, red, and yellow lights as signals for the L2 learner (or the sender); where the green light allows the sender to “continue attempting to get a message across”(Brown, 1994:p. 119); a red light means that the sender most abort such attempts; and yellow light means the learner falls somewhere in between a complete green light and a red light. Thus, this theory concludes that “cognitive feedback must be optimal in order to be affective” (Brown, 1994:p. 220). Moreover, Brown (1994) illustrated an article by Hendrickson (1980), where the writer in his article advised teachers to try to distinguish between global and local errors. The local errors do not need correction “since the message is clear and correction might interrupt the learner in the flow of productive communication” (Brown, 1994:p. 221). On the other hand, the global errors need to be corrected somehow because the message might be corrupted, thus, the learner does not produce a productive output.

In today’s class, I have discussed the main 5 aspects in language development, input, output, interaction, scaffolding, and interlanguage. It is sensible to point out here that the teacher should first know his or her students in order to be able to evaluate them and give them the assessment that goes with their needs as L2 students, whether by a short quiz or by doing a brief interview if the number of your class is not big. By doing so, you facilitate the teaching and learning process in your classroom.

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September 1, 1993 www.amazon.com Watch the full interview: thefilmarchived.blogspot.com Avram Noam Chomsky www.amazon.com (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and political activist. He is an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as one of the fathers of modern linguistics. Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a political dissident and an anarchist. In the 1950s, Chomsky began developing his theory of generative grammar, which has undergone numerous revisions and has had a profound influence on linguistics. His approach to the study of language emphasizes “an innate set of linguistic principles shared by all humans” known as universal grammar, “the initial state of the language learner,” and discovering an “account for linguistic variation via the most general possible mechanisms.” He elaborated on these ideas in 1957′s Syntactic Structures, which then laid the groundwork for the concept of transformational grammar. He also established the Chomsky hierarchy, a classification of formal languages in terms of their generative power. In 1959, Chomsky published a widely influential review of BF Skinner’s theoretical book Verbal Behavior. In this review and other writings, Chomsky broadly and aggressively challenged the behaviorist approaches to studies of behavior and language dominant at …
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Question by Pumpin: 4 Major Theory’s of Child Language acquisition?
The Behaviorist Perspective
The Navist Perspective
The semantic (cognitivist) Perspective
The Interactionist Perspective

what is the theory of each one, and example?

Best answer:

Answer by Buckie
Behaviorist approaches are different from most other perspectives because they view people as controlled by their environment and specifically that we are the result of what we have learned from our environment. The early philosophical base for this learning perspective of personality is English philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704) who viewed the new born baby as a blank slate – tabula rasa – on whom the experience of life would write a specific story.
More…

http://imet.csus.edu/imet3/drbonnie/personalitywebq/behaviorist.html

Nativist perspective
A theory of human development that emphasizes the intrinsic potential for optimal development to occur, given a healthy environment. Development is viewed as genetically determined and occurring primarily through maturation.

Interactionist perspective
A theory that views development as the result of an interaction between the organism and the environment. Dewey and Piaget were advocates of the interactionist perspective.

http://textbooks.brookespublishing.com/losardo/chapter1/keyterms.htm

The semantic (cognitivist) Perspective
Cognitive psychologists challenge the limitations of behaviorism in its focus on observable behavior. They incorporate mental structure and process into their learning theories. Like behaviorists, they engage more in the hypotheico-deductive scientific inquiry. The primary focus of the research study in cognitive psychology emphasizes the internal processes and structures processes inferred through the observation of behavior. However, the focus on the mental structures and processes in cognitive psychology does not explicitly indicate its philosophical position.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxh139/cognitive_1.htm

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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