ENG 150

• Major theories of language:
• • Sing Song Theory: comes out of play/social interaction, sounds with love, play, and particularly, song
  • Hey you! Theory: interpersonal, sounds to signal, informal
  • Hocus Pocus Theory: sort of magical/religious rituals
• Vocal Theories:

  • Ma Ma Theory: easiest syllables attach to the most significant objects in the universe
  • Ta Ta Theory: language started as gestures verbal to non-verbal
  • Bow Wow Theory: Mimicking sounds, imitating natural sounds, specifically those produced by animals (onomatopoeia)
  • Pooh Pooh Theory: language starts with all interjections/human emotions sounds and emotional expression
  • Ding-Dong Theory: correlation between sounds and meaning
  • Yo He Ho Theory: originated from chants
• Agglutinative language: combining word chunks to form a sentence

  Isolating language: simple words (monosyllabic-one word syllables)

  Fusional language: combining more themes
• Motherese language: baby talk

  Receptive skills: reading and listening

  Productive skills: speaking and writing (macro skill)
• Origins of language:

  • Belief of divine creation: gift of language
  • Natural evolution hypothesis: language came and developed over time, code system, gestures first, and vocal code
  • Invention hypothesis: conclusion intention, improve life in general
• Acquiring vs. Learning language:

  • Acquire language: children acquire language through a subconscious process during which they are unaware of grammatical rules
  • Language learning: the result of direct instruction in the rules of language, explicit and conscious
• First language acquisition vs. Second language acquisition:

  • First language (L1): mother tongue or native language, acquired with 100% proficiency within 6 years from birth
  • Second language (L2): learned to communicate with native speakers, process is slow and needs continuous guidance and instruction
• Behaviorism:

  • All behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment
  • Innate or inherited factors have very little influence on behavior
  • Skinner argued that children learn language based on behaviorist reinforcement principles by associating words with meanings
• Nativist approach:

  • All human languages are biologically predisposed
  • Universal Grammar underlies all languages
  • Children acquire language with the availability of people who speak to them
• Noam Chomsky's conclusion: Children's minds are not blank slates because they store all input and output data
• Children are born with an innate ability to discover language
• Man is born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in the brain, which uses a Language Acquisition System (LAS) and Universal Grammar (UG) to develop L1 and then L2
• Broca's Area is responsible for speech production and is located in the left hemisphere of the brain
• Wernicke's Area is responsible for language input/comprehension processes and is also located in the left hemisphere of the brain
• Cognitivist Theory:

  • Language is a mental process and a rule-governed behavior
  • Language development coincides with cognitive development stages
  • Jean Piaget's theory suggests children use assimilation and accommodation to learn language
• Social Interactionism:

  • Social interaction is central to learning
  • Lev Vygotsky's theory focuses on social learning and the zone of proximal development (ZPD)
• Subsumption Theory by David Ausubel:

  • Learners absorb new information by tying it to existing concepts
  • Meaningful learning occurs once cognitive structures have been fully developed
• Roger's Humanistic Psychology:

  • Views the learner as a whole person with physical, emotional, social, and cognitive characteristics
  • Humanistic teaching approaches include the Silent Way, Community Language Learning, Total Physical Response, and Suggestopedia
• Neurolinguistics Theory by Joseph Lamandella:

  • Brain is connected between language function and neuroanatomy
  • Brain plasticity allows adaptation
  • Lateralization refers to specific hemispheres for language functions
  • Localization assigns specific language functions to specific hemispheres
• Aphasia:

  • Communication disorder due to localized brain damage
  • Impairs language function and understanding
  • Types include Broca's Aphasia (non-fluent), Wernicke's Aphasia (fluent), and Conduction Aphasia
• Language Development Stages:

  • Prelinguistic stage: gestures, eye contact, cooing, babbling
  • Holophrase stage: one-word sentences with contextual meaning
  • Two-word sentence stage: sentences with a noun or verb
  • Multiple-word sentence stage: sentences with subjects and predicates
  • More complex grammatical structures stage: use of conjunctions, embedding, permutation, and prepositions
  • Adult-like language structures stage: making complex structural distinctions
• Major theories of language:
• • Sing Song Theory: comes out of play/social interaction, sounds with love, play, and particularly, song
  • Hey you! Theory: Interpersonal, sounds to signal, informal
  • Hocus Pocus Theory: sort of magical/religious rituals
• Vocal Theories:

  • Ma Ma Theory: easiest syllables attach to the most significant objects in the universe
  • Ta Ta Theory: language started as gestures verbal to non-verbal
  • Bow Wow Theory: Mimicking sounds, imitating natural sounds, specifically those produced by animals (onomatopoeia)
  • Pooh Pooh Theory: language starts with all interjection/human emotions sounds and emotional expression (Heavy Object, Weight Lifting sound)
  • Ding-Dong Theory: Correlation between the sounds and meaning/ouch!
  • Yo He Ho Theory: originated from the chants
• AGGLUTINATIVE: combining word chunks to form a sentence: Mangan-Mamangan-Angab

  ISOLATING: simple words (monosyllabic-one word syllables)

  FUSIONAL: combining more themes
• MOTHERESE LANGUAGE: baby talk

  Receptive skills: reading and listening

  Productive skills: speaking and writing (MACRO SKILL)
• GESTURAL THEORY
• COMPLEXITY OF THE SOCIAL WORLD: Learn a structural system to GOSSIP (rumor and melon)
• ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE:

  • BELIEF OF DIVINE CREATION: gift of language
  • NATURAL EVOLUTION HYPOTHESIS: language came and developed every time, code system, gestures first, and vocal code

  From animalistic thinking to human thinking

  • INVENTION HYPOTHESIS: conclusion intention, improve life in general
• 6,000 ACTIVE LANGUAGES
• LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS

  LINGUISTIC FACTORS

  LEARNING PROCESSES

  AGE AND ACQUISITION

  INSTRUCTIONAL VARIABLES

  CONTEXT

  PURPOSE
• ACQUIRE LANGUAGE:

  • Children acquire language through a subconscious process during which they are unaware of grammatical rules
  • Happens especially when they acquire their first language first
• PRIMARY LINGUISTIC DATA (PLD) "IMPLICIT":

  • Acquisition is seen as an implicit and subconscious process
  • Learner is exposed to PLD in informal situations such as homes and gatherings
  • Depends on the learner's attitude, and the order of acquisition is stable
• LANGUAGE LEARNING "EXPLICIT":

  • Result of direct instruction in the rules of language
  • Not an age-appropriate activity for very young children
  • Usually explicit and conscious, depends on aptitude, and simple grammatical structures are learned before complex structures are internalized
• INTERLOCUTOR IN A COMPREHENSIBLE MANNER: main purpose of communication
• LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:

  • Subconscious process similar to that by which children acquire their first language
  • Results from informal, natural communication between people where language is a means, not a focus, nor an end in itself
• ACQUISITION:

  • Communication is the GOAL
• LEARNING:

  • The GOAL itself
• LANGUAGE LEARNING:

  • Conscious process, the product of either formal learning situation or a self-study program
  • Conscious acceptance of knowledge "about" a language such as grammar or style
  • Knowing about our language and being able to talk about it