MAAM GAMO

• Jean William Fritz Piaget


  Swiss Psychologist
• Cognitive Development Theory


  Piaget's theory on how children's cognitive abilities develop over time
• Piaget believed that children do not initially understand the idea that objects continue to exist when out of sight, and have to work out this concept by interacting with and experiencing the world
• Piaget's Four-Stage Theory of Development


  • Sensorimotor (birth to 18-24 months)
  • Pre-operational (18-24 months to 7 years)
  • Concrete Operations (7 to 12 years)
  • Formal Operations (12 and up)
• Sensorimotor stage


  Infants are aware only of their sensations
• Pre-operational stage


  Children can process images, words and concepts but can't do anything with them, can't yet operate on them
• Concrete Operations stage


  Children gain the ability to manipulate symbols and objects, but only if they are concrete - abstract operations are still a challenge
• Formal Operations stage


  Children are able to think in abstract terms about the world and can understand concepts such as the future, values and justice
• Object permanence


  The cognitive theory that during the first year of life, children seem unaware of the existence of objects they cannot see
• Criticism for Cognitive Development Theory. Subsequent studies have revealed infants as young as 3.5 months appear to understand object permanence, contradicting Piaget's theory
• Acculturation Model


  A model designed by Schumann (1978) to provide a valuable context theory toward second language acquisition
• Social variables in Schumann's Acculturation Model


  • Social dominance
  • Assimilation, preservation, and adaptation
  • Enclosure
  • Cohesiveness
  • Size
  • Congruence
  • Attitude
  • Intended length of residence
• Social dominance


  When the English Language Learning (ELL) group is politically, culturally, technically, or economically superior or inferior to the target language (TL) group, it will tend not to learn the target language
• Assimilation, preservation, and adaptation


  Assimilation means the ELL group gives up its own lifestyle and values and adopts those of the TL group, preservation means the ELL group maintains its own lifestyle and values and rejects those of the TL group, adaptation means the ELL group adapts to the lifestyle and values of the TL group, but maintains its own lifestyle and values for intragroup use
• Enclosure


  The degree to which the ELL group and TL group share the same social constructs such as schools, churches, clubs, recreational facilities, crafts, professions, and trades. If the two groups share these, enclosure is low and L2 acquisition is facilitated
• Cohesiveness


  If the ELL group is cohesive, it will tend to remain separate from the TL group
• Size


  If the ELL group is large, the intragroup contact will be more frequent than contact with the TL group
• Congruence


  If the two cultures are similar, social contact is potentially more likely and L2 learning is more easily facilitated
• Attitude


  If the ELL and TL groups have positive attitudes toward each other, L2 learning is more easily facilitated
• Intended length of residence


  The longer an L2 learner plans to remain in the TL environment, the more likely it is that they will feel the need to learn the target language
• Psychological variables in Schumann's Acculturation Model


  • Language shock
  • Cultural shock
  • Motivation
  • Ego
• Schumann's model


  Model of second language acquisition
• Criticisms of Schumann's Model


  • Schumann's model criticized for formal incompleteness.
  • Did not specify combinations and levels of social and psychological factors to predict language outcomes
  • Does not explain factors' effect on rate of attainment
  • Did not account for change of social or psychological distance over time
  • Does not show how factors vary from individual to individual
  • Personal factors like age, family separation, previous educational experiences, or traumatic experiences not included in model
• Schumann's model serves as rough outline of relationship between social and psychological variables in second language acquisition
• Nativization theory


  A language acquisition design by Roger Andersen
• Nativization theory


  • Views language acquisition as a process predetermined by two notions: nativization and denativization
• Nativization


  Learning happens when a second language used by adults becomes native language of their children
• Nativization is evident in


  • Pidginization
  • Early second language acquisition
  • Early first language acquisition
• Pidginization


  Simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common
• Denativization


  Associated with accommodation phenomena, part of depidginization, also late second and first language acquisition
• Depidginization


  A process when pidgin becomes the native speech of the community
• Universal Hypothesis


  Based on Noam Chomsky's Universal Grammar theory
• Language Acquisition Device (LAD)


  Innate linguistic faculty that facilitates language acquisition
• Language acquisition


  • Children acquire language by deducing rules from input rather than imitation
• Deep structuremeans


  Universal mental representation
• Surface structure


  Actual speech
• Universal Hypothesis


  • Extends to second language acquisition
  • Suggests 'core' rules common to all languages and 'language-specific' rules unique to certain languages
• Second language learners


  • Find it easier to grasp 'core' rules but struggle with 'language-specific' ones
  • Often refer to their native language for interpretation when faced with unfamiliar rules
• Lamendella's neurofunctional theory


  Focuses on neural mechanisms in language learning
• Lamendella's neurofunctional theory


  • Emphasizes the involvement of the right and left hemispheres of the brain in language comprehension and production
  • Differentiates between Primary Language Acquisition (ages 2-5) and Secondary Language Acquisition (foreign language learning and second language acquisition)