Introduction 2 In this chapter, we will look at: Theories of - - PDF document

1 Chapter 4 – Part 1: Human Learning

Applied Linguistics – LANE 423 Lecturer: Haifa Alroqi 1

Introduction

In this chapter, we will look at:

 Theories of learning through the eyes of four psychologists:

 Two representing a behavioral viewpoint (Pavlov and Skinner)  One representing a cognitive viewpoint (Ausubel)  One representing a constructive viewpoint (Rogers).

 The four positions should illustrate:

 The history of the learning theories.  The application of those theories on language teaching approaches

and methods.

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Pavolov‟s Classical Behaviorism

 For an explanation of the theory, refer to class slides of Chapter 1.  Drawing on Pavlov's findings, John B. Watson (1913) coined the term

behaviorism.

 Watson contended that human behavior should be studied objectively,

rejecting mentalistic notions of innateness and instinct.

 He adopted the classical conditioning theory as the explanation for all

learning:

 by the process of conditioning, we build a cluster of stimulus-response

connections, and more complex behaviors are learned by building up series chains of responses.

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Pavolov‟s Classical Behaviorism

 Later, Edward L. Thorndike expanded on classical conditioning models

by showing that stimuli that occurred after a behavior had an influence 0n future behaviors.

 Thorndike's Law of Effect paved the way for another psychologist, B.F

Skinner, to modify our understanding of human learning

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Pavolov‟s Classical Behaviorism

 Pavlov's, Watson's, and Thorndike's emphasis on the study of overt

behavior and rigorous adherence to the scientific method had a tremendous influence, for decades, on:

 learning theories  language teaching practices

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 For an explanation of the theory, refer to class slides of Chapter 1.  Although B. F. Skinner followed the tradition of Watson and

Thorndike, other psychologists have called him a neobehaviorist.

 Why?  Because he added a unique dimension to behavioristic psychology.  The classical conditioning of Pavlov was, according to Skinner, a highly

specialized form of learning used mainly by animals and playing little part in human conditioning.

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4

Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 Skinner called Pavlovian conditioning „respondent conditioning‟ since it was

concerned with respondent behavior - that is, behavior that is elicited by a preceding stimulus.

 Skinner's operant conditioning attempted to account for most of human

learning and behavior.

 Operant behavior is behavior in which one “operates” on the environment  e.g. we cannot identify a specific stimulus leading a baby to rise to a standing

position or to take a first step; we therefore need not be concerned about stimulus, but we should be concerned about the consequences - the stimuli that follows the response.

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 Stressing Thorndike's Law of Effect, Skinner demonstrated the importance of

those events that follow a response. Example:

 Suppose that a baby accidentally touches a nearby object and a tinkling bell

sound occurs.

 The infant may look in the direction from which the sound came, become

curious about it, and after several such "accidental" responses discover exactly which toy it is that makes the sound and how to produce that sound.

 The baby operated on her environment. Her responses were reinforced until

finally a particular concept or behavior was learned.

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 According to Skinner, the events or stimuli - the reinforcers- that

follow a response and that tend:



to strengthen behavior



• r increase the probability of a recurrence of that response

constitute a powerful force in the control of human behavior.

 Reinforcers are far stronger aspects of learning than is mere

association of a prior stimulus with a following response, as in the classical conditioning model.

 We are governed by the consequences of our behavior. 9

Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 Therefore, Skinner felt that, in studying human behavior, we have to

study the effect of those consequences.

 And if we wish to control behavior, say, to teach someone something,

we have to attend carefully to reinforcers. Teaching Implications:

 Teachers in language classrooms often offer stimuli or reinforcers after

a student performs in the foreign language.

 What kind of stimuli have your teachers used to reward your efforts? 10

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

Operants Vs. Respondents:

 Operants are classes of responses.

e.g. crying, sitting down, walking, and batting a baseball

 All of them are sets of responses that are emitted (produced) and

governed by the consequences they produce.

 In contrast, respondents are sets of responses that are elicited by

identifiable stimuli. Certain physical reflex actions are respondents. (e.g. the physical reflex after touching a hot pot)

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

Operants Vs. Respondents:

 How about crying? Is it a respondent or an operant behavior?  Crying can be respondent or operant behavior.  Sometimes crying is elicited in direct reaction to a hurt.  Often, however, it is an emitted response that produces the

consequences of getting fed, cuddled, played with, comforted, etc.

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 Such operant crying can be controlled.

 If parents wait until a child's crying reaches a certain intensity before

responding, loud crying is more likely to appear in the future.

 If parents ignore crying (when they are certain that it is operant

crying) eventually the absence of reinforcers (carrying, cuddling, giving the baby what he wants, etc) will extinguish the behavior.

 Operant crying depends on its effect on the parents and is maintained

• r changed according to their response to it.

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 Reinforcers can be positive (praising) or negative (spanking) –

punishment.

 Punishment can be either:



the withdrawal of a positive reinforcer



• r the presentation of a punishing stimulus.

 More commonly we think of punishment as the latter - a spanking, a

harsh rebuke - but the removal of certain positive reinforcers, such as a privilege, can also be considered a form of punishment.

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 Skinner felt that in the long run, punishment does not actually

eliminate behavior,

 but that mild punishment may be necessary for temporary suppression

• f an undesired response, although no punishment of such a kind

should be given without positively reinforcing alternate responses.

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 The best method of extinction, said Skinner, is the absence of any

reinforcement.

 However, the active reinforcement of alternative responses hastens the

extinction.

 So if a parent wishes the children would not kick a football in the living

room, Skinner would maintain that:

 instead of punishing them adversely for such behavior when it occurs,  the parent should refrain from any negative reaction + should instead

provide positive reinforcement for kicking footballs outside  In this way, the undesired behavior will be effectively extinguished.

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 Skinner was extremely methodical and empirical in his theory of

learning, to the point of being preoccupied with scientific controls.

 While many of his experiments were performed on lower animals, his

theories had an impact on our understanding of human learning and

• n education.

 Following Skinner's model, one is led to believe that almost any subject

matter can be taught effectively and successfully by a carefully designed program of step-by-step reinforcement (Programmed instruction).

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 Programmed instruction is a teaching method (invented by the

behaviorist B.F. Skinner) in which information to be learned is presented in a graded sequence of controlled steps.

 Programmed instruction had its impact on foreign language teaching

though language is such complex behavior, penetrating so deeply into both cognitive and affective domains, that programmed instruction in languages was limited to very specialized aspects of language.

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Skinner‟s Operant Conditioning

 The impact of Skinnerian psychology on foreign language teaching extend well

beyond programmed instruction.

 Skinner‟s work led to a whole new era in language teaching around the middle

• f the 20th century. A Skinnerian view of both language and language learning

dominated foreign language teaching methodology for several decades, leading to a heavy reliance in the classroom on the controlled practice of verbal

• perants under carefully designed schedules of reinforcement.

 The popular Audiolingual Method was a prime example of Skinner‟s impact on

American language teaching practices in the decades of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.

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Ausubel‟s Subsumption Theory

 David Ausubel contended that learning takes place in humans through a

meaningful process of relating new events or items to already existing cognitive concepts - hanging new items on existing cognitive clinches.

 It is this relatability that, according to Ausubel, accounts for a number of

phenomena:

 the acquisition of new meanings (knowledge),  retention,  the psychological organization of knowledge as a hierarchical structure,  and the eventual occurrence of forgetting.

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Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

 Ausubel‟s cognitive theory of learning is perhaps best understood by

contrasting rote learning and meaningful learning.

 Which one is better? What do you think? 21

Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

 Ausubel (1968) described rote learning as the process of acquiring

material as “discrete and relatively isolated entities that are relatable to cognitive structure only in an arbitrary and verbatim fashion, not permitting the establishment of [meaningful] relationships”

 That is, rote learning involves the mental storage of items having little or

no association with existing cognitive structure.

 Most of us, for example, can learn a few necessary phone numbers and

ZIP codes by rote without reference to cognitive hierarchical

• rganization.

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Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

 On the other hand, meaningful learning, or subsumption, may be

described as a process of relating and anchoring new material to relevant established entities in cognitive structure.

 As new material enters the cognitive field, it interacts with, and is

appropriately subsumed under, a more inclusive conceptual system.

 Because this material is subsumable (relatable to stable elements in

cognitive structure), it is meaningful.

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Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

 If we think of cognitive structure as system of building blocks, then

 Rote learning is the process of acquiring isolated blocks with no particular

function in the building of a structure and no relationship to other blocks.

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Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

 If we think of cognitive structure as system of building blocks, then

 Meaningful learning is the process whereby blocks become an integral part

• f already established categories or systematic clusters of blocks.

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Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

 We can make things meaningful:

 if necessary  if we are strongly motivated to do so.

Example: students cramming for an exams often invent a mnemonic device for remembering a list of items; the meaningful retention of the device successfully retrieves the whole list of items.

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Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

 The distinction between rote and meaningful learning may not at first

appear to be important since in either case material can be learned.

 But the significance of the distinction becomes clear when we consider

the relative efficiency of the two kinds of learning in terms of retention,

• r long-term memory.

 Human beings are capable of learning almost any given item.  We can remember an unfamiliar phone number, for example, long

enough to dial the number, but over time, it is usually extinguished by interfering factors.

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Rote vs. Meaningful Learning

 A meaningfully learned, subsumed item has far greater potential for retention.  Try, for example, to recall all your previous phone numbers.  It is doubtful you will be very successful;  Telephone numbers tend to be quite arbitrary, bearing little meaningful

relationship to reality (other than perhaps area codes and other such numerical systematization).

 But previous street addresses, for example, are sometimes more efficiently

retained since they bear some meaningful relationship to the reality of physical images, directions, streets, houses, and the rest of the town

 Therefore, they are more suitable for long-term retention. 28

15

Systematic Forgetting

 Ausubel provided an explanation for the universal nature of forgetting.  Since rotely learned materials do not substantially interact with cognitive

structure, they are learned by laws of association

 Retention is influenced primarily by the interfering effects of similar rote

materials learned immediately before the learning task (proactive inhibition)

• r after it (retroactive inhibition).

 We cannot say, of course, that meaningfully learned material is never

forgotten.

 But in the case of such learning, forgetting takes place in a purposeful manner

because it is a continuation of the process of subsumption.

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Systematic Forgetting

The Obliterative Stage:

 Forgetting is a second or "obliterative" stage of subsumption,  It is more economical and less burdensome to retain a single

inclusive concept than to remember a large number of more specific items.

 The importance of a specific item tends to be incorporated into the

generalized meaning of the larger item.

 In this obliterative stage of subsumption, specific items become

progressively less identifiable as entities in their own right until they are finally no longer available and are said to be forgotten.

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Systematic Forgetting

The Pruning Stage:

 Pruning is the elimination of unnecessary clutter and a clearing of the way for more

material to enter the cognitive field. = in the same way that pruning a tree ultimately allows greater and fuller growth.

 Using the building-block analogy, as a structure made of blocks is seen as a few

individual blocks, but as "nucleation" begins to give the structure a perceived shape, some of the single blocks achieve less and less identity in their own right and become subsumed into the larger structure.

 The single blocks are lost to perception, or pruned out and

total structure is perceived as a single whole without clearly defined parts. 31

Systematic Forgetting

The Pruning Stage: Example: A child's learning of the concept of "so hot that it will burn" -that is, excessive heat that could cause physical pain



A small child's first exposure to such heat may be either direct contact with or verbally mediated exposure to hot coffee, a pan of boiling water, a stove, an iron, a candle.



That first exposure may be readily recalled for some time as the child maintains a meaningful association between a hot coffee and hurting.



After a number of exposures to things that are very hot, the child begins to form a concept of "hotness" by clustering experiences together and forming a generalization.



The bits and pieces of experience that actually built the concept are slowly forgotten- pruned-in favor of the general concept that, in the years that follow, enables the child to predict future experiences and to avoid burning fingers on hot objects 32

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Systematic Forgetting

The Pruning Stage:

 An important aspect of the pruning stage of learning is that

subsumptive forgetting, or pruning, is not haphazard or chance- it is systematic.

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Systematic Forgetting

 Why do we lose things we learn in the L2?  Research on language attrition has focused on a variety of possible

causes for the loss of second language skills.

 Language attrition is the loss of a first or second language or a portion

• f that language by individuals. Speakers who routinely use more than
• ne language may not use either of their languages in ways which are

exactly like that of a monolingual speaker.

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Systematic Forgetting

Some researches and studies have shown that:



certain aspects of language are more vulnerable to forgetting than others; so for example, lexical items may be more easily lost than idioms, depending on such factors as native language transfer and interference.



long-term forgetting can apply to certain linguistic features (lexical, phonological, syntactic, and so on) and not to others.



some aspects of attrition can be explained as a reversal of the acquisition process.



Other common reasons for language attrition center on:

 the strength and conditions of initial learning,  the kind of use that a second language has been put to  motivational factors contributing to forgetting  cultural identity

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Chapter 4 – Part 2: Human Learning

Applied Linguistics – LANE 423 Lecturer: Haifa Alroqi 36

19

Roger‟s Humanistic Psychology

 Carl Rogers is not traditionally thought of as a "learning" psychologist, yet he

and his colleagues and followers have had a significant impact on our present understanding of learning, particularly learning in an educational or pedagogical context.

 Rogers's humanistic psychology has more of an affective focus than a cognitive

• ne, so it falls into the perspective of a constructivist view of learning.

 Rogers and Vygotsky share some views in common in their highlighting of

social and interactive nature of learning.

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Roger‟s Humanistic Psychology

 In his classic work Client-Centered Therapy Rogers analyzed human

behavior in general, including the learning process, by means of the presentation of 19 formal principles of human behavior.

 Rogers studied the “whole person” as a physical and cognitive, but

primarily emotional being.

 His principles focused on the development of an individual's self-

concept and of his or her personal sense of reality, those internal forces that cause a person to act.

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Roger‟s Humanistic Psychology

According to Rogers (1977):

 Given nonthreatening environment, a person will:

 form a picture of reality that is indeed congruent with reality  grow and learn; become a “fully functioning persons”  live at peace with all of their feelings and reactions  reach their full potential

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Roger‟s Humanistic Psychology

 Rogers's position has important implications for education  The focus is away from "teaching" and toward “learning”  The goal of education is the facilitation of learning.  According to Rogers, teachers must:

 become facilitators of learning through the establishment of interpersonal

relationships with learners

 be real and genuine  discard masks of superiority and omniscience  have genuine trust, acceptance, and a prizing of the other person-the

student-as a worthy, valuable individual.

 communicate openly and empathetically with their students, and vice versa.

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Roger‟s Humanistic Psychology

 Teachers with these characteristics will not only understand themselves better

but will be effective teachers, who, having set the most suitable stage and context for learning, succeed in the goals of education.

 We can see in Carl Rogers's humanism quite a departure from the scientific

analysis of Skinnerian psychology and even from Ausubel's rationalistic theory.

 Rogers is not as concerned about the actual cognitive process of learning

because he feels, if the context for learning is properly created, then human beings will, in fact, learn everything they need to.

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Roger‟s Humanistic Psychology

 Rogers's theory is not without its flaws.  The educator may be tempted to the nondirective approach too far, to the

point that valuable time is lost in the process of allowing students to "discover" facts and principles for themselves.

 Also, a nonthreatening environment might become so nonthreatening that the

facilitative tension needed for learning is absent.

 There is ample research documenting the positive effects of competitiveness in

a classroom, as long as that competitiveness does not damage self-esteem and hinder motivation to learn.

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Roger‟s Humanistic Psychology



The well-known Brazilian educator Paolo Freire (1970), whose work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, has inspired many teachers to consider the importance of empowerment of students in classrooms.



Freire strongly objected to traditional "banking" concepts of education in which teachers think of their task as one of "filling" students "by making deposits of information which [they] consider to constitute true knowledge-deposits which are detached from reality”



Instead, Freire has continued to argue, students should be allowed to:

 negotiate learning outcomes,  cooperate with teachers and other learners in a process of discovery,  engage in critical thinking,  relate everything they do in school to their reality outside the classroom.

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Roger‟s Humanistic Psychology

 While such "liberationist" views of education must be approached with some

caution (Clarke, 1990), learners may nevertheless be empowered to achieve solutions to real problems in the real world.

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Theories of Learning – Outline

 Table 4.1.  P. 99 45

Types of Learning

 Theories of learning do not capture all of the possible elements of general

principles of human learning.

 In addition to the four learning theories are various taxonomies

(classifications) of types of human learning and other mental processes universal to human beings.

 The educational psychologist Robert Gagne (1965) demonstrated the

importance of identifying a number of types of learning that all human beings use.

 Types of learning vary according to:

 the context  subject matter to be learned

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Types of Learning

 However, a complex task such as language learning involves every one

• f Gagne's types of learning (from simple signal learning to problem

solving)

 Gagne (1965) identified 8 types of learning 47

Types of Learning

Gagne‟s eight learning types: Type 1: Signal Learning Type 2: Stimulus-Response Learning Type 3: Chaining Type 4: Verbal Association Type 5: Multiple Discrimination Type 6: Concept Learning Type 7: Principle Learning Type 8: Problem Solving

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Type 1: Signal Learning

Signal learning The individual learns to make a general response (salivation) to a signal (food or/ and bell). This is the classical conditioned response of Pavlov.

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Type 1: Signal Learning

 Very familiar to most people as classical conditioning. Pavlov’s Dog

Slides 50-86 are adapted from ftp://tdata.atu.edu/swdata/EDFD6043/Gagné.ppt, Arkansas Tech University

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Type 1: Signal Learning

 First, a child is shown a

rabbit.

 Next, as the child reaches

for the rabbit, a sudden loud sound is produced behind the child, which scares the child and makes him cry.

Response stimuli

+

signaling unconditioned

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Type 1: Signal Learning

Signal Stimulus

• r

Conditioned Stimulus

Response

 Now, each time the rabbit is brought close to the child, the child shows fear. 52

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Type 1: Signal Learning - Implication on SLA

 Signal learning in general occurs in the total language process: human

beings make a general response of some kind (emotional, cognitive, verbal, or nonverbal) to language.

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Type 2: Stimulus-Response Learning

Stimulus-response learning  The learner acquires a precise response (crying) to a discriminated stimulus (getting a cuddle).  What is learned is a connection or, in Skinnerian terms, a discriminated operant or instrumental response (crying).

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Type 2: Stimulus-Response Learning

 Also known as operant

• r instrumental

learning

It‟s like learning to ride a bike!

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Type 2: Stimulus-Response Learning

 First, the child learns how it

feels to ride a bike with training wheels

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Type 2: Stimulus-Response Learning

 Next, the child gets help from Mom or Dad.  This parent behavior is referred to as “shaping”  The child begins to discriminate in regard to balance, and

progressively differentiates between behavior that allows him to stay upright or behavior that causes him to fall down.

 Staying upright + Falling down (discriminated stimulus) 57

Type 2: Stimulus-Response Learning

Finally, the child understands what is “correct” or “incorrect” muscular behavior and is able to begin riding the bike with ease.

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30 Type 2: Stimulus-Response Learning – Implication on SLA

 Stimulus-response learning is evident in the acquisition of the sound

system of a foreign language in which, through a process of conditioning and trial and error, the learner makes closer and closer approximations to native like pronunciation.

 Simple lexical items are, in one sense, acquired by stimulus-response

connections; in another sense they are related to higher order types of learning.

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Type 3: Chaining

Chaining  What is acquired is a chain of two or more stimulus-response connections.  The conditions for such learning have also been described by Skinner.

 This is the connection of the individual stimulus and response in a

longer sequence of stimuli and responses. S-R-S-R-S-R

 Chaining -nonverbal acquisition of sequences 60

31

Type 3: Chaining

Positioning Inserting key Turning key Key turned Pushing door

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Type 3: Chaining



In terms of sustaining the movement of the bicycle and riding it for a long way, riding a bike could be thought of as chaining.

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Type 3: Chaining – Implication on SLA

 Chaining is evident in the acquisition of phonological sequences and

syntactic patterns (the stringing together of several responses).

63

Type 4: Verbal Association

Verbal association  Verbal association is the learning of chains that are verbal.  Basically, the conditions resemble those for other (motor) chains.  However, the presence of language in the human being makes this a special type of chaining because internal links may be selected from the individual‟s previously learned repertoire of language.

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Type 4: Verbal Association

Naming - the simplest type of verbal association

Doggy! Very good, son! Mine! My Doggy!

+

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Type 4: Verbal Association - Implication on SLA

 The fourth type of learning involves Gagne's distinction between verbal

and nonverbal chains, and is not really therefore a separate type of language learning.

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Type 5: Multiple Discrimination

Multiple discrimination

 The individual learns to make a number of different identifying responses to

many different stimuli, which may resemble each other in physical appearance to a greater or lesser degree.

 Although learning of each stimulus-response connection is a simple

• ccurrence, the connections tend to interfere with one another.

67

Type 5: Multiple Discrimination

 The ability to distinguish

between the parts of one‟s environment

 Babies learn at an early age to

discriminate between colors, shapes, and sizes

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Type 5: Multiple Discrimination

 It is often concerned with distinctive features  Used early on in life distinguishing the letters of the alphabet  Later, this moves into multiple-discrimination  As mentioned earlier, although learning of each stimulus-response

connection is a simple occurrence, the connections tend to interfere with one another. For example, a child may confuse a “b” as a “d” Multiple discrimination learning leads to perceptual difference

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Type 5: Multiple Discrimination – Implication on SLA

 Multiple discriminations are necessary particularly in second language

learning where, for example:

 a word has to take on several meanings  a rule in the native language is reshaped to fit a second language

context.

70

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Type 6: Concept Learning

Concept learning

 The learner acquires the ability to make a common response to a class

• f stimuli even though the individual members of that class may differ

widely from each other.

 The learner is able to make a response that identifies an entire class of

• bjects or events.

71

Type 6: Concept Learning

 Being able to classify and respond to the class as a whole 72

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Type 6: Concept Learning

 Some concepts can be learned by definition  But concept learning is usually more effective, and is retained

(remembered) longer, if it is done with examples and non-examples.

73

Concept of “frandness”

 “Frand” is not actually an English

word

 “Frand” is used to insure that the

concept will be new to most adults

 Right > is a non-example of frandness

Type 6: Concept Learning

74

38

Example of “frandness”

 The containers in this

photograph are frand.

 What are their characteristics?

Type 6: Concept Learning

75  How is this glass object

different from those of the last slide? Non-frand object

Type 6: Concept Learning

76

39

 Let‟s see; it can hold liquids,

but it isn‟t clear; may not be made of glass; not deep . . . Not really a drinking vessel. Another non-frand object

Type 6: Concept Learning

77  It looks like frand objects do  It does what frand objects do  Can you describe frandness?  How do you like discovery

learning? Another example of “frandness”

Type 6: Concept Learning

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Frandness

 Now . . .  Describe “frandness”  Do you think you will forget

the concept of “frandness” anytime soon?

Type 6: Concept Learning

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Type 6: Concept Learning – Implication on SLA

Concept learning

 It includes the notion that:

 language and cognition are inextricably interrelated,  rules themselves-rules of syntax, rules of conversation-are linguistic

concepts that have to be acquired.

80

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Type 7: Principle Learning

Principle learning

 In simplest terms, a principle is a chain of two or more concepts.  It functions to organize behavior and experience.  In Ausubel's terminology, a principle is a "subsumer" -a cluster of

related concepts.

 Principle learning is an inferred capability that enables the individual

to respond to a class of stimulus situations with a class of performances

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Type 7: Principle Learning

 Principle/ Rule: (2+3, 3+4, 7+5) = (3+2, 4+3, 5+7)

Principle: Chocolate melts Principle: Round things roll

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Type 7: Principle Learning – Implication on SLA

 Principle learning is the extension of concept learning to the formation

• f a linguistic system, in which rules are not isolated in rote memory,

but conjoined and subsumed in a total system.

83

Type 8: Problem Solving

Problem solving

 Problem solving is a kind of learning that requires the internal events

usually referred to as "thinking."

 Previously acquired concepts and principles are combined in a

conscious focus on an unresolved or ambiguous set of events.

 It is not just an application of previously learned rules but yields (and

leads to) new learning

84

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Type 8: Problem Solving

Steps followed by the learner to solve problems:

• 1. Presentation of the problem
• 2. Defines the problem
• 3. Formulates hypotheses
• 4. Verification of his hypothesis or successive hypotheses until he

finds the solution

85

A problem-solving task

 Whenever I type a number in Word, it

appears in Arabic? Why is this happening? How can I solve it?

 Help me design a strategy to find

where I went wrong?

Type 8: Problem Solving

86

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Type 8: Problem Solving – Implication on SLA

 Finally, problem solving is clearly evident in second language learning

as the learner is continually faced with sets of events that are truly problems to be solved

 Solutions to the problems involve the creative interaction of all eight

types of learning as the learner sifts and weighs previous information and knowledge in order to correctly determine:

 the meaning of a word,  the interpretation of an utterance,  the rule that governs a common class of linguistic items,  a conversationally appropriate response.

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Types of Learning

 It is apparent that some types are better explained by certain theories

than others. For example:

 The first five types (Signal learning, Stimulus-response learning,

Chaining, Verbal association, & Multiple discrimination) seem to fit easily into a behavioristic framework.

 While the last three (Concept learning, Principle learning, & Problem

solving) are better explained by Ausubel's or Rogers's theories of learning.

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Types of Learning

 Since all types of learning are relevant to second language learning, the

implication is that:

 certain lower level aspects of second language learning may be more

adequately treated by behavioristic approaches and methods,

 while certain higher level aspects of second language types of learning

are more effectively taught by methods derived from a cognitive approach to learning.

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Language Teaching Methods

 The Audio-lingual method inspired by behavioristic

principles

 Community Language Learning inspired by Carl Rogers‟s

humanistic theories.

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The Audiolingual Method (ALM)

 Structural linguists of the 1940s and 1950s were engaged in what they

claimed was a "scientific descriptive analysis" of various languages;

 Teaching methodologists saw a direct application of such analysis to

teaching linguistic patterns (Fries, 1945).

 At the same time, behavioristic psychologists advocated conditioning

and habit-formation models of learning, which were perfectly married with the mimicry drills and pattern practices of audiolingual methodology.

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Characteristics of the ALM

1.

New material is presented in dialog form.

2.

There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and

• verlearning. (Overlearning is a pedagogical concept according to

which newly acquired skills should be practiced well beyond the point of initial mastery, leading to automaticity.)

3.

Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time.

4.

Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.

5.

There is little or no grammatical explanation.

6.

Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.

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Characteristics of the ALM

7.

There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.

8.

Great importance is attached to pronunciation.

9.

Very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.

10.

Successful responses are immediately reinforced.

11.

There is a great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.

12.

There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content.

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Advantages of the ALM

 The ALM was firmly rooted in respectable theoretical perspectives at

the time.

 Materials were carefully prepared, tested, and circulated to educational

institutions.

 "Success" could be more overtly experienced by students as they

practiced their dialogs in off-hours.

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Criticism of the ALM

 The popularity of the ALM did not last forever.  Due in part to the exposure of the shortcomings of the ALM, and its

ultimate failure to teach long-term communicative proficiency, its popularity waned. Later, we discovered that:

 language was not really acquired through a process of habit formation

and overlearning,

 errors were not necessarily to be avoided at all costs  structural linguistics did not tell us everything about language that we

needed to know.

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Community Language Learning (CLL)

 It is based on the work of Charles Curran a professor of psychology at

Loyola University, Chicago.

 Curran applied techniques of psychological counseling to language

teaching to create a method of learning originally called Counseling- learning.

 Applied to language teaching, it came to be known as Community

Language Learning.

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Community Language Learning (CLL)

 In his "Counseling-Learning" model of education,

Charles Curran (1972) was inspired by Carl Rogers's view of education in which students and teacher join together to facilitate learning in a context of valuing and prizing each individual in the group.

 In such a surrounding,

 each person lowers the defenses that prevent open,

interpersonal communication.

 The anxiety caused by the educational context is lessened

by means of the supportive community.

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Community Language Learning (CLL)

 The teacher's presence is not perceived as a threat, nor is it the

teacher's purpose to impose limits and boundaries; rather, as a "counselor," the teacher's role is to center his or her attention on the clients (the students) and their needs.

 Curran's model of education was extended to language learning

contexts in the form of Community Language Learning (CLL).

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What does a CLL class look like?

 The group of clients (learners), having first established in their native

language an interpersonal relationship and trust, are seated in a circle with the counselor (teacher) on the outside of the circle.

 When one of the learners wishes to say something to the group or to an

individual, he or she says it in the native language (say, Arabic) to the teacher and the counselor translates the utterance back to the learner in the second language (say, English).

 The learner then repeats that English sentence as accurately as possible.  Another client responds, in Arabic; the utterance is translated by the

counselor; the client repeats it; and the conversation continues.

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What does a CLL class look like?

 If possible, the conversation is taped for later listening, and at the end of each

session the learners together inductively attempt to systematize information about the new language.

 If desirable, the counselor may take a more directive role and provide some

explanation of certain linguistic rules or items.

 As the learners gain more and more familiarity with the foreign language, more

and more direct communication can take place, with the counselor providing less and less direct translation and information, until after many sessions, even months or years later, the learner achieves fluency in the spoken language. The learner has at that point become independent.

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Criticism of CLL

1.

The counselor-teacher can become too nondirective. Students usually need direction, especially in the first stages, and the teacher needs to have a balance of supportiveness and assertiveness providing direction.

2.

While some intense inductive struggle is a necessary component of second language learning, the initial difficult days and weeks of floundering in ignorance in CLL could be reduced by more directed, deductive learning: by being told. Perhaps only later, when the learner has moved to more independence, is an inductive strategy really successful.

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Criticism of CLL

3.

The success of CLL depends largely on the translation expertise of the

• teacher. Translation is a complex process; if subtle aspects of

language are mistranslated, there could be a less than effective understanding of the TL.

4.

Problems in adapting it to a beginners multilingual class.

5.

Problems in adapting it to large classes.

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Criticism of CLL

6.

Many have questioned the counseling model on which CLL is based, arguing that a language class is fundamentally different from a therapy session, and that language learners cannot be regarded as clients in need of therapy.

7.

They have also warned against teachers taking on a counseling role when they are not trained for this highly delicate and sensitive profession.

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Advantages of CLL

As teachers, we are reminded:

 to lower learners' anxiety,  to create as much of a supportive group in our classrooms as possible,  to allow students to initiate language,  and to point learners toward autonomous learning in preparation for

the day when they no longer have the teacher to guide them.

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Thank you

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