Behaviourism in (First) Language Learning

The role of native language has come to be known as language transfer. Much of the theory in this field is connected to SLA research. Language transfer is accepted or rejected because the associated theory is accepted/rejected. The assumption always was that the second language learner relies heavily on her/his native language. The need to produce pedagogically relevant materials prompted scholars to make contrastive analysis of native and target languages to determine their similarities and differences.

Transfer in this context should be explained. This can be determined based on output. That is, although the use of the term implies a process, the result is determined by the product.

Behaviourism 
Bloomsfield's classic work 'Language' (1993) provides the most elaborate description of the behaviourist position with regard to language.

Typical behaviourist position is that language is speech primarily. It is a precondition for writing. It is believed so because children learn to speak before writing, and some societies have no written language but all have spoken language, there are no societies with only written language.

Speaking is imitation and analogizing. As children we establish habits, and grow them by analogizing from what we already know or mimicking the speech of others.

Bloomfield's description of how language acquisition takes place:

1. babbling generated by a child- imperfect repetition of something according to Bloomsfield. Sounds are imitated, resulting in habit formation. This babbling trains it to reproduce vocal sounds which strike its ear.
2. Next is pairing this stimulus with the response of a native speaker. Mother saying something to the child initiates the response based on its habit through babble.
3. Mother says doll when handing the child a doll. Thus handing of the doll, hearing of 'doll' and sight of the doll happens until it becomes a habit- sight and feel of doll makes it say 'doll'.This is how language is learned.
4. Bloomsfield says that the absence of the stimulus can generate another stimulus, which in turn can generate the desired/same response.
5. Correct performance yields better results. If child utters something very vaguely, adults won't understand.

In short, child learns to make stimulus-response connection. Learning involves the establishment of a habit by means of which these stimulus-response sets become associated.

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) - A Basic Introduction

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is a very young field of study. Therefore theories about SLA are still being developed.

It is the study of how second language is learned - study of acquisition of a non-primary language. It studies prospects, challenges and scope of SLA. Are there rules governing SLA? Are they the same for First Language Acquisition and SLA?

SLA theory is impacted by fields of linguistics, psychology, psycho-linguistics, socio-linguistics, sociology, discourse analysis, conversational analysis, education, etc. It is a truly interdisciplinary field of study. It takes tools and methodology from allied disciplines.

SLA is not pedagogy unless it affects language acquisition directly.

Chomsky says that learning language is knowing human essence, distinctive qualities of mind unique to humans.

Second Language Acquisition concerns itself with determination of linguistic constraints on the formation of second language grammars.

Today's language teaching courses teach SLA also. There is a realization that language learning is more than rule memorization and translation. It involves learning to express communicative needs. That is, pedagogical decision making and must reflect what is known about the process of learning. Another factor is teachers' expectations.

Cross cultural communication has its own kinds of barriers and limitations. Phonological issues are also there.

Policy formation is dependent on one's knowledge of SLA. So it has to be well rooted.

In short, SLA learns the processes underlying the learning of a second language. It is different from the study of pedagogy.

Terminology

1. NL- Native Language- this is the primary language or mother tongue or first language- L1
2. TL- Target Language- the language being learned
3. SLA- Second Language Acquisition- Process of learning another language after native language is learned. Some prefer to refer to it as Second Language Studies.
4. FLL- Foreign Language Learning- learning of non-native language in the environment of one's native language. This happens commonly in a class room. Second language learning happens in target language environment. This provides access to native speakers' language.

There are five elements of language that we learn:

1. Phonology or sound system
2. Syntax or grammar
3. Morphology and the lexicon- study of word formation
4. Semantics- meaning
5. Pragmatics- the way language is used in contexts

Learning an L2 is a complex task. SLA assumes that an interlanguage (IL) is created by the learner. It is filled with random errors, but has its own system and structure. Elements from NL and TL and new elements found nowhere will be found in IL. 

Fossilization is central to the concept of IL. It is the cessation of learning at a certain stage of IL. Some say, stabilization is a better term instead of fossilization. 

(Drawn from Gass' book on SLA)

Comprehension-based learning and the Roles of Output in language learning (Peter Skehan)

Roles of Output in language learning

1. To generate better input: good output serves as good input.
2. To force syntactic processing: awareness of need to produce speech makes better listeners of the means by which meaning is communicated. Syntax, etc. It causes input and listening to be used more effectively for interlanguage development.
3. To test hypotheses: speaker can control the agenda, take risks, look for feedback on the points of doubt in his/her developing grammar. This makes learning more efficient, because speaker can build upon the feedback.
4. To develop automaticity: real time speaking needs speed in processing. Linking utterances automatically reduces/saves processing time and spares the same for planning responses in speaking. Fluency comes by practice. (In languages where morphology (word order, etc.) plays a vital role, speaking helps faster learning.)
5. To develop discourse skills: to be an effective communicator, it is not enough to have sentence construction skills. Participation in discourse is the only means by which these skills can be achieved. 
6. To develop a personal voice: One needs to steer conversations along the interests of the speaker, finding ways of expression to mean what one wants to mean.

Importance of output
The points above detail the inadequacy of simple listening for language learning.

But is output sufficient as an efficient language learning tool?

Skehan says that the points above indicate that output is an efficient agent in learning language. Output has a central role in promoting interlanguage development by forcing syntactic processing, testing hypotheses, and developing automaticity. These stand for fluency and form.

The place of comprehension in language learning

It has been a subject of discussion as to why while first language learning almost always leads to success, second language learning doesn't have a great success rate. ELT has experimented various alternatives to methods of teaching and learning. It also has checked if approaches that connect first language acquisition to second language learning hold out any promise at all.

One such approach is comprehension-driven learning. This states that under the right conditions, second language development can happen simply as a result of exposure to meaningful input. One of the claims made by Peter Skehan (2014, 11) is that instructional activities that give importance to meaning (both comprehension- or production - based) may make learners to rely on strategies for communication that result in bypassing of the form of language.

Comprehension in Language Learning
Krashen is the one who has given much to comprehension-based language development. He said that comprehensible input is the basis for interlanguage development and change. He also said that such change has the potential to be carried over to production stage as well. In short, listening leads to learning how to speak. Krashen's argument is that the predictable context implies that what is said is a commentary of what is understood. This results in the expansion of interlanguage by the context-to-language connection involved. He quotes examples such as immersion education where learner has a lot of content based input available, and has freedom to develop at her/his pace. Studies have shown that such learners have much higher rates of achievements than those from traditional methods.

But criticism says that there is a contrast between the receptive and productive skills of learners of comprehension-based methods such as immersion education. They may have excellent comprehension skills, but may not be as good in production skills. Their errors can be persistent in speaking and writing even after years of instruction.

Strategies of comprehension
Native speaker uses a range of comprehension strategies (syntactic and semantic) in listening. It is probabilistic in nature, and does not follow any sort of deterministic model. That is, they don't use any linguistic model but use a variety of strategies.

Skehan (14) gives an outline of comprehension as dependent on three main sources of knowledge.
1. Schematic knowledge: Background and procedural knowledge
2. Contextual knowledge: situation and co-text
3. Systemic knowledge: syntactic, semantic and morphological knowledge

That is, we don't depend entirely on systemic knowledge to make meaning- we draw from context and schematic knowledge as well. Comprehension is in short a mixture of bottom-up and top-down processes. When we use top-down approaches more, our dependence on visual and auditory stimulus is reduced.

The implication is that comprehension process can be partly detached from syntactic system and form production. It may be considered partly an autonomous skill, whose development does not automatically transfer to other areas. An effective comprehender may be an effective strategy user, but not someone who extracts syntactic inferences from the language being processed. In short, comprehension may leave interlanguage untouched!

In case of second/foreign language learner, he/she already has schematic knowledge in place (first language), but lack systemic knowledge. When they face comprehension problems, they are likely to use schematic and contextual knowledge to overcome their systemic limitations. Therefore, the need to use interlanguage is reduced. Also, chances of interlanguage change and development is less.

The conclusion is, most people don't learn a second language by simply listening to it!

Krashen's claim regarding comprehension strategies was that language input is necessary, sufficient and efficient, and would lead to effective comprehension, and production. His claim also includes the fact that interlanguage will also be affected, and changed in the process. In fact, it is this second claim that makes his first claim interesting and worth discussion.

Reference and Source

Skehan, Peter. A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning, Oxford University Press, New York, 2014.

Why this aversion towards psycho-linguistics, ELT?

Why? Why ELT? Why is this aversion towards psycho-linguistics? Tell us the reason.

Hmm. There are reasons. ELT is skeptical of psycholinguistics because it, once upon a time had borne the techniques of audio-lingualism, pattern practice, etc. which did not quite enhance the field. Therefore, ELT likes to see linguistics as its parent discipline. May be, even socio-linguistics can be seen as a parent of ELT, But certainly not psycholinguistics.

In fact, this has caused ELT troubles. Because of the aversion, ELT has been diverted from psycholinguistics for most of its life. The attention psycholinguistics must have received was taken away by linguistics and socio-linguistics.

Moreover, psycholinguistics is of secondary importance to linguistically motivated 'universalist account', and 'socio-linguistic generalizations'. This is because psycholinguistics emphasizes on information processing and cognitive abilities (which are the objectives of cognitive psychology). The widespread assumption was that 'the module that helps acquire language affects our perceptions on second language acquisition. This led to the sidelining of psycholinguistics!

മനുഷ്യര്‍*

അയാള്‍ക്ക്‌ ചിരിക്കാനറിയാം. നിശബ്ദനാകാനും. ഒരുപക്ഷേ നിശബ്ദതയിലൂടെ സംസാരിക്കുന്നതില്‍ അയാള്‍ ആനന്ദം കണ്ടെത്തുന്നുണ്ട്. സംസാരത്തിന്റെ നീണ്ട ഇടനാഴികള്‍ക്കിടയില്‍ അല്പം വിശ്രമിക്കാന്‍, ഒന്ന് കയറിനില്‍ക്കാന്‍ അയാളുടെ നിശബ്ദതയുടെ മാറാലചൂടിയ തണുത്ത മൂലകള്‍ എപ്പോഴും ഒഴിഞ്ഞു കിടന്നു.

യാത്രകള്‍ക്കപ്പുറം ജീവിതത്തിനും ബന്ധങ്ങള്‍ക്കും അര്‍ത്ഥമുണ്ടെന്ന് അയാള്‍ ഒരുപക്ഷേ ചിന്തിക്കുന്നുണ്ടാവില്ല. കാരണം അയാളുടെ ജീവിതം അക്ഷരാര്‍ഥത്തില്‍ ഒരു യാത്രയാണ്. ഇരുട്ടില്‍ നിന്ന് വെളിച്ചത്തിലെയ്ക്കും വെളിവില്ലായ്മയി നിന്ന് വെളിവില്ലേയ്ക്കും അപരത്വത്തില്‍നിന്ന് സ്വത്വത്തിലേയ്ക്കും... പിന്നെ കാശ്മീര്‍ മുതല്‍ കന്യാകുമാരി വരെയും സബര്‍മതി മുതല്‍ കുംകി വരെയും നീണ്ട വഴികളില്‍ അയാളോരിക്കലും സ്വയം അന്യനായിത്തീര്‍ന്നില്ല. നടന്നും കിതച്ചും വിശന്നും അയാള്‍ നാടുകണ്ടുനടന്നു. ഒപ്പം നാടിന്‍റെ കണ്ണീരും സ്വപ്നങ്ങളും, കണ്ണീരില്‍ കുരുത്ത കയ്പുള്ള സ്വപ്നങ്ങളും. ഒരുപക്ഷെ അതുകൊണ്ടാവാം അയാളുടെ സ്വപ്നങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് വിപ്ലവങ്ങളുടെ ചൂടും അമ്മയുടെ മൃദുത്വവും ഒരേപോലെ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നത്. അതിരുകള്‍ അയാള്‍ക്കും അയാളുടെ സ്വപ്നങ്ങള്‍ക്കും അന്യമായിരുന്നു.

നിങ്ങളും അയാളെ കണ്ടിട്ടുണ്ടാവും, തീര്‍ച്ച. ജീവിതത്തിന്‍റെ  ഉണങ്ങിയ വേനലുച്ചനേരങ്ങളില്‍ തണുത്ത കാറ്റുപോലെ. അയാളുടെ നിഴല്‍വീണ വഴികളില്‍ നിങ്ങള്‍ക്കും പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കാത്ത, വിശദീകരണമില്ലാത്ത സന്തോഷങ്ങള്‍ വീണുകിട്ടിയിട്ടുണ്ടാവും. ഭാഗ്യമെന്നു വിളിക്കുന്ന അത്തരം നീലക്കുറിഞ്ഞികളില്‍ അയാളുടെ സൗരഭ്യമുണ്ടായിരുന്നില്ലേ? തിരിച്ചറിയപ്പെടാത്തവനായി നടന്നകലുന്ന അവന്‍റെ നിഴല്‍രൂപം കണ്‍കോണിലൂടെയെങ്കിലും നിങ്ങള്‍ കണ്ടിട്ടില്ലേ? ഉണ്ടാവും.

അയാള്‍ ചില മനുഷ്യരാണ്. വെളിച്ചം മാഞ്ഞാലും നിഴലായി ജീവിക്കുന്ന ചില മനുഷ്യര്‍. നിറംമങ്ങിയ ജീവിതത്താളുകള്‍ക്കിടയില്‍ മയില്‍‌പ്പീലിപോലെ നിറം ചേര്‍ക്കുന്ന ചില മനുഷ്യര്‍. ചില നല്ല മനുഷ്യര്‍.
(*കടപ്പാടിലൊതുക്കുവാനാകാത്ത രാജീവ് മാങ്കോട്ടിൽ എന്ന കുഞ്ഞു വല്യ മനുഷ്യന്)

Time flies. So do we.

Time flies like the birds of the sky.
So do we in the sky of our time.

Fleeting moments of joy are the treasures,
That keep us going in this hunt.
A dip, quick and firm
In the waters of calm and beauty
Are enough to keep the wings fluttering
Till the heart stops mid air and you gasp for breath.

Then you fall.
It's the fall you were born to fall.

That final fall will bring you the heights of your glory.
The height of your fall is the joy of your soon begone life.
Longer the fall, greater the joy.

So, if you are still alive,
And if you are not yet a bird,
Discover your wings and learn to fly.
If you are a bird and if you're flying low,
Find your speed and learn to fly high.
If you are flying high as if there is no end,
Get ready to end it all and fall free through the maze.

For, life is short,
And time flies like the birds of the sky.