Alchemy of Acquiring a Language: An Investigation with Special Reference to Cognitive Development and Artificial Intelligence (original) (raw)
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Learning to Unlearn Faulty Beliefs and Practices in ELT
Studies in English Language and Education (SIELE), 2023
Our actions arise from our beliefs about life: what we need and how best to achieve it. This article asks English Language Teachers to undertake an open-minded examination of some long-held beliefs in our profession and of the teaching practices that derive from those beliefs. Perhaps, based on this examination, teachers may wish to modify some beliefs and, correspondingly, change some practices. The particular beliefs examined in the article are as follows: people who begin second language learning at a young age will be more successful; native speaker varieties of English should be valued over non-native varieties; the best outcome is for second language learners to stop using their mother tongue; in second language instruction, grammar deserves top priority; vocabulary is considered less important than grammar; pragmatic competence need not be taught; learning depends on suffering; teaching learning strategies deserves a great deal of attention; teaching materials should be difficult; and only lazy teachers use cooperative learning.
Introduction: Cognitive approaches to L2 learning and teaching
Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association, 2016
L2 learning and teaching are activities that clearly involve linguistic capacities, and thus it seems natural to assume that models and methods developed in linguistics can contribute to solving questions which are central to language pedagogy-crucially, the question how L2 learning and teaching can be improved. However, the relationship between language pedagogy and linguistics has traditionally been an uneasy one. This is due, in part, to the dominance of generative approaches to language and language acquisition in academic linguistics. If one assumes-as generativists usually do-that linguistic knowledge is separate from other cognitive and social abilities and resources, it is difficult to apply knowledge about learning processes in general to language learning and teaching. If one further denies-as is, again, common in generative linguisticsthat linguistic knowledge is shaped by general cognitive processes and social interaction, attempts to apply linguistic models to L2 learning and teaching become essentially pointless. Put simply, generative models view language as a system of very general rules that are not accessible to conscious deliberation and that, therefore, cannot be taught straightforwardly; the many linguistic phenomena that do not follow such general rules are then treated as irregularities which have to be learned and stored in a list-like way in the mental lexicon. If anything follows from such a view with respect to language teaching, it is either that language cannot be taught at all (reducing the foreign language classroom to an occasion for providing dense authentic input and hoping that something like a "language acquisition device" will do the rest), or else, that something approximating the general rules of a language plus all the exceptions should be taught. While authentic input and the teaching of rules and exceptions are, and have always been, part of the foreign language classroom to some extent, it has long been obvious for language teachers and educators that there is more to L2
Natural and Instructional Input Practices: Consciousness-Raising in ELT
Mona Hassanzade, Mehry Haddad Narafshan, 2016
Many researchers on language acquisition agree that early onset is important when acquiring a second language (L2). Second language acquisition depends on the experience of the target language. Accounts of successful L2 acquisition have accordingly emphasized the importance of the quality of the input available to the learners. Consequently, this study probes the impact of input quality on second language grammar comprehension and production of young children. 40 infants (3 to 4 years old) were selected as the sample of this study. The results revealed that explicit input which draws learners’ attention to linguistic form and structure caused a better grammar comprehension and production in young children; explicit grammar instruction can serve to speed up both grammar comprehension and production process.
The role of input- and output-based practice in ELT
ELT in a changing world: Innovative approaches to new challenges, ed by A. Ahmed, M. Hanzala, F. Saleem & G. Cane, 2013
The familiar saying "practice makes perfect" resonates well with those of us in the language teaching profession. Rarely, however, do we question this collective wisdom. We seldom ask about the kinds of practice that contribute more directly and critically to language learning. Also, we rarely ask about what is probably the more important question of how much practice is required before a skill is fully acquired. In this chapter, I discuss the role of input and output-based practice in language learning. While the current thinking within SLA is that both types of practice are important, and that each plays a distinct but complementary role in language acquisition, this view is not reflected fully in the language classroom. Many language programmes today give learners a lot of output-based practice but deprive them of the opportunity to engage in meaningful input-based practice. This often results in learners who are fluent users of English but whose linguistic system remains underdeveloped. I argue that language programmes must provide an appropriate amount of balanced input and output practice that L2 learners engage in deliberately and systematically on a sustained basis. A balanced language programme increases the chance of our L2 learners developing language competence that enables them to use the target language not only more fluently and accurately, but also with a higher level of grammatical complexity.
2021
This chapter discusses second language (L2) learning processes from cognitive perspectives gained from psychology and second language acquisition (SLA) research. A particularly useful cognitive theory for elucidating L2 learning processes from a cognitive perspective is skill acquisition theory. In L2 learning, declarative knowledge consists of exemplars and rules that L2 learners are usually aware of, while procedural knowledge is used by applying declarative knowledge to behaviors/skills, such as L2 comprehension and production. Optimal practice scheduling is a particularly burgeoning research area and is inspired by cognitive psychology research. L2 researchers have started to reveal the optimal timing to repeat L2 practice activities for proceduralization and automatization. In cognitive psychology research, distributing practice opportunities over multiple study sessions has been proven to be more valuable for long-term retention. Compared to cognitive factors like aptitude, however, relatively little attention have been given to the affective and motivational factors for research on L2 practice. Implications of many of the findings are somewhat straightforward.
Brooding over Integration of Skills in ELT Lessons Reasons and Remedies-JASRAE ISSUE 1 VOL
Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education (JASRAE), 2022
Integration of skills approach has been gained the momentum in English language teaching since the 1980s. Growing demand for communicative competence of the graduate in the job market gave an impetus for the call for integrated skill approach. Effective integration of skill can bring better results in achieving learning outcome of the courses delivered in ELT/ESL/EFL settings too. Many scholars spoke about the effectiveness integration of skills. According to Jing (2006), integrated method is widely discussed and recognized as the best mean for the development of communicative competence. This pertains the ever-widening need of a learner to be involved in a process meeting real life challenges of using a foreign language. He substantiates his argument by saying that multiple skills are used for communication in day-today life. To achieve this objective, integration of language skills will be most reliable instructional method to take learners to the higher levels of communicative ability in the language. The motto 'English for life' is not achieved though there are many English language courses which are tailor made for this. There are many factors that contributed to this issue. Therefore, a careful study about the issue will be timely and worth conducting to shed light to the cardinal issues that prevail in the sector. This paper is based on the study conducted among the lecturers and students of Preparatory Studies Program (PSP), a foundation study program for the undergraduate, at English language Centre of the