Notes on

Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)

Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla
Unit I Conceptual Issues Language Learning
1. Language acquisition and communicationfactors affecting language learning and language
acquisition and communication
What is Communication?
Communication has been variously defined from different perspectives:

Means of conveying information, with a focus on both transmission and reception of messages.
Connection between persons caused by the transmission and understanding of verbal and nonverbal
messages.
Process of sharing information and feelings by people through an exchange of verbal and nonverbal
messages.
Sharing of meaning through transmission of information.
Creation of shared understanding through interaction of two or more agents.

Many definitions of communication see it as a dynamic and transactional process in which people
intentionally attempt to present information to and elicit a response from others. Some researchers and
scholars, however, reject the notion of intentionality. They observe that communication is essentially a
receiver phenomenon; that is, that the intention or even awareness of a message source is less important in
the communication transaction than the receivers judgment that he or she has, in fact, been communicated
with.
Consider an obvious example: An American business executive is meeting with his Arab counterpart to
negotiate a business contract. During the meeting, the American crosses his legs and points the soles of his
shoes toward the Arab. To the American, such an action carries absolutely no meaning; to the Arab, insult is
perceived. The Arab might realize that the American intended no harm, but it would be difficult to completely
ignore the cultural gaffe.
Communication Process
Communication often is presented as a circular process. A source or sender with a concept in mind encodes a
message, transmits it through a channel or medium of communication to a receiver, who then decodes the
message and provides feedback, which reverses the encoding/transmission/decoding process.
The source is the creator of a thought who has meaning about a concept. This source could be a person,
corporation, organization, country, or any other entity that presents a message. The source is sometimes called
the message sender.
Encoding is the process of crafting words, gestures and other linguistic signs that will allow a message source
to express his or her thought in some sensible way. The encoding can be verbal or nonverbal; it can be oral,
visual or tactile.
Message is the term used for the content of communication, the thoughtful meaning encoded by the sources.
The encoded message is transmitted over a channel. This is a physical medium that may be natural (such as
sound waves and light waves) or technological (such as telephone, radio, internet, and so on). The message
channel often is called the medium (plural: media).
Noise is the term referring to anything that distorts the encoded message. Noise can take several forms.
Notes on
Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)
Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla

Notes on
Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)
Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla

Mechanical noise (also called channel noise) is associated with the vehicle of mediated
communication. Examples of mechanical noise: smudged ink on a printed page, static in a shortwave
radio station, graininess in television reception.
Semantic noise is an impediment in the communication process because of ineffective use of
language. Examples of semantic noise: slurred speaking, jargon, accent, words with varying
connotations, inaccuracies in translation, inappropriate use of profanity.
Environmental noise (or external noise) is an impediment that interrupts the receivers ability to
properly hear a message. Examples of environmental noise: crowd chatter, blaring radio while
studying.
Internal noise refers to the inability of the receiver to focus on the message. Examples of internal
noise: being too tired to concentrate, too hungry to pay attention.

The receiver is the person or persons who get the message from the sender. Receivers may be intentional (that
is, the person whom the sender intended to receive the message) or unintentional (people who unexpectedly
receive the message).
Decoding is the reverse process of encoding. In decoding, the receiver takes the words, gestures and other
linguistic signs and interprets them to recreate the original thought. The effectiveness of the process rests on
how closely the encoding and decoding reflect each other. The practical difficulty of communication is that
rarely does the encoding perfectly anticipate the decoding, nor does the decoding perfectly reflect the
encoding. So the question is: How close are the encoding and decoding.
Receiver response refers to everything the receiver thinks and does after decoding the received message.
Silence and doing nothing is one type of response, as is consideration, evaluation, and action. The action itself
may be either consistent with or opposed to the response desired by the message sender.
Feedback is the receivers public response to the decoded message, communicated back to the sender. This is
the final step in the circular communication process, though in essence it is a separate communication action
which the same components (sender, encoding channel, and so on) as the original communication.
Communication is a social interaction that takes place within a relationship between sender and receiver. This
relationship is called the context. Though not a specific part of the communication act, context (whether
physical, social or cultural) is important to the entire communication process.

Humans communicate with language. Though, language is not the only means of communication.
Whenever communication is thought of we always associate it with language. Language is a vehicle
that we use in presenting our ideas, thoughts, feelings, opinions to the world. It is what we exhibit
our cultural norms and orientations in and the whole essence of our being is captured in our
language. That is why whenever a country, people or race conquers another, the first thing that will
be affected will be the conquered peoples language. If the colonialists had come to Africa without
imposing their languages on the continent, the issue of political domination would not have been
possible. With the conquest comes prestige that the ability to use the conquering peoples language
confers on the conquered people. In Nigeria, during colonial era, immediately before the left, the
moment after independence to the present day, the ability to use speak and write English confers
a status symbol on those that can use the language English. This is still evident in the way parents
in most home in the country would go to any length to ensure that their children/wards speak
English.
Notes on
Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)
Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla

Notes on
Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)
Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla

The role of language in communication

If we believe that our language is what drives our value systems, then we say that language drives
our cultural orientation. Sapir (1921) holds it that: language is a purely human and non-instinctive
method of communicating ideas, emotions and desire by means of voluntarily produced symbols.
This means that it is only human beings of all the creatures on the earth surface that uses language.
The language that man uses is not something his biological make bequeath on him he learns this
language in a human community. We are not saying here that other beings do not communicate but it
is man alone that communicates with language. The nonverbal communication we talked about is
predicated on language. Language is the vehicle that our thoughts are conveyed in. if our thoughts
are conveyed in language then our culture in conveyed too through it.
Krech1962explained the major functions of language from the following three aspects:
1. Language is the primary vehicle of communication;
2. Language reflects both the personality of the individual and the culture of his history. In turn,
it helps shape both personality and culture;
3. Language makes possible the growth and transmission of culture, the continuity of societies,
and the effective functioning and control of social group
(http://www1.gdufs.edu.cn/jwc/bestcourse/kecheng/38/whjiaoan/files/intro.html).
Communication begins at birth with touch, then with vision, and finally with speech and hearing or audition.
Each child needs to learn the "codes of his/her culture" because the language of each culture is different. Yet,
if a child is to learn about his/her world, the ability to communicate must exist. Even after a baby learns the
rudiments of communication through touch, vision and hearing, those skills need to continue to be refined
until, at about age 7, the brain is ready to deal with the abstracts concepts involved in reading, writing,
comprehension, math "language" or concepts, and body language.
The acquisition and use of language and communication skills is at the heart of learning. These skills include
speech, reading, writing and spelling, comprehension, reasoning, math language and body language. All of
these skills need an intact sensory system to function appropriately.
Language acquisition is divided into several parts:

Receptive language: language that is spoken or written by others and received by an individual, i.e.
listening or reading (decoding or getting meaning from spoken words or written symbols). In order to
receive language, the individual must be able to attend to, process, comprehend, retain and/or
integrate spoken or written language. In order to do proper auditory processing, the individual needs
to have phonemic awareness, the ability to notice, think about and manipulate the individual sound in
words and phonemes (sound-symbol correspondence); and phonological awareness, sound-symbol
recognition or the ability to recognize specific sounds, which is necessary for good reading and
spelling. Good visual processing demands the ability to interpret visual symbols, to differential visual
figure from ground, to have a functional visual memory and, for writing, good visual-motor activity.

Notes on
Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)
Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla

Notes on
Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)
Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla

Cognitive language: language that is received, processed into memory, integrated with knowledge
already integrated and made a part of the knowledge of the individual from which new ideas and
concepts can be generated. It is a part of the creative process that shapes the thought of each person.

Expressive language: language and communication through speaking, writing, and/or gestures, i.e.
selecting words, formulating them into ideas, and producing them through speaking, writing, or
gesture (encoding or the process of expressive language). Expressive language involves word
retrieval, rules of grammar (syntax) word and sentence structure (morphology) and word meaning
(semantics).

Acquisition/acquisition versus learning

Acquisition is a general term in SLA research used to mean the internalization of a linguistic system.
However, in the 1970s, Steven Krashen made a distinction between learning and acquisition. For him,
learning referred to conscious effort at learning rules from books and teachers. When learners receive
information such as You need to add an -s to verbs that refer to someone else. This is called third-person -s.
and then practice this rule, Krashen would consider this learning. Learning results in a particular kind of
knowledge system, an explicit system.
Distinct from learning is acquisition. According to Krashen, acquisition involves processes by which learners
internalize language from exposure to input (basically, samples of language they hear or read in
communicative contexts). To acquire third-person -s, learners would need to hear lots of third-person verbs in
context, as part of the communication of information. In a certain sense, Krashen likens acquisition for L2
learners to acquisition for L1 learners; namely, acquisition happens because of exposure to input, not because
anyone teaches the learner a rule or because he or she practices it. Unlike learning, acquisition for an L2
learner results in an implicit (unconscious) linguistic system, just as it would for the L1 learner.
For Krashen, acquisition is more fundamental. His claim is that learning is limited in terms of what learners
can do with explicit information, that ultimately communication involves tapping into the acquired linguistic
system and not the learned linguistic system. The learned system can be used for monitoring (editing ones
production) under certain conditions (see Monitor Theory). What is more, under his scenario, learning and
acquisition are separate processes that result in separate systems that do not interact. Most importantly,
learning cannot become acquisition. That is, one doesnt learn rules and, because of practice, acquire them.
Acquisition happens in one and only one way for Krashen: by exposure to input in communicative settings. A
variety of classroom approaches were either based on Krashens ideas or found support in them (e.g., the
Natural Approach, immersion).
Krashsens learning-acquisition distinction caused considerable debate in the field, as did his Monitor Theory,
of which the distinction is a part. Scholars argued over whether such a distinction truly existed, or, if it did,
whether or not there could be an interface between the two processes as well as the two resulting linguistic
systems. However, it is safe to say that today, regardless of the processes involved (learning vs. acquisition),
scholars accept that learners develop an implicit mental representation of language, which subsumes
Krashens acquired system (see competence, mental representation of language). At the same time, they accept
that learners may also have explicit knowledge, which subsumes Krashens learned knowledge about
language. The notable exception is scholars who work within skill theory, who do believe in the practicing of
rules as part of skill development. As we said at the outset, acquisition is now used as a cover term for what
happens to learners regardless of context and regardless of whether they explicitly practice rules or not. Thus,
the field is called second language acquisition and not, for example, second language acquisition and learning.
Notes on
Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)
Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla

Notes on
Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)
Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla
Scholars associated with the debate in the late 1970s and early 1980s over learning and acquisition include
Kevin Gregg, Steven Krashen, Barry McLaughlin, and Tracy Terrell. The learning-acquisition distinction was
reformulated by Bonnie Schwartz in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Factors affecting language learning and language acquisition

Notes on
Pedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)
Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abhay Shukla