Applied linguistics:

Linguistics: addresses the fundamental questions of what language is and how it’s
related to other human faculties, in answering these questions, linguistics consider
language as a cultural, social and psychological phenomenon and seek to determine
what is unique in languages, what is universal, how language is acquired and how it
changes, linguistics as a discipline is split into many subjects, these sub elds come
together to reveal insights about human language.

What is applied linguistics?: it’s an umbrella term that covers a wide set of
numerous areas of study connected by the focus on the language used, applied
linguistics uses information from sociology, psychology, anthropology and linguistics in
order to develop its own theoretical modules of language and language use, then use
these theories in practical areas such as syllabus design, speech therapy…

Major concepts in linguistics:

General linguistics: studying language in general, supplies the concepts and
categories in terms of which particular languages are to be analyzed.

Descriptive linguistics: Studying particular languages, provides the data which

con rms or refutes the propositions and theories put forward in general linguistics.

Theoretical linguistics: studies language with the goal to construct a theory of its
structure and functions without any regard to any applications of the investigation.

Applied linguistics: application of the ndings and concepts of linguistics to a

variety of practical tasks including language teaching, applied linguistics is an
interdisciplinary eld which identi es, investigates and o ers solutions to language
related real life problems.

Microlinguistics: adopts a narrow view, concerned with the structures of the

language system:

1)- Phonetics: the scienti c study of speech sounds and how they are articulated,
transmitted and received.

2)- Phonology: the study of how speech sounds function.

3)- Morphology: the study of the formation of words.

4)- Syntax: the grammar of sentence construction.

5)- Semantics: the study of meaning of words and phrases in language.

6) pragmatics: the study of language used in context.

Macrolinguistics: adopts a broader view, concerned with the way languages are
acquired, stored in the brain and used for various functions

1)- Sociolinguistics: the study of the relationship between language and society.

2)- Psycholinguistics: the study of the mental process involved in the acquisition,
comprehension and production of language.

3)- Neurolinguistics: the study of language processing and language representation in

the brain.

4)- Discourse analysis: the study of the relationship between language and the contexts
in which language is used.

1
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
ff
fi
 5)- Computational linguistics: the approaches to linguistics which employs
mathematical techniques, often with the help of a computer.

Language, learning and teaching:

Language: the communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary

vocal, written or gestural symbols that enable members of a given community to
communicate intelligibly with one another, it is a specialized trait of humans where they
use complex systems of communications, the study of language is called linguistics.

Speech: the human ability to communicate verbally and vocally.

-Language is a specialized skill which devolves in a child spontaneously, without

conscious e ort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of it’d underlying
logic.

1)- Language is systematic – possibly a generative system.

2)- Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.

3)- Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may be visual.

4)- The symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer.
5)- Language is used for communication.
6)- Language operates in a speech community or culture.
7)- Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans.
8)- Language is acquired by all people in much the same way – language and
language learning both have universal characteristics.

Learning: the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience or being

taught.

1)- Learning is acquisition or “getting.”

2)- Learning is retention of information or skill.
3)- Retention implies storage systems, memory, cognitive organization.
4)- Learning involves active, conscious focus on acting upon events outside or
inside the organism.
5)- Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.
6)- Learning involves some form of practice.
7)- Learning is a change in behavior.
Teaching: guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting the
conditions for learning, your understanding of how the learner learns will determine your
philosophy of education, your teaching style, your approach, methods and classroom
techniques.
Learner Characteristics: Who are the learners that you are teaching? What is
their ethnic, linguistic, and religious heritage? What are their native languages, levels of
education, and socioeconomic characteristics?
Linguistic Factors: What is it that the learner must learn? What is language? What
is communication? What does it mean when we say someone knows how to use a
language? What is the best way to describe or systematize the target (second)
language?

ff



























Learning Processes:How does learning take place? How can a person ensure
success in language learning' What cognitive processes are utilized in second
language learning?

Age and Acquisition: When in the life of a learner does second language learning
take place? How do the cognitive and emotional developmental changes of childhood
and young adulthood a ect language acquisition?
Instructional Variables: Do all people learn a language equally successfully? If
not, what are the ingredients for success?
Context: How might the sociopolitical conditions of a particular country or its
language policy a ect the outcome of a learner's mastery of the language? How do
intercultural contrasts and similarities a ect the learning process?

Learner Characteristics: Who are the learners that you are teaching? What is
their ethnic, linguistic, and religious heritage? What are their native languages, levels of
education, and socioeconomic characteristics?
Linguistic Factors: What is it that the learner must learn? What is language? What
is communication? What does it mean when we say someone knows how to use a
language? What is the best way to describe or systematize the target (second)
language?

Learning Processes: How does learning take place? How can a person ensure
success in language learning' What cognitive processes are utilized in second
language learning?
Age and Acquisition: When in the life of a learner does second language learning
take place? How do the cognitive and emotional developmental changes of childhood
and young adulthood a ect language acquisition?

Instructional Variables: Do all people learn a language equally successfully? If

not, what are the ingredients for success?
Context: How might the sociopolitical conditions of a particular country or its
language policy a ect the outcome of a learner's mastery of the language? How do
intercultural contrasts and similarities a ect the learning process?

Purpose: Why are learners attempting to acquire the second language? What are
their purposes? Are they motivated by the achievement of a successful career, or by
passing a foreign language requirement, or by wishing to identify closely with the
culture and people of the target language?

3
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
 Language acquisition:

What is language acquisition?

-Language acquisition is a process which can take place at any period of one’s life,
however the ability to acquire language diminishes severely around puberty, due to
lateralization, in exibility due to hormonal changes, Neuroplasticity that stops at 25.

First language acquisition: refers to the unconscious learning of one’s native

language during the rst six years of one’s life, children acquire language through a
subconscious process and are unaware of grammar rules, they usually don’t require
explicit instruction to learn their rst language, the same way they learn how to roll
over, crawl and walk.

Characteristics of FLA:

1)- rst language acquisition is an instinct.

2)- it is very rapid.

3)- it is very complete.

4)- it doesn’t require instruction.

Early stages of FLA:

1)- Organic sounds, crying, cooing.

2)- beginning of the babbling phase.

3) emergence of the rst comprehensible words. ( one word stage followed by 2 word
stage known as telegraphic utterances/speech: speech with only nouns and verbs).

4)- in ection, negation, interrogative and imperative sentences.

5)- a vocabulary of about 1000 words.

6)- the main syntactic rules have been acquired.

Second language acquisition: refers to learning a second language after the rst
native language is learned, anyone can learn a second language but children usually
nd it easier, SLA requires direction and guiding, meaning its learning occurs actively
and consciously through explicit instruction and education.

Stages of SLA:
-According to Stephen Krashen, SLA occurs in ve stages:

1)- pre-production: learners learn terms of the new language and practice them.

2)- early production: learners can speak in short sentences of one or two phrases, they
also collect new words.

3)- speech emergence: learners know thousands of words and can communicate using
simple questions and phrases.

4)- immediate uency: learners have an advanced vocabulary and can use more
complicated sentence structures, they can also share their opinions and thoughts.

5)- advanced uency: learners will nally have several years of experience, and can
function at a level very close of native speakers.

4
fi
fi
fl
fl
fl
fl
fi
fi

fi
fi
fi
fi
Nineteen centuries of language learning:

-In the western world, foreign language learning in schools was synonymous with the
learning of Latin and Greek.

-Latin was taught by means of what has been called the classical method.

Classical method: it focuses on grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary

and various declensions and conjugation, translation of text, doing written exercises,
the classical method came to be known as the grammar translation method.

Grammar translation method: in grammar translation classes, students learn

grammatical rules then apply those rules by translating sentences between the target
language and the native language, little to no attention is payed to pronunciation.

Language teaching in the twentieth century:

-A glance through the past century or so of language gives an interesting picture of

varied interpretations of the best way to teach a foreign language.

Audio lingual method: the ALM or army method is used in teaching foreign
languages, students are made to listen to the language, without using the mother
tongue, the method is based in behaviorism, language learning should become an
automatic habit formation through drill and repetition.

Communicative language teaching: the CLT is based on the idea that learning
language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning, when
learners are involved in real communication their natural strategies for language
acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn how to use the language.

Schools of thoughts in SLA:

-There are primarily three schools of thoughts when it comes to SLA, these schools are
generally a combination of linguistics and psychological concepts:

1)- Structural linguistics and behavioral psychology:

I)- Structural linguistics: the theory that language consists of structures and the
mastery of these structures is more important than the acquisition of vocabulary, since
structure is what is important and unique about a language, early practice should focus
on mastery of phenological and grammatical structures rather than on mastery of
vocabulary.
II)- Behavioral psychology: the theory of learning based on the idea that all
behaviors are acquired through operant conditioning, conditioning occurs through
interaction with the environment, behaviorists believe that our responses to
environmental stimuli shape our actions.

III)- Structural behaviorism: an empirical approach from the 1940s championed

by structural linguistics Fries & Hockett and behaviorist psychologists Pavlov &
Skinner, it is a descriptive level of adequacy, it believes that the study of language is

5
rigorous, exacting and allowing no mistake, however the results derived from this
school of thought are weak and not profound.

2)- Generative linguistics and cognitive psychology:

I)- Generative linguistics: a school of thought proposed by Noam Chomsky who
made the argument that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing
language known as universal grammar (Ug is the notion that all languages have the
same principles such as noun verb object etc…, but di er in parameters such as
sentence structure (svo or vso) etc…), generative linguists believe that all humans have
LAD (language acquisition device) giving them a predisposition for acquiring language
because universal grammar is innate, they were interested in:

1)- Performance:the actual use and realization of language.

2)- Parole: the appliance of language, the actual process of speaking.

3)- Competence: a speaker’s knowledge of his language that enables him to

understand an in nite number of sentences often never heard or produced before a
person’s underlying and unobservable language ability.
4)- Langue: The general system of language.

-In general we can say that performance and parole is using the language while
competence and langue is the linguistic system underlying second language grammars
and their constructions.

II)- Cognitive psychology: the study of how the brain processes language and
meaning by means of cognitive processing, it is believed that the SLA process can be
understood better by rst understanding how the human brain processes and learns
new information.

III)- Generative cognitivism: a rational approach from the 1960s championed by

generative linguist Chomsky and cognitive psychologists Miller and Neisser, it’s an
explanatory level of adequacy, it believes the study of language is less rigorous and
more risky as it investigates the unobservable, this school of thought allows one to gain
profound insight into human behavior.

3)- Constructivism: a multidisciplinary approach from the 1980s championed by

Piaget & Vygotsky, this school of thought emphasizes both the learner’s role in
constructing meaning out of available linguistic input (what is put in, taken in or
operated on by any process or system) and the importance of social interaction in
creating a new linguistic system.

-There are two branches of constructivism:

I)- Social constructivism: this branch emphasizes the importance of social

interaction and cooperative learning in constructing both cognitive and emotional
images of reality, Vygotsky advocated for the view that “children’s thinking and
meaning making is socially constructed and emerges out of their social interactions
with their environment, one of the most popular concept advanced by Vygotsky is the
notion of ZPD (zone of proximal development is an important facet of social
constructivism because it describes tasks that a child can do on their own as well as
tasks that a child cannot do without the help of an adult or a more competent peer).

6
fi
fi
ff
II)- Cognitive constructivism: this branch places emphasis on the idea that
learning should be related to the learner’s stage of cognitive development, this method
help students in learning new information by connecting it to things they already know,
enabling them to make modi cations in their existing intelligence to accommodate the
new information, cognitive constructivism comes from Piaget and his research on
cognitive development in children.

III)- Radical constructivism: It focuses on the idea that learners and the
knowledge they construct tell us nothing real, but only help us function in our
environment, the overall idea is that knowledge is invented not discovered, this theory
is developed by Ernst Von Glasersfeld.

-Piaget stressed the importance of individual cognitive development as a relatively

solitary act, social interaction only served to trigger development at the right time, on
the other hand, Vygotsky maintained that social interaction was foundational in
cognitive development and rejected the notion of predetermined stages.

Constructivism in education: Constructivist classrooms rely on 4 key areas:

-Shared knowledge between teachers and students.

-Shared authority between teachers and students.

-Teachers act as a guide or facilitator.

-Learning groups consisting of small numbers of students.

Disadvantages of constructivism: The biggest criticism of constructivist

leaning is its lack of structure, as some students rely on structure and organization but
constructivism relies on a laidback style of teaching, grading is often removed from
constructivist classrooms and places more value on student progress, which can lead
to students failing behind.

Theories of rst language acquisition:

-Over the last fty years, several theories have been put forward to explain the process
by which children learn to understand and speak a language, they can be summarized
as follows:
Behaviorist by Skinner: Children imitate adults, their correct utterances are
reinforced with praise and the wrong ones are discouraged by punishment.

Innateness by Chomsky: A child’s brain contains special language learning

mechanisms at birth.

Cognitive by Piaget: Language is just one aspect of a child’s overall intellectual

development.

Interaction/Input by Bruner: This theory emphasizes the interaction between a

child and their care-givers.

1)- Behaviorism:
-Skinner suggested that children are born a tabula rasa, a child imitates the language
of their parents or care-givers, successful attempts are rewarded because adults who
recognize a correct word uttered by a child will be praised, therefore reinforced, while
unsuccessful ones are ignored.

7
fi
fi
fi
Limitations of behaviorism:
-Language is based on a set of structures or rules which cannot be worked out simply
by imitation, a child saying “drinked” is not copying an adult, they gured out past
tense verbs end with a “d” sound, such mistakes are referred to as an intelligent
mistake or virtuous mistake.

-Children are often unable to repeat what an adult says.

-Few children receive explicit grammatical correction, parents are more concerned with
politeness and truthfulness.

-There is evidence for a critical period for language acquisition, children who have not
acquired language by the age of about seven may never fully catch up.

2)- Innateness (Nativist):

-Noam Chomsky published a criticism of the behaviorist theory in 1957, where he
focused on the impoverished language input children receive as adults do not typically
speak in grammatically complete sentences, in addition, what the child hears is only a
small sample of language.

-Chomsky concluded that children have an inborn faculty for language acquisition, the
process is biologically determined, the human species has evolved a brain whose
neural circuits contain linguistic information at birth. The child's natural predisposition
to learn language is triggered by hearing speech and the child's brain is able to
interpret what s/he hears according to the underlying principles or structures it already
contains. This natural faculty has become known as the LAD.

Evidence to support the innateness theory:

-Linguist Dan Slobin has pointed that the human brain is peculiarly adapted to the
production of speech unlike our nearest relatives the great apes.

-The linguist Derek Bickerton believes that the formation of Creole english is the result
of LAD while studying the formation of Dutch-based Creoles in Surinam.

-Studies into sign languages used by the deaf show that they are complex fully
grammatical languages in their own right.

Limitations of Chomsky’s theory:

-Chomsky’s work on language was theoretical, he was interested in grammar and
much of his work consists of complex explanations of grammatical rules, he did not
study real children, the theory relies on children being exposed to language but takes
no account of the interaction between children and their carers.Jim’s case shed light
on the limitations of Chomsky’s theory, as the hearing child of two deaf parents, his
parents wanted him to learn speech so they exposed him to television and the radio,
however his progress was limited until a speech therapist worked with him, therefore
being exposed to language only is not enough, social interaction is also essential.

-Subsequent theories have placed greater emphasis on the ways in which real children
develop language to ful ll their needs and interact with their environment, including
other people.

8
fi
fi
 3)- The cognitive theory (functional):
-Piaget placed acquisition of language within the context of a child’s mental or
cognitive development, he argued that a child has to understand a concept before they
can acquire the particular language form which expresses that concept.

-Piaget developed a stage theory that describes the cognitive development of children
Cognitive development involves changes in cognitive process and abilities in Piaget's
view early cognitive development involves processes based upon actions and later
progresses to changes in mental operations.

1)- the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years old): the child learns about the world
through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking and listening, they learn that
things continue to exist even though they can’t be seen, they realize that their actions
cause things to happen in the world around them.
2)- the pre-operational stage (2-7 years old): the child begins to think symbolically and
learn to use words and pictures to represent objects, kids during this stage tend to be
egocentric and struggle to see things from the point of view of others, while they are
getting better with language and thinking, they still see the world in very concrete
terms.
3) the concrete operational stage (7-11 years old): the child’s thinking becomes more
logical and organized but still very concrete.
4)- the formal operational stage (12 and up) the teenager begins thinking abstractly,
they understand moral, philosophical, ethical, social and political issues that require
theoretical and abstract reasoning.
Limitation of the cognitive theory:
Piaget's theory has some shortcomings, including overestimating the ability of
adolescence and underestimating infant's capacity. Piaget also neglected cultural and
social interaction factors in the development of children's cognition and thinking ability.

4)- The input/interaction theory (functional):

-Recent theorists have stressed the importance of the language input children receive
from their care-givers. Language exists for the purpose of communication and can only
be learned in the context of interaction with people who want to communicate with
you. Interactionists such as Jerome Bruner suggest that the language behavior of
adults when talking to children (referred to as child-directed speech or CDS) is
specially adapted to support the acquisition process. This support is often described to
as sca olding for the child's language learning. Bruner also coined the term Language
Acquisition Support System or LASS in response to Chomsky's LAD. Colwyn
Trevarthen studied the interaction between parents and babies who were too young to
speak. He concluded that the turn-taking structure of conversation is developed
through games and non-verbal communication long before actual words are uttered.

Limitations of the interaction/input theory:

These theories serve as a useful corrective to Chomsky's early position and it seems
likely that a child will learn more quickly with frequent interaction. However, it has
already been noted that children in all cultures pass through the same stages in
acquiring language. We have also seen that there are cultures in which adults do not
adopt special ways of talking to children, so CDS may be useful but seems not to be
essential.

9
ff
 Issues in FLA:
1)- Competence and performance:

-competence: One’s knowledge of a system, event or fact. it is the non-observable

ability to do something.

-performance: the observable and concrete manifestation or realization of competence.

2)- Comprehension and production:

-Research points to the general superiority of comprehension over production, children

seem to understand more than they produce.

3)- Nature or nurture:

-Nativists believe a child is born with an innate predisposition to learn language (LAD &
UG) meaning one must now prove scienti cally prove the genetic transmission of
linguistic ability.

4)- Universals: (Principles vs parameters):

Principles: invariable characteristics of human language that to apply to all languages.

Parameters: vary across languages.

5)- Systematicity and variability:

Systematicity: children exhibit a remarkable ability to infer the phonological, structural,

lexical, and semantic system of language.

Variability: di cult to de ne stages of language acquisition yet certain typical patterns

appear.

6)- Language and thought:

-Language is dependent on and springs from cognitive development.

-Language in uences cognitive development.

-Social interaction is a prerequisite to cognitive development.

7)- Imitation:

Echoing: Salient strategy in early language learning, an important aspect of early

phonological acquisition.

Surface-structure imitation: a person repeats or mimics the surface strings, attending

to a phonological code rather than a semantic code.

Deep-structure imitation: as children perceive the importance of the semantic level of

language, they attend to a greater extent to that meaningful semantic level-the deep
structure of language. The imitation of the deep structure of language can literally block
their attention to the surface structure.

8)- Practice and frequency:

Practice: Monologues, children’s practice seems to be a key to language acquisition.

Frequency: certain very frequent forms such as telegraphic speech are acquired rst.

9)- Input:

In the long run, children will, after consistent, repeated models in meaningful contexts,
eventually transfer correct forms to their own speech and thus correct "dat" to "that's".

Adult and peer input seem to shape the child's acquisition. in this case, nature and
environment are tremendously important.

10
ffi
fl
fi
fi
fi
 10)- Discourse:

Conversational or discourse analysis. In order for successful rst language acquisition

to take place, interaction, rather than exposure, is required, Initiations and responses :
the child learns not only how to initiate a conversation but also how to respond to
another's initiating utterance.

Process, style and strategies:

Process: Any number of behaviors, types of learning, needs, neural connections, and
emotional sets universally shared by all human beings.

Style: Consistent and enduring tendencies or preferences that vary individually.

Strategies:Speci c methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of operation for

achieving a particular end.

Types of learning:
-Signal learning: The individual learns to make a general response to a signal.

-Stimulus-response learning: The learner acquires a precise response to a signal.

-Chaining: What is acquired is a chain of two or more stimulus response-connection.

-Verbal association: It is the learning of chains that are verbal.

-Multiple discrimination: The individual learn to make a number of di erent identifying

responses to many di erent stimuli, which may resemble each other in physical
appearance.

-Concept learning: The learner acquires the ability to make a common response to a
class of stimuli even though the individual members of that class may di er widely from
each other.

-Principle learning: The ability to make a relationship between two or more concepts.

-Problem solving: It is a kind of learning that requires the internal events usually
referred to as “thinking”.

Transfer, Interference and overgeneralization:

I)- Transfer/positive transfer: happens when the prior knowledge bene ts the learning
tasks, that is when a previous items is correctly utilized in the present subject matter.

-Interference/negative transference: happens when the previous performance

hinders the performance on a second task.

-Generalization: To generalize means to infer or drive a law, rule or conclusion, usually

based on observation of special instances, much of human learning is a process of
generalization.

-Overgeneralization: is mostly used in the context of SLA to refer to a strategy in

which L2 learner acts within the target language.

Cognitive styles:Ausbeul de nes cognitive style as self-consistent and enduring

individual di erences in cognitive organization and functioning.

-Brown stated that cognitive style mediate between emotion and cognition.

11
ff
fi
ff
fi
fi
ff
fi
ff
 II)- Learning styles: ( eld independence or eld dependence , linear or non-linear,
global or particular, deductive or inductive, synthetic or analytic, analogue or digital,
concrete or abstract, leveling or sharpening, impulsive or re ective):
Inductive and deductive reasoning:
-Inductive reasoning: we go from the speci c to the general , Inductive reasoning
makes broad generalizations from speci c observations.

-Deductive reasoning: starts out with a general statement, or hypothesis, and

examines the possibilities to reach a speci c, logical conclusion.

Field independence:
-Field independent style: it’s a person’s ability to perceive a particular, relevant item or
factor in a “ eld” of distracting items.

-Field dependent style: it’s when you perceive the whole picture, the larger view, the
general con guration of a problem or idea or event.

An FI style enables a person to:

-Have the ability to distinguish parts from a whole.

-Concentrates on something very well.

-Analyzes separate variables without the contamination of neighboring variables.

People who are FD tend to be:

-More sociable than FI people.

-They need a quiet environment in order to concentrate well.

-Experiences in a global fashion, dislike drilling of structures.

The two con icting hypotheses of eld independence:

-FI is closely related to classroom learning that involves analysis, attention to details
and mastering of exercises, drills, and other focused activities.

-FD persons will be more successful in learning the communicative aspects of a

second language, since they are sociable, empathetic and receptive to the emotions of
others.

Right/left brain functioning:

Right brain is eld dependent, visual, tactile and inductive

Left brain is eld independent, logical, analytical and deductive

-As the child’s brain matures, various functions become lateralized to the left or right
hemisphere of the brain.

-Although there are many di erences between left and right brain characteristics, it is
important to remember that the left and right hemispheres operate together as a team.

Krashen, Seliger and Hartnett found support for the hypothesis:

-Left brain dominant SL learners prefer a deductive style of teaching.

-Right brain dominant SL learners appear to be more successful in an inductive

classroom environment.

Tolerance of ambiguity:
-ambiguity tolerance: some people are relatively open-minded in accepting ideologies,
events and facts that contradict their own views.

-ambiguity intolerance: some people are closed-minded and dogmatic, they tend to
reject items that are contradictory or slightly incongruent with their existing system.

12
fi
fi
fi
fl
fi
fi
ff
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fl
 Downside of ambiguity tolerance:
-too much tolerance of ambiguity can have a damaging e ect, people become too
accepting of any proposition before them, thus not retaining necessary facts into their
cognitive structure.

Re ectivity and impulsivity:

-The re ectivity-impulsivity continuum re ects the observation that some people are
more impulsive than others while processing information and can reach judgments
more quickly than others who are more re ective and take their time before reaching
conclusions.

Visual, auditory and kinesthetic:

1)- Visual: Reading, studying charts, drawings and graphics

2)- Auditory: Listening to lectures, audiotapes

3)- Kinesthetic: Demonstrations, physical touch, bodily movement, role playing

Theory of multiple intelligences:

Verbal linguistic skills

Logical mathematical skills

bodily kinesthetic

visual spatial skills

interpersonal abilities

intrapersonal abilities

musical abilities

naturalistic abilities

Autonomy, awareness and action:

1)- Autonomy:The process of developing within learners a sense of autonomy required
the use (and sometimes invention) of strategies.

Self-starting and taking responsibility for one's own learning Autonomy can be fostered
through a context-sensitive model.

Glocalization: a combination of both global and local consideration. A critical

awareness of speci c cultural backdrops and impacts as teachers involve students in
autonomous learning, Closely linked to the concept of autonomy is the demand on
learners to become aware of their own processes of learning.

2)- Awareness: Awareness and consciousness raising: for learners to develop a

metacognitive awareness of their ongoing learning.

3)- Action: Once learners can become aware of their predispositions, their styles, and
their strengths and weaknesses, based on the awareness, they can take appropriate
action in the form of a plethora of strategies that are available to them.

III)- Strategies:
Learning strategies:
1)- Metacognitive: Indicates an executive function and strategies that involve planning
for learning, thinking, monitoring production and evaluating, direct and self-evaluating.

2)- Cognitive: limited to speci c learning tasks and involve direct manipulation,
repetition and note taking.

13
fl
fl
fi
fi
fl
fl
ff
 3)- Socioa ective: social-mediating activity and interacting with others, also a
communication strategy, cooperation and questions for clari cation.

Avoidance strategies:
1)- Lexical avoidance: where you replace an unknown word with one that seems
appropriate but doesn’t make perfect sense. ( I lost my road instead of i lost my way)

2)- Phonological avoidance: dismissing certain words because of phonological

di culty (Japanese avoiding the word “rally” by “hit the ball”).

3)- Topic avoidance: A whole topic of conversation is avoided (might not talk about
yesterday because past tense is unfamiliar).

Compensatory strategies:
-Involves compensation for missing knowledge.

-Pre-fabricated patterns: memorize chunks of knowledge often found in pocket

bilingual phrase books.

-Code switching as in the use of the 1st or 3rd language within a stream in the 2nd
language, often subconsciously between two advanced learners.

-Appeal to authority, directly ask a pro cient speaker for the form.

Personality factors:

-If we were to devise theories of SLA or teaching methodologies that were based only
on cognitive considerations, we would be omitting the most fundamental side of
human behavior as there is no doubt at all about the importance of examining
personality factors in building a theory of SLA.

-A careful, systematic study of the role of personality in SLA has lead to a great
understanding of the language learning process and to improved language teaching
designs.

I)- The a ective domain.

-A ect refers to emotion or feeling, the a ective domain is the emotional side of
human behavior, and it may be juxtaposed to the cognitive side.

The development of a ective states or feelings involves a variety of personality factors,

feelings both about ourselves and about others with whom we come into contact.

-At the rst level, the development of a ectivity begins with receiving.

-Next, persons must go beyond receiving to responding.

-The third level of a ectivity involves valuing.

-The fourth level of the a ective domain is the organization of values into a system of
beliefs.

-Finally, individuals become characterized by and understand themselves in terms of

their value system.

Second language learners need to be:

-Receptive to those with whom they are communicating and language itself.

-Responsive to persons and the context of communication.

-Willing and able to place a certain value on the communicative act of interpersonal
exchange.

14
ffi
ff
fi
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
fi
ff
ff
fi
 Understanding how human beings feel, respond, believe and value is an important
aspect of an SLA theory.

II)- A ective factors in second language acquisition:

1)- Self-esteem:
-One could claim that no successful cognitive or e ective activity can be carried out
without some degree of self-esteem, self-con dence, knowledge of yourself, and belief
in your own capabilities for that activity.

-All humans have a need for phatic communication, de ning oneself and nding
acceptance in expressing that self in relation to valued others.

-Self-esteem is a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes

that the individuals hold towards themselves.

-People derive their self-esteem from:

-The accumulation of experiences with themselves and others.

-Assessments of the external world around them.

The three general levels of self-esteem:

-General self-esteem: is relatively stable in adults and resistant to change except in the
case of active and extended therapy, it is the the general assessment one makes of
one’s own worth.

-Situational self-esteem: one’s self-appraisal in particular situation, it varies depending

on the situation.

Task self-esteem: it relates to particular task within speci c situations.

2)- Attribution theory and self-e cacy:

Attribution theory : how people explain the cause of their own successes and failures

Internal factors: ability, e ort.

External factors: task di culty, luck.

Self-e cacy :

High self-e cacy : an appropriate degree of e ort may be devoted to achieving

success.

Internal factors (ability, luck)

Low self-e cacy : external factors (task di culty, luck) or ability. Both can create a
self-ful lling

sense of failure at the outset.

3)- Willingness to communicate:

An underlying continuum representing the predisposition toward or away
from communicating,

given the choice. The intention to initiate communication, given a choice.

A high level of communicative ability does not necessarily correspond with

a high WTC.

4)- Inhibition:
-All human beings build certain sets of defenses to protect their ego, the human ego
encompasses what is referred to as language ego, meaningful language acquisition
involves some degree of identity con ict as language learners take on a new identity

15
ffi
ff
fi
ffi
ffi
ffi
ff
fl
ffi
ffi
fi
ff
ff
fi
fi
fi
 with their newly acquired competence, an adaptive language ego enables learners to
lower the inhibitions that may impede success.

5)- Risk-taking:
Risk-taking is an important characteristic of successful learning of a second language.
Learners have to be able to gamble a bit, to be willing to try out hunches about the
language and take the risk of being wrong. People tend to face negative consequences
if they make a mistake inside and outside classroom, and they fear that a lot. One has
to create a climate of acceptance that will stimulate self-con dence, and encourage
participants to experiment and to discover the target language, allowing themselves to
take risks without feeling embarrassed.

Successful language learners are moderate, not high, risk takers. They like to be in
control and like to depend on skill. They don’t take wild risks or enter into no-win
situation. Teachers should encourage students to guess somewhat more willingly than
the usual student is prone to do and to value them as persons for those risks that they
take.

6)- Anxiety:
Intricately intertwined with self-esteem and inhibition and risk-taking, the construct of
anxiety plays an important a ective role in second language acquisition. It is
associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry.

-At the deepest, or global, level trait anxiety is a more permanent predisposition to be
anxious.

-At a more momentary, or situational level, state anxiety is experienced in relation to

some particular event or act. Recent research on language anxiety focuses more
speci cally on the situational nature of state anxiety. Most of studies conclude that
foreign language anxiety can be distinguished from other types of anxiety and that it
can have a negative e ect on the language learning process.

-Alpert and Harber di erentiated between debilitative and facilitative anxiety. But the
notion of facilitative anxiety is that some concern over a task to be accomplished is a
positive factor.

-Without this, a learner can be “wishy-wishy”. Bailey explained the positive e ects of

competitiveness by means of the construct of facilitative anxiety. That is, both too
much and too little anxiety may hinder the process of successful second language
learning.

Language anxiety

(1) Communication apprehension

(2) Fear of negative social evaluation

(3) Test anxiety

Debilitative anxiety : harmful

Facilitative anxiety : helpful

Tension: The positive e ects of competitiveness by means of the construct of

facilitative anxiety.

7)- Empathy:
Empathy is the process of putting yourself into someone else’s shoes, of reaching
beyond the self to understand what another person is feeling. More possibility of
detachment.

16
fi
ff
ff
ff
ff
fi
ff
 Exercising of empathy: an awareness and knowledge of one’s own feelings ->
identi cation with another person.

Sympathy: an agreement or harmony between individuals.

Written communication – a cognitive empathy

Micro-Momentary Expression (MME) test: authenticity of pronunciation of a foreign

language.

Hogan’s empathy Scale : found no signi cant correlation between empathy and
language success.

Field dependence has been shown to correlate highly with empathy.

8)- Extraversion and introversion:

Extroversion : the extent to which a person has a deep-seated need to receive ego

enhancement, self-esteem, and a sense of wholeness from other people as opposed to

receiving that a rmation within oneself. Extroverts were likely to make better use of
learning strategies. Extroversion may be a factor in the development of general oral
communicative competence which requires face-to-face interaction, but not in
listening, reading, and writing.

Introversion : the extent to which a person derives a sense of wholeness and ful llment
apart from a re ection of this self from other people. Inner strength Introverts were
signi cantly better than extroverts in their pronunciation.

III)- Motivation:
1)- Theories of motivation:
three di erent perspectives on the de nition of motivation emerge:

1- a behavioristic perspective –simply the anticipation of reward, desire to receive positive
reinforcement, external, individual forces in control.

2- cognitive terms – the choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will
approach or avoid, and the degree of e ort they will exert in that respect.

Ausubel identi ed six needs underlying the construct of motivation:

A- The need for exploration

B- The need for manipulation

C- The need for activity

D- The need for stimulation

E- The need for knowledge

F- The need for ego enhancement

3. a constructivist view – Each person is motivated di erently, and will therefore act on his or
her environment in ways that are unique. Maslow saw motivation as the construct in which the
ultimate attainment of goals was possible only by passing a HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
dependent on the satisfaction rst of fundamental physical necessities, then of community,
security, identity, and self-esteem, the ful llment of which nally leads to self-actualization.

2)- Instrumental and integrative orientations:

Two di erent clusters of attitudes divided two basic types of motivation. The
instrumental side of the dichotomy referred to acquiring a language as a means for
attaining instrumental goals: furthering a career, reading technical material, translation,
and so forth. The integrative side described learners who wished to integrate
themselves into the culture of the second language group and become involved in
social interchange in that group.

It is important to think of instrumentality and integrativeness as a case of orientation

rather than as types of motivation. Gardner and Lambert and Spolsky found that

17
fi
fi
ff
ff
fi
fl
ffi
fi
fi
ff
fi
fi
ff
fi
fi
 integrativeness was an important requirement for successful language learning,
However these nding were challenged!

Yasmeen Lukmani (1972) demonstrated that among Marathi-speaking Indian students

learning English in India, those with instrumental orientations scored higher in tests of
English pro ciency.

3)- Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation:

Intrinsic motivation : those who learn for their own self-perceived needs and goals.
Certain internally rewarding consequences. Namely, feeling of competence and self-
determination. Long-term retention.

Extrinsic motivation : those who pursue a goal only to receive an external reward from
someone else. The anticipation of a reward from outside and beyond the self. Money,
prizes, grades, and even certain types of positive feedback

Much research on motivation strongly favors intrinsic orientations, especially for long-
term retention.

Maslow (1970) claimed that intrinsic motivation is clearly superior to extrinsic.

According to his hierarchy of needs, we are ultimately motivated to achieve "self-
actualization" once our basic physical, safety, and community needs are met.

Flow theory : an experiential state characterized by intense focus and involvement that
leads to improved performance on a task. Flow theory claims that as a result of the
intrinsically rewarding experience associated with ow, people push themselves to
higher levels of performance.

VI)- The neurobiology of a ect:

Using techniques, such as PET and MRI scan, some connections have been made
between a ectivity and mental/emotional processing in general, as well as second
language acquisition in particular. The amygdale is instrumental in our ability to make
an appraisal of a stimulus.

John Schumann’s work has singled out amygdale as a major player in the relationship
of a ect to language learning. Schuman’s conclusion: positive appraisals of the
language learning situation enhance language learning and negative appraisals inhibit
second language learning.

Schumann and wood provided an explanation of Sustained deep learning (SDL) : the
kind of learning that requires an extended period of time to achieve. SDL, not unlike
intrinsic motivation, is rooted in the biological concept of value.

V)- Personality types and language acquisition:

1)- Extraversion/introversion:
A)- Extroverts:
-Like talking with others and taking action.

-Prefer active learning and group projects.

B)- Introverts:
-Prefer to have others to do the talking.

-Prefer lectures and structured tasks.

18
ff
ff
fi
fi
ff
fl
 2)- Sensing/Intuiting:
A)- Sensors:
-Are most at home with facts and examples.

-Are drawn to realistic and practical applications.

-Prefer memorizable facts, and concrete questions.

B)- Intuiters:
-Prefer concepts and theories which can give greater play to imagination & inspiration.

-Prefer interpretation and imagination.

3)- thinking/feeling:
A)- Thinkers:
-Like to take objective approach and emphasize logic and analysis in their decisions.

-Prefer objective feedback, thrive when there is pressure to succeed.

B)- Feelers:
-Prefer emotion to logic.

-Give greater weight to the impact of relationships in their decisions.

-Prefer positive feedback and individual recognition.

4)- Judging/perceiving:
A)- Judgers:
-Prefer clearly de ned strategies to achieve goals.

-May jump to closure too quickly.

-Prefer orderliness, structure and deadlines.

B)- Perceivers:
-Like to consider all sides to a problem and may be at some risk for not completing
their work.

-Prefer spontaneity and exibility.

VI)- Measuring a ective factors:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery
(AMTB)

The measurement of a ective factors has posed a perplexing problem.


1- The problem of validity – Because most tests use a self-rating method, one can
justi ably ask whether or not self-perceptions are accurate.

2- the problem of “self- attery” syndrome – In general, test takers will try to discern
“right” answers to questions.

3- the problem of cultural ethnocentricity

A plausible conclusion to the study of a ective factors in SLA contains both a word of
caution and a challenge to further research.

VII)- Intrinsic motivations in the classroom:

10 commandments for motivating learners.

1- Set a personal example with your own behavior.

2- Create a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in the classroom (3) Present the tasks
properly.

3- Develop a good relationship with the learners.


19
fi
fi
ff
ff
fl
fl
ff
4- Increase the learners' linguistic self-con dence.

5- Make the language classes interesting.

6- Promote learner autonomy.

7- Personalize the learning process.

8- Increase the learners' goal orientedness.

9- Familiarize learners with the target language culture.

20
fi