Theories & Approaches to SLA

Theories & Approaches to SLA Spanish/French 448 Fall 2003 Professor K. Potowski

Audiolingualism • Rooted in behaviorism (conditioning) • Language seen as a series of habits • Mistakes are bad and should be avoided, as they lead to bad habits • Contrastive analysis was used: features different between L1 and L2 were emphasized • Drills (repetition, transformation, etc.)

Problems w/ audiolingualism • Was not resulting in bilingual speakers • Ignored learning styles • Theorists in 60s and 70s rejected behaviorist views of language learning Noam Chomsky

Communicative Language Teaching • Meaning is of primary importance • The order of materials is determined by the content, function, meaning of interest to students • Learning styles are accounted for • Attempts to communicate are encouraged from the beginning. The goal of CLT= Communicative Competence

What is communicative competence? According to Canale & Swain (1980) it consists of four underlying competences: • Grammatical competence (structure & form) • Discourse competence (rules of cohesion & coherence across sentences) • Sociolinguistic competence (appropriate rules of interaction: turn taking, forms of politeness, etc.) • Strategic competence (how to make the most of the language skills you have).

Basic principles of CLT • Activities that involve communication promote language learning • Activities that involve the completion of real-world tasks promote language learning • Learners must be engaged in meaningful and authentic language use for language learning to take place

What do these words mean? • Activities that involve communication … • The completion of real-world tasks… • Learners must be engaged in meaningful and authentic language use…

“CLT makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. CLT often leaves students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics.” ERIC Digest: http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/gallow01.html

How do the roles of the teacher and student change in communicative language teaching? CLT teachers will find themselves talking less and listening more, becoming active facilitators of their students' learning (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). The teacher sets up the exercise, but because the students' performance is the goal, the teacher must step back and observe, sometimes acting as referee or monitor. The students do most of the speaking, and frequently the scene of a classroom during a communicative exercise is active, with students leaving their seats to complete a task. Because of the increased responsibility to participate, students may find they gain confidence in using the target language in general. Students are more responsible managers of their own learning (Larsen-Freeman, 1986).

Does CLT really lead to SLA? Experiment (Savignon 1972) Three groups of first-semester French students Group 1 = ALM + 1 lab day per week Group 2 = ALM + 1 culture day per week Group 3 = ALM + 1 day of communicative training per week

Findings: The communicative group outscored the other groups on listening, reading, and oral skills, and communicative competence. Their scores on communicative competence were significantly higher than the scores of Group 1.

Other approaches to CLT Total Physical Response (TPR) (Asher 1972) • Belief that listening comprehension should be developed fully before students are expected to speak • Utilizes oral commands that students carry out • Drawbacks: _______________________

The Natural Approach (Terrell 1977) • The entire class period should be devoted to communication activities • Explanation and practice w/ forms should be done outside of class • Errors not corrected • Acquisition vs. learning • Drawbacks: _______________________

Theories & Approaches to SLA