Human Learning

Human Learning: Linguistic Application

Learning metaphorical language isn't just about memorizing phrases; these metaphors are deeply connected to cultural worldviews and ways of thinking. For example, understanding why we say a dead person is "gone" requires grasping the underlying cultural concepts of departure and absence.

Language is also a tool for problem-solving. Information gap exercises in the classroom, where students must use language to bridge a knowledge divide, exemplify this.

Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sociocultural Perspectives on Learning

The first five types of learning (from a previous section) fit into a behavioral framework, focusing on observable actions and responses. The last three types are better explained by cognitive or sociocultural perspectives, which consider mental processes and the influence of social interactions.

Since all eight types of learning are relevant to second language acquisition (SLA), a cautious approach suggests that behavioral methods may be more effective for lower-level aspects of SLA, while cognitive or sociocultural approaches are better suited for higher-order learning.

Teaching methods should align with the specific aspect of language being taught, but also recognize the interconnectedness of all levels of language learning.

Transfer, Interference, and Overgeneralization

Human beings approach new challenges using existing cognitive structures, a process technically described as the interaction of previously learned material with a present learning event.

From birth, we construct knowledge by accumulating experiences and storing them in memory. These memories form neural connections, which can either facilitate or hinder new learning. This phenomenon is explored through three concepts: transfer, interference, and overgeneralization.

Transfer

Transfer refers to the carryover of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning. It can also apply to the effect of current learning on previously learned material, known as retroactive transfer.

Positive Transfer

Positive transfer occurs when prior knowledge benefits the new learning task—when a previous item is correctly applied to present subject matter.

Negative Transfer

Negative transfer occurs when previous performance disrupts or inhibits the performance of a second task. This is also called interference, where previously learned material conflicts with subsequent material, causing incorrect transfer or association.

Examples of Transfer

Nonlanguage Example: Kaliana, an eight-year-old, already knows how to ride a bicycle. When she tries to ride a skateboard, she positively transfers her balance skills. However, she negatively transfers the steering method, resulting in skinned knees. Eventually, she learns the correct skateboard steering technique.

SLA Example: The most salient example in SLA is the effect of the native language (L1) on the second language (L2). Many L2 courses warn of negative transfer, as the L1 is often a noticeable source of errors among learners.

L1 Interference

A French native speaker might say in English, "I am in New York since January," directly translating from the French "Je suis à New York depuis janvier." The French verb form interferes with the correct English form. However, the native language can also be positively transferred.

In the above example, the word order, personal pronoun, preposition, and cognate "January" have all been positively transferred from French to English!

Positive Transfer of L2 Experience

Equally significant is the positive transfer of previous L2 experience on subsequent L2 experience, both within and across languages. For instance, studying French in high school can positively transfer strategies, mindsets, linguistic tricks, and cross-cultural knowledge to learning Spanish in college.

Learning English as a second language also has a cumulative effect on current lessons. Learners build lexical, syntactic, and discourse abilities and improve their strategic competence.

Application of Course Content to the Real World

Positive transfer also applies to applying course content to the "real world" outside of the classroom. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) helps students learn English skills and understand academic conventions, such as writing, extensive reading, note-taking, lectures, presentations, and examinations which are positive side-effects of learning English.

Retroactive Effect

The retroactive effect of a second language on the first is also significant. Those who reside in a foreign country may find their native language "affected." This is common among bilinguals whose home language is the nondominant language of their country of residence. For example, Spanish speakers in the United States or American professionals who spend time in Japan or Thailand may return with altered speech patterns.

Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization is a form of negative transfer. Generalization involves inferring a rule or conclusion from particular instances. In meaningful learning, items are subsumed (generalized) under higher-order categories for meaningful retention.

Concept learning for children involves generalizing a principle from experience with particulars. For example, a child learns that ice cream is delicious from a few encounters. Similarly, the concept of future time is a generalization from particulars.

Overgeneralization within the Target Language

In SLA, overgeneralization occurs as the L2 learner applies a rule or item in the L2 beyond legitimate bounds, irrespective of the L1. Children learning English as a native language overgeneralize regular past tense endings (e.g., goed, flied). L2 learners also overgeneralize in English: "John doesn’t can study" or "He told me when should I get off the train" are common examples.

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Inductive and deductive reasoning are two aspects of the generalization process.

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning involves storing specific instances and inducing a general law or rule that governs those instances.

Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning is a movement from a generalization to specific instances: a general principle allows a person to infer specific facts.

L1 learning and natural SLA are largely inductive: learners infer rules and meanings from the data around them, usually implicitly.

Classroom language learning tends to rely on deductive reasoning, often overemphasizing explicit access to a rule followed by attention to its instances. Communicative L2 learning evidence suggests the overall superiority of an inductive approach.

However, in form-focused instruction, learners might benefit from having errors called to their attention.

Gestalt Learning

A case study by Peters (1981) found that a child learning a first language manifested "Gestalt" characteristics, producing "wholes" in the form of intonation patterns before speaking the specific words. This suggests that "sentence learners" may be more common than previously assumed.

Wong (1986) advocated explicitly teaching overall intonation patterns for greetings, yes-no questions, and syllable stress before learners tackled their specific syntactic forms, using kazoos to help learners hear sentence stress and intonation.

Language Aptitude

Is there a specific ability or "talent" for foreign language aptitude? If so, what is it, and is it innate or environmentally nurtured? Is it a distinct ability or an aspect of general cognitive abilities? Does aptitude vary by age and by whether learning is implicit or explicit? Can aptitude be reliably measured, and does it predict success in learning an L2?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that some people learn languages faster and more efficiently than others. Aptitude may involve risk-taking behavior, memory efficiency, intelligent guessing, willingness to communicate, low anxiety, and ambiguity tolerance.

Historical Research on Language Aptitude

John Carroll’s Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) asserted the predictability of number learning, sound discrimination, pattern discernment, and memorization for future success in a foreign language. The MLAT, along with the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB) and the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB), were used in programs like the Peace Corps and military courses.

These tests were initially well-received but later declined in popularity because they likely reflected general intelligence or academic ability rather than specific language aptitude. They measured the ability to perform focused, analytical activities in a traditional language classroom but did not tap into crucial learning strategies and styles for communicative competence.

Learners can be successful for many reasons, often related to focus and determination rather than "native" abilities.

The Problem of Interpretation

It is rare for institutions to test people before they take a foreign language to dissuade them. Moreover, aptitude tests might bias both student and teacher, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is wiser for teachers to be optimistic and guide students toward strategies that aid learning.

Renewed Interest in Aptitude Factors

In the late 1990s, renewed efforts addressed aptitude factors, with Skehan (1998) exposing weaknesses in previous constructs and proposing a broader view of SLA incorporating input processing, inductive learning, output strategies, and fluency.

The new millennium witnessed a resurgence of interest in language aptitude. Grigorenko, Sternberg, and Ehrman (2000) proposed the CANAL-F test, based on Sternberg’s theory of intelligence, which involves learning a simulated language in a multifaceted context and measures the ability to learn at the time of testing.

Dörnyei and Skehan (2003) suggested that aptitude relates to varying processes of SLA, such as attention and short-term memory for processing input, phonemic coding ability for noticing phonological patterns, and inductive learning for identifying and integrating grammatical patterns.

Aptitude is relevant not only for explicit, rule-focused teaching but also for implicit learning in natural contexts.

More recently, Robinson (2001, 2002, 2005) and Dörnyei (2005, 2009) suggested that aptitude is too broad an umbrella term, referring to an unspecified mixture of cognitive variables.

Complex of Abilities

DeKeyser and Koeth (2011) conceded that "there is no unitary construct of aptitude" and suggested referring to "aptitudes, in the plural, for learning a second language."

Robinson (2005) suggested that aptitude is a complex of abilities including processing speed, short- and long-term memory, rote memory, planning time, pragmatic abilities, interactional intelligence, emotional intelligence, and self-efficacy.

Dörnyei (2009) noted that motivation, learning styles, learning strategies, anxiety, and other individual differences may also be related to a learner’s success.

Instead of viewing SLA through static presuppositions, it is better to understand it as a dynamic system of complexity with interconnected parts and ongoing change from multiple interactions ( Dörnyei, 2009 ).

Intelligence and Language Learning

Intelligence, traditionally defined and measured in terms of linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities, is the basis for the Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

Success in educational institutions and in life, correlates with high IQ scores. However, research suggests that "language learning IQs" involve more than academic "smarts."

Howard Gardner (1983, 1999, 2006, 2011) argued that IQ is too simplistic to account for skills and abilities and posited eight multiple intelligences:

Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Musical (the ability to perceive and create pitch and rhythmic patterns)
Spatial (the ability to find one’s way around an environment, to form mental images of reality, and to transform them readily)
Bodily-kinesthetic (fine motor movement, athletic prowess)
Naturalist (sensitivity to natural objects (plants, animals, clouds))
Interpersonal (the ability to understand others, how they feel, what motivates them, how they interact with one another)
Intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to see oneself, to develop a sense of self-identity)

Traditional definitions of intelligence are culture-bound, excluding skills like a hunter’s "sixth sense" in New Guinea or a sailor’s navigational abilities in Micronesia.

Robert Sternberg (1985, 1988) proposed three types of "smartness" in his triarchic view of intelligence:

Componential ability for analytical thinking
Experiential ability to engage in creative thinking, combining disparate experiences in insightful ways
Contextual ability or "street smartness" that enables people to "play the game" of manipulating their environment

Sternberg argued that psychometric theory is too obsessed with mental speed, and advocated for tests measuring insight, real-life problem-solving, and common sense that are closely related to real-world success.

Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995, 1998; Merlevede, Bridoux, & Vandamme, 2001) places emotion, or EQ (Emotional Quotient), at the seat of intellectual functioning. Managing emotions such as anger, fear, and enjoyment drives efficient cognitive processing.

The emotional mind is quicker than the rational mind, acting without deliberation (Goleman, 1995).

Intelligences and SLA

By expanding our understanding of intelligence, we can discern relationships between intelligence and second language learning. Gardner’s musical intelligence could explain ease in perceiving and producing intonation patterns. Bodily-kinesthetic modes relate to learning phonology. Interpersonal intelligence is crucial in communication. Spatial intelligence may assist in becoming comfortable in a new culture. Sternberg’s experiential and contextual abilities shed light on components of the "knack" for quick SLA. Goleman’s EQ may be vital for L2 success in classrooms and untutored contexts.

Applying multiple intelligence theory to school-oriented contexts, Thomas Armstrong (1993, 1994) focused teachers and learners on "seven ways of being smart," capitalizing on all forms of intelligence. Christison (1999, 2005) and others have successfully applied multiple intelligences to teaching English by showing how each intelligence relates to classroom demands.

John Oller suggested that language is intelligence, arguing for a deep relationship between intelligence and language ability. Effective L2 learning links surface forms with meaningful experiences, strengthening the link in the complex systems we call intelligence.

Learning Theories in the Classroom: ALM & CLL

Two language teaching methods that emerged in the last century are the Audiolingual Method, inspired by behavioristic principles, and Community Language Learning, a direct attempt to apply Carl Rogers’s theories.

The Audiolingual Method

The outbreak of World War II heightened the need for Americans to become orally proficient in foreign languages which led to the U.S. military to fund the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), or the “Army Method.”

The Army Method employed oral activity—pronunciation and pattern drills and conversation practice. Rejecting deductive teaching and translation, little of the features of traditional classes found its way into the method. Spurred by this success, educational institutions began to adopt it. It became known in the 1950s as the Audiolingual Method (ALM).

ALM was grounded in linguistic and psychological theory. Structural linguists engaged in "scientific descriptive analysis" and behavioral psychologists advocated conditioning and habit-formation models. Classical and operant conditioning provided the rationale for mimicry drills and pattern practices. Students experienced "success" as they practiced dialogues. ALM enjoyed years of popularity.

However, enthusiasm waned due to ALM’s failure to teach long-term communicative proficiency. Language was not effectively acquired through habit formation, errors were not to be avoided at all costs, and structural linguistics did not dictate a course syllabus. While ALM was a valiant attempt, it still fell short. However, the value of quick, fast-paced drilling routines remains.

Community Language Learning

ALM also lost glamor with the Chomskyan revolution and when psychologists recognized the interpersonal nature of language learning, leading to innovative language teaching methods, referred to as "designer" methods.

Claims for success were often overstated to attract teachers to workshops and new material. Despite these marketing tactics, they remain a part of our language teaching history.

One such method is Community Language Learning (CLL), which puts Rogers’s theory into action.

Charles Curran’s (1972) Counseling-Learning model was inspired by Rogers’s view of education, where students and teachers join to facilitate learning in a valuing context. In such a surrounding each person lowers their defenses that prevent open communication. Thus, anxiety in education is lessened, as teachers attention is focused on the students and their needs.

Curran’s model was extended to language learning contexts as Community Language Learning (CLL). Students were encouraged to try anything, and the teacher can refine students attempts. Students move slowly from dependence to independence.

CLL attempted to put Carl Rogers’s philosophy into action and overcome threatening affective factors. However, practical and theoretical problems emerged. The counsel-teacher role caused non productive "trial by error". Inductive struggling can be invigorating, weeks of it can become frustrating, as well the translation resulted in linguistic mysteries.

Despite its weaknesses, CLL offers insights from lowering anxiety, which results in supportive group classes, which allows students the freedom to initiate language, as we move them towards autonomy, offering as an example an entirely diverse method that contrasts ALM that can produce small samples of contrasting lessons which helps teachers.

Human Learning: Linguistic Application

Learning metaphorical language involves grasping cultural worldviews and ways of thinking, not just memorizing phrases. Understanding why we say a dead person is "gone" requires understanding the cultural concepts of departure and absence. Cultural metaphors shape our cognitive understanding of abstract concepts.

Language enhances problem-solving through information gap exercises that bridge knowledge divides, fostering communicative competence. These exercises illustrate how language acts as a tool to solve problems, requiring learners to use linguistic resources creatively to fill gaps in understanding.

Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sociocultural Perspectives on Learning

The first five types of learning align with a behavioral framework, focusing on observable actions and responses. The last three types are better explained by cognitive or sociocultural perspectives, considering mental processes and social interactions.

Behavioral methods may be more effective for lower-level aspects of SLA, such as phonetics and basic grammar, while cognitive or sociocultural approaches are better suited for higher-order learning, such as complex syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Effective teaching methods align with the specific aspect of language being taught and recognize the interconnectedness of all levels of language learning.

Transfer, Interference, and Overgeneralization

Human beings approach new challenges using existing cognitive structures, described as the interaction of previously learned material with a present learning event. From birth, we construct knowledge by accumulating experiences and storing them in memory, which form neural connections that facilitate or hinder new learning. This phenomenon is explored through transfer, interference, and overgeneralization.

Transfer

Transfer refers to the carryover of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning and the effect of current learning on previously learned material, known as retroactive transfer.

Positive Transfer

Positive transfer occurs when prior knowledge benefits the new learning task, correctly applying a previous item to present subject matter. This facilitation enhances learning efficiency and accuracy.

Negative Transfer

Negative transfer occurs when previous performance disrupts or inhibits the performance of a second task, also called interference. Previously learned material conflicts with subsequent material, causing incorrect transfer or association, hindering learning progress.

Examples of Transfer

Nonlanguage Example: Kaliana, an eight-year-old, already knows how to ride a bicycle. She positively transfers her balance skills when she tries to ride a skateboard but negatively transfers the steering method, resulting in skinned knees. Eventually, she learns the correct skateboard steering technique.

L1 Interference

A French native speaker might say in English, "I am in New York since January," directly translating from the French "Je suis à New York depuis janvier." The French verb form interferes with the correct English form. However, native language can also be positively transferred.

The word order, personal pronoun, preposition, and cognate "January" have all been positively transferred from French to English in the example above.

Positive Transfer of L2 Experience

Positive transfer of previous L2 experience on subsequent L2 experience, both within and across languages, is equally significant. Studying French in high school can positively transfer strategies, mindsets, linguistic tricks, and cross-cultural knowledge to learning Spanish in college. Prior experience in language learning develops meta-cognitive strategies that benefit future language acquisition.

Learning English as a second language also has a cumulative effect on current lessons. Learners build lexical, syntactic, and discourse abilities and improve their strategic competence, enhancing their overall language proficiency.

Application of Course Content to the Real World

Retroactive Effect

The retroactive effect of a second language on the first is also significant. Those who reside in a foreign country may find their native language "affected." This is common among bilinguals whose home language is the nondominant language of their country of residence. Spanish speakers in the United States or American professionals in Japan or Thailand may return with altered speech patterns and linguistic interference.

Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization within the Target Language

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Inductive and deductive reasoning are two aspects of the generalization process, influencing how learners discover and apply language rules. These reasoning processes affect the efficiency and accuracy of language acquisition.

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning involves storing specific instances and inducing a general law or rule that governs those instances. Learners observe patterns and form rules based on these observations.

Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning is a movement from a generalization to specific instances: a general principle allows a person to infer specific facts. Learners apply known rules to understand or produce language.

L1 learning and natural SLA are largely inductive: learners infer rules and meanings from the data around them, usually implicitly. This natural process allows learners to internalize language rules through exposure and usage.

However, in form-focused instruction, learners might benefit from having errors called to their attention. Explicit correction and rule explanation can aid learners in refining their understanding.

Gestalt Learning

Language Aptitude

Historical Research on Language Aptitude

Learners can be successful for many reasons, often related to focus and determination rather than "native" abilities. Motivation and perseverance are key determinants of language learning success.

The Problem of Interpretation

Renewed Interest in Aptitude Factors

Aptitude is relevant not only for explicit, rule-focused teaching but also for implicit learning in natural contexts, influencing learners' ability to acquire language in various settings.

More recently, Robinson (2001, 2002, 2005) and Dörnyei (2005, 2009) suggested that aptitude is too broad an umbrella term, referring to an unspecified mixture of cognitive variables.

Complex of Abilities

DeKeyser and Koeth (2011) conceded that "there is no unitary construct of aptitude" and suggested referring to "aptitudes, in the plural, for learning a second language."

Dörnyei (2009) noted that motivation, learning styles, learning strategies, anxiety, and other individual differences may also be related to a learner’s success. Psychosocial and affective factors play a significant role in language acquisition.

Intelligence and Language Learning

Intelligence, traditionally defined and measured in terms of linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities, is the basis for the Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

Success in educational institutions and in life correlates with high IQ scores. However, research suggests that "language learning IQs" involve more than academic "smarts."

Howard Gardner (1983, 1999, 2006, 2011) argued that IQ is too simplistic to account for skills and abilities and posited eight multiple intelligences:

Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Musical (the ability to perceive and create pitch and rhythmic patterns)
Spatial (the ability to find one’s way around an environment, to form mental images of reality, and to transform them readily)
Bodily-kinesthetic (fine motor movement, athletic prowess)
Naturalist (sensitivity to natural objects (plants, animals, clouds))
Interpersonal (the ability to understand others, how they feel, what motivates them, how they interact with one another)
Intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to see oneself, to develop a sense of self-identity)

Traditional definitions of intelligence are culture-bound, excluding skills like a hunter’s "sixth sense" in New Guinea or a sailor’s navigational abilities in Micronesia. Cultural and context-specific skills challenge the universality of traditional intelligence measures.

Robert Sternberg (1985, 1988) proposed three types of "smartness" in his triarchic view of intelligence:

Componential ability for analytical thinking
Experiential ability to engage in creative thinking, combining disparate experiences in insightful ways
Contextual ability or "street smartness" that enables people to "play the game" of manipulating their environment

Sternberg argued that psychometric theory is too obsessed with mental speed and advocated for tests measuring insight, real-life problem-solving, and common sense that are closely related to real-world success.

The emotional mind is quicker than the rational mind, acting without deliberation (Goleman, 1995). Emotional responses often precede rational thought, influencing decision-making and behavior.

Intelligences and SLA

Learning Theories in the Classroom: ALM & CLL

The Audiolingual Method

Community Language Learning

Claims for success were often overstated to attract teachers to workshops and new material. Despite these marketing tactics, they remain a part of our language teaching history.

One such method is Community Language Learning (CLL), which puts Rogers’s theory into action.

Human Learning: Linguistic Application

Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sociocultural Perspectives on Learning

Transfer, Interference, and Overgeneralization

Transfer

Transfer refers to the carryover of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning and the effect of current learning on previously learned material, known as retroactive transfer.

Positive Transfer

Negative Transfer

Examples of Transfer

L1 Interference

A French native speaker might say in English, "I am in New York since January," directly translating from the French "Je suis à New York depuis janvier." The French verb form interferes with the correct English form. However, native language can also be positively transferred.

The word order, personal pronoun, preposition, and cognate "January" have all been positively transferred from French to English in the example above.

Positive Transfer of L2 Experience

Application of Course Content to the Real World

Retroactive Effect

The retroactive effect of a second language on the first is also significant. Those who reside in a foreign country may find their native language "affected." This is common among bilinguals whose home language is the nondominant language of their country of residence. Spanish speakers in the United States or American professionals in Japan or Thailand may return with altered speech patterns and linguistic interference.

Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization within the Target Language

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning involves storing specific instances and inducing a general law or rule that governs those instances. Learners observe patterns and form rules based on these observations.

Deductive Reasoning

However, in form-focused instruction, learners might benefit from having errors called to their attention. Explicit correction and rule explanation can aid learners in refining their understanding.

Gestalt Learning

Language Aptitude

Historical Research on Language Aptitude

Learners can be successful for many reasons, often related to focus and determination rather than "native" abilities. Motivation and perseverance are key determinants of language learning success.

The Problem of Interpretation

Renewed Interest in Aptitude Factors

Aptitude is relevant not only for explicit, rule-focused teaching but also for implicit learning in natural contexts, influencing learners' ability to acquire language in various settings.

More recently, Robinson (2001, 2002, 2005) and Dörnyei (2005, 2009) suggested that aptitude is too broad an umbrella term, referring to an unspecified mixture of cognitive variables.

Complex of Abilities

DeKeyser and Koeth (2011) conceded that "there is no unitary construct of aptitude" and suggested referring to "aptitudes, in the plural, for learning a second language."

Intelligence and Language Learning

Intelligence, traditionally defined and measured in terms of linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities, is the basis for the Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

Success in educational institutions and in life correlates with high IQ scores. However, research suggests that "language learning IQs" involve more than academic "smarts."

Howard Gardner (1983, 1999, 2006, 2011) argued that IQ is too simplistic to account for skills and abilities and posited eight multiple intelligences:

Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Musical (the ability to perceive and create pitch and rhythmic patterns)
Spatial (the ability to find one’s way around an environment, to form mental images of reality, and to transform them readily)
Bodily-kinesthetic (fine motor movement, athletic prowess)
Naturalist (sensitivity to natural objects (plants, animals, clouds))
Interpersonal (the ability to understand others, how they feel, what motivates them, how they interact with one another)
Intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to see oneself, to develop a sense of self-identity)

Robert Sternberg (1985, 1988) proposed three types of "smartness" in his triarchic view of intelligence:

Componential ability for analytical thinking
Experiential ability to engage in creative thinking, combining disparate experiences in insightful ways
Contextual ability or "street smartness" that enables people to "play the game" of manipulating their environment

The emotional mind is quicker than the rational mind, acting without deliberation (Goleman, 1995). Emotional responses often precede rational thought, influencing decision-making and behavior.

Intelligences and SLA

Learning Theories in the Classroom: ALM & CLL

The Audiolingual Method

Community Language Learning

Claims for success were often overstated to attract teachers to workshops and new material. Despite these marketing tactics, they remain a part of our language teaching history.

One such method is Community Language Learning (CLL), which puts Rogers’s theory into action.

Human Learning: Linguistic Application

Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sociocultural Perspectives on Learning

Transfer, Interference, and Overgeneralization

Transfer

Transfer refers to the carryover of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning and the effect of current learning on previously learned material, known as retroactive transfer.

Positive Transfer

Negative Transfer

Examples of Transfer

L1 Interference

A French native speaker might say in English, "I am in New York since January," directly translating from the French "Je suis à New York depuis janvier." The French verb form interferes with the correct English form. However, native language can also be positively transferred.

The word order, personal pronoun, preposition, and cognate "January" have all been positively transferred from French to English in the example above.

Positive Transfer of L2 Experience

Application of Course Content to the Real World

Retroactive Effect

The retroactive effect of a second language on the first is also significant. Those who reside in a foreign country may find their native language "affected." This is common among bilinguals whose home language is the nondominant language of their country of residence. Spanish speakers in the United States or American professionals in Japan or Thailand may return with altered speech patterns and linguistic interference.

Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization within the Target Language

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning involves storing specific instances and inducing a general law or rule that governs those instances. Learners observe patterns and form rules based on these observations.

Deductive Reasoning

However, in form-focused instruction, learners might benefit from having errors called to their attention. Explicit correction and rule explanation can aid learners in refining their understanding.

Gestalt Learning

Language Aptitude

Historical Research on Language Aptitude

Learners can be successful for many reasons, often related to focus and determination rather than "native" abilities. Motivation and perseverance are key determinants of language learning success.

The Problem of Interpretation

Renewed Interest in Aptitude Factors

Aptitude is relevant not only for explicit, rule-focused teaching but also for implicit learning in natural contexts, influencing learners' ability to acquire language in various settings.

More recently, Robinson (2001, 2002, 2005) and Dörnyei (2005, 2009) suggested that aptitude is too broad an umbrella term, referring to an unspecified mixture of cognitive variables.

Complex of Abilities

DeKeyser and Koeth (2011) conceded that "there is no unitary construct of aptitude" and suggested referring to "aptitudes, in the plural, for learning a second language."

Intelligence and Language Learning

Intelligence, traditionally defined and measured in terms of linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities, is the basis for the Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

Success in educational institutions and in life correlates with high IQ scores. However, research suggests that "language learning IQs" involve more than academic "smarts."

Howard Gardner (1983, 1999, 2006, 2011) argued that IQ is too simplistic to account for skills and abilities and posited eight multiple intelligences:

Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Musical (the ability to perceive and create pitch and rhythmic patterns)
Spatial (the ability to find one’s way around an environment, to form mental images of reality, and to transform them readily)
Bodily-kinesthetic (fine motor movement, athletic prowess)
Naturalist (sensitivity to natural objects (plants, animals, clouds))
Interpersonal (the ability to understand others, how they feel, what motivates them, how they interact with one another)
Intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to see oneself, to develop a sense of self-identity)

Robert Sternberg (1985, 1988) proposed three types of "smartness" in his triarchic view of intelligence:

Componential ability for analytical thinking
Experiential ability to engage in creative thinking, combining disparate experiences in insightful ways
Contextual ability or "street smartness" that enables people to "play the game" of manipulating their environment

The emotional mind is quicker than the rational mind, acting without deliberation (Goleman, 1995). Emotional responses often precede rational thought, influencing decision-making and behavior.

Intelligences and SLA

Learning Theories in the Classroom: ALM & CLL

The Audiolingual Method

Community Language Learning

Claims for success were often overstated to attract teachers to workshops and new material. Despite these marketing tactics, they remain a part of our language teaching history.

One such method is Community Language Learning (CLL), which puts Rogers’s theory into action.