Language Acquisition Theories

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This essay will compare and contrast two theories of second language acquisition. The two theories in my discussion are the behaviourist theory and the cognitivist theory. Both theories will be explained in terms of how language is learned, the origin of errors, error -treatment and the strength and weaknesses of each theory. The behaviourist theory is a learning theory influenced greatly by the psychologist B.F.Skinner. This theory claims that language or behaviour is learned when an individual imitates the language they hear or behaviour they see. This can be executed through operant conditioning and imitation. Imitation is when children learn a language by imitating speech of adults (Louw and Louw, 2014:114).This way of learning is then…show more content…
Selinker gave the name “interlanguage” to learners developing second language knowledge. Some studies show that languages learned beforehand, the characteristics of the additional language and other unrelated concepts, such as the exclusion of grammatical morphemes and function words influences a learner’s interlanguage. These obstacles are not specific to any one individual and occur in all or most interlanguage systems (Lightbown and Spada, 2006:80).Interlanguage is not only systematic but dynamic as well. Many learner’s progress halts and the picks up again in the attempt to learn their target language. Sometimes fossilisation occurs. Fossilisation a term also coined by Selinker. Fossilisation is when “a persistent lack of change in interlanguage patterns, even after exposure to or instruction in the target language.” (Lightbown and Spada, 2006:200).If fossilisation occurs errors can be…show more content…
This hypothesis attempts to explain why some people do not acquire language successfully even though they are exposed to understandable content. It hypothesises that there is a “metaphorical barrier” which stops us from successfully learning the language although it is understandable .When our “affect” as in our emotions are influenced negatively while learning we “filter out” understandable concepts (Lightbown and Spada, 2006:37). Krashen’s hypothesises’ were not without critique. It was argued that knowledge that is acquired or learned leads to a circular definition. The hypotheses comes also in to question because can we likely test it empirically. The strength in the cognitivist approach is that it helps to understand the cognitive reasoning of the learner and why errors occur. By identifying errors we can start implementing more creative ways to help children form rules and succeed in learning their target language. The cognitive approach is also more scientific and therefore when can rely more on its research results than a behaviourist
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