Understanding how the brain and psyche work in language learning

Reflection #2
Offer some thoughts about what you see as a relationship between behavioral, nativist, and functional approaches to studying first language acquisition and your own experiences in learning or teaching a second language.

The behaviorist, nativist and functional approaches to language learning, or to society, would appear to define the history of education in general in the West. The behaviorist theory is a bit like training animals, or the military, with a conditioned response. The assumption that the learner brings nothing to the table is the greatest fallacy of this approach. It is useful to step up and say that I was trained in most of my schooling (present years excepted) by behaviorists. It does build good discipline!

Chomsky broke the mold by stating that indeed, the learner has a structure, in this case the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) hidden somewhere deep in the brain. And there are some universals, e.g., Universal Grammar, in language, despite the Tower of Babel story. This approach freed us up to honor our own creativity in language, as well as that of our students. Studies of children's language sequencing are helpful in conceptualizing how to introduce different language elements.

The functional approach, tied to Vygotsky and other Russians who did their work during the 30's! The importance of social interaction in learning language is a strong contention to activate what is in the brain. Rather than a grammar-translation approach, the functionalists emphasize the use of L2 to accomplish a task, as it is used in L1. Focus on Form developed by Long is a means of bridging the need to introduce some grammar and correctness into language teaching, which had been radically challenged by Steven Krashen, who proposed the Natural method and practically did away with the need for teachers!

Only in Dr. Wright's course and in (soon) Dr. Campbell's, have I personally experienced the Functional approach. Most of the other courses in English and certainly in Engineering, are Transmission/Behaviorist in approach.

In a second response, discuss the role of culture in first language aquisition. Many of you speak more than one language and English is your second language. Do you think the child-parent interaction is different in the United States' English speaking population and a non-English speaking population that you are familiar with?

Briefly, let's define culture: It's the way we do things around here. So different cultures will influence the way a child learns a language. Look, for example, at some cultures where it is thought normal, or natural, that a child learns up to three or four languages, so that they can speak the standard language, a dialect, and talk to Grandma or Grandpa in another tongue. Isn't this fundamentally different from the insular position of many people in the US who feel that children are not capable of learning another tongue without it interferring with their main language. Not to mention that it is useless to learn another language as English is spoken by everyone who is worth communicating with where ever you go around the world?