TEACHING ENGLISH AS SECOND OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE

BEHAVIORISM THEORY OF  LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING


Introduction

There are some basic theories of language acquisition:

1. Behaviorist theory
2. Mentalist theory
3. Rationalist (cognitive T)
4. Empiricist theory ( audiolingualism T)
5. Cognitive-code theory

Mother tongue and foreign L.L

•      The five basic  of the theory above are complementary each other, because the serve different types of learner of various cases of language learning.

•      The first and the second language learning are not identical process.

•      Though second language learnings are strongly tied (terikat) up with first language acquisition.

•      Native language growth gives the way for foreign language growth.

Note:

 What is the correlation between Mother t and foreign L.L

The background of the behaviorist theory

•      Behaviorist theory (founded by J.B. Watson) is  a theory of  native language learning, as reaction to traditional grammar.

•      The major principle of the behaviorist theory rests on the analyzes of human  behavior  in observable stimulus-response interaction and the association between them.

a.       Example; The babies’ obtain native language  through babbling

b.      his babblings and mutterings ,is rewarded. reinforces further articulation

c.       His babbling goes on imitating sounds, group of sounds, and as he grows up be combine the sentences

d.      By the age of five or six, babblings and mutterings grow into socialized speech.

Basic tenets of behaviorist theory

There are  five principles of behaviorism :

1. Behaviorist theory dwells on spoken language. Language is primarily what is spoken and secondarily what is written. That is why spoken language must have a priority in language teaching.
2. Behaviorist theory is the habit formation theory of language teaching and learning through learning of structural grammar.
3. The stimulus-respond chain is a pure case of conditioning.
4. All learning is the establishment of habits as the result of reinforcement and reward. Positive reinforcement is reward and negative reinforcement is punishment. Punishment is effective in quickly eliminating undesirable behaviors
5. The learning can be the same for each individual. In other words, each person can learn equally if the conditions are the same for each person.