Theorist of Language Acquisition Essay Example for Free

Theorist of Language Acquisition Essay In the 1060’s the generative- transformational school of linguistics emerged through the influence of Noam Chomsky. What Chomsky was trying to show is that language (not languages) cannot be scrutinized simply in terms of observable stimuli and responses or the volume raw of data gathered by field linguist. The generative linguist is interested not only in describing the level of descriptive adequacy but also in arriving at an explanatory level of adequacy of language- that is, a â€Å"principled basis independent of any particular language, for the selection of the descriptively adequate grammar of each language (Chomsky 1064:63). Chomsky contented that the child is born with an innate knowledge of language or predisposition toward language, and that this innate property (LAD) is universal in all human being. The innateness hypothesis was a possible resolution of contradiction between the behaviorist notion that the language is a set of habits that can be acquired by a process of conditioning and the fact that such conditioning is much too slow and inefficient a process to account from the acquisition of a phenomena as a complex. It simply tells that it is really innate to man to acquire his first language to its parents, environment it could be their school or to the persons they are with in their daily living. If the child parents are Japanese and the child was born in America and the language they are using inside their house is Japanese the child acquired first the Japanese language and the child will acquire his second language which id English through the school he is in to. Stephen Krashen Krashen (1973) contented that the lateralization is complete around age 5. His suggestion does not grossly conflict the research on the first language acquisition if one considers â€Å"fluency† in the first language to achieved by age 5. In 1977 he suggested that the adults use more† monitoring† or â€Å"learning† strategies (conscious attention to form) fro language acquisition while children utilize strategies of â€Å"acquisition† (subconscious attention to function). This distinction between acquisition and learning could well be explicated by the field independence dichotomy. The teacher is the source of learners input and the creator of an interesting and stimulating variety of classroom activities, commands games, skills, and small- group work. Learner will presumably move through what Krashen and Terrel define as the stages. 1) the preproduction stage is the development of listening comprehension skills. 2) the early production stage is usually marked with errors as the student struggles with the language. The teacher focuses on the meaning here, not on the form and therefore the teacher does not make a point of correcting errors during this stage (unless they are gross errors which block or winder meaning. ) 3) The last stage is one of discourse involving more complex games, role-plays, open ended dialog, discussion and extended small-group work. Since the objective in this stage is to promote fluency, teachers are asked to be very sparse in the correction of errors. Role- plays help the child develop their skills in speaking as well acquiring such language. For instance the teacher will asks them to come –up with a play through the dialogues the child able to acquire the correct usage of the language by using the script. Another strategy is brain storming in which it is spontaneous outpouring of ideas and interest to the students. The teacher will give them a particular topic and let them discuss it to the class. Another is through Rhymes ad Songs. Example: One, two, three, four, five I caught a fish alive Six, seven, eight, nine, ten I let it go again. Why did you let it go? Because it bit my finger so. The little finger on the right. James Asher (1977) developer of the Total Physical Response (TPR) actually begun experimenting with TPR in the 1960’s but it was almost a decade before the method was widely discussed in professional circles. TPR combines a number of other insights in its rationale. Principles of child language acquisition are important. Asher (1977) voted that children. In learning their first language appear to do a lot of listening before they speak; and that their listening as accompanied by physical responses (reaching, grabbing, moving, looking and so forth). He also gave some attention to right-brain learning. According to Asher, motor activity is a right-brain function that should precede left brain processing. Asher was also convinced that language classes were often the lows of too much anxiety and wished to devise a method that was as stress-free as possible. The TPR classroom then is one in which students do a great deal of listening and acting. The teacher is very directive in orchestrating a performance. â€Å"The instructor is the director of the stage play in which the students are the actors† (Asher1977:34) this theory of Asher tries to imply that a child will really response to how they felt. For example, the teacher will play music, mostly the students will shook their head or even dance due to the music they heard or draw what they felt as they heard the music. Another strategy is Giving Direction. Familiarize the students with the different rooms or offices in the building: the Medical clinic, the principal’s office, the Library, the auditorium, the faculty room. They listen to taped directions on how to reach each of these rooms. Without notes, the students try repeat the instructions on how to reach the medical clinic, the principal’s office. A variation could be the following: The students repeat to another the directions have heard. The latter, in turn, repeats them to another. It will be interesting to find out the changes that have taken place in the course of the transmission of the instruction. In this strategy the students are able to response through their sense in locating the rooms that their teacher asks them to locate.