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believes children use operant conditioning - trial and error to learn language. Child also learns through the gestures parents make.

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Second-language acquisition (SLA) is a learner's process of learning a non-native language. This exact process is still unknown after much research. (Columbia University Press, 2003) However, there are many theories of learning that address SLA. Below the author takes an in-depth look at the behaviorist, information processing, and constructivist theories as they apply to SLA. A brief description of the role of the facilitator and learner, classroom instructional strategies, and assessments will help the reader distinguished the similarities and differences between the theories.

Behaviorist : Learners within a behaviorist classroom are responsible for responding appropriately to commands or antecedents provided by the facilitator. In the audiolingual method, learners repeat oral and pattern drills. Total physical response (TPR), a method that is also used, requires learners to move as commands are announced. (Diaz-Rico, 2004)

Instructional Strategies

References:

Diaz-Rico, L. (2004). Teaching English Learners: Strategies and Methods. San Francisco: Pearson Education.

Language acquisition. (n.d.). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Retrieved March 15, 2006, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/language-acquisition

Newby, T., Stepich, D., Lehman, J., & Russell, J. (2006). Educational Technology for Teaching and Learning (3 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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Second-language acquisition (SLA) is a learner's process of learning a non-native language. This exact process is still unknown after much research. (Columbia University Press, 2003) However, there are many theories of learning that address SLA. Below the author takes an in-depth look at the behaviorist, information processing, and constructivist theories as they apply to SLA.

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Look at the following extract:
Child: Nobody don't like me.
Mother: No, say 'nobody likes me'.
Child: Nobody don't like me.
(Eight repetitions of this exchange)
Mother: No, now listen carefully; say 'nobody likes me'.
Child: Oh! Nobody don't likes me. (McNeill, 1966)
The behaviourist approach to language learning grew out of the belief that students could learn a second language by being taught to produce the correct "response" to the appropriate "stimulus". The student would then receive either instant positive or instant negative "reinforcement" in the shape of either correction or praise from the teacher.

The resulting methodology, audio-lingualism, was a very heavily teacher-centred approach consisting of a lot of "mimicry and memorization". The linguist Leonard Bloomfield claimed that "language learning is over-learning" and this, in effect, was what audio-lingualism was based on.

The proponents of the audio-lingualism believed that language learning was a process of habit formation in which the student over-learned carefully sequenced lists of set phrases or "base sentences". The method was extremely successful and enjoyed considerable popularity.

Good L2 (second language) speaking habits would be reinforced in students and simplistic, predictable, repetitive drills would try and ensure the absence of error. Mistakes were not to be tolerated in audio-lingualism. They only proved the "good" habits hadn't yet been learnt. The mother/child exchange above shows an attempt by the mother to correct a young L1 (first language/mother tongue) learner without success.

The teaching theories that followed after audio-lingualism (which was especially dominant in the 1940s and 1950s) put higher priority on what the learner was sub-consciously "doing" with the language. These theories suggested that, far from trying to stamp out error and getting children to "mimic" as in this example, the parents would be better off allowing the errors and accepting that the children's "inter language" is not yet ready for the target structures. The "inter language" is the current system or blueprint of language that exists in the learner's head, constantly updated and altered as the learner acquires the target language.

In the extract above, the child's inter-language seems to contain the rule "use of auxiliary verb to form negative" but still lacking that which precludes double negatives. The adult's "audio lingual" attempts at error correction are clearly in vain.

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Look at the following extract: Child: Nobody don't like me. Mother: No, say 'nobody likes me'. Child: Nobody don't like me. (Eight repetitions of this exchange) Mother: No, now listen carefully; say 'nobody likes me'. Child: Oh! Nobody don't likes me.

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Interactionist Theory of Language Acquisition and ESL

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The Interactionist Theory of language acquisition of how babies learn their native language is important to understand when teaching beginning ESL classes. Learn about the contributors to Interactionist Theory and how it relates to ESL.

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-explanation of language development
-emphasizes the role of social interaction between the developing child and an adult

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Vygotsky

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Believes children will learn by imitation and reinforcement from any environment.

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Believes children who are spoken to will learn eventually how to speak.

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Children do not need any kind of formal teaching to speak.