ALR A2 Chapter 4 Flashcards
Ethan’s task isn’t about human learning, but perhaps basic principles of
learning will apply. Let’s offer Ethan the following steps:
- First, he will need to specify __________ —what Myra already “knows.”
entry behavior
- Next, Ethan will need to formulate the ________ of his task. What will his
specific objectives be? What words should he start with? How many
words or phrases should he teach Myra?
goals
- Next, he might want to devise _____ of training. Based on what he determines about entry behavior and goals of the task, the training process
might have to be “_________.”
methods, customized
- Finally, Ethan will need some sort of _________ procedure . How should
he determine whether or not Myra had indeed learned to talk?
evaluation
You must
know the person’s entry behavior, specify objectives, devise methods that you
will employ, and design an evaluation procedure. These steps derive from your
conception of how human beings ___________, and that is what this chapter is all about.
learn
We’ll now focus on how psychologists have defined learning , specifically
within three broad ___________: (1) behavioral psychology, (2) cognitive psychology
and cognitive linguistics, and (3) social-constructivism. The three positions
illustrate not only some of the history of learning theory, but also some
of the diverse __________ that form the foundations of varying language
teaching approaches and methods.
perspectives, perspectives
Emphasizing the supremacy of _________, the crucial role of rewards and punishments, and the scientific nature of experimental evidence, ________ went virtually unchallenged
until the middle of the twentieth century.
conditioning paradigms, behaviorism
The best-known classical behaviorist was the Russian psychologist Ivan
Pavlov, who at the turn of the twentieth century conducted numerous __________ experiments.
classical conditioning
For Pavlov the learning process consisted of the
formation of associations between _______ and reflexive responses.
stimuli
Pavlov used
the __________ response (an unconditioned response ) to the sight or smell of
food in his now famous experiments with dogs.
salivation
Through repeated occurrences,
the dog associated the sound of a bell with food until the dog acquired a ___________ : salivation at the sound of the bell.
conditioned response
A previously neutral
_______ (the sound of the bell) had acquired the power to elicit a _______ (salivation) that was originally elicited by another _______ (the smell of meat).
stimulus, response, stimulus
Drawing on Pavlov’s findings, John Watson (1913) coined the term ___________, contending that human behavior should be studied objectively,
rejecting nonmeasurable notions of innateness and instinct.
behaviorism
He adopted the
____________ theory as the explanation for all learning: By the process
of conditioning, we build an array of stimulus-response connections, and more
complex behaviors are learned by building up series or chains of responses.
classical conditioning
Later, E. L. Thorndike (1932) expanded on classical conditioning models by
showing that stimuli that occurred after a behavior had an influence on future
behaviors, known as his __________.
Law of Effect
Pavlov’s, Watson’s, and Thorndike’s
emphasis on the study of ______ behavior and rigorous adherence to the scientific
method had a tremendous influence on learning theories for decades.
overt
Thorndike’s work paved the way for B. F. Skinner, in his seminal publication,
The Behavior of Organisms (1938), to establish himself as one of the
leading behaviorists in the United States. His approach was more appropriately
labeled as ____________, since he added a unique dimension to behavioristic
psychology (Anderson & Ausubel, 1965). Pavlov’s classical conditioning
was, according to Skinner, a highly specialized form of learning utilized mainly
by animals with minimal relevance for human conditioning.
neobehaviorism
Skinner called
Pavlovian conditioning ___________ since it was concerned with
behavior that is _________ by a preceding stimulus.
respondent conditioning, elicited
Skinner contended that Pavlov’s respondent conditioning was inferior to ____________ in which one “operates” on the environment.
operant conditioning
Here, the
importance of a (_________) stimulus is deemphasized in favor of rewards that
follow desired behavior.
preceding
For example, we cannot identify a specific stimulus
leading a baby to rise to a standing position or to take a first step; we therefore
need not be concerned about that stimulus, but we should be concerned about
the ___________ —the stimuli (_______) that follow the response.
consequences, rewards
Skinner defined ______ in the learning process as acts (e.g., crying,
walking, speaking) that are emitted with no observable stimulus, and governed
by the consequences they produce.
operants
According to Skinner, if
parents ignore crying (when they are certain that it is operant crying), eventually
the absence of __________ will extinguish the behavior—perhaps
Skinner wasn’t a model parent!
reinforcement
According to Skinner, the events or stimuli—the _______ —that follow
a response both strengthen behavior and increase the probability of a recurrence
of that response.
reinforcers
Such reinforcers are far stronger aspects of learning
than is mere association of a prior stimulus with a following response, as in the
__________ respondent conditioning model.
classical
We are governed by the consequences
of our ________, and therefore Skinner felt we ought, in analyzing human
behavior, to center on the effect of those consequences.
behavior
What about negative reinforcement? Skinner believed that ___________
“works to the disadvantage of both the _______ organism and the _________
agency” (1953, p. 183 ).
punishment, punished, punishing
____________ can be either the withdrawal of a positive
reinforcer (such as food, a hug, or a smile) or the presentation of an aversive
stimulus (say, a harsh reprimand).
punishment
Skinner felt that in the long run, punishment
does not actually eliminate behavior, but he did concede that mild punishment
may be necessary for temporary __________ of an undesired response ( Skinner,
1953 ).
supression
The best method of extinction, said Skinner, is the ________ of any reinforcement
whatsoever.
absence
Skinner was extremely methodical and empirical in his theory of learning,
to the point of being preoccupied with scientific controls. While many of his
experiments were performed on lower animals, his theories had an impact on
our understanding of human learning and on ________.
education
His book, The Technology of Teaching (1968), was a classic in the field of ___________.
programmed instruction
Skinner was convinced that virtually any subject matter could be
taught effectively by a carefully designed program of step-by-step _________.
reinforcement
Skinner’s Verbal Behavior (1957) described language as a system of verbal operants,
and his understanding of the role of _____________ led to a whole new era
in educational practices around the middle of the twentieth century.
conditioning
A Skinnerian view of both language and language learning strongly influenced
L2 teaching methodology in middle of the century, leading to a heavy
reliance in the classroom on the controlled practice of _____________ under
carefully designed schedules of reinforcement.
verbal operants
There is much in behavioral theory that is true and valuable, but there is
another viewpoint to be considered. We’ve looked at the claim that human
behavior can be __________ and controlled and scientifically studied and validated.
predicted
We have not looked at the notion that human behavior is essentially
_________ in nature, composed of such a complex and variable system that most
human learning simply cannot be accurately predicted or controlled.
abstract
Cognitive psychology was in many ways a reaction to the inadequacies of
behavioral approaches to human learning. Conditioning ___________ were quite
sufficient for animal training but mostly failed to account for the network of
neurological processes involved in the acquisition of complex skills, the development
of intelligence, the ability of humans to think logically and abstractly,
and our enigmatic ability to be creative.
paradigms
David Ausubel (1968) was among the first educational cognitive psychologists
to frame a theory of learning that was understandable, practical, and applicable
to classrooms and teachers. Simply put, he described human learning as a meaningful process of relating (__________) new events or items to already existing cognitive structure ( Ausubel, 1965 ).
associating
You might say it’s like hanging
new items onto existing cognitive “_______.” Ausubel’s (1968) perspective
accounted for the acquisition of new meanings (knowledge), retention, the
organization of knowledge in a hierarchical structure, and the eventual occurrence
of ________.
pegs, forgetting
Meaningful learning is best understood by contrasting it with _________. Ausubel described __________ as the process of acquiring material
as “discrete and relatively isolated entities” (1968, p. 108 ) that have little or no
association with existing cognitive structure.
rote learning, rote learning
On the other hand, meaningful learning, or ___________, may be
described as a process of relating and anchoring new material to relevant established
entities in cognitive structure.
subsumption
As new material enters our perceptual
field, it interacts with, and is appropriately subsumed under, a more ______
conceptual system.
inclusive
If we think of cognitive structure as a system of building
blocks, then______ is the process of acquiring isolated blocks with no
particular relationship to other blocks.
rote learning
_________ is the process
whereby blocks become an integral part of already established categories or
systematic clusters of blocks.
Meaningful learning
The significance of the distinction between rote and meaningful learning
has tremendous implications for both natural and __________ language acquisition.
instructed
Recent linguistic research ( Ellis & Collins, 2009 ) has placed emphasis on
the role of ________ in language acquisition—a role that fits well with behavioral
perspectives.
frequency
But consider the power of _________ (importance,
significance, relatability) in the eventual retention of cognitive items. If you
carelessly run across a crosswalk and narrowly miss getting hit by a car, you
won’t need frequent repetitions of that scare to teach you to be careful. Once
is enough!
meaningfulness
Granted, human beings are capable of learning almost any given item
within the so-called “magic _____, plus or minus two” ( Miller, 1956 ) units for
perhaps a few seconds.
seven
We can remember an unfamiliar phone number, for
example, long enough to call the number, after which point the phone number
is usually extinguished by _________.
interfering factors
Arbitrarily assigned, nonsystematically
defined numbers are often difficult to retain. To compensate, we can
resort to what Smith (1975) called “manufacturing meaningfulness” (p. 162),
that is, inventing artificial __________ to remember a list of items, perhaps
for an upcoming examination.
mnemonic devices
Long-term memory is a different matter. A meaningfully learned, subsumed
item has greater potential for ___________.
retention
Why do we forget things? A behavioral explanation cites in frequency of input,
the cessation of practice, and lack of reinforcement. A cognitive perspective
takes a much broader view, looking at saliency, relevance, emotion, and the
strength of anchoring mental sets that capture a trace of __________.
memory
Once again, Ausubel (1965, 1968) provided a plausible explanation for the
universal nature of ___________. Since rotely learned material is not substantively
merged into cognitive structure, its retention is influenced primarily by the interfering
effects of similar rote material learned immediately before or after the
learning task.
forgetting
Once again, Ausubel (1965, 1968) provided a plausible explanation for the
universal nature of forgetting. Since rotely learned material is not substantively
merged into cognitive structure, its retention is influenced primarily by the interfering
effects of similar rote material learned immediately before or after the
learning task. The consequence of such effects is referred to as ___________ and
___________ inhibition .
proactive, retroactive
In the case of meaningfully learned material, retention
is influenced primarily by the properties of “relevant and cumulatively established
________ systems in cognitive structure with which the learning task
interacts” ( Ausubel, 1968 , p. 108 ).
ideational
We cannot say, of course, that meaningfully learned material is never forgotten.
But in the case of such learning, forgetting takes place in a much more
intentional and _____ manner because it is actually a _____ of the
very process of subsumption by which one learns.
systematic, continuation
Forgetting is really a second
or “____________” stage of subsumption, characterized as “memorial reduction to
the least common denominator” ( Ausubel, 1963 , p. 218 ).
obliterative
Another way of conceptualizing this second stage of subsumption is in a
horticultural metaphor: _______ ( Brown, 1972 ). When you _____ a
tree, your aim is to eliminate unnecessary clutter and to clear the way for more
growth.
cognitive pruning, prune
Mixing metaphors and switching to the building-block analogy, one might say that at the outset, a structure made of blocks is seen as a few individual
blocks, but as the mind begins to give the structure a perceived shape, some of the single blocks achieve less and less identity in their own right and
become subsumed into the larger structure. Finally, the single blocks are lost to perception, or “_____” out, and the total structure is perceived as a single
whole without clearly defined parts.
pruned
Examples of pruning abound in the development of concepts. Learning
that a cup of hot coffee, a pan of boiling water, or an iron, for example, can cause excessive pain is a _________.
cognitive process
A small child’s first exposure to
such heat may be either direct contact or a verbal “don’t touch!” or “hot!” After a number of exposures to such hot things, the child begins to form a ________ of “hotness” by clustering experiences together and forming a generalization.
concept
An important aspect of the pruning stage of learning is that systematic
forgetting, or pruning, is not ________ or chance. Thus by promoting
optimal pruning procedures, we have a potential learning situation that will
produce retention beyond that normally expected under more traditional
theories of forgetting.
haphazard
Interestingly, pruned items may not actually be obliterated. They may be
difficult to consciously retrieve, but could still be an integral part of “deep”
cognitive structure. The notion of ___________ in SLA may be a case in point.
automaticity
In the early stages of language learning, certain ______ (definitions, paradigms,
illustrations, or rules) are often used to facilitate subsumption. But in the process
of making language automatic, the _____ serve only as “interim” entities, meaningful at a low level of subsumption, and then they are systematically
pruned out at later stages of language learning.
devices, devices
We might effectively achieve the goal of __________ by
removing unnecessary barriers to automaticity. A definition, mnemonic device,
or a paraphrase might be initially facilitative, but as its need is minimized by
larger and more global conceptualizations, it is pruned.
communicative competence
For example, a learner
in the early stages of acquisition will perhaps overtly learn the ____ for when
and how to use the present perfect tense. That building block enables the
learner to produce past perfect forms correctly and in context, but in later
stages the rule ceases to be explicitly retrieved in favor of the automatic production
of the correct verb without any recourse to the _____ learned earlier.
rule, rule
Research on _______ has focused on a variety of possible causes
for the loss of second language skills ( Lambert & Freed, 1982 ; Weltens, 1987 ;
Weltens & Cohen, 1989 ; Tomiyama, 2000 ; Montrul, 2002 , 2008, 2011). Some
studies have shown that lexical, phonological, or syntactic features may be more
vulnerable than idioms, semantic factors, or discourse elements ( Andersen,
1982 ; Nakuma, 1998 ).
language attrition
Obler (1982) suggested that “___________”
(left-/right-brain functioning) could contribute to forgetting. Other common reasons
for language attrition include the following: (1) the strength and conditions
of initial learning, (2) the kind of use that a second language has been put to,
(3) motivational factors ( Gardner, 1982 ), and (4) cultural identity ( Priven, 2002 ).
neurolinguistic blocking
Attrition is not limited to second language acquisition ( Porte, 1999 ; Isurin,
2000 ). Native language forgetting can occur in cases of _________
( Siegel, 2003 ; Montrul, 2008 , 2011), when learners rely more and more
on a second language, which eventually replaces their first language.
subtractive bilingualism
Cognitive psychology provides a strong theoretical basis for the rejection
of conditioning models of _____ and ________ in language teaching.
practice, repitition
Rote learning can be effective on a short-term basis, but
for any long-term retention it fails because of a buildup of ____________.
interference
A case
in point was the ____________, based almost exclusively on a behavioral
theory of conditioning and rote learning. The mechanical “stamping in” of the
language through saturation with little reference to meaning was seriously challenged
by a more broadly based cognitive view ( Ausubel, 1964 ).
Audiolingual Method
In the 1980s, the place of language in cognition, along with the development
of linguistic abilities as an integral component of _________, became a central
focus for linguists and applied linguists.
cognition
We have already referred to some of
the issues surrounding language and thought, the place of language acquisition
in intellectual development, and cognitive considerations in examining
age and acquisition. Such mergers of psychology and linguistics gave rise not
only to _______ as a field in its own right, but also to what has come
to be called cognitive linguistics ( Evans & Green, 2006 ; Verspoor & Tyler,
2009 ; Holme, 2012 ), with its standard-bearing journal, Cognitive Linguistics ,
leading the way in related research.
psycholinguistics
Generative and nativist traditions in the study of L1 acquisition tended to view language as independent of ____ and _______ functioning.
cognitive, social
In a mathematically
based model, the child was thought to possess a deep structure of
syntactic and phonological rules that in turn generated an infinite variety of
______ of language.
strings
In contrast, many of today’s linguistic researchers are
highly attuned to the interrelated dynamics of language and ______.
cognition
George
Lakoff (1987; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980 , 2003) was among the vanguard of such
inquiry in examining the rich cognitive and social backdrop of metaphor. Soon,
inspired by linguists like Deborah Tannen (1990, 1996) and Leonard Talmy
(2003), among others, we could no longer look at a child’s or adult’s language
acquisition as simply the _________ of language divorced from
cognitive, functional, and pragmatic contexts.
computational generation
Several themes characterize cognitive linguistic approaches ( Croft & Cruse,
2004 ; Evans & Green, 2006 ; Robinson & Ellis, 2008 ):
- Language is not an autonomous _____.
faculty
- _______ is not simply an arbitrary set of rules but rather is interwoven
with conceptualization and knowledge.
Syntax
Language ability cannot be examined without concurrent consideration of
language _____.
use
In the last part of the twentieth century, as studies in L1 and L2 acquisition
continued to probe the place of language in human development, it became
increasingly obvious that language is interconnected with __________
such as perception, memory, categorization, meaning, and attention ( Robinson &
Ellis, 2008 ).
cognitive concepts
Cognitive linguistics was applied to teaching methodology by Holme
(2012), who designed a pedagogical model for the L2 classroom. He incorporated
concepts of “____________” (metaphor), the reality of lexicon and grammar,
concept formation, and usage to form cornerstones for understanding classroom
approaches and techniques.
embodiment
It is safe to conclude that cognitive linguistics
is not so much a radical new field of inquiry as it is the result of a
coalescence of research findings and the merging of many strands of research,
all of which seek to establish the relationship between language and our complex
_____________.
neural networks
Rogers is not traditionally thought of as a “________” psychologist, yet his work had a significant impact on our present understanding of learning, particularly
in educational contexts.
learning
His views on humanistic psychology emanated from
his classic work Client-Centered Therapy (1951), an analysis of human
behavior in terms of a “phenomenological” perspective, a perspective in sharp
contrast to his contemporary, ______________.
Skinner
Rogers saw the “whole person” as a
physical and cognitive, but primarily ____________ being.
emotional
Rogers’s position has important implications for education ( Curran, 1972 ;
Rogers, 1983 ; O’Hara, 2003 ) by focusing away from “teaching” and toward
“learning” or, in O’Hara’s (2003) terms, “____________.”
transformative pedagogy
The goal of
education is the _____________ of change and learning. Learning how to learn is
more important than being taught something from the “superior” vantage point
of a teacher who unilaterally decides what shall be taught.
facilitation
Many of our present systems of education, in prescribing curricular goals
and dictating objectives, deny persons both freedom and dignity. What is
needed, according to Rogers, is for teachers to become ____________ of learning,
discarding masks of superiority and omniscience.
facilitators
We can see in Rogers’s humanism a radical departure from the scientific
analysis of behavioral psychology and even from strictly cognitive theories.
Rogers was not as concerned about the actual cognitive process of learning
because, he felt, if the context for learning is properly created with due attention
to students’ __________ states, then they will learn everything they need to.
affective
Of course, teachers could take the nondirective approach too far, to the
point that valuable time is lost in the process of allowing students to “____________”
facts and principles for themselves.
discover
Also, a nonthreatening environment might
become so “warm and fuzzy” that the facilitative tension needed for learning is
absent. There is ample research documenting the positive effects of _____________
in a classroom, as long as that ____________ does not damage selfesteem
and hinder motivation to learn ( Bailey, 1983 ).
competitiveness, competitiveness
Another giant in educational theory is Brazilian educator Paolo Freire (1970).
Freire vigorously objected to traditional “__________” concepts of education in
which teachers think of their task as one of “filling” students “by making
deposits of information which [they] consider to constitute true knowledge—
deposits which are detached from reality” (1970, p. 62 ).
banking
Instead, Freire argued,
students should be allowed to negotiate learning outcomes, to cooperate with
teachers and other learners in a process of discovery, and to relate everything they do in school to their _________ outside the classroom.
reality
___________
must be focused on helping students to engage in critical thinking: to look
beneath various canons of knowledge and to question that which they are
simply told to accept unequivocally.
Education
Freire wanted all students to become
instruments of their own ___________ , “lifting themselves up by their own bootstraps.”
empowerment
While such “_________” views of education should be approached
with some caution ( Clarke, 1990 ), learners may nevertheless be empowered to
achieve solutions to real problems in the real world.
liberationist
Russian-born Lev Vygotsky (1962, 1978), author of the seminal 1934 work,
Thought and Language , went almost unnoticed at the time as the limelight
shone on his countryman Pavlov and his behaviorist associates. But in the
latter part of the twentieth century, as the shifting sands of psychological
research paid due attention to ______ and _______ factors, Vygotsky’s
contributions to human learning were lauded for their unique insights.
sociocultural, affective
or Vygotsky the key to understanding higher forms (beyond simply physical
reflexes) of human mental activity lay in the ______ of symbols, signs,
and language.
mediation
In Vygotsky’s view, the task for psychology is “to understand
how human social and mental activity is organized through culturally constructed
_______ and social relationships” ( Lantolf, 2000 , p. 80 ).
artifacts
Language is not only an instrument for thought, but also, as Vygotsky so ably emphasized, an ability that develops through _________. Language
is primarily a tool for communication with other human beings, and it is this symbiotic relationship that is a driving force in the development and growth
of cognition.
social interaction
From this sociocultural perspective, a child’s early stages of language
acquisition are an outgrowth of the process of “meaning-making in _____________
activity with other members of a given culture” ( Mitchell & Myles,
2004 , p. 200 ).
collaborative
The work of Rogers, Freire, and Vygotsky contributed significantly to a slow but steady redefinition of the _________ in the last twenty years
or so.
educational process
________ are increasingly striving to enable learners to understand
themselves and to create optimal environments for social interaction and negotiation
of meaning. Teachers as facilitators are providing nurturing contexts for
learners to face real-world issues and to believe in themselves.
Educators
When teachers
rather programmatically feed students quantities of knowledge, which they subsequently devour, those teachers foster a climate of “_______” learning in which learners—in competition with classmates—try to _______ themselves from failure, criticism, and possibly from punishment.
defensive, protect
Ancient Greek philosophers reminded their audiences of the importance of body, mind, and soul in their inquiry. Likewise, the three major perspectives that have been described here—_____, _____, and _____ constructivist— allow us to put together a comprehensive understanding of human learning and cognition.
behavioral, cognitive, social
A behavioral theory helps us to understand some fundamentals
of learning for all organisms. Cognitive viewpoints have multiplied our appreciation of the intricacies of the uniquely human language-thought connection. And without coming full circle (triangle?) to affectively based sociocultural insights, our understanding would not be __________.
balanced
Robert Gagné (1965, pp. 58 – 59 ) ably demonstrated the importance of identifying a number of universal _____ of human learning.
types
- Signal learning. Attending to something in one’s ________ (music, animal sounds, human voices, etc.), typical of Pavlovian classical conditioning.
Linguistic application: human beings notice and attend to
human language
environment
- Stimulus–response learning. The learner makes a response to a “________” stimulus, a specific attendance to a single element in one’s perceptual environment. Linguistic application: Noticing and responding
to specific sounds, words, and nonverbal gestures, and receiving a reward for the response.
discriminated
- Chaining. Learning a chain of two or more stimulus-response ____________.
Linguistic application: Stringing several sounds or words together to attempt to communicate meaning.
connections
- Verbal association. Attaching _______ to verbal/nonverbal chains.
Linguistic application: Assigning meaning to various verbal stimuli.
“Nonsense” syllables become meaningful for communication.
meaning
- Multiple discrimination. Learning to make different
_______ to many varying stimuli, which may resemble each other. Linguistic application:
Noticing differences between/among sounds, words, or phrases that are similar. For example, minimal pairs (sheep/ship), homonyms (left/left),
and synonyms (maybe/perhaps).
responses
- Concept learning. Learning to make a common response to a class of stimuli even though the individual members of that _____ may differ widely from each other. Linguistic application: The word “hot” applies to stoves, candles, and irons; young children learn that four-legged farm animals are not all “horsies.”
class
- Principle learning. Learning a chain of two or more _______, a cluster of related _______. Linguistic application: Verbs in the past tense are classified into regular and irregular forms, yet both forms express the concept
of tense .
concepts, concepts
- Problem solving. Previously acquired concepts and _________ are combined
in a conscious focus on an unresolved or ambiguous set of events.
Linguistic application: Learning that metaphorical language is not simply idiosyncratic, but connected to cultural world views and ways of thinking, thus explaining why a dead person is “gone.” Also, using language to solve problems, such as information gap exercises in a classroom. You may notice that the first five types fit easily into a behavioral
principles
You may notice that the first five types fit easily into a behavioral framework, while the last three are better explained by cognitive or sociocultural perspectives. Since all eight types of learning are relevant to second language learning, a cautious implication is that certain _____ aspects of SLA may be more effectively treated by behavioral approaches and methods, while certain
_____ types are more effectively taught by methods derived from cognitive or sociocultural approaches to learning.
lower-level, higher-order
Methods of teaching, in recognizing different levels of learning, need to be consonant with whichever aspect of language is being taught at a particular _____ while also recognizing the interrelatedness of all levels of language learning.
time
Human beings approach any new problem by using whatever __________ they possess to attempt a solution, more technically described as the interaction of previously learned material with a present learning event.
cognitive structures
From
the beginning of life, we build a structure of knowledge by the accumulation of _____ and by the storage of aspects of those _____ in memory.
experiences, experiences
Each of those billions of neural bytes become associated with other pieces of our memory, and in the process, some of those connections are bound to facilitate and some are destined to debilitate. Let’s consider this phenomenon in terms of three associated concepts in learning: transfer, interference, and
__________________.
overgeneralization
Transfer usually refers to the carryover of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning. (It can also apply to the effect of a current act of learning on previously learned material, which is known as ________, but we’ll deal with that in a moment.)
retroactive transfer
__________ occurs when the prior knowledge benefits the learning task—that is, when a previous item
is correctly applied to present subject matter.
Positive transfer
_________ occurs when a previous performance disrupts or inhibits the performance of a second task.
Negative transfer
Positive transfer occurs when the prior knowledge benefits the learning task—that is, when a previous item is correctly applied to present subject matter. Negative transfer occurs when
previous performance disrupts or inhibits the performance of a second task. The latter can be referred to as _________, in that previously learned material conflicts with subsequent material—a previous item is incorrectly transferred or incorrectly associated with an item to be learned.
interference
A nonlanguage example: Eight-year-old Kaliana has already learned to ride a bicycle, and now attempts to ride her newly acquired skateboard. She _____ transfers the psychomotor process of keeping her balance on a moving vehicle. So far, so good. However, she _____ transfers the experience of steering a front wheel for balance to the skateboard, which results in a skinned knee. Eventually she learns that steering on a skateboard is accomplished by a
combination of footwork and leaning the body.
positively, negatively
The most salient example in SLA is the effect of the first-learned native language on the second. Many L2 courses warn teachers and students of the perils of such negative transfer, in fact, the L1 is usually an immediately noticeable source of _____ among learners.
error
Let’s say you studied French in high school and now you take up Spanish in college. One of the goals of your teacher is to help you and your classmates to positively transfer various strategies, mindsets, linguistic tricks, and _________ knowledge to this newest language.
cross-cultural
Even more commonly, suppose you have been learning English as a second language for a few months now. You are most certainly acquiring pieces of the language that have a cumulative effect on your current lessons. You could claim that you are not only building lexical, syntactic, discourse, and other abilities, but you are also “getting the hang of it,” as your ________ improves.
strategic competence
A final aspect of positive transfer within a language pertains to the application of course content to the “_____” outside of the classroom. English for Academic Purposes (EAP), for example, helps students to learn English skills but also to learn the academic “game,” which might be quite new to students studying English in an English-speaking university and country.
real world
Of significant interest for some linguists is the _______ effect of a second language on the first. It is not uncommon for those who take up residence in a foreign country not only to learn the language of their new home, but also for their native language to be “_______.”
retroactive, affected
This phenomenon is
found among some bilinguals whose home language is the _______ language
of their country of residence. Spanish in the United States is an
example ( Montrul, 2011 ).
nondominant
In the literature on SLA, interference is almost as frequent a term as _______, which is simply a form of negative transfer. Generalization involves inferring or deriving a law, rule, or conclusion from the observation of particular instances.
overgeneralization
In terms of the previously discussed meaningful
learning, items are subsumed (_______) under higher-order categories for meaningful retention. Concept learning for children is the _______ of a
principle from experience with particulars.
generalized, generalization
A child learns that ice cream is
delicious from a few encounters with the cold, sweet taste. Usually very few encounters are required! The concept of future time, often mediated by language, is a generalization from _______.
particulars
In SLA it is customary to refer to overgeneralization as a _______ that occurs as the L2 learner acts within the target language, generalizing a particular
rule or item in the L2— irrespective of the L1—beyond legitimate bounds.
process
We have already observed that children acquiring English as a native language overgeneralize regular past tense endings ( walked, opened ) as applicable to all past tense forms ( goed, flied ) until they recognize a subset of verbs that belong in an “_______” category.
irregular
_______ and _______ reasoning are two polar aspects of the generalization process.
inductive, deductive
In the case of ________, one stores a number of specific
instances and induces a general law or rule or conclusion that governs or subsumes
the specific instances.
inductive reasoning
________ is a movement from a generalization to specific instances: A general principle allows a person to infer specific facts.
Deductive reasoning
L1 learning and natural or untutored SLA involve a largely _______: Learners must infer certain rules and meanings from all the data around them. Most of those rules are learned implicitly, without “conscious,” explicit ability to verbalize them.
inductive process
Classroom language learning tends to rely—more than it should, no doubt—on _______.
deductive reasoning
Traditional methods overemphasize the use of
deductive reasoning by requiring _______ to a rule with subsequent attention to its instances.
explicit access
Much of the evidence in communicative L2 learning points to the overall superiority of an inductive approach; however, in the case of _______ instruction (see Chapter 9), learners might reap the benefit of the positive effects of having errors called to their attention.
form-focused
An interesting extension of the inductive/deductive dichotomy was reported in Peters’ (1981) case study of a child learning a first language. Peters found that
her subject manifested a number of “_______” characteristics, producing “wholes” in the form of _______ patterns well before speaking the particular words that
made up the sentences.
Gestalt, intonation
Peters cited other evidence of Gestalt learning in children
and concluded that such “_______” (vs. “word learners”) may be more common than researchers had previously assumed.
sentence learners
In L2 teaching, Wong (1986) capitalized on just such a concept in a discussion of teaching communicative _______. She advocated explicitly teaching overall intonation patterns for greetings, yes-no questions, and syllable stress before learners had tackled their specific syntactic forms.
oral production
The discussion so far in this chapter has focused on perception, storage, and
recall. Little has been said about a related and somewhat controversial issue
in SLA, _______.
language aptitude
Historically, research on language aptitude has been a roller-coaster ride. John Carroll’s ( Carroll & Sapon, 1959 ) pioneering work on aptitude, embodied in the _________ (MLAT), began the quest.
Modern Language Aptitude Test
First, even
though the paper-and-pencil tests claimed to measure language aptitude, it soon became apparent that they more than likely reflected the general intelligence or academic ability of a student in any instructional setting ( Skehan, 1989 ; DeKeyser & Koeth, 2011 ). At best, they appeared to measure ability to perform focused, analytical, _______ activities that occupy a student in a traditional language classroom.
context-reduced
They hardly even began to tap into the kinds of learning strategies and styles that subsequent research ( Ehrman, 1990 ; Oxford, 1990b, 1996 ; Reid,
1995 ; Chamot, 2005 ; Cohen, 1998 ) showed to be crucial in the acquisition of communicative competence in _______ situations
context-embedded
A new era of aptitude research was launched with Skehan’s (1998) exposure of the weaknesses of previous aptitude constructs, and his proposal to look at aptitude from a broader view of SLA that incorporates input processing, inductive language learning, output strategies, and _______.
fluency
Dörnyei and Skehan also cite other research to conclude that “aptitude is relevant not simply for conventional, explicit, rule-focused teaching contexts, but also when the learning is implicit [in _______]” (p. 600 ).
natural contexts
Dörnyei (2009) noted that motivation, learning styles, learning strategies,
anxiety, and other_______ in language learners may also be related to a learner’s eventual success in learning an L2.
individual differences
_______, a construct with multiple definitions and theories, has traditionally been defined and measured in terms of linguistic and logical-mathematical
abilities. The notion of IQ (_______) is based on several generations of testing of these two domains, stemming from the early twentieth-century research of Alfred Binet, creator of the famous Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales .
Intelligence, Intelligence Quotient
Does IQ correlate equally well with successful SLA? Will a smart person be capable of learning a second language successfully because of high intelligence?
Not according to a good deal of research and observation over the last few decades. It appears that our “language learning IQs” involve more than simply academic “_____.”
smarts
Robert Sternberg (1985, 1988) also shook up the world of traditional intelligence measurement. In his _______ view of intelligence, Sternberg proposed three types of “smartness”:
triarchic
Finally, in another effort to remind us of the bias of traditional definitions and tests of intelligence, Daniel Goleman’s work on _______ ( Goleman, 1995 , 1998; Merlevede, Bridoux, & Vandamme, 2001) is persuasive in placing emotion, or what might be called EQ (_______), at the seat of intellectual functioning.
emotional intelligence, Emotional Quotient
Goleman has also more recently followed up with work on social
as well as _______, in an effort to apply emotional management to practical life situations ( Goleman, 2006 , 2009).
ecological intelligence
Educational institutions have recently been applying _______ to a variety of school-oriented contexts. Thomas Armstrong (1993, 1994),
for example, focused teachers and learners on “seven ways of being smart,” capitalizing on all forms of intelligence.
multiple intelligence theory
Two language teaching methods emerged in the last century of language teaching that bear a singular relationship to certain perspectives on learning.
The _______ method, inspired by behavioristic principles, and _______, a direct attempt to apply Carl Roger’s theories, are in stark contrast with each other.
Audiolingual, Community Language Learning
The outbreak of World War II thrust the United States into a worldwide conflict, heightening the need for Americans to become orally proficient in the languages of both their allies and their enemies. The U.S. military, perceiving the need for intensive language courses that focused on _______ skills, funded what came to be known as the Army Specialized Training Program
(ASTP), or, more colloquially, the “_______.”
aural/oral, Army Method
In all its variations and adaptations, the Army Method came to be known in the 1950s as _______.
Audiolingual Method (ALM)
With widespread publication of textbooks and curricula, the ALM enjoyed
a number of years of popularity. But the enthusiasm eventually waned, due in
part to Wilga Rivers’s (1964) eloquent exposure of ALM’s ultimate failure to
teach long-term __________.
communicative proficiency
The ALM also lost some of its glamor when the Chomskyan revolution in linguistics turned linguists and language teachers toward the _______ of language and when psychologists began to recognize the fundamentally _______ nature of language learning. Looking at SLA through the combined lenses of cognitive and affective factors spawned a creative, if somewhat chaotic
era during which innovative language teaching methods flourished.
deep structure, interpersonal
In his “_______” model of education, Charles Curran (1972)
was inspired by Rogers’s (1951) view of education in which students and
teacher join together to facilitate learning in a context of valuing and prizing
each individual in the group.
Counseling-Learning
Curran’s model of education was extended to language learning contexts in the form of _______ ( LaForge, 1971 ).
Community Language Learning
CLL was a valiant attempt to put Carl Rogers’s philosophy into action and to overcome some of the threatening _______ factors in second language learning. But practical and theoretical problems emerged.
affective
The _______ role
of the counselor-teacher caused a good deal of “trial by error,” much of which was not productive.
nondirective
Despite its weaknesses, CLL offers certain insights to teachers. We are reminded to lower learners’ _______, to create as much of a supportive group in our classrooms as possible, to allow students to initiate language (up to a point), and to move learners toward autonomy in preparation for the day when they no longer have the teacher to guide them.
anxiety
