Speaking in the Foreign Language Classroom: Theoretical Perspectives. Practical Implications.
-
Period: to
Environmentalist Approach
Learning seen as conditioned by the external environment. -
Structural Linguistics (Bloomfield 1933)
Theoretical Perspective: Language examined as oral phenomenon viewed as consisting of different elements related to each other in a linear way; with structures and rules (phonemes, morphemes, words, sentence types). [link to psychology: behaviorism]
Practical Implications: Elements and rules of the (external) system are to be learned. Speaking is emphasized, as conditioning: repeating, imitating, memorizing of input; known as "audiolingual approach" (drills, substitution exercises). -
Competence and Performance (Chomsky 1957)
Theoretical Perspective: In trying to explain language behavior by studying rules by which speakers and writers transformed their meanings into things they say the theoretical distinction between competence and performance was made. Competence was seen as intuitive knowledge of linguistic rules and how the system operates. Performance was seen as the individuals ability to produce language (=part of Transformational-Generative Grammar).
Practical Implications: see LAD/Universal Grammar -
LAD/Universal Grammar (Chomsky 1957, 1959, 1965, 1985)
Theoretical Perspective: Humans are born with an innate "language acquisition device" (LAD): principles and rules of inferences (later referred to as "universal grammar") that help acquire languages. Regardless of the environment learners are capable of creating language based on what they already know.
Practical Implications: Speaking was not merely seen as repetition anymore. Learners are encourage to reflect on language and use language creatively after having been taught grammatical rules. -
Period: to
Innatist Approach
Learning seen as a mental and cognitive process. -
Period: to
Interactionist Approach
Learning seen as dynamic and interactive. -
Communicative Competence (Hymes 1971, 1972)
Theoretical Perspective: The role of the interaction of the environment with the learner's innate predisposition was brought into focus. (= sociolinguistics)
Practical Implications: Teachers are asked to focus on the development of communicative competence and emphasize cognitive capacity. Students are to be prepared to recognize and deal with typical functions of oral language and to perform a range of common speech acts (teaching method: "genre approach"). -
Period: to
Communicative Approach
Learning seen as active, dynamic and complex. -
Interlanguage Theory (Selinker 1974)
Theoretical Perspective: Interlanguage is defined as the developing language of a learner. It is created through interference from the L1, effect of instruction, overgeneralization of L2 rules, learning strategies and L2 communication strategies. Interlanguages are dynamic and evolve through restructuring and the construction of new hypotheses.
Practical Implications: Learners' use of the L2 reflects a system in development; errors occur as a natural part of the acquisition process. -
L2 Communicative Competence Model (Canale & Swain 1980)
Theoretical Perspective: The model designed based on Hyme's work identified four components: grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic and discourse competence. Over the years, this model served as basis for further expansions aimed at explaining communicative language proficiency and deducing implications for teaching.
Practical Implications: The role of speaking and its practice within various contexts is paramount to developing communicative competence. -
Interaction Hypothesis (Long 1983, 1996)
Theoretical Perspective: Speakers change their language as they interact to "negotiate meaning", they change interactions, redirect, etc. thus leading to language development. By working toward comprehension, language input is made "comprehensible": available for intake, cognitive inspection, and thus acquisition.
Practical Implications: Learners need to actively partake and negotiate the type of input they receive. For example, in a conversation they need to question, seek clarification, etc. -
The Output Hypothesis (Swain 1985, 1993)
Theoretical Perspective:
Language learning may occur through producing language, either spoken or written. Producing language may serve the language learning process through promoting automaticity, moving from semantic to syntactic processing, and hypothesis testing.
Practical Implications:
Learners need various opportunities for speaking (and writing) and they need to be encouraged to use their resources, reflect, reprocess, modify their output... - through interactions with teachers and peers. -
Binding (Terrell 1986)
Theoretical Perspective: The term is used to describe the cognitive and affective mental process of linking a meaning to a form. It is based on the idea of language acquisition through attending to meaningful input and by interacting with it.
Practical Implications: Binding can be facilitated by presenting vocabulary in meaningful groups/context and by providing concrete references (visuals, actions, etc.). -
Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky 1978, Wertsch 1991, Wertsch & Bivens 1992)
Theoretical Perspective: Linguistic development is socioculturally constructed. Learning is social and cognitive process.
Practical Implications: Students collaborate, receive scaffolded help from the teacher, work in their Zone of Proximal Development, use tools that help them mediate between their L1 and L2 to foster language acquisition. Hall (1995) suggests "interactive practices" as 'recurring episodes of purposeful, goal-directed talk' for learners participate in 'real' conversations. -
Communicative Competence (Celce-Murcia 2007)
Theoretical Perspective: The framework builds on earlier communicative models but is more refined and introduces "sociocultural" instead of "sociolinguistic competence" emphasizing the social and cultural context of communication.
Practical Implications: Messages are constructed by accessing various competence areas. Language instruction is to be integrated with cross-cultural instruction, real-world applications, interaction and strategy training.
