Learning refers to the permanent changes, modifications and adaptations of organisms to their environment. Different factors play the role in learning for example; biological changes, growth, maturation, development etc. Teaching and learning activities are based on principles or theories. There are many theories of learning a language experimented by many scholars who worked in the field of education. For example; behaviorism, mentalism, empiricism, rationalism etc. They are discussed below:-
We can see them by list the differences between them.
Empiricism
This word is derived from Greek word ‘empeiria’ which means experience.
It believes that sensory system is the source of knowledge.
It believe in perception of knowledge through sense organs.
It believes that students learn language on the basis of environment.
It believes that all knowledge comes from experience.
Rationalism
This word is derived from Latin word ‘ratio’ which means mind.
It believes that linguistic knowledge is acquired innately.
It believes that human has two aspects an inner mental aspect and an outer physical aspect.
It believes the existence of TAD ( Language Acquisition Device) to acquire the language.
It emphasize the role of mind in the acquisition of language.
Behaviorism:-
This theory is based on the human behavior which is the study of
Human’s behavior. It believes that human behavior is learned through continuous process stimuli. It associate with the famous scholar Pavlov, Watson and Skinner who made great contribution in the field of learning.
The Russian Psychologist Ivan Pavlov conducted a series of experiments to know how the human or animal learn. He made his experiment upon a dog. He trained the dog to salivate to the bell sound. This stimulus-response (S-R) theory of psychology is known as ‘Classical Conditioning theory’ in the field of teaching and learning.
Again another American psychologist Edward Thorndike made his experiments on a hungry cat. He rushed a cat into the box and keep a latch or button inside it and fish outside the box visually. Whenever cat run and press the button the door of the box open and cat eats the fish. Cat made several trials and errors. Finally it learned to press the latch and come out and have food. He established ‘selecting and connecting’ trial and error behavior of the cat. It know as trial and error theory. This theory believes that learning an be done through trial and error.
John B Watson introduced the behaviorist school of psychology in his article on ‘Psychology as the behaviorist views which establishes behaviorism. So, it is said that this school of psychology was founded by Watson.
Another American psychologist B.F Skinner followed the work of Pavlov, Thorndike and Watson and developed the theory of behaviorist in learning.
Mentalism Theory:-
Mentalism is developed against the behaviorism theory. It believes that learning a an inborn process. A prominent linguist Noam Chomsky claims that there is a innate properties in the child’s mind called LAD (Language Acquisition Devise. He believes that child’s mind is not the tabula rasa. He said that LAD is the facility of mind which allows to acquire language. Therefore, mentalism is the process of language learning which believes that; to learn language creativity and innovative mind play the vital role. It believes that analysis intuition, application and perception play an important role in language learning.
Structuralism Theory:-
Structuralism is introduced by the famous Swiss Linguist Ferdinand De Saussure who is known as the father of modern linguistics. It is associated with behaviorism theory. It states that language is a collection of habit but not rule-governed. It also believes that child’s mind is tabula rasa at birth and it is imprinted with the linguistic items from the environment. It believes that language is primarily speech and written is secondary. So it focuses on speaking and listening rather than reading and writing skill. The objective of structuralism is to develop the competence in the learners.
Generativist Theory:-
It is associated with the mentalism theory of learning. It believes that human beings have an ability to generate infinite numbers of sentences through a finite number of grammatical competence. This linguistic school is based on Chomsky’s point of view. It is emerged as a reaction of structuralism. According to Chomsky the grammatical rules should be explicit, and grammar should reflect creativity of language. So it believes that our language facility is innate and species-specific.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE THEORIES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING TO LANGUAGE TEACHING
1. Learning theories provide us a road map for language teaching.
2. They guide us to teach English Language effectively and fruitfully
3. They help us to teach practically.
4. They provide us modern principles of teaching language.
5. They assist us to achieve learning goals.
6. They help us to evaluate students and teachers as well in language teaching.
7. They help us to improve our teaching methods or techniques.
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