Language, Learning and TeachingDouglas Brown, Chapter 1

Issues in Second Language Acquisition

● Learning a second language is a long and complex process.● Many factors are involved in this challenge.

Who?Teachers and students backgrounds

native languagesphilosophy of edu personalities socioeconomic and educational levelsexperience intellectual capacities teaching and learning styles

Issues in Second Language Acquisition

What is…?★ communication★ language

How do linguists study language?Does language determine the way we think?What does it mean to know how to use the language?

Issues in Second Language Acquisition

A possible definition of language

Your understanding of the components of language determines how you teach a language.

Learning and Teaching

Complex and controversial definitions. Some of the domains of research are:★ Learning is acquisition or “getting”.★ Learning is retention of information or skill.★ Retention implies storage systems, memory, cognitive

organization.★ Learning involves active, conscious focus on and acting upon

events outside or inside the organism.★ Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.★ Learning involves some forms of practice.★ Learning is a change in behavior.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting the conditions for learning.

How do you understand teaching?as operant conditioning?as a deductive process?as an inductive process?

Study these examples

What is the teaching approach behind the following instructions?