How do people learn and how do people acquire language?

How do people learn and how do people acquire language?

1. Learning and especially language learning, must always be regarded as a social process. According to Faltis and Hudelson "learning results from social interactions with others"

   • Zone of proximal Development. According to Vigotsky, learning results when we interact with someone else, an adult or a more capable peer, in the process of traying to solve a problem. The Feedback is really important here.
   • Spontaneous and Scientific Concepts
     • Scientific concepts are abstract ideas that societies use to organize and categorize experiences. For example, the concept "Transportation", we use this term to categorize a number of different conveyance (Car, bus,boat, airplane..)
     • Spontaneous concepts are ideas we develop fairly directly from everyday experience. For example, we know "Car" meansif we live in a society in which people drives car. we develop the concept for "car" by riding in car and seeing cars.
   • Cognitive Apprenticeship. According to Brown an his colleagues, we learn new things as we carry out activities in particular situations. The key is to have a real purpose to engage in the activity. The motivation to acquire new concepts and skills comes from the context

2. The role of the teacher. According to Vigotsky, the role of the teacher is one of mediation. A teacher (or other adult or more capable peer) mediates experience by helping the learner make sense out of it.

   • Cazden describes three ways a teacher can mediate learning:
     • Direct instruction: The teacher tells students how or what to do or gives them information to learn and then apply
     • Modeling: The teacher can do this with an individual, a small group, or an entire class. The teacher shows through actions or materials how students should do something
     • Scaffolding: Vigotsky argued that learning takes place when an adult or more capable peer asks questions, points out aspects of a problem, or makes suggestions, working in a learner's zone of proximal development

3. A Model for Teaching: Fisher and Frey have developed a structured approach to teaching. In their approach the teacher models provides scaffolds, and guides practice as students learn new material so that they can then work independenly

   • Each lesson consists of four stages
     • First: Fisher and Frey refer to this stage as the "I do it", during this stage teacher thinks aloud as she reads a short text, sets up a science experiment, or solves a math problem. The students get to her the mental steps the taecher takes so that, then, they can carry out these steps by themselves
     • Second: This stage is guided instruction during which the teacher and students work together to carry out an activity or solve a problem. This is the "We do it" stage. During this time, the teacher can provide extra help to the students
     • Third: The students work in a collaborative groups to carry out a task or solve a problem. This is the "We do it together" stage. This task builds on what the students have learned during the focus lesson an the guided instruction.
     • Forth: "You do it alone" stage, students draw on what they have learned in earlier parts of the lesson to work independently to carry out an activity. The teacher is there to provide support to students who still need it, but students are encouraged to work on their own.

4. Functions of languages and Kinds of competence: "What do we acquire when we acquire a language?" one way to answer this question is to say that we develop the language we need to do certain things.

   • Smith points out that language can serve three functions:
     • Referential fuction: We use the language to refer to things in the world. This is the fuction that allows me to say, "My name is David" or, "I live in Texas". We need to be able to get and give basic information to survive, so the referential function is probably the first language function language learners develop
     • Expressive function: We need to be able to show our attitude toward what we are saying. This is the expressive function of language. Part of what we acquire a language is this ability to show how we feel about the topic under discussion.
     • Integrative Function: We need to be able to indicate our social status in relationship to the people we are speaking with. This function allows us to vary our language for social purposes

5. Grammatical Competence: Is knowledge of a language that allows us to get and give information about the world. It allows us to say. "Today is Monday" or, "The man chased the dog"

   • Chomsky have described grammatical competence focuses in these 4 areas:
     • Phonology: It refers to the sound system of a language. Each language consists of a set of sounds (Phonemes) that speakers use to indicate differences in meaning
     • Morphology: It is our knowledge of the structure of words. It involves knowing which prefixes or suffixes can be added to a root or base form
     • Syntax: It is the area most linguists working in English have focused on, since English relies heavily on the order of words to convey meanings.
     • Semantics: It has to do with word meanings, we know that dog refers to a particular kind of animal, and cat refers to a different kind of animal. Meanings can be complex. Both dog and cat can have secondary meanings. You can dog it at work