Behaviorist

Behaviorist

1. Who?

   • B. F. Skinner

2. Principles

   • Imitation and practice form 'habits' of proper language use
   • Environment is the source of all learning.

3. Problems and Deficiencies

   • children vary in the amount of imitation they do, but acquire language at the same rate
   • Children use language creatively
   • Children pick out patterns in language and generalize them to new contexts

4. Relation to SLA

   • Learners listen and imitate
   • Drill and practice
   • Learners relate first language to new language
     • Positive and Negative Transfer between languages

5. Implications for Teaching

   • Drill and practice
   • Correct mistakes
   • Create language and text rich environment
   • Grammar focus.

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