COGNITIVE INFLUENCES ON LANGUAGE LEARNING

COGNITIVE INFLUENCES ON LANGUAGE LEARNING

1. Cognitive style

   • Refers to the manner in which the learner perceives, monitors, conceptualises and recalls linguistic information.
     • Cognitive style is considered by Brown (1973) of as a combination of affect and cognition and he groups the following specific variables as characteristics of it:
       • >>Reflective
         • >>Impulsive thinking
           • >>Broad
             • >>Narrow
   • The role of cognitive style in foreign language learning is the influence of cultural background on the learning style learners may develop
   • Reid distinguishes four perceptual learning tendencies
     • Auditory learning
       • Kinaesthetic learning
         • Tactle learning
       • Visual learning

2. Language aptitude

   • Is considered to be the natural ability which we have to learn languages
     • Skehan (1989) considered that aptitude is consistently the most succesful predictor of language learning succes.
   • Students who go to a foreign language and pick up the language in no time at all, they have what we call natural aptitude for languages
   • Carroll and Spon's MLAT identified four main components in language aptitude
     • >> Phonemic and phonetic
       • >>Grammanital sensivity
         • >>Inductive language learning ability
           • >>Rote learning ability

3. Learning strategies

   • Are the particular approaches or techniques that learnes emplay to try to learn a second language
     • they can be
       • Behavioural
       • Mental
       • Problem ariented
   • Out-of-class learning strategies
     • Students need to know they will learn English not just inside the classroom but outside as well
   • Characteristics of language learning strategies
     • + They are influenced by a vancty of factors.
       • + They are flexible
         • + They can be taught
           • +Support learning
             • + They are problem oriented
               • +Allow learners to become autonomous
                 • + They are presented in all learners
       • +They are often conscious
         • + They are not always observable
           • +Involves actions taken by the learner
             • + They are specific actions
               • +Expond the role of teachers
                 • +Contribute to the main goal
   • Classification of language learning strategies
     • Social strategies
     • Metacognitive strategies
     • Compensation strategies
     • Communication strategies
     • Memory strategies
     • Cognitive strategies
     • Affective strategies

4. Intelligence

   • Cognitive factors refer to the mental conditions, strategies or processes which the learner has to access while learning a foreign language.
   • Gardner claimed that there are multiple intelligences
     • 1.Logico-mathematic 2.Linguistic 3.Spatial 4.Musical 5.Body-kinesthetic 6.Intrapersonal 7.Interpersonal 8.Naturalistic 9.Spiritual
   • The effect of intelligence on language learning
     • Intelligence may be a predictor of success of language learning in formal instruction context, but this will not be the case in naturalistic settings, in those environments where language instruction plays a minor role.

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