A consideration of the factors involved in native language acquisition and foreign language learning and their relevance to modern languages methodology

Theory and practice converge to show that the complexity of the native and foreign language learning process must account for many factors. The literature would appear to suggest that the foreign language learning process is still far from understood and fundamental research has to be conducted still in this field. At present, many theories are centred around general principles of psychology and native language acquisition, which have been applied in the various teaching methods.It would seem pertinent to query whether the various procedures employed for language teaching are congruent with contemporary knowledge of the process of learning, thinking and remembering. It has been suggested in the study that insight into pattern is the key element in language learning, aptitude and that the ultimate objective is the native speaker's competence. The learner has succeeded if he has internalised the syntactic patterns well enough to communicate naturally in an uncontrived situation. To attain perfect competence or mastery, it is necessary for him to have acquired the semantic, cultural, social and emotional propensities of the native speaker.The intricacies of the learning process can be met only with adaptable, flexible and varied strategies. Over-emphasis on one or several aspects of the development of language has been responsible for the claim of each method of having unique value. Teachers should adopt the philosophy of language learning as a multivariate approach and accordingly of ensuring that methodological decisions are open to new adaptations and contributions, in most of which there is a grain of truth. Theorists and practitioners are sharing a feeling that effective techniques need to be based on the consideration of many facets and that any one particular method should be envisaged only as a partial set of principles and strategies to be integrated in a more comprehensive, procedural framework

The VVT Project: A web-based platform for strategy instruction and research into self-regulated learning of L2 vocabulary

The focus of this dissertation is a web-based, second language (L2) instructional resource called VVT (Virtual Vocabulary Trainer) designed to teach integrated vocabulary depth of knowledge and dictionary referencing skills to tertiary-level learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). In addition to evaluating the potential of online resources to address long-standing challenges in the field of L2 strategy instruction, the project also targeted research objectives in other related areas. The work is described in four separate articles aimed at peer-reviewed journals in the fields of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), applied linguistics, and teaching English as a Second Language. The first paper discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the VVT course, the procedures followed in developing it, and the materials themselves, while also suggesting general design principles for L2 strategy instruction based on frameworks derived from cognitive theory. The second paper represents the evaluation component of the project and reports how the feasibility of automated, online strategy instruction was investigated by studying the resource\u27s effectiveness, both actual and perceived, in an experiment involving 64 ESL composition students. In the third paper, the VVT course serves as the platform for a study critiquing a recently proposed, structural model of L2 vocabulary learning, while at the same time adding to the literature on the acquisition of L2 vocabulary depth-of-knowledge features. The final paper uses discrepant cases from the evaluation study, i.e. individual participants whose performances diverged significantly from group norms, to investigate the metacognitive strategy of task definition, the stage of learning in which students develop internal, and potentially idiosyncratic, representations of instructional tasks. The findings provide evidence of the feasibility of automated, online strategy instruction for complementing teacher-led forms, while also shedding light on the challenges many L2 learners face in self-directed learning of vocabulary depth of knowledge. Finally, it demonstrates the potential of an integrative, multicomponential model of self-regulation for researching and theorizing about L2 learning

Explicitness and ellipsis as features of conversational style in British English and Ecuadorian Spanish

In this article I examine differences in conversational style between British English and Ecuadorian Spanish which can be the source of communication conflict among speakers of these two languages in telephone conversations, and, presumably in other types of interaction. I look at the language of mediated and non-mediated telephone conversations and examine one feature that interacts with indirectness, i.e., the degree of explicitness participants employ to realize similar acts or moves in the two languages. In non-mediated telephone interactions both British English and Ecuadorian Spanish speakers appear to display a preference for the use of explicitness in formulating various telephone management moves. On the other hand, in mediated interactions, while the British appear to favour explicitness, Ecuadorians in the present study, make use of elliptical forms. The latter, however, tend to be accompanied by deference markers. Differences in the use of explicit and elliptical utterances are interpreted as reflecting that, in certain types of interactions, Ecuadorians favour a style that can be characterized as fast and deferential, but possibly rather abrupt to the English, whereas the latter appear to favour a less hurried style which emphasizes the expression of consideration rather than deference

Universal Grammar: Wittgenstein versus Chomsky

Daniele Moyal-Sharrock, ‘Universal Grammar: Wittgenstein versus Chomsky’ in M. A. Peters and J. Stickney, eds., A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education: Pedagogical Investigations (Singapore: Springer Verlag, 2017), ISBN: 9789811031342The motivations for the claim that language is innate are, for many, quite straightforward. The innateness of language is seen as the only way to solve the so-called 'logical problem of language acquisition': the mismatch between linguistic input and linguistic output. In this paper, I begin by unravelling several strands of the nativist argument, offering replies as I go along. I then give an outline of Wittgenstein's view of language acquisition, showing how it renders otiose problems posed by nativists like Chomsky – not least by means of Wittgenstein's own brand of grammar which, unlike Chomsky's, does not reside in the brain, but in our practices.Peer reviewe

Machine Learning and the Cognitive Basis of Natural Language

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Towards a Theory Grounded Theory of Language

In this paper, we build upon the idea of theory grounding and propose one specific form of theory grounding, a theory of language. Theory grounding is the idea that we can imbue our embodied artificially intelligent systems with theories by modeling the way humans, and specifically young children, develop skills with theories. Modeling theory development promises to increase the conceptual and behavioral flexibility of these systems. An example of theory development in children is the social understanding referred to as “theory of mind.” Language is a natural task for theory grounding because it is vital in symbolic skills and apparently necessary in developing theories. Word learning, and specifically developing a concept of words, is proposed as the first step in a theory grounded theory of language