"Language, Learning and Teaching" (H. Douglas Brown)

1- What is a permanent struggle in teaching / learning?

The struggle in teaching/learning is to reach beyond the confines of your first language and into a new language, a new culture, a new way of thinking, feeling and acting.

2- Are we equipped with a do-it-yourself-kit to acquire languages?

Language learning is not a set of easy steps that can be programmed in a quick do-it-yourself kit.  Many variables are involved in the acquisition process (social, Psychological, environment). Few if any people achieve fluency in a foreign language solely within the confines of the classroom.

3- Why do people learn or fail to learn a language?

People believe that they can learn without making mistakes. Foreign languages are foreign. They reflect a different culture, and often different values. If you commit to learning a language you can expect to make mistakes and be laughed at. You need to set yourself to hear a different set of sounds and pronounce them yourself, to think in new patterns, and to try them out. Like a child learning to ride a bike you can expect to fall many times before you get it right, but you will also get the same sense of achievement as your effort ends in success. It will be important also that the person who is in charge to teach, could know about the two cultures that students are involved.

4- Name the issues to consider in second language acquisition?

It is important to point out that the larger social and cultural contexts of second language development have a tremendous impact on second language learning, especially for immigrant students. The status of students' ethnic groups in relation to the larger culture can help or hinder the acquisition of the language of mainstream society; we have to consider who is learning and who is teaching, the experience or training of the teacher and how teacher and student interact to each other. Also we have to pay attention on what we are teaching.  The teacher needs to understand the system and functioning in order to explain it to the student. Besides that is important to know how we are going to teach that knowledge, we have to know what cognitive process are utilized in second language learning and whether the students are children or adults.  Because it is known that children know more easily than adults do. So, if we are going to teach to adults we will need more commitment.  But the key of all this process is the reason of their learning.  Why are students learning? Which are their motivations? Do they want to know about the culture? Are they motivated? Or do they do it just to pass the course?

5- What are the motivations to learn a language?

The motivations to learn a language could be the achievement of a successful career, or passing a foreign language requirement, or wishing to identify closely with the culture and people of the target language.

These motivations must be known by the teacher to encourage students to better learning. 

6- What is a paradigm?

It is a process, in which the teacher has to discover “The pieces” and then to fit the pieces together. Some of this pieces of the language have become well stablished, others are not yet discovered, and the careful defining of questions will lead to find those pieces (the task of fitting the pieces together into a “paradigm”).

7- Give 3 definitions for Language.

·                     “Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitative the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave intelligently”.

·                     “Language is a system of arbitrary conventionalized vocal, written, or gestural symbols that enable members of a given community to communicate intelligibly with one another”.

·                      “1. - Language is systematic. 2. - Language is a set of arbitrary symbols. 3. - Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual. 4. - The symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer. 5. - Language is used for communication. 6. - Language operates in a speech community or culture. 7. - Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans. 8. - Language is acquired by all people in much the same way; language and language learning both have universal characteristics”.

8- What is the relation between language and cognition?

The teacher has to be aware of the cognition of the student in order to provide a good teaching. He should know what his student is able of, and according to that organize the class and make activities in which the student could reach the final goal.

9- Which are some LEARNING definitions?

·                     “Learning is acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by study, experience, or instruction”

·                     “Learning is relatively permanent change in behavioral tendency and is the result of reinforced practice”

10- Can we define TEACHING apart from learning?

Teaching cannot be defined apart from learning. Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting the conditions for learning. 

11- What is the importance of our PEDAGOGICAL PHILOSPHY?

Pedagogical philosophy reflects our personal values and the needs of our student. It is a sign of what we expect from us as teachers. It is important because it will determine your teaching style, your approach, methods and classroom techniques based on the experience.

12- Refer to the 3 schools of thought in SLA?

Structuralism/ Behaviorism: It was said that any notion of “idea” or “meaning” is explanatory fiction, and that the speaker is merely the locus of verbal behavior. The behavioristic paradigm also focused on publicly observable responses. The “scientific method” was rigorously adhered to, as “mentalistic”, illegitimate domains of inquiry.

Rationalism and cognitive psychology: Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) claimed that there was difference between parole (performance) and langue(competence). Descriptive linguists chose largely to ignore langue and to study parole

Constructivism: Constructivists argue that all human beings construct their own version of reality, and therefore multiple contrasting ways of knowing and describing are equally legitimate

13- Describe the GTM.

The grammar translation method is a foreign language teaching method derived from the classical (sometimes called traditional) method of teaching Greek and Latin. The method requires students to translate whole texts word for word and memorize numerous grammatical rules and exceptions as well as enormous vocabulary lists. The goal of this method is to be able to read and translate literary masterpieces and classics.