Linguistic Theory of Language Learning as Related to Machine Teaching

1970 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 617
Author(s):  
Charles N. Staubach ◽  
Richard Barrutia
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Theory Of Language

Applied Linguistics and the Psychology of Instruction – A Case for Transfusion?

1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Sharwood Smith
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Second Language Instruction ◽  
Applied Psychology ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Learning And Instruction

It has become increasingly evident in recent years that what is by convention termed ‘applied linguistics’, in that it has to do with foreign language learning and instruction, should be as much applied PSYCHOLOGY as applied linguistics to say nothing of other possible types of application. Still, it is by no means unfortunate that linguistics has established itself as the primary discipline since it is, after all, LANGUAGE that is being taught and learned. It is admittedly symptomatic of this, dare one say, historical bias in applied linguistics that a good theory of language applied with a minimal knowledge of psychological theory (plus, one hopes a large amount of common sense) is probably more generally regarded as acceptable than a way of working based on a sound knowledge of psychology and only a brief acquaintance with linguistics. However it would be extremely unwise to presume that by applying just linguistics to problems of second language instruction or learning one had all that one needed as far as sources (content and techniques) are concerned. This would be to ignore all past and present theorising and experimentation within the field of instructional and learning psychology. The bias needs to be corrected.

Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682), a little known opponent of Comenius’ Theory of Language and Language Learning

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
Werner Hüllen
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Situational Learning ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind

Summary Concerning the methods of language teaching, Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682), one of the encyclopedic philosophers of the 17th century, stood in opposition to Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), the pedagogue of Europewide influence. He published Methodus didactica (1668) and Novum organon (1672), the latter being a universal nomenclator as they were popular in the 17th century. This nomenclator is organised according to Aristotelian categories which Becher saw expressed in word-classes. It assembles groups of synonyms in Latin and German under headwords which were taken as the simple notions, i.e., the building-blocks, of the human mind. Becher demanded didactic principles to be developed out of these linguistic assumptions. Whereas Comenius shaped his teaching methods according to the situational learning abilities of the individual, Becher regarded them as being dominated by the structures of language seen as structures of the mind, thus foreshadowing Cartesian thinking.

The Language Learning Aptitudes of Jamaican Children at the Beginning of Secondary School

1976 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Dennis Craig ◽  
Sheila Carter
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Communication Style ◽  
Specific Factor ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Language Aptitude ◽  
Theory Of Language

Against the background of the creole-language situation in Jamaica, the present paper examines the need for a study of language aptitudes. Also examined are the relevance of S. B. Carroll's theory of language aptitudes in the Jamaican situation, and the implications that become evident out of a comparison of children's performance in language-aptitude and learning-potential tests. The findings suggest that performance in both types of test is strongly influenced by social-class factors. It is then further suggested that the communication style of creole-influenced speech is different from that required overtly or covertly in most types of test performance, and that this specific factor could be responsible for the results discussed.

The Sign Theory of Language and the form-meaning interface / La Théorie du langage basée sur le signe et l’interface forme-sens

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (02) ◽  
pp. 171-215
Author(s):  
Frederick J. Newmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Significant Degree ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Sign Theory ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
External Motivation

AbstractThis article examines a key feature of Denis Bouchard's Sign Theory of Language, namely theSubstantive Hypothesis(SH), the idea that “the most explanatory linguistic theory is one that minimizes the elements (ideally to zero) that do not have an external motivation in the prior properties of the perceptual and conceptual substances of language”. The article argues that the strongest form of the SH is challenged by two widespread classes of phenomena: morphosyntactic generalizations that are not sign-based, and non-sign-based external pressures on grammars. It concludes with some speculative remarks on why, to a significant degree, grammatical patterning is not sign-based.

Learning to parse and its implications for language acquisition

2007 ◽  
pp. 634-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Trueswell ◽  
Lila R. Gleitman
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Adult Listener ◽  
Processing Abilities ◽  
Time Reading ◽  
Theory Of Language

This article describes what is known about the adult end-state, namely, that the adult listener recovers the syntactic structure of an utterance in real-time via interactive probabilistic parsing procedures. It examines evidence indicating that similar mechanisms are at work quite early during language learning, such that infants and toddlers attempt to parse the speech stream probabilistically. In the case of learning, though, the parsing is in aid of discovering relevant lower-level linguistic formatives such as syllables and words. Experimental observations about child sentence-processing abilities are still quite sparse, owing in large part to the difficulty in applying adult experimental procedures to child participants; reaction time, reading, and linguistic judgement methods have all have been attempted with children. The article discusses real-time sentence processing in adults, experimental exploration of child sentence processing, eye movements during listening and the kindergarten-path effect, verb biases in syntactic ambiguity resolution, prosody and lexical biases in child parsing, parsing development in a head-final language, and the place of comprehension in a theory of language acquisition.

An echological theory of language learning

2004 ◽  
Vol 116 (4) ◽  
pp. 2523-2523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Lacerda ◽  
Ulla Sundberg
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Theory Of Language
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