Theories of learning. The starting for all language teaching should be an understanding of how people learn.

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Theories of learning. The starting for all language teaching should be an understanding of how people learn.

Bibliography: Hutchinson Tom and Alan (1987). English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Cognitive code: Learners as thinking beings.

This view also treats learners as thinking beings and puts them firmly at the center of the learning process by stressing that learning will take place only if the matter to be learnt is meaningful to the learners.

It gave rise to the problem-solving tasks, and has had a significant impact on ESP through the development of courses to teach reading strategies.

This new cognitive view took learning to be considered as a process in which the learner actively tries to make meaningful sense or interpretation of what is seen, felt and heard.

Mentalism: Thinking as rule-governed activity.

The mind does not just respond to stimulus, it uses the individual stimuli to find the underlying pattern. Then, it can use this knowledge of the pattern to predict what is likely to happen, what is an appropriate response.

This lead to the belief that learning does not consist on forming habits, but on acquiring rules.

Chomsky (USA) came to the conclusion that thinking must be a rule-governed behavior: a finite, small, set of rules enables the mind to deal with the potentially infinite range of experiences it may encounter.

Behaviorism: Learning as habit formation.

It laid down a set of principles: Never translate; deal with the language in this sequence: hear, speak, read, write; repeat frequently; errors must be immediately corrected.

It said that learning is a mechanical process of habit formation and proceeds by means of the frequent reinforcement of a stimulus-response sequence, and gave rise to the Audio-lingual method.

This was the first coherent learning theory based mainly on the work of Pavlov (USSR) and of Skinner (USA).

A model for learning.

Roads and railways require planning. The roadbuilder has to recognize where problems lie and work out strategies to solve them.

Items of knowledge are not of equal significance. Some are harder to acquire, but useful to increase the potential for further learning.

It is the existing network that makes it possible to construct new connections. That is, it is the learner's existing knowledge that makes it possible to learn new items.

Individual items of knowledge, like towns, have little significance on their own. They only acquire meaning and use when they are connected into the network of existing knowledge.

The chapter includes a model as a representation of the learning process, where the mind is pictured as a network of connections.

Learning and acquisition.

Learning is seens as a conscious process, while acquisition proceeds unconsciously.

Both processes are likely to play useful a part in language learning.

The affective factor: Learners as emotional beings.

How the learning is perceived by the learning will affect what lerning will take place.

However, in the ESP world, there is more to motivation than relevance to perceived needs.

There must be enthusiasm, enjoyment, fun, creativity, and a sense of achievement. Learners are people, not machines. They should get satisfaction from the actual experience of learning, not just from the prospect of evetually using what they have learnt.

Both forms of motivation are probably present in all learners but its influence in learning varies depending on age, experience, and changing occupational or social needs.

A study in motivation (made by Gardner and Lambert) identified two forms of it: instrumental and integrative.

Integrative motivation derives from a desire on the part of the learners to be members of the speech community that uses a particular language. Want, rather than need.

Instrumental motivation is the reflection of an external need. Learners are not learning a language because they want to, but because they need to.

Learning is a relationship between cognitive and emotional aspects, important elements in the development of motivation.