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Environmentalist Idea Era
Environmentalist and Innatist ideas took over language learning theories until the end of the 1960s. The field of language learning was influenced by environmentalist ideas that pointed to the learning process as being influenced by the external environment and not so much by human internal mental processes. That means that the linguists of this era believe language is acquired as a result of the environment and what a learner is exposed to. -
Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield's approach to linguistics was characterized by its emphasis on the scientific basis of linguistics. It adhered to behaviorism with an emphasis on formal procedures for the analysis of linguistic data. His influential textbook Language, published in 1933, presented a comprehensive description of American structural linguistics. -
B.F. Skinner
Burrus Frederic Skinner believed that language was acquired through reinforcement, that they associated words with meanings. He believed that language was acquired naturally through interactions with the environment. People learn through habit formations by repeatedly associating a stimulus with a response, imitation, practice, and positive reinforcement. -
Skinner Theory of Language Acquisition
As one of the pioneers of behaviorism, Skinner accounted for language development by means of environmental influence. Skinner argued that children learn language based on behaviorist reinforcement principles by associating words with meanings. Correct utterances are positively reinforced when the child realizes the communicative value of words and phrases. (https://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html) -
Chomsky's Theory of Language Development
Around 1960, Chomsky developed his theory of language development that states that children will never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language input alone. As a result, he introduced his theory of Universal Grammar. -
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Generative Linguistics Era
Linguists during this era believed that there were mental and cognitive processes involved in generating language began to gain importance in the language. -
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Interactionist Era
The 1970s and 1980s brought an era of research that started to look closer at the idea of oral language discourse. They studied the way language fit together into sentences and changed with interaction. -
Hymes' Communicative Competence
Dell Hymes presented his communicative competence theory around 1972. In this theory, he states that communicative competence is the intuitive functional knowledge and control of the principles of language usage. It says that a language user needs to use the language not only correctly, but also appropriately. -
Dell Hymes
Dell Hathaway Hymes is a sociolinguist, anthropologist, and folklorist whose work has dealt primarily with languages of the Pacific Northwest. Hymes helped to pioneer the connection between speech and human relations and human understandings of the world. Hymes is particularly interested in how different language patterns shape different patterns of thought. -
Selinker's Interlanguage Theory
Sleinker developed an interlanguage theory around 1974. In this theory language development is seen as a combination of factors including nature of input, environment, internal processing of the learner, and influence between L1 and L2. In his Interlanguage theory he tried to determine if there was a continuum in the internal grammar of learning additional languages, and through research, resolve if learners acquired L2 in much of the same fashion as L1. -
Halliday's Systemic Grammar
Halliday's study of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is the study of the relationship between language and its functions in social settings. It is composed of three parts- meaning (semantics), sound (phonology), and wording or lexicogrammar (syntax, morphology, and lexis). SFL sees grammar as a meaning-making resource and insists on the interrelation of form and meaning. -
Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development
Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development theory states that a child can learn skills or aspects of a skill that move past the child's actual development with the assistance of a more capable person, such as a teacher. It is really the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner. -
Sato
About 1981 Sato stated that relationship between learners participation in conversational interaction and L2 development was one of selectivity and indirectness. After this time, his theory became a common focus in research on conversational interaction and SLA. -
Krashen's Input Hypothesis
Krashen's research states that there are two independent systems of second language performance- 1.the acquired system and 2.the learned system. The 'acquired system' or 'acquisition' is the result of a subconscious process like that of the process children undergo when they acquire their first language in that is requires meaningful interaction in the target language. The 'learned system' is the result of formal instruction. -
Long's Interaction Hypthesis
Long's interaction hypothesis states that comprehensible input is important for language learning as it is increased when learners have to search for language meaning. Long's theory focuses on form which brings linguistic elements such as vocabulary and grammar to the student's attention. In addition, interactions may serve as a way of focusing learners' attention on a difference between their knowledge of the target language and the reality of what they are hearing -
Lightbrown's U-shaped Behavior
U-shaped curves have been observed in a wide variety of cognitive-developmental and learning contexts. Lightbrown's theory states that U-shaped behavior in language learning can be seen in cognitive skills such as learning new words. -
Sandra Savignon
Sandra Savignon developed the Inverted Pyramid around 1983. Her pyramid was a revision of Canale and Swain's 1980 model which made the primary framework for debate on Communicative Language Proficiency. The pyramids are centered around the same concepts- grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic Competence, and discourse competence. -
Swain's Comprehensible Output
In Swain's Comprehensible Output theory, language learning takes place when a learner encounters a gap in his or her linguistic knowledge of the second language. The learner becomes aware and may be able to modify his output he learns something new about the language. There are 3 phases in which they can attach meaning to the output- noticing functions, hypothesis-testing functions, and metalinguistic functions. -
Lyle Bachman
Lyle Bachman brought for the Model of Communicative Language Ability. This model contains with three parts- 1. Language Competence which consists of organizational (grammatical and textual competence) and pragmatic (illocutionary and sociolinguistic compentence), 2. Strategic skills and 3. Psychomotor skills. -
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Communicative Competence Era
1990 brought a time of language research that focused on the role of the linguistic environment in interaction in accordance with language development. They dove into understanding how languages are learned and subsequently taught. This era looked at previous models to redefine meaningful language input, output, and communicative competence. -
Kira Hall
As a lingustics professor, Kira Hall expanded upon Krashen's i+1 theory. In her research, Hall stated that input cannot just occur, but that it has to occur within meaningful contexts. Goal-directed talk is a part of her oral language practices, as well as, using conversation analysis for analyzing and understanding classroom interactional patterns and classroom discourse in the language learning process -
Marianne Celce-Murcia
Marianne Celce-Murcia refined the Communicative Competence Model to expand it and illustrate the interrelatedness of the various components in the model thus creating a visual model to identify the connectedness and dependence of each component upon the others. She believes that "an implication of the current model of communicative competence for language learners is that students need more than grammatical or linguistic knowledge alone to function in a communicative setting."
