Unit I Conceptual Issues Language Learning

7/23/2019 Unit I Conceptual Issues Language Learning

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Notes onPedagogy and Assessment of Language (M.Ed.)

Course Tutor(s): Dr Saryug Yadav and Abay Su!"a

Unit I Conceptual Issues Language Learning

1. Language acquisition and communicationfactors affecting language learning and language

acquisition and communication

What is Communication?

Communication has been variously defined from different perspectives:

Means of conveying information, with a focus on both transmission and reception of messages.

Connection between persons caused by the transmission and understanding of verbal and nonverbal

messages.

Process of sharing information and feelings by people through an exchange of verbal and nonverbal

messages.

Sharing of meaning through transmission of information.

Creation of shared understanding through interaction of two or more agents.

Many definitions of communication see it as a dynamic and transactional process in which people

intentionally attempt to present information to and elicit a response from others. Some researchers and

scholars, however, reject the notion of intentionality. hey observe that communication is essentially a

receiver phenomenon! that is, that the intention or even awareness of a message source is less important in

the communication transaction than the receiver"s judgment that he or she has, in fact, been communicated

with.

Consider an obvious example: #n #merican business executive is meeting with his #rab counterpart to

negotiate a business contract. $uring the meeting, the #merican crosses his legs and points the soles of his

shoes toward the #rab. o the #merican, such an action carries absolutely no meaning! to the #rab, insult is

perceived. he #rab might reali%e that the #merican intended no harm, but it would be difficult to completelyignore the cultural gaffe.

& Communication Process

Communication often is presented as a circular process. # source or sender with a concept in mind encodes a

message, transmits it through a channel or medium of communication to a receiver, who then decodes the

message and provides feedbac', which reverses the encoding(transmission(decoding process.

The sourceis the creator of a thought who has meaning about a concept. his source could be a person,

corporation, organi%ation, country, or any other entity that presents a message. he source is sometimes called

the message sender.

ncodingis the process of crafting words, gestures and other linguistic signs that will allow a message source

to express his or her thought in some sensible way. he encoding can be verbal or nonverbal! it can be oral,

visual or tactile.

!essageis the term used for the content of communication, the thoughtful meaning encoded by the sources.

he encoded message is transmitted over a channel. his is a physical medium that may be natural )such as

sound waves and light waves* or technological )such as telephone, radio, internet, and so on*. he message

channel often is called the medium )plural: media*.

"oiseis the term referring to anything that distorts the encoded message. +oise can ta'e several forms.




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!echanical noise )also called channel noise* is associated with the vehicle of mediated

communication. xamples of mechanical noise: smudged in' on a printed page, static in a shortwave

radio station, graininess in television reception.

#emantic noise is an impediment in the communication process because of ineffective use of

language. xamples of semantic noise: slurred spea'ing, jargon, accent, words with varying

connotations, inaccuracies in translation, inappropriate use of profanity.

nvironmental noise)or external noise* is an impediment that interrupts the receiver"s ability to

properly hear a message. xamples of environmental noise: crowd chatter, blaring radio while

studying.

Internal noiserefers to the inability of the receiver to focus on the message. xamples of internal

noise: being too tired to concentrate, too hungry to pay attention.

The receiveris the person or persons who get the message from the sender. -eceivers may be intentional )that

is, the person whom the sender intended to receive the message* or unintentional )people who unexpectedly

receive the message*.

$ecodingis the reverse process of encoding. n decoding, the receiver ta'es the words, gestures and other

linguistic signs and interprets them to recreate the original thought. he effectiveness of the process rests on

how closely the encoding and decoding reflect each other. he practical difficulty of communication is that

rarely does the encoding perfectly anticipate the decoding, nor does the decoding perfectly reflect the

encoding. So the /uestion is: 0ow close are the encoding and decoding.

%eceiver responserefers to everything the receiver thin's and does after decoding the received message.

Silence and doing nothing is one type of response, as is consideration, evaluation, and action. he action itself

may be either consistent with or opposed to the response desired by the message sender.

&eed'ac(is the receiver"s public response to the decoded message, communicated bac' to the sender. his isthe final step in the circular communication process, though in essence it is a separate communication action

which the same components )sender, encoding channel, and so on* as the original communication.

Communication is a social interaction that ta'es place within a relationship between sender and receiver. his

relationship is called the context. hough not a specific part of the communication act, context )whether

physical, social or cultural* is important to the entire communication process.

0umans communicate with language. hough, language is not the only means of communication.

1henever communication is thought of we always associate it with language. 2anguage is a vehicle

that we use in presenting our ideas, thoughts, feelings, opinions to the world. t is what we exhibit

our cultural norms and orientations in and the whole essence of our being is captured in our

language. hat is why whenever a country, people or race con/uers another, the first thing that will

be affected will be the con/uered people"s language. f the colonialists had come to #frica without

imposing their languages on the continent, the issue of political domination would not have been

possible. 1ith the con/uest comes prestige that the ability to use the con/uering people"s language

confers on the con/uered people. n +igeria, during colonial era, immediately before the left, the

moment after independence to the present day, the ability to use 3 spea' and write nglish 3 confers

a status symbol on those that can use the language 3 nglish. his is still evident in the way parents

in most home in the country would go to any length to ensure that their children(wards spea'

nglish.




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The role of language in communication

f we believe that our language is what drives our value systems, then we say that language drives

our cultural orientation. Sapir )4564* holds it that: language is a purely human and non-instinctive

method of communicating ideas, emotions and desire by means of voluntarily produced symbols.

his means that it is only human beings of all the creatures on the earth surface that uses language.

he language that man uses is not something his biological ma'e be/ueath on him he learns this

language in a human community. 1e are not saying here that other beings do not communicate but it

is man alone that communicates with language. he nonverbal communication we tal'ed about is

predicated on language. 2anguage is the vehicle that our thoughts are conveyed in. if our thoughts

are conveyed in language then our culture in conveyed too through it.

7rech4586explained the major functions of language from the following three aspects:

4. 2anguage is the primary vehicle of communication!

6. 2anguage reflects both the personality of the individual and the culture of his history. n turn,

it helps shape both personality and culture!

9. 2anguage ma'es possible the growth and transmission of culture, the continuity of societies,

and the effective functioning and control of social group

)http:((www4.gdufs.edu.cn(jwc(bestcourse('echeng(9(whjiaoan(files(intro.html*.

Communication begins at birth with touch, then with vision, and finally with speech and hearing or audition.

ach child needs to learn the ;codes of his(her culture; because the language of each culture is different. symbol correspondence*! and phonological awareness, sound>symbol

recognition or the ability to recogni%e specific sounds, which is necessary for good reading and

spelling. ?ood visual processing demands the ability to interpret visual symbols, to differential visual

figure from ground, to have a functional visual memory and, for writing, good visual>motor activity.


http://www1.gdufs.edu.cn/jwc/bestcourse/kecheng/38/whjiaoan/files/intro.htmlhttp://www1.gdufs.edu.cn/jwc/bestcourse/kecheng/38/whjiaoan/files/intro.html


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Cognitive language: language that is received, processed into memory, integrated with 'nowledge

already integrated and made a part of the 'nowledge of the individual from which new ideas and

concepts can be generated. t is a part of the creative process that shapes the thought of each person.

xpressive language: language and communication through spea'ing, writing, and(or gestures, i.e.selecting words, formulating them into ideas, and producing them through spea'ing, writing, or

gesture )encoding or the process of expressive language*. xpressive language involves word

retrieval, rules of grammar )syntax* word and sentence structure )morphology* and word meaning

)semantics*.

)cquisition*acquisition versus learning

#c/uisition is a general term in S2# research used to mean the internali%ation of a linguistic system.

0owever, in the 45=@s, Steven 7rashen made a distinction between learning and ac/uisition. Aor him,

learning referred to conscious effort at learning rules from boo's and teachers. 1hen learners receive

information such as Bs to verbs that refer to someone else. his is called third>person >s.and then practice this rule, 7rashen would consider this learning. 2earning results in a particular 'ind of

'nowledge system, an Bexplicit system.

$istinct from learning is ac/uisition. #ccording to 7rashen, ac/uisition involves processes by which learners

internali%e language from exposure to input )basically, samples of language they hear or read in

communicative contexts*. o ac/uire third>person >s, learners would need to hear lots of third>person verbs in

context, as part of the communication of information. n a certain sense, 7rashen li'ens ac/uisition for 26

learners to ac/uisition for 24 learners! namely, ac/uisition happens because of exposure to input, not because

anyone teaches the learner a rule or because he or she practices it. Dnli'e learning, ac/uisition for an 26

learner results in an implicit )unconscious* linguistic system, just as it would for the 24 learner.

Aor 7rashen, ac/uisition is more fundamental. 0is claim is that learning is limited in terms of what learners

can do with explicit information, that ultimately communication involves tapping into the ac/uired linguistic

system and not the learned linguistic system. he learned system can be used for monitoring )editing one"s

production* under certain conditions )see Monitor heory*. 1hat is more, under his scenario, learning and

ac/uisition are separate processes that result in separate systems that do not interact. Most importantly,

learning cannot become ac/uisition. hat is, one doesn"t learn rules and, because of practice, ac/uire them.

#c/uisition happens in one and only one way for 7rashen: by exposure to input in communicative settings. #

variety of classroom approaches were either based on 7rashen"s ideas or found support in them )e.g., the

+atural #pproach, immersion*.

7rashsen"s learning>ac/uisition distinction caused considerable debate in the field, as did his Monitor heory,of which the distinction is a part. Scholars argued over whether such a distinction truly existed, or, if it did,

whether or not there could be an interface between the two processes as well as the

two resulting linguistic

systems. 0owever, it is safe to say that today, regardless of the processes involved )learning vs. ac/uisition*,

scholars accept that learners develop an implicit mental representation of language, which subsumes

7rashen"s ac/uired system )see competence, mental representation of language*. #t the same time, they accept

that learners may also have explicit 'nowledge, which subsumes 7rashen"s learned 'nowledge about

language. he notable exception is scholars who wor' within s'ill theory, who do believe in the practicing of

rules as part of s'ill development. #s we said at the outset, ac/uisition is now used as a cover term for what

happens to learners regardless of context and regardless of whether they explicitly practice rules or not. hus,

the field is called second language ac/uisition and not, for example, second language ac/uisition and learning.




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Scholars associated with the debate in the late 45=@s and early 45@s over learning and ac/uisition include

7evin ?regg, Steven 7rashen, Earry Mc2aughlin, and racy errell. he learning>ac/uisition distinction was

reformulated by Eonnie Schwart% in the late 45@s and early 455@s.

Aactors affecting language learning and language ac/uisition



Unit I Conceptual Issues Language Learning

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