SLA

As we are going to start speaking about second language aquisition we wanted to share this video with you. It is from FRIENDS the american tv show. In this episode Joey needs to learn french for an audition. Phoebe, who knows the language, tries to teach him. As you can see, learning a new language isn´t as easy as it looks.

We hope you enjoy it!

What to do with Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Theory

Last week, we had to read about Chomsky’s theory of Language Acquisition and I totally agree with him. His theory talks about a lot of aspects which had been left aside in the Behaviorist Theory.  

Behaviorism had been the explanation for Language Acquisition for a very long time. In fact, this theory also had been applied in Education. This theory is absolutely based on observable results. There were several important names associated to Behaviorism like Pavlov, Skinner and Thorndike. This idea of knowledge appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century and it reigned until the “Cognitive Revolution”. 

At the beginning, Chomsky’s ideas were assumed to be crazy talk, but by the early 1980s the cognitive approach had become the dominant research line of inquiry in most psychology research fields.   

The way in which Chomsky’s theory explains the development of language is totally convincing because it supports one of the most important characteristic of Language which is its creativity. The main idea behind Behaviorism regarding language is repetition and this process is not compatible with the concept of creativity.  

When I was a kid, I was taught English with pure behaviorist techniques. I had to do lots of repetitions, translations, etc. Now that I have more information about this theory I can think of different ways of teaching, and of different techniques and activities. The best way of taking advantage of this information is applying it into our daily practice though it is hard to change the way in which we have been taught. That is to say, we tend to repeat the same system used in our process of learning. We ,teachers, should be critics of our way of teaching all the time.

Baby Sign Language and First Language Acquisition... or is it Second Language Acquisition?

Sign Language?

You probably know about the Sign Language that deaf people and their families use but what about a 16-month-old baby who can use it and communicate? Is that this system is messing up with the natural process of Language Acquisition? Are these babies bilinguals?

Some Facts

The creator of this system is Rachel Coleman. She has developed a system which she thinks is incredible... take a look...

The system

Here you have some examples of the video that Mrs. Coleman has created. Take a look!

Her perspective

Of course we can hear Mrs. Coleman talking about it... and about FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION! Very interesting! Quite long... but I think that it is totally worthy... Take a look!

What do you think?

I found it ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Nowadays, there are lots of people fighting for inclusive schools... Is it a great idea?


Now it's time for you to give your opinion....

Thanks for reading pals!!!

einstein the parrot

Hello mates... the other day when we were talking about skinner and behaviourism this video came to my mind. I guess he must have been taught by stimulus and response... we hope you like it...

Check my classmates' blogs!!

Last minute!

I have added our classmates' blogs! Check them!

They are eleven... Feel free to comment... Whose is the 12th? Our teacher's blog!!

Have a great weekend!!!

Technology in the Classroom

How many times did you ask to a student to turn off his/her mobile phone? Probably many more times than you can recall...
If you are about forty years old like me, surely that is something that as a student you didn't experience.
Nowadays it is more and more common for students to have an electronic device at school so why don't we start using them with educational purposes?
This is an idea of applying a technological device in your classroom...

Task	Macrofunction	Microfunctions	Grammar
Previous to the task: Every student is asked to bring pictures of their families in a technological device such as a tablet or a mobile phone. Situation: You are about to fly to Spain for the first time and you are alone. It is a thirteen-hour-flight so you are prepared to talk to other people in the plane. You show the pictures of your family to a new friend and you want to tell him/her who they are by describing them. You are also open to answer any questions. Procedure: go around the classroom and choose a partner. He/she will be your companion on the flight. Describe your family to him/her and take notes about his/her family.  After fifteen minutes, you will describe your partner's family to all your classmates.	Interpersonal or Social	Describing people in your family. Asking and answering questions.	To have To be Vocabulary related to describing people.

This very simple task can be used in early stages of learning (elementary-upper). The vocabulary used in the chart is aimed to Elementary students. If you want to use this task but with more advanced students, you can add more items of vocabulary and grammatical structures (describing habits, jobs, personality, etc.)

Hope you like it!!!!!