1. SCHOOL OF THOUGHT IN
SECOND LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
PREPARED BY:
WAN SAMIRAH BAHIAH
BINTI MUHAMMAD
PISMP MATHEMATICS 1

3. STUCTURALISM/BEHAVIORISM
Start in 1940s and 1950s by Leonard Bloomfield, Edward Sapir
and Charles Hockett.
Structural or descriptive school of linguistics
Scientific principle of observation of human languages
Subject to investigation: only publicly observable responses
Language could be dismantled into small pieces or units and
these units could be described scientifically, contrasted, and
added up again to form the whole.

4. RATIONALISM AND COGNITIVE PSYCOLOGY
Generative transformational school of linguistics: Noam
Chomsky.
Human language cannot be scrutinized simply in terms of
observable stimuli and responses or the volumes of raw data
gathered by field linguists.
Interested not only in describing language but also in arriving
at an explanatory level of adequacy in the study of language.
Important distinction between the observable aspects of
language and the hidden levels of meaning and thought that
give birth or generate observable linguistic performance.
Cognitive psychologies sought to discover underlying
motivations and deeper structure of human behavior by using
a rational approach (empirical study)

5. CONSTRUCTIVISM
Jean Piaget and Lev Vigotsky. They differ in the extent to
which each emphasizes social context.
Piaget stressed the importance of individual cognitive
development as a relatively solitary act.
Biological timetables and stages of development; social
interaction was claimed only to trigger development at the
right moment in time
Vygotsky: social interaction was foundational in cognitive
development and rejected the emotion of predetermined
stages.

6. SUMMARY
TIME FRAME SCHOOL OF THOUGHT TYPICAL THEMES
Early 1900s& 1940s & Structural & behaviorism Description
1950s Observable perfomance
Scientific method
Empricism
Surface structure
Conditioning,reinforcement
1960s & 1970s Rationalism & cognitive Generative linguistics
psycology Acquisition, innateness
Interlanguage systematicity
Universal grammar
1980s,1990s& early constructivism Interactive discourse
2000 Sociocultural variable
Cooperative group learning
Interlanguage variability

7. THANK
YOU