THEORY INTO PRACTICE
A Behaviourist
Lesson
According
to Skinner who is one of the most known behaviourist , the most substantial
procesess in language developments are imitations, practice and positive /
negative reinforcement. Children acquire the language by imitating the
environment. They practice the behaviours of adults, sounds coming from
environment. In this way, it becomes a
habit for children after a while. As they are learning, they affect from the
external factors. If they get positive reinforcement, children will be
encouraged so learning will take place at the highest level. However, children
may have errors and make mistakes. If the teacher gives negative reinforcement,
it may cause children to lose their motivation.
For instance;
Teacher
explains the daily routine thorough a dialogue. Firstly, teacher reads the
dialogue aloud and then wants students to read it aloud. Students try to
imitate the pronunciation of the teacher; they do it more than one time to
practice. Then, the teacher asks students about what’s going on in the dialogue
by making some sentences like;
–teacher:
Mike goes shopping, right.
–that’s
right, Mike goes shopping.
–Teacher: Very
good, Mike goes shopping and buys coffee, right.
–That’s right;
Mike goes shopping and buys coffee
–Teacher:
Mike goes shopping and buys coffee every day.....................
In the
example, students learn the subject through repetitions, imitation, and
reinforcement. But there are also limitations. One of them is overgeneralization
which is when students learn a rule, they can imply the rule for all of the
cases. As an example, students may use the present tense which is used in the
example above for past or future event, too.
An Innatist
Lesson
In the
Innatist Perspective, there are five
hypothesis in Krashen’s monitor model. I would like to explain them in an
example ;
Teacher would
like to teach colours with some colourful cards, and she shows cards to
students just by speaking in target language. Through this way, students can
understand the message that is wanted to be learned. This is called input
hypothesis in Krashen’s monitor mode. Also the affective filter hypothesis is
efficient in learning, students should be motivated. If they aren’t motivated
enough, they can have difficulty in learning
At the end
of lesson, teacher shows some colourful things in the class and asks them the
colour of the things. Students answer in target language. Thus, students become
aware of their learning , which is given name the monitor hypothesis. Students
try to explain the colours by using their grammatical knowledge and that is
called the natural order
hypothesis. The students learn the language
consciously/ unconsciously and this is called the acquisition-learning
hypothesis. But it also has some limitations, the teacher gives priority to
fluency rather than accuracy.
A Socio-cultural Lesson
Socio-cultural
Perspective is a theory in which students learn from interaction, environment
and experiences. We will explain the perspective with an example that is a
classroom activity;
The topic that the
teacher teaches is how to order something in a restaurant. Teacher makes groups
of two students. One student will have the knowledge that provides him/her to
support him/her partner so that zone of proximal development can occur. Zone of
proximal development is the
difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do
with help. Teacher gives instruction and asks students to create a dialogue
about the topic. When students need a help while creating the dialogue, the
teacher helps them. Students read and try to dramatize the dialogue in front of
the class. It becomes an experience for them, which gives a chance to students
to be able to imply it to their real life.
My comment;
English has different parts like vocabulary, grammar, translation, pronunciation
that’s why I think I need different perspectives of teaching. As a future English
teacher I think, all of the perspectives can be useful in some situations and I
will use a mix of these perspectives. However, I would like to use
socio-cultural perspective mostly.
