Second Language Learning of the Foreign Students in Um Institute of Languages

...

Theoretical Lens

This study was anchored on Stephen Krashen's Second Language Acquisition/Learning (1988). Specifically on his Acquisition-Learning and Monitor Hypothesis, Stephen Krashen proposed that “learning process” is the effect of prescribed language teaching which enables conscious process that results in conscious knowledge about the language, particularly, the rules on grammar. He concluded that ‘Acquisition’ is much significant than ‘Learning’. Furthermore, Monitor Hypothesis supports the relation between language learning and acquisition and defines the influence of the latter on the former. He expounds that the human mind has a predisposed ‘language monitor’ or ‘language editor’. The monitor is the one responsible in planning, editing and correcting of the grammar before uttering the words. There are three specific conditions of this hypothesis. First, the SLA learner has enough time at his/her disposal; second, he/she focuses on figure or considers more about accuracy, and; lastly, he/she knows the rules.

Review of Related Literature

This part of the study is the related literatures taken from the books, journals, researches, internet, and many other significant sources in the area of Second Language (ESL) First Language Acquisition theoretical perspectives and Second Language Learning (SLL).

Theoretical Perspectives: FLA and SLA

First Language Acquisition (FLA) is better discussed when the theories on SLA are presented first. There are three major studies greatly influenced the theoretical principles of SLA: behaviorist, nativist/mentalist, and interactionist.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism takes a significant part on understanding the first hand value given to the first language acquisition (Islam, 2013). Until the end of 1960s, behaviorism dominated the field of SLA and found to have two of the most discernible application which is the contrastive analysis and the audio-lingual method. Johnson (2004) included that as this association is regarded as a tool for learning, certain measurements such as practice, observation, correction and reinforcement has to be taken. With the behavioristic external features, the learner’s cognitive abilities were ignored. These were seen as too biased and too “secretive” for examination, evaluation and authentication. Clearly, this field is centered on the learner’s exterior surroundings.

Exterior surroundings acted as the stimulus for the learning procedures (Johnson, 2004). The association of a specific response with a specific stimulus formed a term called “habit”. The habit creation hypothesis of J. B. Watson (1942) led Skinner (1957) to scrutinize how habits were created. In Skinner’s book, Verbal Behavior (1957), the assumption on language acquisition totally flourished.

Operant conditioning in language learning was a movement made by Skinner. This strategy centers on the usage of “reward-punishment system” that likely strengthens or weakens a certain behavior. Islam (2013) quoted Skinner in his declaration with confidence saying:

“Verbal behavior’s essential process and associations produced its unique characteristics that are now fully acknowledged. Experimental works have been done to other kinds and yet it has been proven as amazingly free from species limitations. Reiteration on the work revealed that these processes can be done to the behaviors of human without severe alteration.”

Input becomes a significant factor in this strategy. An example for this is a mother who is trying to teach her child in pronouncing words. The input is produced by the mother and is received by the child. Now if the child pronounces the word according to the mother’s pronunciation, he/she receives a positive reinforcement. This may be in the form of praise or other sign of appreciation. If the child fails to pronounce it correctly, the mother may constantly repeat it until the child achieves it or gets a scold. This becomes the negative reinforcement. The child then forms the association between his behavior and receiving the desired reward. The stimulus-response-reinforcement is exhibited as a main standard of the behaviorist assumption on the study of an individual’s behavior.

Innatism/Mentalism

After the behaviorism and structuralism, SLA then embraced the cognitive field. Linguistically based, this relies heavily on Noam Chomsky’s linguistic theory on first language acquisition. Chomsky (1981b) made a convincing argument for the existence of an innate domain-specific language faculty, which he called the language acquisition device (LAD). The LAD includes universal grammar (UG), which is indispensable for the child’s ability to acquire his or her native language. (Johnson, 2004)

Chomsky’s objection on the behaviorists’ justifications on the newness and originality concerning child language is viewed on the article “Review of Verbal Behavior” (1959) in which its use is never identified and hence created a different look on the acquisition of language (Islam, 2013). He also recognizes that there is a deeper sense in language than focusing merely on grammatical competency and says that the inhabitant speaker holds a pragmatic proficiency.

The operation of UG in his first language acquisition theory is exclusively limited to the child’s acquisition on grammatical competence. The theory does not attempt to clarify a child’s ability in the usage of grammatical knowledge in realistic situations. It means to say that is not connected with pragmatic competence due to the fact that pragmatic competence contains variability and also is more concerned with ‘‘knowledge of conditions and manner of appropriate use, in conformity with various purposes’’ than with ‘‘the knowledge of form and meaning’’, which is the main focus of his scientific inquiry (Johnson, 2004).

Social Interactionism

Social Interaction theory is based on both views; the behaviorist and mentalist approaches. Interactionism is an abstract perspective that identifies the role of experiences and the environment, including the influence of innate capabilities. Social interactionists give importance to the relationship between linguistic structures, cognitive abilities, and the social and linguistic environment. Language is viewed as a communicative act and the language environment and the child constitute a dynamic system (Hummel, 2013).

Social interactionism greatly points out the role of both linguistic environment and the

...