भाषा अधिगम के
सिद्धांत
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/theory-of-language-learning/
पर दिए गए भाषा अर्जन के प्रमुख सिद्धांतों को इस प्रकार से देख सकते हैं-
Great
Theories About Language Learning by Brilliant Thinkers
उक्त वेबसाइट पर विभिन्न महान चिंतकों द्वार भाषा अधिगम से संबंधित
दिए गए विचारों तथा सिद्धांतों को इस प्रकार से दिया गया है-
1. Plato’s Problem
The writings of Plato stretch all the way back to the beginnings
of Western philosophical thought, but Plato was already posing problems
critical to modern linguistic discourse.
In the nature versus nurture debate, Plato tended to side with
nature, believing that knowledge was innate.
This was his answer to what has become known as Plato’s Problem, or as
Bertrand Russell summarizes it: “How comes it that human beings, whose contacts
with the world are brief and personal and limited, are nevertheless able to
know as much as they do know?” Being born with this knowledge from the get-go
would naturally solve this little quandary and consequently he viewed language
as innate.
2. Cartesian Linguistics, by Descartes
Centuries later, the French philosopher Descartes took a crack
at linguistic philosophy. In his opinion, language acquisition was a simple and easy process, barely
worthy of his attention. Like Plato he believed in the innateness of
language because he thought it reflected the general
rationality of human beings.
But rather than Descartes himself, it was the rationalist
movement that he symbolized and that was thriving in the time period when he
lived that was most important for linguistics. This “Cartesian” movement,
according to Chomsky (who we’ll get to later), noted the creativity involved in
everyday language and presented the idea that there were universal principles behind every
language.
3. Locke’s Tabula
Rasa
Most people familiar with Locke’s philosophy have heard of his
concept of tabula
rasa, or the blank
slate.
To state it briefly and in a simplified manner, this is the idea
that all knowledge comes from outside ourselves through sensory experience
rather than through innate knowledge that we have at birth. This naturally
carried over to language theory with Locke rejecting the idea that there
was an innate logic behind language.
Obviously these theories don’t touch too much on the practical,
everyday level of language learning. They’re far less detailed and more
philosophical than the modern scientific theories we’re used to. But they have
important implications. If Plato and the Cartesians are right, then the
emphasis in language learning must lie on what we already know, using our innate abilities to
come to an understanding of the particularities of a specific language. If
Locke is right, then we must focus our attention on sensory input,
gaining as much external input as possible.
In the practical, everyday world, all of this can easily be done
with FluentU.
FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie
trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language
learning lessons.
4. Skinner’s Theory of Behaviorism
In the middle of the 20th century, B.F. Skinner took Locke’s
ideas of sensory input and ran with them.
According to behaviorism, a radical variant of which was put
forward by Skinner, all
behavior is no more than a response to external stimuli and
there’s no innate
programming within a human being to learn a language at birth.
What differentiates Skinner from those who came before him is
the level of detail he went into when connecting behaviorism and language
learning. In his concept of what he called “operant conditioning,” language learning grew out of a process
of reinforcement and punishment whereby individuals are
conditioned into saying the right thing. For instance, if you’re hungry and
you’re able to say “Mommy, I’m hungry,” you may be rewarded with food and your
behavior will thereby be reinforced since you got what you wanted.
To put it another way, Skinner described a mechanism for
language learning that hadn’t existed before on the tabula rasa side of
the language acquisition debate. What this means for us as language learners,
should his theory be even partially true, is that a process of conditioning
must be achieved for us to succeed. When we say the right thing, we must be
rewarded. When we say something incorrectly, that too must be made clear. In
other words, we need feedback to
succeed as language learners.
5. Chomsky’s Universal Grammar
Around the same time as Skinner there came another
linguistic powerhouse who would leave a lasting impression on the field of
linguistics. Namely, Noam Chomsky.
The theory that Chomsky proposed would be called Universal Grammar and
it would assert nearly
the exact opposite of what Skinner had offered in his theory.
Where Skinner saw all learning coming from external stimuli, Chomsky saw an innate device for language
acquisition. What Skinner understood to be conditioning
according to particular events Chomsky, understood to be the result of the universal elements that
structure all languages.
In fact, one of Chomsky’s major bones to pick with Skinner’s
theory had to do with Plato’s problem, as described above. After all, if
Skinner is right, how is it that children can learn a language so quickly,
creating and understanding sentences they have never heard before?
Universal Grammar has been around for roughly a half a century
by now, so it’s hardly the last word on the subject. It has also received
plenty of criticism. One critique that particularly concerns us is that it may
have little to do with learning a second
language, even if it’s how we learn a first language. There are
certainly theories about applying this
concept to organize syllabi for language learning, but this
seems unnecessarily complex for the average, independent learner.
In short, while Chomsky’s theory may be still be important in
the linguistics field as part of an ongoing discussion, it offers little help
for learning a second language other than to provide you with the confidence
that the grammar for all languages is already inside your head. You just need
to fill in the particulars.
Over the past half century or so, a slew of other language learning
theories have cropped up to try to deal with the perceived flaws in Chomsky’s
theory and to fill in the cracks for more specific areas of language learning
(i.e. areas of particular interest to us).
Next up are two theories that, while not the philosophical
bombshells like the ones listed above, arguably have more of a practical
edge.
6. Schumann’s Acculturation Model
John Schumann’s Acculturation Model describes the process by which immigrants pick
up a new language while being completely immersed in that
language.
This theory doesn’t deal with the process of language learning
as we normally think of it (such as how we acquire grammar or listening
skills), but rather focuses
on social and
psychological aspects that
influence our success.
For instance, an immigrant is more likely to acquire their new
target language if their language and the target language are socially equal,
if the group of immigrants is small and not cohesive and if there is a higher
degree of similarity between the immigrant’s culture and that of their new area
of residence.
The obvious takeaway is that language learning is not an
abstract subject like physics that can be learned out of a book regardless of
the world around you. There are sociological factors at play, and the more we
do to connect with the culture on the other end of our second language, the
faster and easier it will be for us to learn that language.
7. Krashen’s Monitor Model
Stephen Krashen’s Monitor Model in fact consists of several
distinct hypotheses which make up what is probably the most cited theory in
second language acquisition. There’s so much to take away
from Krashen’s theory that I’ll just let you peruse the link given for details
and give a rundown of the highlights here.
· Language acquisition is subconscious and results from informal,
natural communication.
· Language learning is conscious and driven by error correction
(more formal).
· Grammar structures are acquired in a predictable order.
· Language acquisition occurs with comprehensible input (i.e.
hearing or reading things that are just slightly above our current language
level).
· A monitor is anything that corrects your language performance
and pressures one to “communicate correctly and not just convey meaning” (such
as a language teacher who corrects you when you make a grammatical mistake).
It should be noted that this is just Krashen’s theory. While
this theory is quite popular, there has been criticism and direct contradiction
of certain parts of it (particularly his idea about the predictable order of
grammar structures). Still, it’s useful to get ideas for language learning.
This theory suggests that we should both strive to increase our
second language inputs (like by watching video clips on FluentU and
going through books for reading) and make sure we receive proper error
correction in one form or another.
और अधिक
अध्ययन के लिए उक्त लिंक पर जाएं और विस्तार से देखें।
