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1 Behaviourism
1 Behaviourism
0. Introduction
After the Second World War the USA emerged as a major international
power. As a result of this, being able to communicate in English became
more necessary and the teaching of English as a foreign language began to
receive increasing attention.
The theory that dominated linguistics during the 40’s and 50’s was
structuralism and so, the postulates of this theory were followed in the
elaboration of the first language teaching methods, the aural-oral approach
(Fries 1939) and particularly the Audiolingual method.
All over the world, the audiolingual method became the prevailing
model for the teaching of foreign languages. Although the method became
less influential in the late sixties (as we shall discuss later), audiolingualism
and materials based on audiolingual principles continue to be widely used
even today, which is testimony to the remarkable diffusion and influence of
this approach.
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For behaviourist authors (e.g. Thorndike, Skinner, etc.), for any kind
of learning to take place (i.e., for a habit to be formed), there must exist
three crucial elements:
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The child first imitates the sounds and patterns that he hears around him.
People recognize the child’s attempts at being similar to the adult models
and reinforce the sounds, by approval or some other desirable action. In
order to obtain more rewards the child repeats the sounds and patterns,
and so these actions become habits
TASK 1. Try to identify and describe a similar behaviourist learning process where the stimulus
is not verbal:
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TASK 2. According to the principles we have just studied, what is necessary for a child to acquire
his/her first language? Do all children receive this kind of consistent feedback (reinforcement
from their parents?
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2 The idea that learning will proceed most smoothly and rapidly if complex
behaviours are broken down into their component parts is known as the principle of shaping.
In order to break down language into smaller structures when teaching an L2 the teacher (or
more precisely, the designer of the method) needed a clear and exhaustive description of the
different structures and substructures (systems of structures) contained in a language.
Such a description was provided by Structural grammar (see point 1.4), which was used in
the design of the ALM method.
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between the way a human being learns a language and the way other
animals learn to do anything else. Everything is learnt by a process of habit-
formation, in which the main components are: stimulus, response and
reinforcement.
It is a popular belief that second language acquisition (from now on, SLA) is
strongly influenced by the learner’s first language (L1). The clearest support
for this belief comes from "foreign" accents that appear in the second
language (L2) speech of learners. When a Spaniard speaks English, his
pronunciation seems to resemble Spanish pronunciation (he uses only 5
vocalic phonemes: /a, e, i, o, u/) The learners’ L1 also affects the other
language levels of their L2; i.e. vocabulary and grammar.
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arise in the L2 because the learner will transfer the realization device from
his first language into the second.
Of course, not all the patterns or habits of the L1 are different from
those of the L2. It is quite possible that the means for expressing a shared
meaning are the same in the first and second language. When this is
possible, the only learning that has to take place for positive transfer to
take place is the discovery that the realization devices are the same in the
two languages.
Task 3: Can you think of examples where Spanish either interferes or facilitates the
learning of English? Find examples [e1]at each level of the language (phonological, lexical,
syntactic, etc.)
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In sum, behaviourist learning theory predicts that transfer will take place
from the first to the second language. Transfer will be negative when there is
inhibition. In this case errors will result. Transfer will be positive when the
first and second language habits are the same. Thus differences between
the first and second language create learning difficulties which result in
errors, while the similarities between the first and second language facilitate
rapid and easy learning.
TASK 4. According to behaviourist principles, learners of an L2 will produce errors because the
structures/habits of their L1 interferes with L2 learning. If you were to design a Audiolingual
course in Spanish for English learners what would you do to prevent and deal with interference?
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in written form. Aural-oral training provides the foundation for the
development of the other language skills.
Classroom Procedures:
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learning parts of the language like behaviours, but they were not resulting
in real competence, in other words, learners were unable to communicate
profficiently. This created a crisis in American language teaching circles. In
the following decades several methods sprung up (Innatist methodologies
like Cognitive Code Learning; Humanistic methods such as Suggestopedia,
The Silent Way, Community Language Learning; input-based approaches like
the Natural Approach). However, it was not until the arrival of the
Communicative Approach in the 80s, that a language teaching method was
able to fill the huge gap left by the ALM.
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After reading the basic principles on which the behaviourist theory is based, consider the
possible implications of this theory for teaching and leaning:
1. Can you learn a language by watching and hearing other people use that language[e3]?
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2. Can you learn a language by having a teacher describe or explain to you how the language is
used (i.e. by teaching grammar)?
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4. Will a child learn a first language regardless the conditions of his learning environment[e5]?
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5. Why aren’t animals able to learn languages? Do you know of any animal who has learned a
human language? Do you know of any human who has failed to learn his own L1?
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