BEHAVIORIST PERSPECTIVE IN SECOND L

BEHAVIORIST PERSPECTIVE IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION. Behaviorist
theories of language acquisition have influenced second language teaching in a
number of ways that persist today in many classrooms. If you have taken a foreign
language in high school or college, you are probably familiar with the
methods informed by behaviorist learning theories. One behaviorist language
teaching method popular in the 1960s is the audiolingual method, in which
dialogues are presented on tape for students to memorize, followed by pattern
drills for practicing verb forms and sentence structures. Students are first taught
to listen and speak and then to read and write based on the assumption that this
is the natural sequence in first language acquisition. (This sequence has been
disputed, as you will see in Chapter 4.) For behaviorists, the processes involved
in second or foreign language learning consisted of imitation, repetition, and
reinforcement of grammatical structures. Errors were to be corrected immediately
to avoid forming bad habits that would be difficult to overcome later. If
you were taught with this method, you may remember the drill-and-skill practice,
often carried out via audiotapes in a language laboratory. How well did this
instruction work for you? When we ask our students this question in classes of
40 or so, only 1 or 2 report successful foreign language competence acquired
through the audiolingual approach.