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. 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.