Download Input Hypothesis

9.6 Second language learning models
and input hypothesis
 1. Behaviorism
model: emphasize the role of
immitate and positive reinforcement.
 a “nurture”position: later education is stressed.
 2. The mentalism model:语法天生说
(“nature”position /innateness position / innateness
hypothesis) : stress that human beings, equipped
with language acquisition device (LAD), are
capable of language learning if provided with
adequate input.
 3. Social interactionism
1
Innateness position
 Innateness position: a theory held by some philosophers
and liguistits which says that human being knowledge
develops from structures, processes, and “idea”which are
in the mind at birth (i.e. are innate), rather than from the
environment, and that these are responsible for the basic
structure of language and how it is learned.
 This hypothesis has been used to explain how children are
able to learn language.
 The innatist hypothesis contrasts with the belief that all
human kowledge comes from experience.
2
Social interactionism
 Those who adopt an innateness position believe that a
learner’s structural knowledge allows him or her to construct
the grammar of the target language on the basis of limited
area.
 While the social inineractionists hold that language
acquisition and social interaction are mutually dependent
and that language acquisition cannot be understood if
detached from the context it occurs.
 One can hardly understand the development of grammatical
knowledge devoid of interaction with the learning situation.
3
Input theory
 Definition
 (in language learning) language which a learner
hears or receives and from which he or she can
learn.
 In second or foreign language learning, a
distinction is sometimes made between input and
intake. Intake is the actual share of input which is
has been internalized by the learner.
4
Input Hypothesis
 Krashen’ Input Hypothesis(克拉申输入假说）：a
hypothesis is proposed by Krashen, which states that in
second or foreign language learning, for language
acquisition to occur, it is necessary for the learner to
understand INPUT language which contains linguistic
items that are slightly beyond the learner’s present
linguistic COMPETENCE. Learners understand such
language using cues in the situation. Eventually the ability
to produce language is said to emerge naturally, and need
not be taught directly.
5
Input Hypothesis
 Krashen assumed that there were two independent means
or routes of second language learning: acquisition and
learning.
 1) Acquisition is a process similar to the way children
acquire their first language. It is a subconscious process
without minute learning of grammatical rules. It is
regarded as implicit learning, informal learning or natural
learning etc.
 2) Learning, as another route, refers to conscious efforts
to learn the second language knowledge by learning the
rules and talking about the rules.
6
Input Hypothesis
 3)Comprehensible input:
 Krashen put forward that learners advance their language
learning gradually by receiving “comprehensible input”.
He defined it as “i + 1”: i represents learners’current state
of knowledge, the next stage is the i+1. By providing
comprehensible input which is slightly above the learner’s
current level, the learners’LAD will be activated and
contribute to acquisition.
 Krashen’s input hypothesis received criticism later, for he
mistook “input” as “intake”.
7