Virginia Scott Whither the Language Lab?

Army Method During WWII the government turned to the Bloomfieldian linguists to train the Armed Forces personnel for espionage, prisoner interrogation, and monitoring of radio transmissions. Army SpecializedTraining Program (Army Method) select bright, willing, young men train 12 hours a day for 9 months use native speaker teachers in small group settings have well defined objectives: perfect comprehension and native-like accent The Army method was successful and made educators rethink FL instruction in American schools.

Post-war ( ) The Army Method was renamed the American Method and schools tried to duplicate the results of wartime language training. Psychology was being increasingly accepted as a viable science. Behaviorist camp (Thorndike & Skinner) Learning occurs through trial and error, stimulus-response, and conditioning Cognitivist camp (Wertheimer & Kohler) Learning is rule-governed behavior achieved through analysis  Behaviorist theories were most widely accepted and dominated throughout the 1970s.

Audio-lingual Method ALM = combination of Army Method and Behaviorist theories: input drill (rote learning) use of language laboratories (The first language lab was installed at Louisiana State U. in 1947.)

Chomsky’s theories (first/native language) LAD (Language Acquisition Device) This theory states that humans are born with an innate ability to learn a language. Language learning is a cognitive process that comes from within the learner, not from stimuli outside the learner; learning has nothing to do with conditioning and reward. Competence vs. Performance: competence = knowledge of a language system; linguistic rules performance = use of language; production

Cognitive approach

Discovery of socio-cultural theories in the 1990s SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY study of child L1 acquisition full cognitive development requires social interaction the range of skill that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone. Pedagogical Psychology Institute of Moscow Lev Vygotsky Thought and Language (1962)

learner behaviorist cognitivist learnerOTHER sociocultural Summary of learning theories:

Communicative Language Teaching CLT grew out of the theories and practices in the 20 th century. It is NOT a method but rather a way of thinking about FL learning and teaching that draws on theories from cognitive science, educational psychology, and second language acquisition.  Supported by web technology!