Page 19 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

L1 and L2 Acquisition

however, several authors point out that the similarities between L1 and L2 ac-
quisition are most prominent in the early stages of development (Čok, 2008;
Ellis, 1994).

Reflection Point
1. Discuss the different ways in which we can acquire a foreign language.
2. Did you know any English words before you started learning it in school?
Do you remember any? Where did you pick them up?
3. What are some ways of fostering language acquisition in school contexts?

L1 and L2 Acquisition
Several authors (Pinter, 2011; Skela & Dagarin Fojkar, 2009) argue that the
methodology of teaching an FL to YLs needs to go beyond the field of foreign
language teaching (FLT) into disciplines such as child development, theories
of learning and first language acquisition. In other words, teachers who teach
children an FLshouldhavesomebasicknowledgeofthecognitive,socialand
emotional development of different age groups. It has become widely ac-
cepted that the knowledge about how children acquire their mother tongue
is directly relevant to the area of FLT (Brewster et al., 2002; Cameron, 2001;
Lightbown & Spada, 2013). However, different schools of psychology and sec-
ond language acquisition have explained how languages are acquired in dif-
ferent ways, each of them providing us with important insights into the pro-
cess of acquiring an L1. Four perspectives have received particular attention
in the area of FLT; the behaviourist, the innatist, the cognitivist and the con-
structivist perspective. Table 1.2 (p. 20) looks at the four perspectives consid-
ering four different aspects, the way they conceptualise the acquisition pro-
cess, the way they see the role of the learner and the social environment and
the challenges posed by these different views on language acquisition.

The Behaviourist Perspective
Behaviourism, a theory of learning associated with B. F. Skinner, was influ-
ential in the USA in the 50s. According to the behaviourists, imitation and
practice are the most important processes in the development of a child’s
language, and language learning is essentially understood as the formation
ofahabit.Children learn alanguagethrough positiveandnegativereinforce-
ment, which means that if they say something correctly, they are likely to be
rewarded with praise while if what they say is wrong, they are usually ‘pun-
ished’ by being corrected. This view paved the way to the so-called audio-
lingual approach to FLT. A typical classroom activity associated with this ap-

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