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【Abstract】Skinner, Chomsky, Ausubel and Rogers represent different points of view about human learning. But they form their theory from different perspective. In brief, B. F. Skinner’s operant conditioning theory studies human learning from behavioristic perspective, Noam Chomsky’ mentalism theory studies learning from psychological perspective, David Ausubel’ meaningful learning theory is from cognitive perspective, and Carl Rogers’s experiential learning theory is from humanistic perspective.
【Key words】Skinner,Chomsky,Ausubel,Rogers,Operant conditioning theory,Mentalism theory,Meaningful learning theory,Experiential learning theory
1.Introduction
Learning is changing a subject’s state of knowledge or awareness that results from becoming exposed to new information and becoming engaged with it. It has been explained in a variety of ways. In the early twentieth century the behaviorists developed a very strong theory to the effect that learning “came from the outside” by mechanisms of stimulus-response, as in the experiments of Skinner. Chomsky is a “nativist” in proposing that learning, especially language learning, “comes from the inside” triggered by a “Language Acquisiton Device” and a hypothetical “universal grammar”. Rogers brings to argument the affective components of learning, and Ausubel introduces the concept of “meaningful learning” that forces new knowledge to be related to “existing pegs” in the human mind. A vast array of other authors contribute to the study of human learning.
Research on language acquisition can be divided into first and second language learning settings. The literature on first language learning is most relevant to child development while second language learning pertains primarily to adult learning, although most general theories of language learning apply to both. Theories of adult learning and literacy are more likely to provide an appropriate framework for second language learning. Linguistic-oriented theories of language learning tend to emphasize genetic mechanisms (so-called “universal grammars”) in explaining language acquisition. Behavioral theories argue that association, reinforcement, and imitation are the primary factors in the acquisition of language. Cognitive theories suggest that schema, rule structures, and meaning are the distinctive characteristic of language learning. Theoretical frameworks for second language learning present a number of different perspectives.
2.Skinner’s Operant Conditioning The bell in Pavlov’s experiment became associated with food and the dog salivated at just the sound of the bell alone. In this case, the bell was a sign——a call to action. The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual’s response to stimuli that occur in the environment. A response produces a consequence. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. The distinctive characteristic of operant conditioning relative to previous forms of behaviorism is that the organism can emit responses instead of only eliciting response due to an external stimulus.
When language acquisition is taken into consideration, linguistic utterances serves as conditioned stimulus and conditioned response. The theory claims that both l1 and l2 acquirers receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment, and positive reinforcement for their correct repetitions and imitations. When language learners’ responses are reinforced positively, they acquire the language relatively easily. Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner’s S-R theory. It strengthens the desired response. It could be verbal praise, a good grade or a feeling of increased accomplishment or satisfaction. The theory also covers negative reinforcers —— any stimulus that results in the increased frequency of a response when it is withdrawn. A great deal of attention was given to schedules of reinforcement and their effects on establishing and maintaining behavior.Skinner is well known in the fifties for Verbal Behavior. Skinner’s argument was that there is no fundamental difference in accounting for the fact that a rat in an experimental cage can learn to press a lever to receive a food pellet as a “reward” and the fact that a human can learn to use vocal signals as “operants” to satisfy his needs.
Teachers have benefited the most from Skinner’s fundamental work in reinforcement as a means of controlling and motivating student behavior. Its various applications to classroom practice are commonly called “behavior modification”. Operant conditioning has been widely applied in clinical settings as well as teaching and instructional development.
However, is more extreme in that it attemptes to dispense entirely with any mentalistic concepts. The theory is hard to explain that every sentence you speak or write is novel, never before uttered either by you or by anyone else. So, some of its applications in the field of teaching failed. After all, the imitation and simple S-R connections cannot explain acquisition and provide a sound basis for language teaching methodology. 3.Chomsky’s Mentalism Theory
Skinner’s theories attracted a number of critics, such as Noam Chomsky. Chomsky, the “father” of most nativist theories of language acquisition, brought greater attention to the innate capacity of children for learning language. Chomsky claims that children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD) in their brains.It’s a special neurological system in the human brain that facilitates language development. This system provides the human brain with the capacity to make the referent-symbol association with minimal stimulation and little effort. It contains a set of features common to all language, which he calls universal grammar. Universal grammar refers to the entire set of rules or linguistic parameters which belong to all possible human languages. Children are born with the principles of languag, and with some parameters to set. According to nativist theory, when the young child is exposed to a language, his LAD makes it possible for him to set the parameters and deduce the grammatical principles, because the principles are innate.But some linguists and psychologists do not believe language is innate. Since it failes to specify the nature of universal grammar, many linguists have speculated that this may not be possible. And we can’t learn a grammar as rapidly as we expect. Chomsky’s LAD theory is totally in contrast to behavioristic, stimulus-response theory. Chomsky is attempting to discover what it is that all children, regardless of their environmental stimuli, bring to the language acquisition.
Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device may explain Symbolic Acquisition. At least five different processes may account for the development of these Referent-Symbol associations. Their roles may vary depending upon the stage of language development the child has reached.
4.Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory (Subsumption Theory)
Influenced by Piaget’s cognitive theory, in 1964 David Ausubel proposed his meaningful learning theory. It is involved with how individuals learn “meaningful” material from lessons in school. In Ausubel’s subsumption theory, he claims that “the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows”. Subsumption is a primary process in learning. In subsumption new material is related to relevant ideas in the cognitive structures. He stresses Meaningful Verbal Learning by making distinction between rote and meaningful learning. Ausubel notes that both adults and children have little need for rote, mechanistic learning that is not related to existing knowledge and experience. Rather, they utilize primarily meaningful learning operations by anchoring and relating new items and experiences to knowledge that exists in the cognitive framework. In his approach to learning, a major instructional mode is the use of advance organizers. He emphasizes that organizers act as a “subsuming bridge” between new learning material and existing ideas. Ausubel clearly indicates that his theory applies only to reception (expository) learning in school settings. He distinguishes reception learning from rote and discovery learning; the former because it doesn’t involve subsumption (i.e, meaningful materials) and the latter because the learner must discover information through problem solving. A large number of studies have been conducted on the effects of advance organizers in learning.
According to Ausubel, learning is based upon the kinds of superordinate, representational, and combinatorial processes that occur during the reception of information. Cognitive structures represent the residue of all learning experiences; forgetting occurs because certain details get integrated and lose their individual identity.
5.Rogers’s Humanistic Experiential Theory
Carl Rogers pioneered the moveaway from traditional psychoanalysis, and developed client-centered psychotherapy. His theory of learning originates from his views about paychotherapy and humanistic approach to psychology. It applies primarily to adult learners and has influenced other theories of adult learning.He recognizes that “each client has within him or herself the vast sources for self-understanding, for altering his or her self-directed behavior —— and that these resources can be tapped by providing a definable climate of facilitative attitudes.”Rogers’s theory of learning originates from his views about psychotherapy and humanistic approach to psychology.
He distinguishes two types of learning: cognitive (meaningless) and experiential (significant). The former corresponds to academic knowledge such as learning vocabulary or multiplication tables and the latter refers to applied knowledge such as learning about engines in order to repair a car. The key to the distinction is that experiential learning addresses the needs and wants of the learner. Rogers lists these qualities of experiential learning: personal involvement, self-initiated, evaluated by learner, and pervasive effects on learner.
Rogers apparent emphasis on facilitation underestimates the contribution of teaching, the role of information transmission. Comparing with Skinner’s operant conditioning theory and Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory, Rogers’s humanism is from a different perspective. Rogers is not concerned with the cognitive process of learning, but studies “the whole person” as a emotional being. Only if the learning environment is properly created, the learners could reach fulfillment. Rogers believes that significant learning takes place when the subject matter is relevant to the personal interests of the student. Learning are more easily assimilated when external threats are at a minimum.Learning proceeds faster when the threat to the self is low. Self-initiated learning is the most lasting and pervasive learning.
6.Conclusion
I acquired much after learning the different theories of human language learning. It is also necessary for me to improve my career as an English teacher.English, like any language, is significant and worthwhile only if it enables us to use it as a means of social exchange with other people, much in the way that a native speaker of that language would use it. Teaching English, then, means approximating the learner to the behaviour of a native speaker of the language, to enable the learner to “do” what the native speaker “does” with the language. A lot of the English in course books may be irrelevant for this purpose, even though they may be “necessary” or “convenient” to prepare the learner a variety of artificial pursuits like standardized proficiency tests. One way to make English palatable is to identify life-like “episodes” of native speaker usage and analysing what it is that the learner has to know and do to enact them. For example, any native speaker is liable to describe something or other, in varying degrees of detail, at any time of day, every day, or to tell an anecdote or short narrative. Any native speaker is liable to present some sort of an argument on the spur of the moment.
It’s necessary for us to study the language acquisition because we teach language depending on how we think it is learned.
【Key words】Skinner,Chomsky,Ausubel,Rogers,Operant conditioning theory,Mentalism theory,Meaningful learning theory,Experiential learning theory
1.Introduction
Learning is changing a subject’s state of knowledge or awareness that results from becoming exposed to new information and becoming engaged with it. It has been explained in a variety of ways. In the early twentieth century the behaviorists developed a very strong theory to the effect that learning “came from the outside” by mechanisms of stimulus-response, as in the experiments of Skinner. Chomsky is a “nativist” in proposing that learning, especially language learning, “comes from the inside” triggered by a “Language Acquisiton Device” and a hypothetical “universal grammar”. Rogers brings to argument the affective components of learning, and Ausubel introduces the concept of “meaningful learning” that forces new knowledge to be related to “existing pegs” in the human mind. A vast array of other authors contribute to the study of human learning.
Research on language acquisition can be divided into first and second language learning settings. The literature on first language learning is most relevant to child development while second language learning pertains primarily to adult learning, although most general theories of language learning apply to both. Theories of adult learning and literacy are more likely to provide an appropriate framework for second language learning. Linguistic-oriented theories of language learning tend to emphasize genetic mechanisms (so-called “universal grammars”) in explaining language acquisition. Behavioral theories argue that association, reinforcement, and imitation are the primary factors in the acquisition of language. Cognitive theories suggest that schema, rule structures, and meaning are the distinctive characteristic of language learning. Theoretical frameworks for second language learning present a number of different perspectives.
2.Skinner’s Operant Conditioning The bell in Pavlov’s experiment became associated with food and the dog salivated at just the sound of the bell alone. In this case, the bell was a sign——a call to action. The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual’s response to stimuli that occur in the environment. A response produces a consequence. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. The distinctive characteristic of operant conditioning relative to previous forms of behaviorism is that the organism can emit responses instead of only eliciting response due to an external stimulus.
When language acquisition is taken into consideration, linguistic utterances serves as conditioned stimulus and conditioned response. The theory claims that both l1 and l2 acquirers receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment, and positive reinforcement for their correct repetitions and imitations. When language learners’ responses are reinforced positively, they acquire the language relatively easily. Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner’s S-R theory. It strengthens the desired response. It could be verbal praise, a good grade or a feeling of increased accomplishment or satisfaction. The theory also covers negative reinforcers —— any stimulus that results in the increased frequency of a response when it is withdrawn. A great deal of attention was given to schedules of reinforcement and their effects on establishing and maintaining behavior.Skinner is well known in the fifties for Verbal Behavior. Skinner’s argument was that there is no fundamental difference in accounting for the fact that a rat in an experimental cage can learn to press a lever to receive a food pellet as a “reward” and the fact that a human can learn to use vocal signals as “operants” to satisfy his needs.
Teachers have benefited the most from Skinner’s fundamental work in reinforcement as a means of controlling and motivating student behavior. Its various applications to classroom practice are commonly called “behavior modification”. Operant conditioning has been widely applied in clinical settings as well as teaching and instructional development.
However, is more extreme in that it attemptes to dispense entirely with any mentalistic concepts. The theory is hard to explain that every sentence you speak or write is novel, never before uttered either by you or by anyone else. So, some of its applications in the field of teaching failed. After all, the imitation and simple S-R connections cannot explain acquisition and provide a sound basis for language teaching methodology. 3.Chomsky’s Mentalism Theory
Skinner’s theories attracted a number of critics, such as Noam Chomsky. Chomsky, the “father” of most nativist theories of language acquisition, brought greater attention to the innate capacity of children for learning language. Chomsky claims that children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD) in their brains.It’s a special neurological system in the human brain that facilitates language development. This system provides the human brain with the capacity to make the referent-symbol association with minimal stimulation and little effort. It contains a set of features common to all language, which he calls universal grammar. Universal grammar refers to the entire set of rules or linguistic parameters which belong to all possible human languages. Children are born with the principles of languag, and with some parameters to set. According to nativist theory, when the young child is exposed to a language, his LAD makes it possible for him to set the parameters and deduce the grammatical principles, because the principles are innate.But some linguists and psychologists do not believe language is innate. Since it failes to specify the nature of universal grammar, many linguists have speculated that this may not be possible. And we can’t learn a grammar as rapidly as we expect. Chomsky’s LAD theory is totally in contrast to behavioristic, stimulus-response theory. Chomsky is attempting to discover what it is that all children, regardless of their environmental stimuli, bring to the language acquisition.
Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device may explain Symbolic Acquisition. At least five different processes may account for the development of these Referent-Symbol associations. Their roles may vary depending upon the stage of language development the child has reached.
4.Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory (Subsumption Theory)
Influenced by Piaget’s cognitive theory, in 1964 David Ausubel proposed his meaningful learning theory. It is involved with how individuals learn “meaningful” material from lessons in school. In Ausubel’s subsumption theory, he claims that “the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows”. Subsumption is a primary process in learning. In subsumption new material is related to relevant ideas in the cognitive structures. He stresses Meaningful Verbal Learning by making distinction between rote and meaningful learning. Ausubel notes that both adults and children have little need for rote, mechanistic learning that is not related to existing knowledge and experience. Rather, they utilize primarily meaningful learning operations by anchoring and relating new items and experiences to knowledge that exists in the cognitive framework. In his approach to learning, a major instructional mode is the use of advance organizers. He emphasizes that organizers act as a “subsuming bridge” between new learning material and existing ideas. Ausubel clearly indicates that his theory applies only to reception (expository) learning in school settings. He distinguishes reception learning from rote and discovery learning; the former because it doesn’t involve subsumption (i.e, meaningful materials) and the latter because the learner must discover information through problem solving. A large number of studies have been conducted on the effects of advance organizers in learning.
According to Ausubel, learning is based upon the kinds of superordinate, representational, and combinatorial processes that occur during the reception of information. Cognitive structures represent the residue of all learning experiences; forgetting occurs because certain details get integrated and lose their individual identity.
5.Rogers’s Humanistic Experiential Theory
Carl Rogers pioneered the moveaway from traditional psychoanalysis, and developed client-centered psychotherapy. His theory of learning originates from his views about paychotherapy and humanistic approach to psychology. It applies primarily to adult learners and has influenced other theories of adult learning.He recognizes that “each client has within him or herself the vast sources for self-understanding, for altering his or her self-directed behavior —— and that these resources can be tapped by providing a definable climate of facilitative attitudes.”Rogers’s theory of learning originates from his views about psychotherapy and humanistic approach to psychology.
He distinguishes two types of learning: cognitive (meaningless) and experiential (significant). The former corresponds to academic knowledge such as learning vocabulary or multiplication tables and the latter refers to applied knowledge such as learning about engines in order to repair a car. The key to the distinction is that experiential learning addresses the needs and wants of the learner. Rogers lists these qualities of experiential learning: personal involvement, self-initiated, evaluated by learner, and pervasive effects on learner.
Rogers apparent emphasis on facilitation underestimates the contribution of teaching, the role of information transmission. Comparing with Skinner’s operant conditioning theory and Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory, Rogers’s humanism is from a different perspective. Rogers is not concerned with the cognitive process of learning, but studies “the whole person” as a emotional being. Only if the learning environment is properly created, the learners could reach fulfillment. Rogers believes that significant learning takes place when the subject matter is relevant to the personal interests of the student. Learning are more easily assimilated when external threats are at a minimum.Learning proceeds faster when the threat to the self is low. Self-initiated learning is the most lasting and pervasive learning.
6.Conclusion
I acquired much after learning the different theories of human language learning. It is also necessary for me to improve my career as an English teacher.English, like any language, is significant and worthwhile only if it enables us to use it as a means of social exchange with other people, much in the way that a native speaker of that language would use it. Teaching English, then, means approximating the learner to the behaviour of a native speaker of the language, to enable the learner to “do” what the native speaker “does” with the language. A lot of the English in course books may be irrelevant for this purpose, even though they may be “necessary” or “convenient” to prepare the learner a variety of artificial pursuits like standardized proficiency tests. One way to make English palatable is to identify life-like “episodes” of native speaker usage and analysing what it is that the learner has to know and do to enact them. For example, any native speaker is liable to describe something or other, in varying degrees of detail, at any time of day, every day, or to tell an anecdote or short narrative. Any native speaker is liable to present some sort of an argument on the spur of the moment.
It’s necessary for us to study the language acquisition because we teach language depending on how we think it is learned.