Beyond L2 grammar instruction

Miroslava Tsvetkova
2017 Studies in Linguistics, Culture and FLT  
Language acquisition is an ontogenetic, hierarchical, and complex process. In 1957, the psychologist B. F. Skinner, as a pioneer of behaviourism, described linguistics through human behavior in his book Verbal Behaviour and explained the learning of a language. Two years later, in 1959, Noam Chomsky criticized his proposal and the learnability of a language. He believed that language is an innate ability and for this reason he established the term "acquisition" to substitute "learning".The
more » ... ructivists, on the other hand, suggested that children were sensitive to patterns in the target language which enabled the acquisition process. Recent language acquisition trends include the cognitive approach that can foster grammar acquisition. The article has tutorial nature, addressing recent advances in cognitive perception. The analysis of Bulgarian students' questionnaires reveals the tendency in the students' expectations to shift language acquisition to the cognitive constructivist approach, based on the work of Jean Piaget (2001) who argues that cognitive development precedes language. The article aims at investigating the barriers the students face while acquiring second language grammar structures rather than studying what they will learn. Besides their cognitive perception, students rely on their internal constructions of knowledge. They themselves construct their knowledge through experience as well as through communication. As Vygotsky (1978) states thought and language become linked through communication.
doi:10.46687/silc.2019.v06.006 fatcat:c6jnnfsa45fwpi5lvw7tyrigeq