THE RELEVANCE OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS TO LANGUAGE
OUTLINE
Abstract
- Introduction
- Definition of basic concepts: Language, teaching, learning, psycholinguistics.
- Language Acquisition
- Theories of Language acquisition
- Implications of Psycholinguistics in the language class
- Achievements and Limitations
- Conclusion.
ABSTRACT
This paper unfolds the relationship between psycholinguistics, language, teaching and learning. A thorough examination of how psycholinguistics is applied in language teaching and learning is of paramount interest this write-up. To be examined also is the various theories used to brighten the knowledge of language acquisition. The paper defines the basic concepts of language, teaching and learning and explores in detail the psycholinguist approach to language teaching and learning. A brief mention will be made on the factors affecting language development in children.
The paper concludes by outlining the implications of psycholinguistics in the language class as well as the achievements and limitations of psycholinguistics.
INTRODUCTION
A lot of efforts have been made by government of various countries who are aware of the importance of language in national development and as a prerequisite for school success, enforce language education on both students and adults.
From infancy, children continuously hear language every day. However, the language that is learned and applied is that used in the speech of persons in the child’s environment.
Spoken language is well spoken at home by the child before she/he goes to school. This means that special training is not required to teach the child any language. He learns from his immediate environment by imitation arid reinforcement. Other theorists have their own divergent views which will be discussed later in this write up.
By the time they get to the school age, they gradually discover rules on how language works on their own. At this stage they need the guidance of a teacher who employs the knowledge of psycholinguistics in teaching while the learner on his part applies the language acquisition theories propended by psycholinguistics In learning the structure rule-governed language.
DEFINITION OF BASIC CONCEPTS
A look at the above introduction will call to mind the four major concepts which we will encounter throughout this paper.
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Unoh (1994) noted that both psychology and linguistics have important contributions to make to the teaching and learning of languages in general. This is because language is a learned and rule-governed behaviour. Research reveals that studies of acquisition, development, manifestation and application of language or linguistic behaviour in various contexts and situation are of great interest to psychologists who are concerned with the study of language and communication while the study of the growth, structural patterns and components of the learned and rule-governed behaviour (language) is carried out by linguistics.
These two words marry together to form one-word psycholinguistics which is a relatively new discipline. According to Unoh (1994) Newcomer and Hamil observed that psycholinguistics is the study of the mental processes which underline the acquisition and use of language. As such it is clearly the progeny of a -bather unruly marriage between psychologies, the study behaviour, and linguistics, the study of language structure. As is the case in most marriages between two strong partners, there are frequent disputes over who has contributed most to the offspring and whose position is dominant.
To Unoh (1992), psycholinguistics is partly a linguistic and partly a psychological study of processes and skills that underline the acquisition and use of receptive communication and language behaviour (Listening and reading) and expressive communication and language behaviour (speech and writing).
Other scholars see psycholinguistics as a multidisciplinary area encomprising sociology, philosophy, anthropology and sociolinguistics. To them psycholinguist is interested in the study of language attitude and the relationship between self and group identity. It has been used to solve problems of language dysfunction and to learn more about language acquisition in children.
It will be of interest to note that psycholinguistics dates back to 17th, 18th and 19th centuries during the time of John Locke (1632 – 1704), Ebbinghaus 1885 and Sapia Wolfion. This means that psycholinguistics is not all that a “relatively new discipline” as proposed by Unoh (1994).
LANGUAGE
Language is another concept which has endless definitions.
Linguistics, educationists and psychologists have tried to study and define language from different angles. Language also exhibits a number of characteristics which makes it a matter of great academic interest to psychologists in particular.
Goodman et al (1987) quoting Whorf (1956) generalized the meaning of language by saying that every language is a vast pattern system which is different from others and by which there are culturally ordained forms with which people not only communicate but also analyses nature, reasons and interact with one another.
Ashworth (1988) states that language means different things to different professionals. A phycist is interested in the acoustic properties of a language; a psychologist is interested in the speech as a form of behaviour while a sociologist seeks for such things as how speech is affected by social stratification. To a linguist, language is a pattern of words, sounds and grammar. To him (Ashworth), language is a means of recording, expressing and communicating meaning.
Brown (1980) is of the same opinion with the definitions of language by Finocchairo (1994), Pei (1966). Language is seen as a system or arbitrary, vocal symbols which permit all people in a given culture or other people who have learned the system of that language to communicate and to interact.
The summary of these definitions according to Brown (1980) is that language is systematic, is a set of arbitrary symbols, those symbols are vocal but invisible. Those symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer. They are used for communication. Language operates in a speech community or culture.
These definitions represent how almost all other Scholars take language to be.
The writer would like to add that language is more than that.
To the writer, language is one’s identity as a being in a society.
Human beings are non-existant without language. This is why babies, dumb people and even animals make some specific noise to identify with others (whether they make sense or not).
Weiten (1992 p. 276) confirms from a research carried out on an ape that language is not unique to human beings. He went on to buttress his point that there are indications that all basic properties of a rudimentary language is found in the communication of the ape.
Other researchers debunked this experiment/view by saying that the language of the ape is stereotyped and not natural. The language of the ape is not flexible, fluent and complex like that of human language.
According to Matthews et al. (1989) Languages are construed as sets of sentences. A sentence her means any finite, structured object, its history, aspects of its meaning and finite bits of context.
Brown (1988) is of the same opinion with other linguist that language is used to communicate a child’s needs’. This language must therefore he learned.
LEARNING
Like language, a lot has been written about learning. Studies have shown that psychologists like Pavlov, Skinner, Piaget, etc. devoted much of their efforts to experiment on learning in general while psycholinguists dwelt on language learning process.
Leeper et al (1979) defines learning as “any observable or inferred change, in response behaviour caused wholly or in part by experience”.
In education, learning is assumed to take place when a person has acquired relatively permanent knowledge or skills. This knowledge and skills which occur as, a result of practice is the only way that makes coiiunicatioIP0SS with the people around. Children who grow up in bilingual homes tend to feel the need to learn two or more languages in order to communicate effectively. .
Goodman et al (1972) also quoted an observation from a research carried out by Ursula Bellugi (1971) on language learning in children of deaf parents. She found out that such children learn sign language as easily and early and as4.qell as children acquire speech.
It must be born in mind that learning must be involved when under-going language acquisition. Then what is this learning to a psycholinguist. Weiten (1992p. 276) quoting Siegler (1986) states that “learning to use language requires learning a number of skills that become important at different points in a child’s development. But this language must be taught to the child before he masters it well.
TEACHING
Teaching can be defined as “showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge---”. To some educationist, teaching is impacting knowledge on the learner by an instructor or a teacher.
Study reveals that teaching and learning are inseparable. Brown (1980) quoting Nathan Gage (1964: 249) noted that “to ‘satisfy the practical demands of education, theories of learning-- must yield to the theories of teaching’
This further explains the importance of teaching to a learner.
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Adults who observe a child’s language development from infant to childhood confirms that there must be a learning process Involved Studies have also shown that children’s language evolves from babbling (baby talk) to speech which falls within the language norms of the Society or community where he lives. A detailed analysis of how this goes on is riot the objective of this write up. Some psycholinguists such as Piaget Chomsky, etc. have discussed that and came up with theories to substantiate their teachings.
Nonetheless, Goodman et al (1972) could not resist saying that language is the most useful and marvelous human invention. One
Wonders how all children achieve near mastery of one language or the other by the age of 5 - 6 years.
Goodman et al (1972) observed from a research carried out by Cazde (1972) that Children’s speech is nearly as perfect as the adults. Adults tend to underestimate the achievement of children’s language acquisition and presume it to be part of natural growth.
It is pertinent at this juncture to mention the three determinations of language develop. These Include:
- Neurophysiology, Psychology and environment
The neurophysiology include the brain and intellect, psychology consists of cognition, intellectual functioning, experience, attitude, motivation and culture; While the environmental influences are auditory input/stimulation, semantic input and syntactic input (Lapp p. 62-78).
According to Goodman et al (1972) studies on language acquisition have provided much new information about how children acquire language. Unfortunately there is no general agreement by psycholinguists on the total process and the sequences involved.
Another vital question is how do children acquire language. This will take us to the theories associated with language acquisition.
THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Many authors, Scholars and researchers have written much on language acquisition either in order to criticise, review, comment or condemn the theories Time would not permit the writer to mention or discuss the works of these writers. However, the study carried out by Burns and Brown (1983), Colliers Encyclopedia (1987) and Weiten (1992) on language acquisition theory will be mentioned/criticised in this write up.
The two major theories of language acquisition/development are the empirical (environmental) which traces language acquisition to learning the language of the environment. This is a behavourist approach to language. It was first outlined by Skinner (1957) in his book Verbal behaviour He argues that children learn language through imitation, reinforcement: BF. Skinner holds the view that verbal behaviour like everything else is learned through operant Conditioning. Because of benefits derived (reinforcement) children establish Stimulus-response associations. Parents use differential reinforcement to determine the sounds their children (baby) utter by rewarding them for their Pleasing vocal expressions. Speech then is a way of obtaining a reward arid improving more on it. Other examples of reinforcement include
(a) “The mand” - where children repeat words that fulfill their needs.
(b) “The tack” this is when children acquire words that are responses to Stimulus objects of what they can see and touch.
(c) “The echoic” - when children echo or imitate the speech of others.
(d) “autoclic” - when children are pleased with what they say and find it reinforcing.
The other theory is the nativist theory, which accounts for learning in terms of in-born mechanisms. The leading proponents of the innateness theory of language acquisition are Noam Chomsky. He is of the view that the human brain has been programmed for language. He argued that language (despite its variants) shares the same basic underlying structure, a universal syntax (deep structure) which need not be learned the way a particular location of a language “surface structure” is learned. This means that there is more to a language than w1Å¡at we all know it to be. The real meaning should be known to unveil its functions and “beauty”. Chomsky assumes that the brain must have been programmed with a “Language acquisition device” LAD which enables a child to generate sentences he has never heard before He is of the opinion that even a two - year old’s mind is well structured, making its grasp of grammatical principles independent of stimulus – response learning.
Chomsky’s innately grounded generative grammar has its neurological counterpart in Eric H. Lenneberg’s biological theory of language. Both of them share the same view that language is an innate factor.
Unfortunately, it is widely believed that no Linguistic theory has won consensus in current psycholinguistics theories. In other words, according to Brown (1980), psycholinguists/Linguists in order not to “become a slave to one way of thinking”, Scrutinise and reject these theories.
This is why Skinners theory is not generally acceptable. According to Colliers Encyclopedia, many psycholinguist are not convinced that reinforcement is sufficient for language learning and teaching.
They are of the view that something other than reinforcement accounts for language acquisition.
Piaget also ephasises the innateness of language acquisition. He postulated that cognitive development is continuous successively staged, and is dependent on maturation Language in this view is a part of the total Cognitive activity it is learned in the same way as other cognitive activities. The complexity on language structure increases as Cognitive abilities increase.
Some Scholars are of the Opinion that it is the parents who imitate their children’s speech and not the reverse. There is some truth in this because parents or older siblings take it as fun to repeat what their babies/toddler say. A mispronounced word/name can eventually become the family’s accepted word/name. For example a toddler who calls the brother’s name ‘Nnanna’ instead of “Uchenna. “Nnanna” eventually becomes the brother’s accepted name. However (1992 p276) quoting Siegier (1986) States that learning to use language requires learning a number of skills that become important at different points in a child’s development.
IMPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS IN THE LANGUAGE CLASS
To a psycholinguist, teaching is used in guiding and facilitating learning. It enables the learner to learn as well as setting the Condition for learning. Brown (1980) is of the view that a teacher’s understanding of how the learner learns determines the teachers Philosophy of education, his teaching style approach, methods and the classroom technique to be used. For example, if learning is conceived the way B.F. Skinner did - as a process of operant conditioning through a programme of reinforcement the teacher should teach accordingly.
The theory of teaching on the other hand will also determine the principles for choosing certain methods and techniques. The combination of the knowledge of teaching theory and the integrated understanding of the learner and of the Subject matter to be learned “will point the way to successful procedures on a given day, for given learners under the various constraint of the particular context of learning”. Unoh (1994).
Brown (1980) outlined the following features of theory of by Jerome Bruner (1966: 40-41) According to the latter, theory of instruction will Specify these:
a) The experiences which most effectively implant in the individual a predisposition toward learning.
b) The ways in which a body of knowledge should be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner.
c) The most effective sequences in which to present the materials to he learned
d) The nature and Pacing rewards and Punishments in the process of learning and teaching.
The above features focus on the subject matter arid the learner. This implies that one needs to understand the subject matter (language) and the practice theory of learning (language acquisition) before any theory of instruction can be formed.
Unoh (1994) is of the view that the form, context and the functional use of the language can form a rational basis for any effective approach to the problem of learning language in general.
Unoh (1994) further stated that psycholinguistic theories of language development and learning are intended as useful guides in our approaches to the teaching and learning of language.
However, he warned that they are not to be taken as substitutes for methods of teaching and Learning a language. But “they do provide a good frame of reference in evaluating the potential value of whatever methods is applied in practical teaching and learning”. Unoh (1994).
Subfields within psychology such as acquisition, processes, perception, memory systems, recall, conscious and subconscious learning, learning styles and strategies, theories of forgetting, reinforcement and the role of practice originate from the concepts of learning and teaching. A second language leaner combines these variables in the learning of a second language.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND LIMITATIONS
There is no doubt that psycholinijuistic5 has a crucial role to play in language teaching and learning. Scholars are of the view that if language learning is to be effective, language teachers and learners must take cognizance of the psycholinguistic implications of the distinctive characteristics of language. The knowledge of psycholinguists’ theories of language learning the direct and audio - lingual methods of foreign language teaching can be profitably adapted to the teaching of second language.
The negative effect is that the use of grammar – translation method is discouraged. This is because of its ineffectiveness for teaching a living language as well as its inconsistency with the approach.
The operant conditioning (Skinner) has proved helpful in improving the language abilities of retarded children.
The application of social learning theory of language acquisition according to Colliers Encyclopedia reveals that children learn without reinforcement but by imitation, observation, modeling and through vicarious experiences. .
Modeling and imitation however are not adequate explanations of language acquisition, it is argued but the failure to explain the rapidity with which language is acquired. The language of Children, moreover, is remarkably creative and novel. It is not the duplication of what they have heard from parents and others.
They unconsciously apply language acquisition theory to bring this about.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this write up has surveyed defined, and discussed in detail those concepts which a psycholinguist must make use of in order to effect the realisation of language acquisition possible in the language class. These are language, teaching, learning, acquisition theories etc.
It is a known fact that learning a language helps children learns things that reflect the way their culture views the world, Oral language is usually the first to be learned because of the need to communicate. Language learning therefore is a part of the Child’s broader developmental process.
Having closely discussed the inter rë1ationship between teaching and learning of language and the tremendous usefulness of psycholinguistics to these concepts, one can now rightly conclude that the knowledge by psycholinguistic is very essential for language teaching and learning.
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