behaviorism and second language learning

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1、2BehaviorismandSecondLanguageLearningContrastiveAnalysisTheoriginofSLAasascientificfieldisembeddedinthebehavioristictradition,whichdominatedthefieldfromthe1940stothe1960s.Itisalsocloselyassociatedwithcontrastiveanalysis(CA),whichhadagreatimpactnotonlyonSLAtheorybutalsoonsecon

2、dlanguageclassroomteaching.ContrarytoitscounterpartinEurope,whereCAwasviewedasanintegralpartofagenerallinguistictheory(Fisiak1981)andthegoalwastounder-standandexplainthenatureofnaturallanguages,CAintheUnitedStateshadstrongpedagogicalroots.Inaddition,itadheredtotheprevailin

3、gscien-tifictraditionofitstime—behaviorism.Behaviorismwasregardedasageneraltheoryoflearning,andlanguagelearning(whetherfirstorsecond)wasconsideredtoadheretothesameprin-ciples.Itwasbelievedthenthatlearningisadvancedbymakingastimulus-responseconnection,bycreatingnewhabitsbymea

4、nsofreinforcementandpracticeoftheestablishedlinksbetweenstimuliandresponses.Behaviorismunderminedtheroleofmentalprocessesandviewedlearningastheabilitytoinductivelydiscoverpatternsofrule-governedbehaviorfromtheexamplesprovidedtothelearnerbyhisorherenvironment.Inaccordancewi

5、ththefundamentalprincipleofbehaviorism,firstlan-18Behaviorism19guagelearningwasviewedastheimitationofutterancestowhichthechildhadbeenexposedinhisorherenvironment.Childrenwerebelievedtoacquiretheirnativelanguagebyrepeatingandimitatingtheircaretakers’utterances.Thisideaofhabi

6、tformationisillustratedinLeonardBloomfield’s(1933)explanationofthechild’sfirstlanguageacquisition:Exactlyhowchildrenlearntospeakisnotknown;theprocessseemstobesomethinglikethis:1.Undervariousstimulithechilduttersandrepeatsvocalsounds.Thisseemstobeaninheritedtrait.Supposehemak

7、esanoisewhichwemayrepresentasda,although,ofcourse,theactualmovementsandtheresultantsoundsdi√erfromanythatareusedinconventionalEnglishspeech.Thesound-vibrationsstrikethechild’sear-drumswhilehekeepsrepeatingthemovements.Thisresultsinahabit:wheneverasimilarsoundstrikeshisear,

8、heislikelytomakethesesamemouth-movements,repeatingthesoundda.Thisbabblingtrainshimtore-pr