Issues in Language Learning; What Can we Figure Out Here ?
M. Faruq Ubaidillah
English Education Program, Islamic University of Malang, East Java, Indonesia
This writing will start to elaborate various issues in language learning from the miracle of language itself. Jeremy harmer in his book, the practice of English language teaching, pointed out that children acquire one or more languages through unconscious process. Even, he added children amazingly acquire the languages though they are not specifically taught, nor do they set out consciously to learn it. The question then appears. How do children learn language? The answer to this question is a massive exposure done by their environment such as adults, parents, etc. This is clearly seen as children always imitate what they see and hear at the very first time. Even though they don’t understand the meaning of words spoken by other people, they can still actively communicate and play all day.
This phenomenon has brought linguists to think critically on the second language learnt by students in the class. They initiate to apply what children do in the second language learning process in the class. They argued that acquiring second language and first language might differ in many aspects. Predictably, there is a relation between acquisition and learning. Howatt (2004:264) in his book The principle of Language Study claimed that he is interested in the difference between ‘spontaneous’ and ‘studial’ capabilities. These two things were previously clarified as the ability to acquire language naturally and subconsciously, while the latter told students to organize their learning and apply their conscious knowledge to the task in hand. Another linguist, Palmer, for instance, suggested that spontaneous capabilities are used to acquire spoken language, whereas studial capabilities have to be required to develop literacy.
The theories above are still of concern. Many linguists still dispute on the theories, the distinction between subconscious and conscious learning. In the early 1980s, the American linguist Stephen Krashen explained the input hypotheses, as he called previously. He contended that language acquired subconsciously can be used in spoken or conversation as it is always available whenever we need. On the contrary, he then added that language acquired consciously cannot be used on spontaneous conversation as it means learning grammar and vocabulary. This might only be used as a monitor to our communication; however, the more we monitor our spoken language, the more we are less communicative. Ultimately, Krashen viewed that acquired language and learnt language are far different both in character and effect.
Linguists further elaborate the issues on the contribution of behaviorism. Watson and Raynor, two psychologists, reported the result of an experiment they had carried out with a young boy called Albert. The result showed us the relation between conditioning created by the experiment and the behaviorism theory. In behaviorist theory, conditioning is the result of a three-stage procedure: stimulus, response and reinforcement. For example, in a classic experiment, when a light goes on (the stimulus) a rat goes up to a bar and presses it (response) and is rewarded by the dropping of a tasty food pellet at its feet (the reinforcement).
