ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES
LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION AND THEORIES OF
LEARNING
A Paper was arranged to complete task: English
for Specific Purposes,
on the fifth semester.
Lecturer : Faisal Risdianto, S. S., M. Hum.
Created by :
Eva Nuryani 113-13-073
Fatma Riftiningsih 113-13-148
Novi Dyah
Arisanti 113-14-037
Iis Sholikah 113-14-180
Class D
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN) SALATIGA
2016
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
بِسْÙ…ِ اللَّÙ‡ِ الرَّØْÙ…َÙ†ِ الرَّØِيمِ
There are many approaches relate to Language.
As teacher, it will be better not focus on one approach. Every approaches have
their advantages and disadvantages, here the evidence in the environment should
be acted as their case. In this occasion, important to understand the main
features of all approaches so they can be used appropriately in ESP course.
Theories of
learning is the conceptual framework describing how information is absorbed,
processed and retained during the learning. This is about how the learners
process the information in which they have taken. Learners may have their style
in learning process but they have same destination in order to understanding
what they learn.
Learning
language means the understanding structure and the processes of the mind.
Unfortunately, we know about the people thinking. Although, when people try to
improve the techniques, methods and contents of language teaching, they have to
try and find what they will do in the classroom atmosphere.
In twentieth
century there was no coherent theory of learning available to language teacher,
until psychology had been establish as respectable subject of scientific
enquiry in the early twentieth century. There are five main stages have
identified of development which are commonly known as: Behaviorism, Mentalism,
Cognitive Code, Affective Factor and Learning Acquisition.
CHAPTER II
CONTENTS
A. LANGUAGE DESCRIPTIONS
The ideas are drawn from the various language descriptions that have
been developed by succeeding schools of thought in Linguistics. The important
thing, we can apply the suitable approach to get our goal. Here, we identify
six main stages of development,
1.
Classical or Traditional Grammar
Description
of English and other languages were based on the grammars of the classical
languages, Greek and Latin. These descriptions were based on analysis of the
role played by each word in sentence. Language were described in this way
because the classical language were care-based language where the grammatical functions have different use of appropriate approach. The sentence was made
apparent by the use of appropriate inflections. The form of a word would change
according to subject, object, indirect object, and so on.
2. Structural Linguistics
The
structural or “slot and filler” form of language description will be familiar
to most language teacher as a result of the enormous influence it has had on
language teaching since the Second World War.
Language is
described in terms of syntagmatic structures which carry the fundamental
propositions (statement, interrogative, negative, imperative, etc.) and nations
(time, number, gender, etc). There are
large areas of language use that can’t explain. It may fail to provide the
learner with understanding of the communicative use of the structures (Allen
and Widdowson, 1974).
3. Transformational Generative (TG) Grammar
Chomsky
argued that the structural description (the view of language from syntagmatic
patterns) was too superficial, because it only described the surface and can’t
explain the relationship of meaning.
There must
be two levels of meaning from Chomsky: a deep level and a surface level. A deep
level, which is concerned with the organization of thoughts. Meanwhile the
surface level, where these thoughts are expressed through the syntax of
language.
Here, ESP
needs to focus the distinction he made between performance and competence.
Describing what people do with the language (performance) is important, if not
equal importance is discovering the competence that enables them to do it.
(Hutchinson and Waters, 1981)
4. Language Variation and Register Analysis
Enable us to
distinguish formal from informal, written from spoken, self-sufficient language
from context-dependent. If we view language as part of a communicative whole,
it is clear that language use shows considerable variety. The concept of
language variation gave rise to the type of ESP, which was based on register
analysis. Register analysis has proved to be an insubstantial basis. Language
varies according to the context of use enables us to distinguish formal from
informal, written from spoken, self-sufficient language from context-dependent.
5. Functional or Notional Grammar
Functions
are concerned which social behavior and represent the mention of the speaker or
writer. Notions, reflect the way in which the human mind things. Functional or
notional had shown that there is more to meaning than just the words in the sentence.
6. Discourse (Rhetorical) Analysis
The change of meaning in the same sentences is brought by 2 factors :
a.
the sociolinguistics context (the
relationship between participants and their reasons for speaking)
b.
the discourse meaning (the utterance
acquires meaning by virtue of what utterances it precedes or follows)
B. THEORIES OF LEARNING
There are some theories of learning such as:
a. Behaviourism (learning as habit formation)
The first coherent theory of learning was
the behaviourist theory based mainly on the work of Payloy in Soviet Union and
of Skinner in the United State. This simple but powerful theory said that
learning is a mechanical process of habit formation and proceeds by means of
the frequence reinforcement of a stimulus-response sequence.
The are some precepts such as:
1. Never translate
2. New language should always be dealt with in the sequences: hear, speak,
read, write
3. Frequence repetition is essential to effective learning
4. All errors must be immediately correct
Principles of behaviourism or is called of
operant conditioning
b. Mentalism (Thinking as rule-governed activity)
In this case learning as rule-governed
activity or learning consist not of forming habits but of acquiring rules – a
process in which individual experiences are used by the mind to formulate a
hypothesis.
c. Cognitive code
Learning is a process in which the learner
actively tries to make sense of data, learning can be said to have taken place
when the learner has on the data. The basic teaching technique associated with a cognitive theory of language learning is the problem solving task.
d. The affective factor (learner as emotional being)
In this theory, learner try to combine the
emotional factor and cognitive theory in order to take success or otherwise of
a language learning experience. The cognitive theory tells us that the learners will learn when they
actively think about what they are learning. But the cognitive factor presupposes
the affective factor of motivation. That is the reason why the important
elements in development of ESP is motivation.
There are two influential of motivations in language
learning. They are:
1. Instrumental motivation
Instrumental motivation is the reflection of an
external needs. It means the learner are not learning a language because thy
want to, but they need to. For example: the students read the text books
because they need to pass an examination.
2. Integrative motivation
A desire on the part of the learners to be members of
the speech community that uses a particular language. In this case the learner
learns the language because they use it as communicative speech to the others.
The learner to be members of the speech community that use a particular
language. It is an internally generated want rather than an externally imposed
need.
e. Learning and acquisition
In this case, learning is seen as a
conscious process, while acquisition proceeds unconsciously. It means that when
people learning language, automatically they will acquire it in unconsciously.
That is why the both terms are interchangeably.
f. Model for Learning
Model of learning will provide a practical
source of reference for the ESP teacher and course design. It is a picture that
combine all parts of learning process. For example, picture the mind as a
network of connections, meanwhile the individual houses, towns, and village
represent item or bundles of knowledge.
English for Specific Purpose
To give the meaning of ESP, we need to
establish a context, which will help us to see how ESP at the present time
relates to the rest of ELT. The important thing we should understand the main
features of each description in order we
can consider how they can be used most appropriately in ESP courses. So they
are drawn from the various language description that have been developed by
succeeding schools of thought in Linguistics.
CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION
The Language Description is the way in which in the language system
is broken down and described for the purposes of learning. However, the
theoretical basis for methodology, that helping us to understand how people
learn is delivered by learning theories. We should know both of them will be
useful in ESP.
There is no single source from a language course which
perfect. Every stage of language description has their own function. We
couldn’t say a functional description does not imply that a structural description
is wrong. Teacher should recognize various approaches are different ways of
looking at the same thing because the purposes of the linguist and the language
teacher are not same.
The Theories of learning relates to the development in approaches to
learning and considered their relevance to ESP. We still do not know very much
about learning. Therefore, not to base any approach too narrowly on one theory,
we should choose an approach that suitable with the language description. As
teacher, it is useful to trust in the evidence that had happened. In practice,
the implication both language description and learning theories should be
selected.
REFERENCES
Hutchinson Tom & Alan Wters. 1987. English For
Specific Purposes. Cambridge University Press.
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