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SEGUNDO BIMESTREGuía didáctica: Methodology I

UNIVERSIDAD TÉCNICA PARTICULAR DE LOJA La Universidad Católica de Loja �1

SEGUNDO BIMESTRE Guía didáctica: Methodology I

SELF – EVALUATION TEST 1

Answer the question below: (see the answer at the end of the guide)

What Cognitive principles do you know? Give the definition of each one.

AFFECTIVE PRINCIPLESHuman beings are emotional creatures. At the heart of all thought and meaning and action is emotion. As “ intellectual “as we would like to think we are, we are influenced by our emotions. It is only logical then, to look at the affective (emotional ) domain for some of the most significant answers to the problems of contrasting the differences between first and second language acquisition.

THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

What is the affective domain? The affective domain is difficult to describe scientifically. A large number of variables are implied in considering the emotional side of human behaviour in the second language learning process. How is it to be delimited and understood? Affect refers to emotions or feelings. Language is a behaviour, that is, a phase of human activity. Understanding how human beings feel and respond and believe and value is an exceedingly important aspect of a theory of second language acquisition.

The affective domain is the emotional side of human behavior, and it may be juxtaposed to the cognitive side. The development of affective states or feelings involves a variety of personality factors, feelings about ourselves and bout others with whom we come into contact.

The affective domain includes many factors : empathy, self – esteem, extroversion, inhibition, imitation, anxiety, attitudes – the list could go on. Some of them may seem at first rather far removed from language learning, but when we consider the pervasive nature of language, any affective factor can conceivably be relevant to second language learning.

More than three decades ago, Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues ( Krathwohl, Bloom & Masia 1964) provided a useful definition of the affective domain that is still widely used today. At the first level, the development of affectivity begins with receiving . Persons must be aware of the environment surrounding them, be conscious of situations, people, objects.. Be willing to receive, willing to tolerate a stimulus, not avoid it, and give a stimulus their controlled or selected attention.

UNIVERSIDAD TÉCNICA PARTICULAR DE LOJA La Universidad Católica de Loja�0

SEGUNDO BIMESTREGuía didáctica: Methodology I

UNIVERSIDAD TÉCNICA PARTICULAR DE LOJA La Universidad Católica de Loja �1

SEGUNDO BIMESTRE Guía didáctica: Methodology I

Next. Persons must go beyond receiving to responding, committing themselves in at least some small measure to a phenomenon or a person. Such responding in one dimension may be in acquiescence, but in another dimension, the person is willing to respond voluntarily without coercion, and then to receive satisfaction from that response.

The third level of affectivity involves valuing, placing worth on a thing, a behavior, or a person. Valuing takes on the characteristics of beliefs or attitudes as values are internalized. Individuals do not merely accept a value to the point of being willing to be identified with it, but commit themselves to the value to pursue it, and to want it, finally to the point of conviction.

The fourth level of affective domain is the organization of the values into a system of beliefs, and establishing a hierarchy of values within a system.

Finally,individuals become characterized by and understand themselves in terms of their value system.

Individuals act consistently in accordance with the values they have internalized and integrate beliefs, ideas, and attitudes into a total philosophy or world view. It is at this level that problem solving, for example, is approached on the basis of a total, self-consistent system.

Understanding how human beings feel and respond and believe and value is an exceedingly important aspect of a theory of second language acquisition.

Principle 6: LANGUAGE EGO

Several decades ago, Alexander Guiora, a researcher in the study of personality variables in second language learning, proposed what he called the language ego ( Guiora, 1972 b) to account for the identity a person develops in reference to the language he or she speaks. For any monolingual person, the language ego involves the interaction of the native language and ego development. One’s self- identity is bound up with one´ s language, for it is in the communicative process – the process of sending out messages and having them “ bounced back – that such identities are confirmed, shaped, and reshaped.

This language ego may account for the difficulties that adults have in learning a second language. The child’s ego is flexible, thus a new language ego doesn’t pose a “threat “ or inhibition to the ego, and adaptation is more relatively easily. Then the simultaneous physical, emotional, and cognitive changes of puberty give rise to a defensive mechanism in which the language ego becomes protective and defensive. The language ego clings to the security of the native language to protect the fragile ego of the young adult. The language ego, which has now become part of self – identity, is threatened, and thus a context develops in which you must be willing to make a fool of yourself in the trial – and-error struggle of speaking and understanding a foreign language. Younger children are less frightened because they are less aware of language forms, and the possibility of making mistakes in those forms doesn’t concern them greatly.

It is no wonder, then, that the acquisition of a new language ego is an enormous undertaking not only for young adolescent but also for an adult who has grown comfortably and secure in his / her own identity and who possesses inhibitions that serve as a wall of defensive protection around the ego. So, we can say, that language Ego – is very personal, egoistic nature of second language acquisition.

The Language Ego Principle can be summarized in a well-recognized claim:

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SEGUNDO BIMESTREGuía didáctica: Methodology I

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SEGUNDO BIMESTRE Guía didáctica: Methodology I

As human beings learn to use a second language, they also develop a new mode of thinking, feeling, and acting- a second identity. The new “language ego,” intertwined _with the second language, can easily create within the learner a sense of fragility, a defensiveness, and a raising of inhibitions.

The Language Ego Principle might also be affectionately called the “warm and fuzzy” principle: all second language learners need to be treated with affective tender loving care. Remember when you were first learning a second language and how you sometimes felt silly, if not humiliated, when the lack of words or structure left you helpless in face-to-face communication? Otherwise highly intelligent adults can be reduced to babbling infants in a second language. Learners feel this fragility because the strategic arsenals of their native-language-based egos, which are normally well developed and resistant to attack, are

suddenly-in the perception of the learner-obsolete. Now they must fend for their emotional selves with a paltry linguistic battery that leaves them with a feeling of total defenselessness.

How can you bring some relief to this situation and provide affective support? It is necessary to create techniques that reduce inhibitions in the foreign language classroom. It should be created a context in which students are made to feel free to take risks in speaking, and break down some of the barriers that often make learners reluctant to try out a new language.

Here are some possibilities.

Overtly display a supportive attitude to your students. While some learners may feel quite stupid in this new language, remember that they are capable adults struggling with the acquisition of the most complex set of skills that any classroom has ever attempted to teach.

Your “warm and fuzzy” patience and empathy need to be openly and clearly communicated, for fragile language egos have a way of misinterpreting intended input.

On a more mechanical, lesson-planning level, your choice of techniques and sequences of techniques needs to be cognitively challenging but not overwhelming at an affective level .

1. Considering learners’ language ego states will probably help you to determine

- who to call on- who to ask to volunteer information- when to correct a student’s speech error- how much to explain something- how structured and planned an activity should be- who to place in which small groups or pairs- how “tough” you can be with a student.

2. If your students are learning English as a second language (in the cultural milieu of an English- speaking country), they are likely to experience a moderate identity crisis as they develop a “second self.” Help such students to understand that the confusion of developing that second self in the second culture is a normal and natural process Patience and understanding on your part will also ease the process.