Psychology of Learning

1.      Native speaker & foreign learner errors:  The main difference is that a foreign leaner can mostly correct his mistakes. Secondly, learners make more mistakes because of their native language interfering with the target language. While learning a new language, children make guesses. Similarly, students of a language make “informed guesses,” so these deviations are sometimes necessary for the development of their language skills.

2.      Performance Analysis: Language is a system and cannot be learnt until all of its inter-connecting parts are learnt. This theory focuses not only on deviations, but also on the correct forms of student’s “interlanguage” to get an overall picture. It records what students know and what they don’t know so far. If a class is constantly regressing according to performance analysis, it means the teaching plan needs to be changed. This also motivates students as they don’t always have to be scolded for making mistakes.

3.      Sources of Error:         Redundant Error:  errors made due to personal reasons (worrying about personal problems, fatigue, etc); Inherent Errors:  errors made due to faulty material (with wrong/irrelevant examples) or teaching methodology. Individualization: Each student has a different approach towards both learning and correcting errors (some do it item by item while others do it faster)  

4.      Lexical Error:  Teachers should introduce the right vocabulary on the right time.

5.      Accent:  Teachers should teach students the correct pronunciation but not force them to use it outside the class because sometimes the “local’ pronunciation of a word is preferred, e.g. the pronunciation of the word “missile” in Pakistan.

6.      Motivation:       Integrative:  learner is more motivated in learning because he has to use the language for communication purposes in daily life and wants to become part of the society in which he lives; Instrumental:  learner’s motivation is comparatively lesser as the use of foreign language is restricted only to education or business. The learner here does not want to “imitate” a foreigner and would prefer his “local” pronunciation outside the class or office.