Beliefs about the nature of language

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c. Beliefs about language learning

Beliefs about language learning refer to “very specific assumptions about how to learn a language and about the kinds of activities and approaches they believe to be useful” as The best way to learn a language is to mix with native speakers of the language” and “You need to practice every day to improve your English” Richard Lockhart, 2005:55. Beliefs about learning is also related to how the students view the process of language learning. The students must bring different expectation about how they should learn materials. It is not only related to the general learning process but also to what will be learned and how it will be learned Brindley, 1984 in Richards 1996. All the views owned by the students are influenced by theories of learning that the students use and believe. This area is closely related to the students’ beliefs about approaches to language learning Tanaka, 2003:3. Nellie 2013 proposes five main theories of language learning, i.e. behaviorist, universal grammar, Krashen’s monitor hypothesis, cognitive, and Schumann’s acculturation 1 Behaviorist theory The key elements of behaviorist theory are the stimulus, the response, and the association between the two. The primary concern is how the association between the stimulus and response is made, strengthened, and maintained Ertmer Newby, 2013:48. Behaviorism focuses on the importance of the consequences of those performances and contends that responses that are followed by reinforcement are more likely to recur in the future. No attempt is made to determine the structure of a 16 student’s knowledge nor to assess which mental processes it is necessary for them to use Winn, 1990 in Ertmer Newby, 2013:48. This means, in the learning process, behaviorist give emphasis on repetition and imitation the similar structure continuously. 2 Krashen’s Monitor Hypotheis Krashen in Schutz 2006:12 proposes that the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire their first language. Here, Krashen believes that there is no fundamental difference between the way learners acquire their first language and their subsequent languages. He claims that humans have an innate ability that guides the language learning process. Infants learn their mother tongue simply by listening attentively to spoken language that is meaningful to them. Foreign languages are acquired in the similar way. One of five hypotheses from Krashen 1985 is known as Krashens monitor hypothesis. Human ability to produce utterances in another language comes from their acquired competence, from their subconscious knowledge. Learning, conscious knowledge, serves only as editor, or monitor. Krashen, 1985:02 This part suggests that to maintain accuracy, learners should be encouraged to activate their conscious learning to monitor their production of the language. However, it might hinder the fluency. More focus on form may seriously disrupt communication in conversation. According to the researches of Gass and Selinker 1994 there are three conditions to apply the monitor hypothesis in a new learned system, they are time, focus on form, and know the rule. 17 3 Universal Grammar Universal grammar UG is a linguistic theory, proposed by Noam Chomsky, argues that “the ability to learn language is innate, distinctly human and distinct from all other aspects of human cognition ” Chomsky 1986: 3. Further he explains that The Universal Grammar hypothesis – the idea that human languages, as superficially diverse as they are, share some fundamental similarities, and that these are attributable to innate principles unique to language: that deep down, there is only one human language Chomsky 1995: 131. This theory states that all children are born with an innate aptitude to acquire, develop, and understand language. Through this view, Chomsky emphasizes on the existence of Language Acquisition Device LAD, i.e. a system of universal principles and parameters fixed through the available data. It means, in order to learn a language, children need the incoming data, but also something that allows them to process the data they are exposed to. In Chomskyan tradition, grammar of a language is an account of the grammatical competence rather than performance of the native speakers of that language. Grammatical competence is defined as the native speakers’ tacit knowledge of the grammar of their language Chomsky, 1965 in Bavali and Sadighi, 2008: 12. In other words, Chomsky does not view language as speech to be used in real-life communication with others. Chomsky, however, views language as a set of pure, formal properties that are inherent in any natural Chomsky views language as a set of