Psychology of Language Teachers (Summary Chapter One)

An Introduction to
Educational Psychology:
Behaviorism and
Cognitive Psychology
The Outline
1.1 Introduction
qWhat is education?
q Education, as many people believe, is something
that is carried out by one person, a teacher,
standing in front of a class and transmitting
information to a group of learners who are all
willing and able to absorb it.
Nevertheless, education is a highly complex process involving:
üan intricate interplay between the learning process itself,
üthe teacher’s intentions and actions,
üthe individual personalities of the learners,
ütheir culture and background,
üthe learning environment and a host of other variables.
q Teachers, esp. language teachers, have to link those aspects
based on psychological theories.
q Social constructivism, an approach to psychology, is adopted
to build a coherent perspective in different aspects of
language learning. This approach will be the core discussion
in Chapter 2 of the book later on.
1.2 Education psychology
qKaplan (1990) defines educational psychology as
the application of psychology to education by
focusing on the development, evaluation and
applications of theories and principles of learning
and instruction that can enhance lifelong learning.
But, do learning and education correspond to each
other?
qLearning and education are fundamentally different.
qLearning is certainly part of the process of education, while
education must give broader value and meaning to the
learner’s life.
qFurther, education concerned with educating the person
holistically.
qThus, one consequence of failing to make the distinction
between learning and education is that many learning
activities which take place in schools are not necessarily
educative: they lack a real value to the life of the learner.
1.3 Approach to educational psychology
q Educational psychology theory has passed through changes
and fashions.
q In the late nineteenth century, the fledging discipline of
psychology was particularly keen to establish itself as a
science.
q As a science, it adopted what so-called called ‘scientific
method’ as a means of gathering data about human
behavior.
q This chapter will begin with the positivist school and one of
its main offshoots, behaviorism, and the influence this has
had in language teaching.
q It is then followed by cognitive psychology and the way
different developments in this field have left their mark on
language teaching.
1.4 The positivist school
q Early psychologists sought to find the principles of human
learning by investigating the behavior of animals lower down
the biological hierarchy of the animal kingdom.
q For instance, how rats learned their way through mazes to
obtain food.
q Psychologists assumed that the lessons learned from this
could then be fairly easily applied to order human learning.
q However, they did not give any focus on the human mind in
their attempts to understand and predict human behavior.
q This led to an adherence to an experimental methodology
which is part of a philosophical form of enquiry known as
‘logical positivism’.
q Basically, this approach begins with the premise that
knowledge and facts exist within the real world and can be
discovered by setting up experiments in which conditions are
carefully controlled and where hypotheses are set up and
tested.
1.4.1 Behaviorism
qBehaviorism is an approach to psychology that
has it roots within positivism.
qThis approach arose out of the ideas of early
learning theories who attempted to explain all
learning in terms of some form of conditioning.
Do you know who is this?
qIvan Petrovich Pavlov (14 September 1849 –
27 February 1936) was a Russian
physiologist.
qPavlov demonstrated dogs’ response (e.g.
salivation) generated by one stimulus (e.g.
food) could be produced by introducing a
second stimulus (e.g. a bell) at the same
1849-1936 time.
Pavlov learned this concept when examining the rates of salivations
among dogs. Pavlov had learned then when a buzzer or metronome
was sounded in subsequent time with food being presented to the
dog in consecutive sequences, the dog will initially salivate when the
food is presented. The dog will later come to associate the sound
with the presentation of the food and salivate upon the presentation
of that stimulus.
Thus, this came to be known as S-R (Stimulus-Response) theory or
classical conditioning.
One of Pavlov's dogs, preserved at The Pavlov Museum, Ryazan, Russia

1.4.2 B. F. Skinner
qBurrhus Frederic "B. F." Skinner (March 20, 1904 –
August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist,
behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher.
He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at
Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in
1974. 1904 – 1990
qB. F. Skinner, the founder of modern behaviorism,

introduces operant-conditioning.
qOperant i.e. the range of behaviors that organisms
performed or were capable of performing.
qOperant-conditioning also emphasizes on the
important of reinforcement (i.e. reward or
punishment).
An individual will respond to a stimulus
by behaving in a particular way.
Whatever happens afterwards will affect
the likelihood of that behavior recurring.
If the behavior is reinforced (e.g.
rewarded or punished) then the
likelihood of that behavior occurring
later will be increased or decreased.
In other words, any human action was the result of
the consequences of that same action. If the
consequences were bad, there was a high chance
that the action would not be repeated; however if
the consequences were good, the actions that lead
to it would be reinforced. He called this the principle
of reinforcement.
The Skinners' grave at Mount Auburn Cemetery

qSkinner’s theory is the basis of the audiolingualism. Thus,
language is seen as a behavior to be taught.
qA small part of the foreign language, such as structural pattern,
is presented as a stimulus, to which the learner responds, for
example by repetition or substitution. This is then followed by
reinforcement by the teacher.
qThus, the role of the teacher is to develop good language habits
of the learner by giving pattern drills, memorization of dialogues
or choral repetition of structural patterns.
qIn sum, it is TEACHER-ORIENTED.
Thus it can be seen that the approach has a number of weaknesses. They
are;
QThe role of the learners is a fairly passive since they are merely directed to
respond correctly to stimuli.
QThere is little concern of the cognitive processes involved in learning
something. The relationship of how the cognitive processes can enhance
learning will be discussed in Chapter 7.
QAudio-lingual drills can be carried out with little attention to the meaning
that the language conveys.
QThere is no room for the actual process of interaction and negotiation of
meanings which is important feature of communicating in a language.
QThe making of mistakes is an important part of learning. However,
audiolingualism, with its emphasis on correct responses, does not allow for
learning from mistakes.
Despite its weaknesses, audio-lingual approach has a number of
practicalities. They are;
RAll teachers, including those who have inadequate or even no
professional training, can use this approach. It can be quicker and
easier to teach teachers to use the steps involved in audio-lingual
approach: presentation, practice, repetition, and drills in a fairly
mechanical way.
RTeachers who lack confidence tend to be less frightened of these
techniques.
RThis approach can be used by teachers whose own knowledge
of the target language is limited.
qPerhaps the strongest indictment of behaviorism has been that
it is only concerned with observable behavior.
qThus, it denies the importance the fundamental element in the
learning process.
qThe sense that learners themselves seek to make of their
worlds, and the cognitive or mental processes that they bring to
the task of learning.
1.5 Cognitive Psychology
▪ Cognitive psychology is concerned with the way in which
human mind thinks and learns, or it is commonly called as
mental processes that are involved in learning.
▪ Here the learners are required to use their minds to
observe, think, categorize, and hypothesize, and in this
way gradually work out how the language operates.
1.5.1 Information Processing
It is concerned with the way in which people take in

information, process it, and act upon it.
Attention
▪ Klatzky (1980) suggests that attention should be

seen as a process of filtering out an overwhelming
range of incoming stimuli and selecting out only
those stimuli which are important for further
processing.
▪ Best (1986) claim that attention as a cognitive
resource which can be drawn upon as a means of
concentrating our mental efforts.
1.5.2 Memory
▪ Stimuli are initially recorded for a brief amount of time

before being passed into short-term (or working) memory
if attention is given to them.
▪ It is necessary to find ways of breaking down complex
material into related ‘chunks’ before consigning these to
the long-term memory store.
Memorizing Problems
▪ The “Linkword” Method (Gruneberg, 1987; Gruneberg and Jacobs, 1991)

This technique involves linking words in both the first and second
language to construct a picture in the mind.
▪ Advance Organizer (Ausubel, 1968)
This technique gives a bridge between what learners already know and
what they need to know.
1.5.3 Intelligence and Intelligence Testing
▪ intelligence, most people would probably refer to some

inborn, general ability which enables some of us to learn
better than the others.
▪ Such a view would tend to assume that intelligence is fixed
at birth and unlikely to change after about the age of five.
▪ This belief in the unchanging nature of intelligence has led
to the development of intelligence (IQ) test and their use
for the purposes of prediction or placement and even as
diagnostic tools to explain learning failure.
INTELLIGENCE
Gardner Sternberg Vernon
• Linguistic/verbal • Metacomponents • Intelligence A
• Logical/mathematical • Performance components • Intelligence B
• Visual/spatial • Knowledge acquisition • Intelligence C
• Musical/rhythmic components
• Bodily/kinesthetic
• Naturalist
• Intrapersonal
• Interpersonal
• Existential
CONSTRUCTIVISM
Jean Piaget Jerome Bruner George Kelly

Jean William Fritz Piaget
▪ The Constructive Nature of the Learning Process

▪ The stages of learners’ development:
1. Sensori-motor stage
2. Intuitive or pre-operational stage
3. Concrete operational stage
4. Formal operational thinking stage
(9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980)

Some central aspects from Piaget’s theory
which could be significant to language teacher:
▪ Learners should be helped and encouraged to be actively

involved in constructing meaning in learning new language.
▪ The central focus of learning is on the development of
thinking and its relationship to language and experience.
▪ The tasks should be appropriate with the learners’ cognitive
level.
▪ Accommodation and assimilation must be applied in learning
new language.
Jerome Seymour Bruner
▪ Three Different Modes of Thinking according to Burner:

1. Enactive level, learning takes place by means of direct
manipulation of objects and materials, (e.g. the use of
drama, play, total physical response, and the handling of
the real objects),
2. Iconic level, objects are represented by visual images one
step removed from the real thing (e.g. the use of pictures,
or words in color),
3. Symbolic level, symbols can be manipulated in place of
objects or mental images (e.g. paralanguage to express
ideas in context).
(born 1 October, 1915)
George Alexander Kelly
▪ Kelly’s famous premise is “man-as-scientist”

▪ Kelly notes some important implications of taking
personal construct approach to teaching and learning.
1. Meaningful activities must be used in teaching and
learning process.
2. Learning should be based on shared understanding
with others.
3. The syllabus or curriculum should be adjusted to the
learners need.
(28 April 1905 – 6 March 1967)

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An Introduction to

One of Pavlov's dogs, preserved at The Pavlov Museum, Ryazan, Russia

qB. F. Skinner, the founder of modern behaviorism,

The Skinners' grave at Mount Auburn Cemetery

It is concerned with the way in which people take in

▪ Klatzky (1980) suggests that attention should be

▪ Stimuli are initially recorded for a brief amount of time

▪ The “Linkword” Method (Gruneberg, 1987; Gruneberg and Jacobs, 1991)

▪ intelligence, most people would probably refer to some

Jean Piaget Jerome Bruner George Kelly

▪ The Constructive Nature of the Learning Process

(9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980)

▪ Learners should be helped and encouraged to be actively

▪ Three Different Modes of Thinking according to Burner:

▪ Kelly’s famous premise is “man-as-scientist”

(28 April 1905 – 6 March 1967)

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