Some theories of Learning

1. 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

2. CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
ِ‫ْم‬‫س‬ِ‫ب‬ِ‫يم‬ ِ‫ح‬‫ه‬‫الر‬ ِ‫ن‬َ‫م‬ْ‫ح‬‫ه‬‫الر‬ ِ ‫ه‬‫اَّلل‬
There are many approaches relate to Language. As teacher, it will be better not focus
on one approach. Every approaches have their edvantages 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 ang 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 cenrury. There are five main stages have identified of development which are
commonly known as: Behaviourism, Mentalism, Cognitive Code, Affective Factor and
Learning Acquisition.

3. 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 aplly 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
funcionts 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.

4. There must be two levels of meaning from Chomsky: a deep level and a surface
level. A deep level, which is concerned with the organisationof 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 insubstansial 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)

5. 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 leraning 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 immediatelly 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 individul
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 acognitive theory of
language learning is the problem solving task.
Theory operant conditioning
Respons
Reinforcement

6. 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. Intrumental 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 concious process, while acquisition
proceeds unconciously. It means that when people learning language,
automatically they will acquire it in unconsciously. That is why the both
terms are interchangably.
f. Model for Learning
Model of learning will provide a prctical 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.

7. English for Spesific 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.

8. 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 relevances 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.

9. REFERENCES
Hutchinson Tom & Alan Wters. 1987. English For Specific Purposes. Cambridge University
Press.