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TRANSFORMATIONAL‐GENERATIVE THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND THE ROLE OF CONDITIONING IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Author(s) -
Ney James W.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1971.tb00490.x
Subject(s) - transformational grammar , psychology , linguistics , generative grammar , mediation , comprehension approach , language acquisition , second language acquisition , foreign language , second language attrition , language education , mathematics education , sociology , social science , philosophy
At face value, the application of some aspects of transformational‐generative theories of language to second language pedagogy would seem to preclude the use of conditioning. These theories, however, do not debar conditioning from learning certain aspects of language. In fact, some specialists concerned with foreign language pedagogy recommend the use of conditioning for the learning of surface features of languages. The central question, then, is not whether conditioning should be used in second language learning and teaching but to what extent it should be used. Tentatively, it would seem that elements of universal grammar could be dedutively presented to the student in an effort to provide cognitive mediation between the surface features of the native and target languages. Conditioning could then be used to give the student control of the surface forms of the target language.