Language Learning Principle

LANGUAGE EGO

By:
Desak Paramita
Mirah Meyliana
Jayanti Swastyastu
Maria Yasinta Siti
Mei Indrayani
Eka Juniani

GANESHA UNIVERSITY DENPASAR

POST GRADUATED PROGRAM
ENGLISH EDUCATION
2015

Principles of Language Teaching :

LANGUAGE EGO PRINCIPLE

I.

INTRODUCTION
Teaching is a process that is carried out by someone (in this case the teacher) that allows

for learning to students. Teaching cannot be separated from learning. Therefore, teachers are
required to be able effectively to facilitate student learning occurs where students play an
active role in developing himself to achieve a variety of skills.
However, often a teacher, especially those who have not much experience of teaching,
teaching methods randomly choose without knowing the underlying theory and without
considering the characteristics of the students. In fact, if the teacher knows the principles of
language teaching and apply it in teaching, the learning process will be better. According to
Brown (2001) there are twelve principles of language teaching and the twelve principles
mapped into three parts, namely: Cognitive, Affective, and Linguistics.
Learning is a conscious effort to achieve the overall behavior change that includes
cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Affective aspects play an important role in
determining

the

level

of

success

in

learning,

work,

or

other

activities.

Affection refers to the emotions or feelings. Affective is the emotional side of human
behavior, and can be paired with cognitive side. Emotions or feelings are influenced by
several factors personality, feelings about us and about other people associated with him.
Many variables involved in assessing the emotional side of human behavior in the process of
language learning such as self-esteem, self-confidence, will know yourself, and believe in the
ability of self (Brown, 2001).
In learning a language, people must believe in their self in order to be successful. If a
person feels himself capable of carrying out a task or have a high sense of self-confidence, he
will seek to optimally in order to achieve success. In contrast, people with low self-esteem
tend to think of failure due to lack of ability from the beginning.
Anyone who learns a second language should realize that in learning a language should
not be afraid to be wrong. Because like children who are learning the first language that
increased language skills or language will become better by learning from mistakes.

II.

WHAT IS LANGUAGE EGO PRINCIPLE

Language is a particular characteristic of learning object, Its the expressions of particular

faculties that is maintain a delicate relationship with the development of our lifestyle and our
thought as well which make it a fundamental psychological instrument. This feature,
combined with the fact that language is the only sign system that can be refer to itself,
despite all that, the ego that surrounding learning a new language tend to classify it as a
type a controversial learning objects.
We must make the difference between learning the language, which occurs
simultaneously with the development of the faculty of language and learning a foreign
language, which occurs once this option is developed and one of the characteristics of
learning a foreign language is a procedural learning, that knowledge cannot be transmitted
directly through education and added to the existing knowledge; However, must be
reconstructed by the learner himself at the mercy of many experiments.
First of all, it is important to give the definition of language ego. Guiora (1972) was
the first linguist that created the notion of language ego; he claimed that this agent occurs
when the learner is aware of the limitations and boundaries of language; for example, the
difference among the sounds and pronunciation of English. For some authors the concept of
language ego is related to body ego, and in the case of

language Guiora states that,

"Grammar and syntax are the bones or structure of speech, lexis the flesh and pronunciation
is the core. Pronunciation is an aspect of language ego because it is hard to acquire in English
and difficult to lose in the native language"
According to this principle, when a person learns to use a second language, he also
developed a second identity (ways of thinking, feeling, and acting) associated with a second
language that he used. If students learning English as a second language, they will experience
an identity crisis because they are developing a second identity. Sometimes students feel
confused because they do not understand the culture and way of life of native speakers of the
second language. For example, students feel themselves silly or embarrassed when he made a
mistake in the choice of words or grammar in communication. In this case the student will
feel brittle, defensive and cause a variety of obstacles.

One of the possible reasons that pushes students to create a second identity is the
necessity to protect themselves from a new experience and the agents this carries within, for
instance anxiety and nervousness.
The language ego is identified with a second language. Such an ego creates a sense of a
defensiveness, fragility and raising of inhibitions. Students that study a second language feel
fragile because of the native language ego. For this reason teachers must be patient and
display a supportive attitude to students. As you learn a second language very often youll
find yourself in a stupid situation. But the teacher must not forget that her students are very
ambitious and capable, and that they do their best to manage it.
According to Sigmund Freud in psychoanalytic ego is the portion of the psyche
experienced as the self . It is the part that remembers, evaluates, plans, and in other ways is
responsive to and acts in the surrounding physical and social world. it coexists with
the id (the unconscious, instinctual portion of the psyche) and the superego (the portion
representing the conscience, or the internalization of societal norms). David Singleton and
Lisa Ryan (2004) define language ego in manner similar to concept of the body ego,
language ego too is conceived as a maturation concept and refers to self-presentation with
physical outlines and firm boundaries. Language ego often relate to a second language.
Scientifically It is clear that children learning two languages simultaneously acquire them
by the use of similar strategies. There are, in essence, learning two languages, and the key to
success is in distinguishing separate contexts for two languages. (People who learn second
language in such separate context are referred to as coordinate bilinguals; they have two
meaning systems, as opposed to compound bilingual who have one meaning system from
which both languages operate.) One could refer to children who are acquiring a second
language soon after they have begun to learn their first language (say at age 3 or 4), or as late
as age 10. For the most part, research confirms that the linguistic and cognitive processes of
second language learning in children are general similar to first language processes. Adults,
more cognitively secure, appear to operate from the solid foundation of the first language and
thus manifest more interference. But it was pointed out earlier that adults, too, manifest errors
not unlike some of the errors children make, the result of creative perception of the second
language and an attempt to discover its rules apart from the rules of first language. The first
language, however, may be more readily used to bridge gaps that the adult learner cannot fill
by generalization within the second language. In this case we do well to remember that the
first language can be facilitating factor, and not just an interfering factor.
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Second language acquisition is the process by which people learn languages in addition to
their native language. The term second language is used to describe any language whose
acquisition starts after early childhood (including what may be the third or subsequent
language learned). While teaching a second language the teacher should take the following
into consideration: When students should be corrected ,how planned and structured should
the activity be, how much should be explained, and how should the student be treated.
Teachers must always praise students. One of the ways is through verbal or non-verbal
assurance. The student must believe in the teacher and in himself and One of the important
things in teaching a second language is to teach your learners to not be afraid of producing in
and interpreting the language. Create an atmosphere for the students so that they can try out
the language freely. Always provide students with challenges, a technique that makes the
difficult learning process neither too easy nor too difficult.
III. Characteristic of Language Ego
According to Brown (2001) language ego is when learners develop a new mode of
thinking, feeling, and acting; in other words, a second identity related to the acquisition of
English as a second language. Brown explains that people have a system of strategies when
they acquired their first language, but when they face the challenge of learning a second
language such as English, their egos suddenly are affected and they feel totally defenseless in
a stressful and new situation, for example interacting in a face to face communication while
using English.
One of the possible reasons that pushes students to create a second identity is the necessity
to protect themselves from a new experience and the agents this carries within, for instance
anxiety and nervousness. According to Lander (1975) anxiety is an unpleasant nature and it is
similar to fear; also anxiety is known as a factor that damages student's prospects for
successful learning. Moreover, MacIntyre & Gardner (1991, p. 86) claim that English classes
are stressful and anxiety-provoking, so that can be a reason of not enough oral achievement
and proficiency.
As human beings learn to use a second language. The students also develop a new mode
of thinking, feeling, and acting a second identity. The new language ego interweave with

the second language can easily create within the learners a sense of fragility, a defensiveness
and a raising of inhibitions.
IV.
a.
1.

THEORY OF LANGUAGE EGO PRINCIPLE

Theory from Benjamin Bloom
Affective Principles

Human beings are emotional creatures. At the heart of all thought and meaning and action is
emotion. As intellectual as we would like to think we are, we are influenced by our
emotions. It is only logical then, to look at the affective (emotional) domain for some of the
most significant answers to the problems of contrasting the differences between first and
second language acquisition.
2.

The Affective Domain

What is the affective domain? The affective domain is difficult to describe scientifically. A
large number of variables are implied in considering the emotional side of human behaviour
in

the

second

language

learning

process.

How

is

it

to

be

delimited

and

understood? Affect refers to emotions or feelings. Language is a behaviour, that is, a phase of
human activity. Understanding how human beings feel and respond and believe and value is
an exceedingly important aspect of a theory of second language acquisition.
a.

The affective domain is the emotional side of human behavior, and it may be

juxtaposed to the cognitive side. The development of affective states or feelings involves a
variety of personality factors, feelings about ourselves and bout others with whom we come
into contact.
b.
The affective domain includes many factors : empathy, self esteem, extroversion,
inhibition, imitation,anxiety, attitudes the list could go on. Some of them may seem at first
rather far removed fromlanguage learning, but when we consider the pervasive nature of
language, any affective factor can onceivably be relevant to second language learning.
(Bloom 1956 as cited in Lucille Mazo, 2005)
b.

Theory from Alexander Guiora

According to Guiora said that As human beings learn to use a second language, they

also develop a new mode of thinking, and acting a second identity. The new language ego,
intertwined with the second language, can easily create within the learner a sense of fragility,
a defensiveness, and a raising of inhibitions.
6

For any monolingual person, the language ego involves the interaction of the native
language and ego development. Ones self- identity is bound up with one s language, for it is
in the communicative process the process of sending out messages and having them
bounced back that such identities are confirmed, shaped, and reshaped. This language ego
may account for the difficulties that adults have in learning a second language. The childs
ego is flexible, thus a new language ego doesnt pose a threat or inhibition to the ego, and
adaptation is more relatively easily. Then the simultaneous physical, emotional, and cognitive
changes of puberty give rise to a defensive mechanism in which the language ego becomes
protective and defensive. The language ego clings to the security of the native language to
protect the fragile ego of the young adult. The language ego, which has now become part of
self identity, is threatened, and thus a context develops in which you must be willing to
make a fool of yourself in the trial and error struggle of speaking and understanding a
foreign language. Younger children are less frightened because

they are less aware of

language forms, and the possibility of making mistakes in those forms doesnt concern them
greatly.
It is no wonder, then, that the acquisition of a new language ego is an enormous
undertaking not only for young adolescent but also for an adult who has grown comfortably
and secure in his / her own identity and who possesses inhibitions that serve as a wall of
defensive protection around the ego. ( Guiora Alexander, 1972). So, we can say, that language
Ego is very personal, egoistic nature of second language acquisition
V.

IMPLICATION IN TEACHING

Teachers always are encouraging students to not worry in using the target language. One
effort to reduce student anxiety by trying to package the subject matter ranging from simple
gradually reached the stage of a difficult or challenging. Brown (2001) asserts that because of
the element of fragility on students in learning the language, then the teacher should treat
them with gentleness and attitude wise. In this case, patience and understanding is required to
hold their emotions in order to simplify the process of mastering a second language.
The following are some affective supports to relief the situations:
1. Overtly display a supportive attitude to your students while some learners mat feel
quite stupid in this new language, they are capable adults struggling with the
acquisition of the most complex set of skills that any classroom has ever attempted to
teach. Your warm and fuzzy patient and empathy need to be openly and clearly
communicated for fragile language egos have a way of misinterpreting intended input;
7

2. On a most mechanical, lesson planning level, your choice of techniques and

sequences of techniques need to be cognitively level;
3. Considering learners language ego states probably help you to determine:
a. When to correct a students speech error
b. How much to explain something
c. How structured and planned an activity should be
d. Who to pace in which groups or pairs ( Guiora Alexander, 1972)

REFERENCES
Bloom. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives The Classification of Educational
Goals

Handbook
1:
Cognitive
Domain.
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https://charttesl.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/brown-principles-of-language-learningand-teaching-pages-79-70/
Brown, H. D. (2001). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Retrieved
From : https://practicadocentelasalle.wikispaces.com/file/view/08++agosto+17+2013+-+material+for+test+construction.pdf
David Singleton, Lisa Ryan. (2004). Language Acquisition. Retrived from :
www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?K=9781853597589
Guiora, A. Z. (1972). "Language, Personality, and Culture or the Whorfian Hypothesis
Revisited.
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from
:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/56720338/GuioraAlexander#scribd
Sutrisna Wijaya. (2011). Theory of Language Ego Principle. Retrived from :
http://mitrapustaka.blogspot.com/2011/01/theory-of-language-ego-principle.html
https://sites.google.com/site/finalresearchpapers/home/language-ego/language-ego