Name: Nguyen Minh Quan Class: TESOL2019A Date: April 17th, 2020

REFLECTION PAPER – THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES: PAST AND PRESENT

+ SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER:
In this chapter of theoretical perspective, different theories, educational views and respective
hypotheses are presented in chronological order of linguistics educational development. The
chapter first provides an overview of the suitable guideline for the selection of suitable “theory”;
it then dives deep into the presentation of the development in language learning theoretical view,
from the earlier view of second language learning being an equivalence to first language
acquisition to the recent view of second language acquisition being influence from multifaceted
factors.
Each presented theoretical perspective reflects the understanding of linguists at that respective
time toward language learning. The Structuralist, Behaviorist, and Nativist views state the
importance of innate principle, innate contribution as well as individual ability on second
language acquisition. Cognitivism, on the other hand, stresses the crucial role of human mental
processes in the learning of target language. The practice and pattern of use of language are
viewed to be the focus of Emergentism perspective, whereas social interaction is regarded as the
deciding factor for the construction of knowledge system in the Social Constructivism view.
Each presented viewpoint is accompanied by the hypotheses and approaches in accordance with
its stated theoretical perspective. Overall, the chapter is a collection of the ongoing process and
development of second language theories.
+ EVALUATION:
This chapter has provided the readers with concrete information about the changes and
development within the understanding of human about language learning acquisition from the
past to the present. With each view and corresponding hypotheses show the different aspects of
human perspective toward the structure and process of second language acquisition, researchers
and readers will be able to gain greater knowledge of the contribution of innate principle, mental
processes, practical use of language, internal processing of human mind and social interaction
role to second language learning. The chapter enables readers to extend their viewpoint and
perspective in the field of language learning, which depicts the fact that language learning
process does not only involve with individual mother tongue language influence but spans its
reach to the idea of scaffolding instruction and social influential elements as well.
Furthermore, this chapter also provides a distinction of similarities and differences between
linguistic terms for readers and researchers to further reinforce their understanding of diverse
theoretical viewpoints. The significant roles of controlled processing and automatic processing,
declarative and procedural knowledge, or implicit knowledge and explicit knowledge are
highlighted to stress their importance in the explanation of the underlying principles for each
written methods and approaches in the chapter.
Questions: Will the application of perceptual salience unintentionally leave learners demotivated
and uninspired to learn features that are not deemed prominent to them?