Language-Acquisition Theories
The main ideas on how we acquire second or foreign languages in school can be summarized as follows:
• Intuitive Acquisition: We learn another language the same way as we learnt our first: intuitive acquisition through lots of exposure to the language in authentic communicative situations (Krashen, 1982).
• Habit-formation: Language is a set of habits: we mimic and memorize and drill the patterns of the language until we learn to produce the correct forms automatically (based on an interpretation of Skinner, 1957).
• Cognitive Process: Language involves the understanding of underlying rules: if we master these rules, we will be able to apply them in different contexts (based on an interpretation of Chomsky, 1957).
• Skill-learning: Language is a skill. We learn it in school just as we learn other skills: someone explains rules or words to us, we understand and practice them until we master them and use them fluently and skillfully (Johnson, 1996).
The main contrasting concepts underlying these four theories are explicit versus implicit teaching and learning. If you think that we learn languages through subconscious acquisition without actually working out rules or translating words, then you prefer an implicit model and would favor the first or second items above. If, however, you think that we need consciously to understand how the language works, then you would favor an explicit model, expressed in the third and fourth.
Probably all of these theories have some truth in them. None on its own can really cover the complexity of the second-language-learning process. They provide, in various combinations, the theoretical basis for the different methodologies that are viral in language teaching.