The Relationship between Language and Cognition and The Role of Formal Teaching of Language Acquisition

       I.            The Relationship between Language and Cognition

The relationship between language and cognition has long intrigued scholars. Many different and often incommensurable notions of the relationship have been advocated, as a result generating an enormous amount of dispute and stimulating a considerable body of experimental, observational, and theoretical research in fields as diverse as linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy.

The American linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941) in particular proposed that a deep relation exists between language and thought. Known as the Whorfian hypothesis (or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis), in its strongest formulation this hypothesis has it that the structure of one’s native language determines one’s conceptual categorisation of the world. The Whorfian hypothesis generated a good deal of debate and empirical testing in the 1950s and 1960s. Following a relative lull of a couple of decades in the late twentieth century, the hypothesis has reappeared in scholarly debate, and stimulated emergence of a rash of new formulations and methodologies. The language-cognition interface has once again become a productive and engaging field of enquiry.

Perhaps the major difficulty in undertaking research in this domain has been the lack of serious dialogue and exchange of ideas among scholars representing the various disciplines, and failure to appreciate their respective methodological and working expectations — and limitations. One of the principal aims of this conference is to confront this problem head-on by bringing together researchers actively working at the disciplinary interfaces. Thus contributions, both pro and con, have been invited from leading scholars in cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, animal cognition, and philosophy.

From the wide range of issues that could be addressed, the following have been selected for particular focus in the conference, as most likely to yield productive discussion and results:

·         language and the conceptualisation of space, motion, events, number, colour, and time;

·         theory of mind;

·         ontogenetic and phylogenetic emergence of language and conceptualisation;

·         universal and language-specific aspects of (categorical) perception;

·         neurological aspects of language and conceptualisation

·          When we analyze the role of language processing in its cognitive aspects, we must first

·          remember that cognitive psychology is the study of learning. This learning involves and

·          encompasses perceptions, reasoning, thinking and decision making. With these processes one

·          must take into account the conscious and the unconscious mental activities. For one to learn it is

·          a necessity that one understands the concepts of language to allow one to relate to the world

·          around them is not always an easy task. If one cannot understand how the structure of the

·          language works then one cannot comprehend the sounds such as the phonemes nor the words

·          that makeup the language. Without the proper understanding one cannot understand the

·          semantics of the language therefore one cannot speak and put things into proper context to relay

·          those perceptions, reasoning`s and decision making processes. If one understands the structures

·          within the language then one can use the context to move forward to the various levels that one

·          must take to mature and grow as an individual. From here it is easy to see without knowledge

·          and understanding of the structures one cannot mature and mentally come to terms with all those

·          things that influence and change who one is and who they will become. (Willingham, 2007) (Dale, 2004)

Conclusion to this language and cognitive psychology phenomenon is that as new levels of cognitive psychology are reached and understood so should the levels of the English language. If our language had not changed and developed then mankind would have not developed and became a civilized species. Like cognitive psychology there are limits to the behavioral methodology so there must too be limits in the English language of what are proper and accepted methods for the language. Language and cognitive psychology really do go hand in hand because both deal with memory and thoughts with a emphasis on the mental processes to think and inform those around us.  (Anderson, 2004) (Weismer, Thordardottir, 2002) 

    II.            The Role of Formal Teaching in Language Acquisition

a.   Types of Language Learning

There are two types of language learning, naturalistic and formal learning. The first naturalistic, is natural and unconsciously. It occurs in the environment of society and started from the beginning (when a child has not mastered any language) and the development of language acquisition is in line with the physical and psychological development. For instance, there is a child who learns their mother tongue. He studied it since they were very young, they learned it from their parents, family and environment naturally without force. If they make an error it will be corrected by their environment so they will more fluently to produce their language.

The second one is formal learning. It takes place in the classroom by helping of teacher, media and also the materials that will support student’s progress in their second language acquisition.

We can not prevent if formal learning of second language acquisition is really important because recently there is interdependence between one country and to another. We need to learn a second language for many benefits of the education sector, tourism, politics and economics.

Second language acquisition is not same with the first language acquisition. Here students had to master their first language well and the development of second language acquisition is not in line with the physical and psychological development. It conducted formally and the motivation of students in general is not too high because a second language is not used for everyday communication in their community. But exactly it affects some badness for them. Actually, in Indonesia second language acquisition is still has low quality. The students who study their second language Bahasa Indonesia or English are not still achieve the real goal yet, to communicate with the others fluently. It because the lack of motivation that is given.

b.      The Role of Formal Teaching of  Second Language Acquisition

Formal instruction plays an important role in the second language acquisition, although it does not affect the development route, it fosters more rapid development. For many learners, adults or children, natural setting only afford exposure environment, and can’t enable acquisition to take place. Formal instruction helps enhance development of second language acquisition. The role of formal instructions can be considered as an important issue in second language acquisition. The purpose of formal instruction is to teach the learners the formal system of second language acquisition. It is an assumption that by using instructional method, which is focusing on lingustics form, aids the acquisition of grammatical knowledge. And it can greatly raise the learners’ consciousness about the nature of target language rules which can help the learners to internalize them. Studying the role of formal instruction of second language acquisition is important both for developing theoritical of second language acquisition and for language teaching.

Krashen (1982) states that the classroom can do much better than informal environment. Long (1983) also states that formal instruction ougth to show a greater effects on beginners than on advanced learners, however advanced learners can bennefit from formal instructions, although the classroom aids the beginners more than the advanced learners. And the formal instructions also leads to improve scores on interegative tests.  

REFERENCES :

Anonim.(2012).The Relationship between language and cognition.[Online].Tersedia: http://lic.au.dk/. [29 Juni 2012].

Anonim.(2012).Psych-Cognition of Language.[Online].Tersedia: http://jdec.hubpages.com/hub/Psych-Cognition-of-Language[29 Juni 2012].

The Role of Formal Instructions of Second Language Acquisition. [Online]. Tersedia: http://wenku.baidu.com/view/9452248bcc22bcd126ff0cb9.html###[29 Juni 2012].