Emergentism Emergentism is the name that has recently been given to a general approach to cognition that stresses the interaction between organism and environment and that denies the existence of pre-determined, domain specific faculties or capacities. Emergentism thus offers itself as an alternative to modular, ‘special nativist’ theories of the mind, such as theories of…
Functionalist Theories of SLA Functionalist theories of L2 acquisition share a number of concerns with variability theories. For example, both are concerned not just with how linguistic knowledge is represented in the mind of the learner, but also with how this knowledge is used in discourse. Also, both types assume that syntax cannot be considered…
Speech Acts Speech acts are carried out over various turns and their exact shape takes into account interlocutor reactions. In other words, conversation is co-constructed by both interlocutors, which is something that can never be simulated with DCTs. Speech acts are certainly the most researched area of pragmatics, and they are arguably the most social,…
Evidence-Centered Design Evidence-centered Design was developed by Mislevy. It is important that we see the tasks or items that we design for tests as part of a larger picture, and one approach to doing this in a systematic way is ECD, a methodology for test design and construction developed at Educational Testing Service (ETS). ECD is…
Input Processing Theory Input Processing Theory VanPatten’s Input Processing Theory is based on the standard information processing viewpoint. Namely, working memory is limited in capacity (at least in terms of each modality), making it difficult for learners to attend concurrently to different stimuli in the input. He identified ‘detection’ as the key attentional process, noting…
Postmethod Pedagogy Postmethod pedagogy allows us to go beyond and overcome the limitations of method-based pedagogy. Within such a broad-based definition, Kumaravadivelu (2003) visualizes postmethod pedagogy as a 3-dimentional system consisting of pedagogic parameters of: Particularity: The parameter of particularity requires that any language pedagogy must be sensitive to a particular group of teachers teaching…
Constructivism Constructivism The main underlying assumption of constructivism is that individuals are actively involved right from birth in constructing personal meaning, that is, their own personal understanding from their experience (Williams & Burden, 1997). In other words, everyone makes their own sense of the world and the experiences that surround them. In this way, the…
Information Processing Theory Information processing theory models typically propose three types of memory stores: Sensory Memory: It is capable of holding information only very briefly. Short-term Memory: A short-term memory includes working memory, where information is held for a short but sufficient period of time to enable processing to take place. Working Memory: Working memory…
Research Hypotheses Research hypotheses are based on observations or on what the literature suggests the answers to research questions might be. There may be times when, because of a lack of relevant literature, hypotheses cannot be generated because the researcher is dealing with new and/or unexpected areas. So their presence is not obligatory. They should…
Activity Theory Activity Theory was developed by a group of Russian psychologists called the Kharkovites, of which the best known is A. N. Leont’ev. This theory was a development of Vygotskian theory. Lantolf described it as “a unified account of Vygotsky’s original proposals on the nature and development of human behavior”. Leontiev proposed that people…