1. 3 Theoretical bases
Foreign language teaching methodology, like any other discipline, is interrelated with other disciplines. For efficient and successful teaching of a foreign language, the following sciences offer important findings: linguistics, psychology and so on.
1. 3. 1 Linguistic theories
From the linguistic point of view, the second language acquisition can offer some concerning theories to support the approach of cooperative learning.
1. 3. 1. 1 The input hypothesis Input is probably one of the most important terms in second language acquisition. Without input, second language learners cannot learn a foreign language. In Krashen’s point of view, the input hypothesis may be the single most important concept in second language acquisition theory, for it attempts to answer the question of “how do we acquire a language.” [7] This hypothesis assumes that acquisition is central and learning is peripheral, and the goal of our pedagogy is to encourage acquisition. The question of how we progress from one point to another through the “natural” developmental sequence then becomes crucial.
This hypothesis states simply that we acquire language by understanding input that is a little beyond our current level of acquired competence. It claims that listening and reading comprehensions are of primary importance in the second language learning, and that the ability to speak and write will come on its own with time. Speaking influency is not “taught” directly, rather, it “emerges over time and on its own” after the acquire has built up competence through comprehending input (Krashen, 1985:2) [7].In the input hypothesis, it is stated that in order for acquirers to progress to the next stage in acquiring the target language, they need understand input language that includes a structure that is a part of the next stage. Krashen believes that human beings learn a language by comprehending the “comprehensive input”, which is one of the necessities to learn a foreign language. The so called “comprehensible input” refers to the comprehensible language materials heard or read by the learners and its degree of difficulty should be a little beyond the current language level [7]. The language materials that are only consisted of the learnt language points are of no significance to language learning. And if they are too difficult and are largely beyond the current knowledge level of the students, they also cannot help learning. To sum up, the “comprehensible input” refers to the fact that not all the target language to which second language learners are exposed is understandable and only some of the language they read makes sense to them. Krashen calls the type of input which can promote learning “i+1”, where the “i” refers to the acquirers’ present level of competence, and the “+1”means the structures that are a little beyond learners’ current level of competence and they are challenging but not overwhelming to the learners. Only if the language materials exposed to the learners are at the level of “i+1”, comprehension is possible and the language development can be facilitated [7].
1. 3. 1. 2 The output hypothesis The amount of input language can not be a factor in determining how much language has been acquired, different from Krashen’s idea that the input language has been a requisite for acquisition, however, only when language learners apply the second language to the real environment can they master the language practically [7]. The discovery based on Swain’s research on language learners shows that the fluency and accuracy of the second language results from comprehensible language input and output. Output is the touchstone that language has been practically acquired. Important as input is, it remains as language knowledge in the brains of learners, never turned into language skills without output. Moreover, Swain points out that output helps learners to beware of the problems of language acquisition, to test how much learners have grasped the second language.
1. 3. 2 The psychological theories
Language is an extremely complex and unique human behavior. Current opinions are rather controversial, sometimes even skeptical, about what seems to be valid and significant research in the psychological processes that occur in language acquisition.
1. 3. 2. 1 Cognitive psychology Cognitive psychologists are therefore interested in the mental processes that are involved in learning [4]. This includes such aspects as how people build up and draw upon their memories and the ways in which they become involved in the process of learning. However, the ways in which human thought has been investigated have themselves varied considerably. At one extreme are information theorists who have drawn the analogy of the brain as a highly complex computer and who seek to explain its workings in terms of rules and models of how different aspects of learning take place. At the other extreme is the so-called constructivist movement, growing mainly out of the work of the Swiss developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget. Psychologists taking this approach have been mainly concerned with ways in which individuals come to make their own sense of the world [8].
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