Foreign language learning is a process which combines cognitive behaviors and new psychomotor skills. Gradually the learner acquires another system of communication. He will come to realize that the new language is not only a set of codes by which he can express his own ideas, but an important part of a culture different from his own. In fact he will find that some distinctions he makes in his mother tongue cannot be made in the new language and that other ways of thinking and experiencing are essential if he is to communicate in the language.
At advanced levels of foreign language instruction, the learner can use the new system of communication as a means of broadening his knowledge and appreciation of literature, humanities, etc. The reading knowledge of a foreign language has long been considered a research tool in almost all fields of study, but not important enough to warrant the effort needed to accomplish true commnunicative proficiency. However, the objectives of second language instruction are entering a stage of stabilization. Over the past two decades, emphasis in modern languages has been placed on the spoken language and the development of proper speech habits. Now a balance is being achieved between the spoken and written skills in a language, culture and civilizations, cognitive processes, and acquisition of habits. This report will present an overview of the field of teaching English as a second language.
As the behaviorists have their philosophical roots in the empiricism of Hume and Locke, so the cognitive psycholinguists have their roots in such rational philosophers as Plato and Descartes. The major distinction is between the rationalist versus the empiricist epistemology. While the empiricists believe that only sense data is knowable, the rationalists believe that the human intellect incorporates many abstract principles of organization and processes of cognition that are qualitatively different ...