SEMINAR

PSYCHOLINGUISTIC                                   PRINCIPLES




                                        JITHIN P MTHEW
                      ENGLISH




INTRODUCTION
       
     Psycholinguistics or the psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable human beings to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Psycholinguistics in simple words can be defined as a marriage or bond between psychology and linguistics which finds application in education and therapy.
        To teach a language effectively, the teacher should bear in mind some important principles of language teaching. These necessary principles are called psycholinguistic principles in language teaching. Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary field. It investigates the mental mechanism underlying language processing. It includes how to perceive words, and store them in the mind, how to understand a sentence, how to learn to read, how language and writing system influence mental organizations. To teach a language effectively, the teacher should bear in mind the following important principles of language teaching.




Importance of Habit Formation and Intensive Practice
   
  As Palmer says, “language learning is essentially a habit forming process, a process during which we acquire new habits.” When the child learns a foreign language, he has already acquired the habit of speaking his mother tongue and his muscles of speech are set in a particular way. Since the sound of the new language are different from his mother tongue, the child has to keep at bay the habits of speaking his mother tongue and has to cultivate a fresh set of habits. For this purpose, the child needs sufficient practice and drill. In fact constant and accurate practice is the basis of habit formation. Language is a skill subject and not a knowledge subject. Like other skills as dancing and painting sufficient practice is needed in language learning also.
     In most classrooms we find that the pupils are not given any practice in using the language. Consequently, though they may read English for a number of years, yet they do not have grasp over the fundamentals of the language. It is important for the teacher to help the student to master the sound and structure of the language. The pupils should establish the pattern practice.
     The teacher should always remember the value of repetition at regular intervals of time for the reinforcement of items and their permanent retention by the pupils. With the passage of time, pupils tend to forget things. It is important, therefore that their knowledge is brushed up every now and then. The pupils should be exposed to the new language for the maximum amount of time in the classroom. The use of mother tongue should be minimized. The mother tongue in fact should be used only when absolutely essential.


Oral Approach To Language Teaching
     The Importance of oral work in learning a language is now increasingly recognized. Language is primarily speech: written symbols are secondary. So in teaching language, listening and speaking come first, reading and writing next. If a person has command over the spoken word, he has a sense of achievement which is an incentive for further progress. Language becomes real and meaningful for him. It facilitates reading and writing. If the child knows the spoken language, he has only to learn the written symbols for reading and only to learn spelling for writing.
     E C. Kittson remarked that, “learning to speak a language is always by far the shortest road to learning to read and to write…” By using the language as speech the pupil will cover something like twenty times as much ground in a given time as he would by doing written exercises. The acquiring of a language is the acquiring of an art, the art of expressing oneself in that language: this art like every other art must be acquired by practice that is by using the language. The most satisfactory manner of using the language from the practical point of view is as speech, and it is also theoretically, the most natural; it follows therefore, that a language should be learnt by speaking it.

Teaching Basic Sentences and Graded Patterns
     Since language is a structure, pupils should be taught basic sentences and graded patterns. Practice alone enables the learner to acquire the habit of speaking the language.


Situational Approach to Language Teaching
     A foreign language should be taught in situations, which is the natural way in which the child learns his mother tongue. Items of vocabulary and structure should be taught in appropriate situations. The teacher should show the various objects either by presenting them actually before the class or by bringing pictures or by drawing on the blackboard. He should be fully conscious of his surroundings and should make full use of them.                  
     The teacher should point to the objects not only in the classroom but also outside it, like the sky, the sun, the building, the road etc. The teacher should perform actual actions and also make the pupils to do likewise for as many action words as possible like, sitting, standing, reading, writing, walking etc. the quality words such as tall, small, big, hot, cold etc. may similarly be demonstrated. Conversation should be encouraged because, they present in context different kinds of sentence structures.

Selection and Grading Language Material
     It is a fundamental principle of teaching that we should proceed from simple to difficult and from more useful to less useful. Accordingly a proper selection and grading should be made of the language material, that is, vocabulary and structure. The principle for the selection and gradation of language items are frequency, usefulness, range, productivity, simplicity and teachability. The material should be selected and graded according to the capacity and level of the students.
     After six years of learning English at the school stage, a school leaver is expected to know about 280 structures and 2500 words. These items have to be selected judiciously and later selection has to be made for language material to be taught in each class. The items may be further graded for teaching


Natural Order of Learning
     The natural order of learning a language is listening, speaking, reading and writing. This is hoe the child learns his mother tongue. He first listens to sounds and then produces them himself. He starts reading the language when he is five or six years old. Then he learns how to write. Likewise, in teaching a foreign language sufficient practice should be provided in listening and speaking the language before teaching the pupil how to read it. It is generally agreed that reading should be introduced after two months of purely oral work. Moreover the language material which the pupil is called upon to read should be the same which he has already mastered orally. Writing comes last of all, and the child should not be asked to write anything which he has not mastered orally or which he has not read. Moreover due weightage is given to all aspects of language, that is, listening, speaking, reading and writing. No skill of language learning should be neglected or over emphasized.


Maintenance of Interest
     The teacher of language should create interest among the pupils to learn the language. This he can do by making his lessons lively and purposeful. Some of the ways of creating interest are adequate use of audio-visual aids like flash cards, pictures, charts, tape recorder,     power point presentations etc. blackboard drawing, involvement of the pupils in various activities to create teaching situations, games in teaching and variety in instructional works. Variety is not only the spice of life, but it is also needed in an English lesson to hold the attention of the pupils.
     The teacher should not do only one type of activity in the class. Ideally, there should be scope for listening, speaking, reading and writing practice in every lesson. Only the emphasis will differ from each lesson. Some lesson will be predominantly speech lessons, others will be reading or writing lessons. Moreover, the activity of the pupil is very important. ‘Learning by doing’ is a good maxim even in the case of English. The main thing is that the lessons should be made interesting so that the students may derive pleasure from their study rather than feel bored. The pupil should not fear the teacher of English. He should be given a sense of achievement. The teacher should acquire standard pronunciation and be familiar with the usage of the language, stress, intonation and rhythm. He should be a model for the learners in the spoken form in the classroom.

Correct Language Standards
     Teach the language as it is used by its native speakers at present and not as somebody thinks what the language ought to be. The only basis of correctness in a language is the use by its native speakers.

Attitude Towards Target Culture
     The teacher should impart to the students a sympathetic attitude towards the culture of the pupil whose language he is teaching.




CONCLUSION
In order to make the teaching learning process fruitful, the teacher should bear in mind the psycholinguistic principles. A teacher who is well aware of these psycholinguistic principles can easily his his/her students to learn a new language. The students should be exposed to the new language for the maximum amount of time in the classroom. The use of mother tongue should be reduced and in fact should be used only when absolutely essential. Practice alone enables the learner to acquire the habit of speaking a new language. The teacher of language should create interest among the students to learn a new language. In short, to teach a language effectively, the teacher should bear in mind the various principles of language teaching or the psycholinguistic principles. To sum up, regular and rigorous practice alone enables the pupils to acquire the habit of speaking a new language.