Literature Review - Occupation Vocabulary Game

In the study of language, behaviorist B. F. Skinner had claimed that language is acquired according to the laws of operant conditioning, in much the same way that rats learn to press a bar for food pellets. In 1959, however, American linguist Noam Chomsky charged that Skinner's account of language development was wrong. Chomsky noted that children all over the world start to speak at roughly the same age and proceed through roughly the same stages without being explicitly taught or rewarded for the effort.
According to Chomsky, the human capacity for learning language is innate. He theorized that the human brain is “hardwired” for language as a product of evolution. He added that children could simply produce any sentence, which is grammatically correct but invalid by the meaning. For example, colourless green idea sleeps furiously. We can accept the sentence grammatically but when it comes to the meaning it indicate nothing. This is what Chomsky claimed in his argument.
In fact, my Game 1 is actually related to what Chomsky asserted. Before discuss it further, I will explain first on what I taught the students in the language classroom. My teaching is related to vocabulary learning. I named it as “Occupation Vocabulary Game”. Via the game the students got their chance to learn about various kind of occupation. In addition to that, the students also required producing a sentence using the kind of occupation they have got.
It is actually an adaptation of snake game, where the students have to throw dice before moving their counters. There are three different coloured boxes, a green, which stands for a normal box, a red one that carries questions for the students and lastly yellow coloured boxes. The students who landed on the yellow coloured squares will have the opportunity to step forward a few boxes.
Now back to Chomsky’s claims and the implementation of his theory in the game. The “Occupation Vocabulary Game” gives the opportunity to the students to guess the occupation that they know even though it is incorrect. This gives a chance to the students to swell their brain searching for all kinds of jobs in the related area that described by the teacher. However, to make it more challenging the students have been given a limited time only to come out with the answer.
On the other hand, Gardner proposes the theory of multiple intelligences. The theory suggests that there are a number of distinct forms of intelligence that each individual possesses in varying degrees. Gardner proposes seven primary forms: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, intrapersonal (e.g., insight, metacognition) and interpersonal, for example social skills (Gardner, 19 ) the game, however, acquire the interpersonal skills. This is mainly because; the students have some knowledge on the various kinds of jobs. They most probably gained the knowledge from the exposure to the environment including their parents and others.
Besides that, the game also derives a collaborative learning. Collaborative Classroom is a creative and practical guide for teachers on implementing cooperative learning (Susan, H. Tim, H. 1990). In fact, collaborative learning will enhance an effective language learning among students. The student shall work in groups in order to find the appropriate answer to the questions asked. This will encourage them to help each other and indirectly enhance the moral values among them.
However, the negative part of it is with the ‘parasite’ participants. Those students tend to keep quite or being inactive in the group works. While, the active students lean to conquer the group.
In addition to that, this language game classroom enhances a learning situation that has a low affective filter (Krashen, 1987). The students learn to use the language in a non- threatening and fun environment. In contrast to the traditional classroom, whereby the students have to learn the language in a formal way, referring to task based activities. This will lead the students to loose interest in language learning, which mostly happen, in the traditional classroom. Apparently, in traditional classroom, students feel uncomfortable and insecure which will further provoke a ‘psychological barrier’ to communication and learning (Mc Laughin,1987).


References:

Gardner, H. (1982). Art, Mind and Brain. New York: Basic Books.

Mc Laughin, B. (1987). Theories of Second-Language Learning. London: Edward Arnold.

Susan, H. and Tim, H. (1990). The Collaborative Classroom: A Guide to CO-Operative Learning. London: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.