Hard Science Linguistics and Brain-based Teaching

The Implications for Second Language Teaching

Input is usually thought of as linguistic forms to which learners are exposed. How the brain works has a significant impact on what kinds of learning activities are most effective. Using differentiated PowerPoint presentations with materials in an artificial language designed for the study, this study investigates three types of language input to find the most effective input to help foreign language teaching in the classroom: translation-based input, picture-cued input and breadth-and limits-of-association input. Three PowerPoint presentations were created providing various types of input. The target language was an artificial language we designed. Subjects were 80 undergraduate students divided into 3 groups. The results of ANOVA and post hoc Scheffé performed on post-test scores for the 3 groups indicate that the breadth-and limits-of-association input showed a significant advantage over the other two, but the picture-cued input did not differ from the translation-based input (F=16.041, p=.000).

Input is usually thought of as linguistic forms to which learners are exposed. How the brain works has a significant impact on what kinds of learning activities are most effective.