Behaviorists see a correlation between language learning and habit formation. In their view, all learning is the establishment of habits as a result of reinforcement...

1. Habits as observable: Skinner posits that, it is possible to observe habits. To establish this hypothesis, he, set up an experiment where he put several rats in a cage with two levers. He placed a morsel of food in such a way that whenever the rats pressed the first lever, the morsel of food would drop in the cage. However, they would get itch-powder thrown over them when they pressed the second lever. After several tries, the rats were found to systematically press the first lever.
- To explain this behavior, by the rats, Skinner advanced the concept of operant conditioning. He coined this term in reference to the process of learning from consequences .According to Skinner future behaviour is determined by the consequences of past behaviour. If a behaviour results into good or pleasant experience or occurrence then this behaviour is likely to be repeated .On the other hand if a behavior results in an ugly experience then it is unlikely to be repeated. Following this observation of animal and human behaviour ,Skinner came up with the notion of reinforcement According to Skinner reinforcement is a consequence that strengthens behavior or makes it likely to be repeated .He came up with two types of reinforcement; negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. Skinner argued that Positive reinforcement occurs when there’s an increase in the probability of occurrence of a response to stimulus, as a result of the fact that this response being correct is rewarded. Negative reinforcement on the other hand was a decrease in the probability of occurrence of a response as a result of the fact that this response being wrong is punished.

2. Habits as automatic. Habits are said to occur spontaneously. Once a habit has been established the acquirer of the habit automatically puts it to use where required. Thus learners of a language will make utterances spontaneously. For example, if a learner of English knows that 'Good morning' is a form of greeting used in the morning, then whenever she wants to greet somebody in the morning she will automatically find herself saying ‘good morning’ and if a learner knows saying ‘sorry’ is a way of apologizing in English, then he will automatically say “sorry” when he wrongs someone. For a behaviour to become a habit and automatic learners will repeatedly copy the stimulus behaviour and internalize it.Thus seeing a particular stimulus, learners will spontaneously produce certain utterances. The presence of a stimulus will, therefore, automatically elicit a particular response.

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francis1897 answered the question on March 8, 2023 at 09:34