Barbara Rogoff based her Apprenticeship theory on Lew Vygotsky’s theory of Zone of Proximal Development and Bruner’s theory of the Spiral Curriculum and Scaffolding. She developed concept of Guided Participation as guidance and participation in cultural activities are crucial to children’s apprenticeship in thinking. She emphasises the role of adult, a guide who supports and assists children.
In “The Cultural Nature of Human Development” Rogoff explains that cognitive development depends mainly on collaboration with other people rather than skills and development and it is seen as apprenticeship. Barbara Rogoff explains how children develop cognitively by taking part in cultural life of their community, as she compares children from U.S who are segregated from adult’s cultural life and children from Guatemala, who are engaged in cultural practices.
The main negatives of Rogoff theory are that she bases it on Vygotsky’s theory, which been criticised as doesn’t apply to all social and cultural groups and offers little description of context of children various age, development levels, gender and learning disabilities. M. Beth Casey from Boston college criticises Rogoff as she draws from Bandura’s conceptualisation of observation that made contribution relevant to her theory. Guided participation term was used by Bandura to describe help to overcome fears.
Barbara Rogoff theory got many positive opinions. Michael Cole Ph.D. University of California says “The cultural Nature of Human Development” is essential book for anyone who is interested in role of culture in development. Rogoff also explains how different cultures support learning. She recognises differences between raising children in different countries and cultures, how it influences children cognitive development. Child A is developing cognitively very well as she participates in adult activities.
In classroom Child A can be engaged in preparing activities e.g. instead of buying play dough Child A collaboratively with other children can help teacher to make it and next time they may be able to do it by themselves. They should be supported to work together as they learn from each other by observation. In other occasion, instead of answering question teacher should encourage children to find answers by themselves by investigation and exploring.
Teachers should create bridges between something that children already know and something that is new for them. At home Child A participate in all family activities and she is not praise for her help as she feels helping is natural process. At school should be treated same, should be engaged as much as possible in all activities and in preparing them as this will help her develop cognitively by learning from other children and teachers.
Krashen’s theory of Monitor model consists of five basic hypotheses: The Acquisition Learning Hypothesis, the Natural Order Hypothesis, the Monitor Hypothesis, the Input Hypothesis, and the Affective Filter Hypothesis. Theory of second language acquisition was refined over a period of time. Krashen believes that children learn mother tongue when listening to spoken language. He thinks that there is no difference between the way we acquire our first language and additional languages.
The Acquisition Learning Hypothesis is split into The Acquired System and The Learned system, means that children when acquiring first and second language very similar, by interaction. The Monitor Hypothesis explains acquisition, learning and role of the monitor to support learner as he needs enough time, need to focus on form and correctness and know the rules. The Natural Order Hypothesis describes that acquisition of grammatical structures comes in naturally. Some grammatical rules seem to be easier acquired and some can be acquired later as they are too difficult.
The Input Hypothesis explains improvement and progresses of learner when they are exposed to hear second language (input) that is more advanced that learner’s current linguistic skill. Krashen believes that this is crucial for second language learning. The Affective Filter Hypothesis explains that for development of second language acquisition important is motivation, self-confidence and anxiety. Learners who are well motivated, have self-confidence, and low anxiety can acquire second language easier.
Low motivation, low self-esteem and anxiety can cause mental block. Krashen states that children do not have this filter, only adults, so they have ability to acquire second language same as mother tongue. Krashen believes that “learning” is less important than “acquisition”, as children acquire language before they start to learn it. The acquisition is subconscious and learning of language conscious as learner learns by knowing rules.
Positives of Krashen theory is his theory is on time, he describes bilingualism when world is changing, and all the countries become multi cultural. His theory is especially beneficial for people working in education sector as everyday they work with bilingual children and they try to work out the best way of teaching.
Krashen in 1996 writes about two ways bilingual education can help English language to develop. The first called background knowledge is when children are well educated in their mother tongue, they have knowledge to helps them to understand second language better. The second way called literacy transfers means that children develop literacy more in second language than first. Child A is only 5 years old so she is not well educated in her native language yet.
The main negative of Krashen theory, is that Krashen claims that adults have affective filter, and they are not able to fully master second language, but by Krashen children do not have affective filter and they can fully acquire second language. This theory is criticised by Manmay Zafar who says that Krashen’s theory fails as he forgot that children might experience learning difficulties by lack of motivation, low self-confidence, stress and anxiety. Due to these factors they are unable to acquire second language.
Krashen believes that correction and teaching rules are not essential to language acquisition. He agrees that most language learning is unconscious. R. Schmidt criticised for it Krashen. He says that there are many who believe that conscious understanding of the language is crucial for using grammatically correct forms. In his opinion errors are the result of not being familiar with rules of the second language, forgetting them, or not paying attention to using correct forms.
As child A starts learning second language just now teachers should introduce language and speak to child relatively simple, so child A will be able to understand. When Child A acquire basic language, teachers can add more vocabulary and grammatical rules, Child A will learn by scaffolding. Teaching second language should not be boring or stressful for a child as she might lose her motivation. Should be based around her interests first. This is related to Monitor Hypothesis.
Krashen’s research has led some schools in U.S to implement in-class reading programmes. Children can choose books to read. It gives children input. Child A in Scottish school may be encouraged by teacher to borrow English books as Krashen (2003) says that reading ‘may be the most powerful educational tool in language education’ and is supporting second language acquisition. Reading may help Child A to increase literacy and expand vocabulary in second language.
Stephen Krashen theory of Second Language acquisition is relevant for Child A case study. As she just began her learning in Scotland in second for her language. Krashen theory might help her parents and teacher better understand her needs and way she absorbs English.
For her best cognitive development teachers should engage Child A more in collaborative learning activities. It would be beneficial for her development if teachers and parents work together to support her and challenge her. Barbara Rogoff proved that children are observers, who learns by watching others and collaboratively work with them.
