Abstract

This paper suggests a new model to teach language skills. The aim of this model is to integrate the three most influential theories in the process of language teaching and learning which are behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism. This model explains how these three theories are integrated with each other in the process of language teaching and learning to complete each other taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of each theory. This model is mainly used for teaching language skills which are reading, writing, speaking and listening. Reviewing previous literature, it is clear that there is no integrated model that has tried to link these theories although there are suggestions from scholars to integrate them in a single model because there is no theory that can describe the whole process of learning without the interference of the other theories. This model suggests that teaching any skill can be divided into two phases. The first one is introducing the skill theoretically and the second one is practice. The first phase requires constructivism in order to build the students’ knowledge concerning the skill, and the second one is practice which depends on behaviorism through providing different drills to students. Cognitivism is the link between constructivism and behaviorism. Thus, creating knowledge is the core of constructivism but it is mentally driven as it requires cognitive processes. Also, behaviorism focuses on practice and it did not account for the cognitive processes which are essential especially because practice is associated with the mental activation of all the linguistic knowledge. Therefore, the paper discusses the three theories and the rational for the new model as well as the process of teaching following the suggested model.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.