For a long time, the language teaching and learning was highly based on a mechanical process. Skinner (1957) says that language is a habit that needs to be conditioned and reinforced. Thus, repeating structures of language and reinforce them was and, somehow, still is very much used in the field of learning languages, although we already have different approaches and methods.

An example of this concept is the audiolingual method (FREEMAN-LARSEN, 2000), in which there must be stimuli and responses given by the students. Aiming to condition and reinforce the language, there is the use of intense repetition by drilling. Drilling is a process of memorizing structures of language by repeating them.

Therefore, reiforcement and conditioning belong to a more traditional way of teaching and learning languages. The audiolingual method is grounded on Skinner’s behaviorism and schools still make use of it, especially the ones that want to provide a faster and more mechanical way of learning a language.

REFERENCES

FREEMAN-LARSEN, Diane. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

SKINNER, B. F. (1957) Verbal Behavior. Cambridge, MA: B. F. Skinner Foundation.