Stephen Krashen It is almost impossible to discuss second language acquisition without mentioning Stephen Krashen. Krashen is a professor at the University of Southern California where he is a linguist who specializes in second language acquistion and development. He has written over 100 books and has delivered numerous speeches across the United States. Along with Tracy Terrell, Krashen developed a NaturalApproach Theory to second language acquisition as well as his Five Hypotheses. He has also challenged some of the early theories in SLA such as the Behaviorist Theory.
Q. What is the Natural Approach? A. The Natural Approach is a theory based on the following tenets: 1) Langauge acquisition is the only way way to become competent in a second language. Language acquistion could be defined as the unconscious process developed through the use of meaningful language. This is different from language learning, which is conscious learning. If you have ever studied a foreign language in school it would be categorized as language learning. You acquired your native language through languageacquistion. This is known as the Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis. 2) What a student learns consciously serves as a monitor to check for mistakes when the person speaks. If you have ever attempted to say something in a foreign language that you studied and thought about it for a minute before you said something to make sure you said it correctly, you were doing what Krashen calls the Monitor Hypothesis. 3) A student who learns a second language will learn grammatical structures in a predictable order. There will be certain features of the language that the student will learn first. This is known as the Natural Order Hypothesis. 4) In order to learn a second language when their comprehensible input, what their teacher teaches them, is just beyond their current level of knowledge. This is known as the InputHypothesis. 5) A filter is something that may prevent a student from learning a second language. High stress, and anxiety can be referred to as filters. The lower the filters are the more likely the student will acquire the second language. It is important that the student feels safe and is comfortable in his/her environment. Having self-confidence and high self-esteem will help a student in second language acquistion.This is the Affective Filter Hypothesis. Here are a couple of resources with more information about Krashen's Natural Approach.
Stephen Krashen
It is almost impossible to discuss second language acquisition without mentioning Stephen Krashen. Krashen is a professor at the University of Southern California where he is a linguist who specializes in second language acquistion and development. He has written over 100 books and has delivered numerous speeches across the United States. Along with Tracy Terrell, Krashen developed a Natural Approach Theory to second language acquisition as well as his Five Hypotheses. He has also challenged some of the early theories in SLA such as the Behaviorist Theory.
Q. What is the Natural Approach?
A. The Natural Approach is a theory based on the following tenets: 1) Langauge acquisition is the only way way to become competent in a second language. Language acquistion could be defined as the unconscious process developed through the use of meaningful language. This is different from language learning, which is conscious learning. If you have ever studied a foreign language in school it would be categorized as language learning. You acquired your native language through language acquistion. This is known as the Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis. 2) What a student learns consciously serves as a monitor to check for mistakes when the person speaks. If you have ever attempted to say something in a foreign language that you studied and thought about it for a minute before you said something to make sure you said it correctly, you were doing what Krashen calls the Monitor Hypothesis. 3) A student who learns a second language will learn grammatical structures in a predictable order. There will be certain features of the language that the student will learn first. This is known as the Natural Order Hypothesis. 4) In order to learn a second language when their comprehensible input, what their teacher teaches them, is just beyond their current level of knowledge. This is known as the Input Hypothesis. 5) A filter is something that may prevent a student from learning a second language. High stress, and anxiety can be referred to as filters. The lower the filters are the more likely the student will acquire the second language. It is important that the student feels safe and is comfortable in his/her environment. Having self-confidence and high self-esteem will help a student in second language acquistion.This is the Affective Filter Hypothesis.
Here are a couple of resources with more information about Krashen's Natural Approach.
This page is dedicated to the Natural Approach.
http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/LANGUAGELEARNING/WaysToApproachLanguageLearning/TheNaturalApproach.htm
This website gives more detailed about Krashen and his Five Hypotheses.
http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html
Amazon has several selections written by Krashen
Amazon
James Fullerton
ESL Teacher
Oak Grove Elementary School
jfullerton1@k12tn.net