Stephen D. Krashen

Stephen D. Krashen (University of Southern California) is an expert in the field of linguistics, specializing in theories of language acquisition and development. He was born in 1941 and much of his recent research has involved the study of non-English and bilingual language acquisition. During the past 20 years, he has published well over 100 books and articles and has been invited to deliver over 300 lectures at universities throughout the United States and Canada.

Krashen’s widely known and well accepted Theory of Second Language Acquisition has had a large impact in all areas of second language research and teaching since the 1980s.

Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition(1981)

Krashen’s theory of second language acquisition consists of five main hypotheses:

• The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis.

• The Monitor hypothesis.

• The Input hypothesis.

• The Natural Order hypothesis.

• The Affective Filter hypothesis.

The Acquisition-Learning distinction is the most important of all the hypotheses in Krashen’s theory and the most widely known and influential among linguists and language practitioners.

The Monitor hypothesis explains the relationship between acquisition and learning and defines the influence of the latter on the former. The monitoring function is the practical result of the learned grammar.

The Input hypothesis is Krashen’s attempt to explain how the learner acquires a second language – how second language acquisition takes place. The Input hypothesis is only concerned with ‘acquisition’, not ‘learning’. According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses when he/she receives second language ‘input’ that is one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence.

The Natural Order hypothesis is based on research findings (Dulay & Burt, 1974; Fathman, 1975; Makino, 1980 cited in Krashen, 1987) which suggested that the acquisition of grammatical structures follows a ‘natural order’ which is predictable. For a given language, some grammatical structures tend to be acquired early while others late.

The Affective Filter hypothesis, embodies Krashen’s view that a number of ‘affective variables’ play a facilitative, but non-causal, role in second language acquisition. These variables include: motivation, self-confidence and anxiety. Krashen claims that learners with high motivation, self-confidence, a good self-image, and a low level of anxiety are better equipped for success in second language acquisition.

When we think of language learning we need to understand two clearly distinct concepts. One involves receiving information about the language, transforming it into knowledge through intellectual effort and storing it through memorization. The other involves developing the skill of interacting with foreigners to understand them and speak their language. The first concept is called language learning while the other is referred to as language acquisition. These are separate ideas and we will show that neither is a natural consequence of the other.

Languague Acquisition:

Language acquisition refers to the process of natural assimilation, involving intuition and subconscious learning. It is the product of real interactions between people in environments of the target language and culture, where the learner is an active player. It is similar to the way children learn their native tongue, a process that produces functional skill in the spoken language without theoretical knowledge. It develops familiarity with the phonetic characteristics of the language as well as its structure and vocabulary, and is responsible for oral understanding, the capability for creative communication and for the identification of cultural values.

Language Learning:

The concept of language learning is linked to the traditional approach to the study of languages and today is still generally practiced in high schools worldwide. Attention is focused on the language in its written form and the objective is for the student to understand the structure and rules of the language, whose parts are dissected and analyzed. The task requires intellectual effort and deductive reasoning. The form is of greater importance than communication. Teaching and learning are technical and based on a syllabus. One studies the theory in the absence of the practice. One values the correct and represses the incorrect. Error correction is constant leaving little room for spontaneity. The teacher is an authority figure and the participation of the student is predominantly passive. The student will be taught how to form interrogative and negative sentences, will memorize irregular verbs, study modal verbs, learn how to form the perfect tense, etc., but hardly ever masters the use of these structures in conversation.

”We haven’t exploited the most obvious and inexpensive uses of technology in language education, but are instead encouraged to spend substantial amounts of money using ineffective and even untested commercial programs. None of these programs that we have seen makes a serious attempt to provide language students what they need the most: compelling comprehensible input.” Stephen D. Krashen

It’s interesting how much I enjoyed reading about this author and actually I’m now into his books very much , he has a really good explenation with this book that  makes me realize that a lot of things he says in this book are things that sometimes we put in practice without notice it…

Anyways he have an online document about the use of the internet in lenguague acquisition is called ”The Potential of Technology in Language Acquisition” I read it and it was wonderful, it haves a lot of ways to use our technology nowdays to get more knowledge about the topic and to put in practice all those tips to get more language acquisition so I’m going to leave the link Right Here fellas, Well that’s all folks! I hope you find this as interesting as I found it.