-
Krashen's Second Language Acquisition
Theory
Whether one is an advanced
degree student in education or linguistics, or
simply attending a four
-week
program
in
teaching
English
as
a
foreign
language
(TEFL),
he
or
she
will
be
exposed
to
Stephen
Krashen'
s
theories and hypotheses about how people acquire a
second language. They are, by far, the
most
influential and
predominant
theories
in
use
today
—
despite
the
fact
that
his
theories have
come
under considerable
academic criticism over the years.
Stephen D. Krashen, PhD
Prof
essor Emeritus, USC
The major criticism of
Krashen's theories essentially consists of two
main points. First, most of them are
not
based
on
or
have
ever
been
subjected
to
empirical
research.
Hence,
they
have
not
been
proven.
Apropos
to
this
criticism
is
the
story
behind
California'
s
bilingual
education
program
during
the
1990s,
of
which
Krashen
was
the
chief
architect.
In
what
was
referred
to
as
the
ting, phonics, or using
other
traditional
tools
of
academia.
Essentially,
the
program
proved
to
be
a
dismal
failure
and
was
challenged in a massive grassroots
movement through the landslide approval of
California Proposition
227 in 1998,
which allowed parents the right to petition the
schools to end it, (see, for example: Stewart,
1998; Crawford, 1999).
The second and related criticism, is
that many of his terms are loosely and very
broadly defined and, thus,
may actually
defy verification through use of the scientific
method altogether (Gregg, 1984). For example,
how does one measure (or operationally
define)
to second language acquisition?
Despite
academic
criticism
from
a
few
corners
and
the
scandal
surrounding
California'
s
bilingual
education program
during the 1990s, Dr.
Krashen'
s
theories are
widely and enthusiastically embraced by
the TEFL community-at-large primarily
because they
feel
intuitively correct. In addition, the absence of
empirical research does not necessarily
invalidate the accuracy or reliability of a
theory: It simply means
it remains
scientifically unproven and will be regarded with
far greater skepticism by some.
Input
Hypothesis
Second
language
acquisition
theories
tend
to
fall
under
two
broad
categories:
Those
that
can
be
classified as naturalistic or innate
and those that can be classified as environmental
or interactional, i.e.,
requiring
interaction with the proper environment . For
example, Noam Chomsky's Universal
Hypothes
is
holds
there
is
an
inborn
or
innate
neurological
faculty
for
learning
language
that
he
refers
to
as
the
Learning Acquisition
Device (LAD): this would be an example of the
first type of theory (Shannon, 2005).
Krashen'
s
Input
Hypothesis
(originally
referred
to
as
the
Monitor
Model)
consists
of
five
correlates
or
sub-hypotheses and would be broadly
classified as an interactional or environmental
model.
Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
This hypothesis, which is the most
fundamental of the five, draws a clear distinction
between language
learning
and language
acquisition
.
Krashen argues that language learning alone does
not lead to the
acquisition or
functional use of a language. Thus one can be an
expert in English grammar and syntax,
i.e., have a great deal of knowledge
about a language, but still not be able to use the
language with which
to
effectively
communicate
with
others:
herein
lies
the
greatest
criticism
of
China'
s
foreign
language
program (Fabisz, 1998).
Chinese English teachers teach English
almost exclusively in Chinese as if it was a
course in math or
science. Typically
what they will do is write a complex sentence in
English on the blackboard and then
spend 15 minutes analyzing and
discussing the sentence structure, i.e., parts of
speech, structur
e and
syntax, completely in Chinese. Thus,
most Chinese students have an excellent academic
understanding
of the English language
and most are far more aware of the mechanics of
the language than are their
Western
counterparts: The problem is, they rarely acquire
a functional use of the language, especially in
regard
to
listening
and
speaking
skills.
Most
college-educated
Chinese,
however,
can
read
and
understand simple English sentences
because that is what they practiced doing for so
many
years in
school.
Monitor Hypothesis
The
monitor
hypothesis
attempts
to
bridge
the
schism
between
language
learning
and
language
acquisition by
illustrating the relationship between them and it
parallels how children naturally acquire
their first language (L1). Obviously,
children learn how to speak years before they ever
attend school and
this is where they
will then learn about the language, i.e.,
acquisition precedes learning.
As
the
child
learns
about
the
form
and
rules
of
the
language
over
time,
he
or
she
then
begins
to
self-
monitor speech productions that are checked
against this
is, even native speakers
will occasionally make a grammatical error or
produce a
speech now and then but, if
they are aware of the proper form or rule, they
will usually catch the error and
correct themselves immediately
afterwards. This would be evidence of the Monitor
(ibid).