Krashen’s Hypotheses of Second Language Acquisition
For decades, foreign language teachers wandered in a scientific abyss. Until 1983, there had been little real research dealing with the ways in which someone acquires a second language. Teachers mostly used the audiolingual classroom model that had been in place for the past twenty years (or, even worse, the literally ancient grammatical translation model that had been used by civilizations millennia old). Clearly, language teaching methodology was in a poor situation. In 1983, however, Krashen published the results of an unprecedented body of research and paved the way for a revolution in our field. His five-point hypothesis focused on the difference between the acquisition of and the learning of a second language. Krashen has his detractors, of course, not the least of whom are American school districts, which have been reluctant to implement his teachings. Most experts agree, however, that his ideas are the most meritorious of the theories in circulation now, and schools that refuse to incorporate them are doing their students a disservice.
The first of Krashen’s hypotheses is the learning-acquisition hypothesis, which differentiates the two titular terms. According to Krashen, “acquisition” refers to the implicit knowledge we have of a language, whereas “learning” refers to explicit knowledge about a language. Implicit knowledge refers to command of a language as if it were one’s native language; explicit knowledge is what we unfortunately gain in most foreign language classes. One good example of this in Spanish is the phrase “me llamo,” which literally means “I call myself” but is usually translated by Spanish teachers as “my name is....
... middle of paper ...
... on teachers to find objective methods of evaluating students, which can be extremely difficult to do if they heed Krashen’s advice. The price that students pay for steady grading is, unfortunately, genuine competence in their chosen language, and it is far too high. The pending change in second-language teaching is often called an “incomplete revolution” because the educational establishment refuses to implement the system despite its acknowledged merits, choosing instead to languish in the mediocrity we face today.
WORKS CITED
Krashen, Stephen. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. New York: Pergamon Press. 1982
Omaggio, Alice C. Teaching Language in Context. Proficiency Oriented Instruction. Boston: Heinle and Heinle. 1986
Sole, Yolanda Russino. “The input hypothesis and the bilingual learner.” Bilingual Review 19:2. 99-100.
5. Gibbons, Pauline. Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: teaching second language learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002. Print.
Many people against second language learning argue that learning a second language is meaningless because it is never used after learning it and is soon forgotten. The problem is the country’s secondary language education methods. Rather than teaching at a young age, which they should, they make it mandatory at the high school level. Making children learn a second language at a young age is a better method because the earliest years of childhood are a critical period and at a later time, the brain’s ability to learn a new language is greatly diminished (Richards). Another problem is that most often, there isn’t enough repetition of what is learned in order for it to “sink in” to the memory of students. If taught at a young age and maintained throughout that students’ academic career, not...
This exploration of the educational issue of bilingual education will focus on these four questions.
There are three main theories of child language acquisition; Cognitive Theory, Imitation and Positive Reinforcement, and Innateness of Certain Linguistic Features (Linguistics 201). All three theories offer a substantial amount of proof and experiments, but none of them have been proven entirely correct. The search for how children acquire their native language in such a short period of time has been studied for many centuries. In a changing world, it is difficult to pinpoint any definite specifics of language because of the diversity and modification throughout thousands of millions of years.
In the twentieth century, the avoidance of the using L1 in classrooms dominated teachers’ minds; as well it was implemented in many policies and guidelines of language teaching (Cook, 2001). Thornbury (2010) listed a set of arguments against using L1 in L2 classrooms mainly for that the translation of L2 into another language will play negative effects on students’ learning process. He pointed out that the use of L1 will result learners to have a cognitive dependence on their mother tongue at the expense of developing independence TL learning. Although the two language systems are not equivalent in many aspects, students may have an awareness of the notion of equivalence of the two languages if translation serves to convey meanings. Some argue that the use of translation to convey the meaning of the TL is more efficient and more memorable. However, Thornbury (2010) sees the opposite. He stated that the simple and direct way of translation will make L2 knowledge less memorable since the process lacks mental efforts in working out meanings.
The question of whether receiving error corrective feedback can actually hurt an ELL student’s ability to learn is the focus of the Error Correction Hypothesis. Stephen Krashen, in his Affective Filter Hypothesis, puts forth the idea that learners have an Affective Filter which is triggered by emotional variables such as anxiety or stress. Once activated, this filter can operate as an unintended barrier, hindering one’s ability to receive input, and therefore learning. As a result, Krashen advocates for limited error correction in second language instruction, and primarily as a clarification in meaning.
... Acquisition vs. Learning of a Second Language: English Negation. Philologica Jassyensia, 5(2), 89-94. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Becoming a Language Teacher is a valuable tool, which provides a practical guide to the skills and knowledge needed by teachers to address the diverse needs of language learners. Today, mainstream classroom teachers work with learners with a diverse range of backgrounds and therefore teachers face multiple challenges; they need to teach content-area curriculum while at the same time supporting students ' language development. Thus, what makes the second edition of the book stands out is that it addresses both the academic and language needs of language learners, and it supports novice language teachers at the beginning of their teaching careers. Its goal is to help teachers become creative, competent, supportive and up-to date language teachers
An informative book by Ana Swarbrick , Teaching Modern Foreign Languages in Secondary Schools, proves the point that “foreign language learning presents opportunities for the reinforcement of knowledge, skills, and understanding [that is] gained in other areas of the curriculum such as English through… understanding of grammar and sentence construction” (218).This is demonstrated through the means of providing dyslexic students’ activities that involved formatting sentences, reading, listening, and expanding vocabulary. It targets their knowledge on reading and listening comprehension. Additionally, they repeatedly practice these skills that are then used in their English class. American schools provided several languages that available for their students, thus selecting a similar language to English can make a notable significant in how they succeed and impacts whether it can reinforce their English literacy skills. For instances, Spanish and French are two of the commonly taught foreign language available, considering that they share many similarities with English: word order, root words, similar spelling of certain words, pronunciation, sentence structures and parts of speech. In foreign language classrooms, students would be exposed to activities such as story-telling, singing the alphabet or rhymes; these activities can emphasize “on
This written report has the purpose of informing students in a Health and Human Development class how a child acquires language. In this report, I will discuss the major theories of child language acquisition, identify the developmental stages of language acquisition and explore changes in the functions of language as a child transitions from babyhood to early adolescence.
Steven Krashen developed 5 theories of Second Language Development. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis states that people acquire language naturally, without any formal training, simply through their interactions with others (Freeman and Freeman p.62). Language learning, however, is a more complex process which requires instruction. Both of these processes are necessary for a person to acquire a second language. Implications for teaching include creating authentic social interaction time with peers in the classroom, collaboration with peers, modeling appropriate language use and using repetition (Vose).
The aim of this essay is to explore language acquisition and compare and contrast different theories of language acquisition and language development. Language in its most basic form is used to communicate our needs and wants. It encompasses a range of modes of delivery including signing, spoken and written words, posture, eye contact, facial expressions and gestures. So how do we learn ‘language’? Are we born with the skills for communication, or is it something that we have to learn or have taught to us? Four theories are looked at in this essay to determine how children acquire and then develop language. These theories include behaviourist, nativist, cognitivist and sociocultural. This essay will highlight some similarities and differences in each theory and what impact these have on a child’s acquisition and development of language. Lastly we will look at the implications of these theories when working with children. Can a classroom teacher deliver a quality literacy program based on just one of these theories or does it need to incorporate components of all four? Sims, (2012) pp. 21 states ‘’High-quality learning experiences in the early years of life enhance children’s cognitive and language skills’’. This places a great responsibility on educators and teachers alike to provide an environment which is rich in learning opportunities that will encourage both the acquisition and development of language.
Communication through language is a trait specific to only humans. In K.L. Sakai 's "Language Acquisition and Brain Development", Language Acquisition is described as "the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences". As mentioned earlier, there are different ideas on whether language is innate or learned. The main ideas surrounding
As the global communities migrate from their native home lands to new countries and regions, the need to learn a new language becomes an imminent requirement. Learning second language for an individual with not back ground to the language can be a serious proposition which can results in seriously straining the individual. This makes it very important to select a learning strategy very carefully to prevent complicating the learning process and also one which will help speed up the entire learning process (Bitchener 2007). With this in mind there are three main approaches linked to learning a 2nd language namely the behaviourist, Halliday’s and Chomsky’s approaches. Each of these adopts different learning theories but that all promote
Learning is a conscious process that includes thorough explanation of grammar rules, practice of those rules, as well as memorizing lists of vocabulary, usually in a classroom setting (Wisniewski, 2007). Learners usually use their culture, first language, environment, background and personal experiences among others to learn a second language.