Language Acquisition Principles

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Language Acquisition Principles

Stephen Krashen is one of the experts when it comes to language acquisition. He has theorized on the subject of second language acquisition for years and has been quite influential in the field of linguistics approaching the subject of second language acquisition by presenting his five hypotheses for his theory of acquiring a second language. His approach comes from his view that acquisition is obtained best through contextual conversation, which demonstrates his Acquisition-Learning hypothesis. This paper will discuss and examine Krashen’s theory which consists of his five hypotheses for second language acquisition and compare it to the method used by Aida Walqui.

Aida Walqui is yet another expert who has done remarkable work in the area of language acquisition; however, she approaches the subject from the aspect that contextual factors are involved in second language learning in the classroom. Those factors are language distance, Native language proficiency, Knowledge of the second language, dialect and register, language status, and language attitudes. Even though Krashen and Walqui are attempting to achieve a similar goal, their methodologies are different. Whereas Krashen is concerned about the Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), Walqui is more concerned about the contextual factors of second language acquisition involving Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP).

Krashen believes the learned system to be the product of formal instruction and requires that the learner use a process that involves a study of grammar and rules. Krashen believes this method of teaching language acquisition, a learned method, is of less importance than the acquired method. His belief is t...

... middle of paper ...

... appropriateness of what Krashen says. If a teacher were to apply Krashen’s approach with students it would be helpful in developing the social skills needed for communication. Walqui’s method would be something that the teacher might use to increase a student’s academic knowledge, while increasing the opportunities for higher employment. The main difference between Walqui’s and Krashen’s approaches to learning a new language is that Walqui’s method is all about academic learning and Krashen’s is about social and comprehensible conversation.

Works Cited

http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/Krashen_Brown_ALP.pdf Retrieved from the Internet 2/28/2011

Walqui, A. (2000, September). Contextual factors in second language acquisition. ERIC Digest (EDO-FL-00-05), http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/digest_pdfs/0005-contextual-walqui.pdf d when acquiring a language.

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