Summary of Stephen Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition

Summary of Stephen Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition

Stephen Krashen is a Second Language Acquisition researcher and professor at University of Southern California who has been publishing and speaking since the 1980’s.

"Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill." Stephen Krashen

"Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding." Stephen Krashen

"The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production." Stephen Krashen

Krashen’s theory has five main hypotheses:

the Acquisition-Learning hypothesis,

the Monitor hypothesis,

the Natural Order hypothesis,

the Input hypothesis,

and the Affective Filter hypothesis.

The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis: Language “acquisition” is a subconscious process similar to that which children undergo with their first language. There is focus on meaning of messages, not on the form of the language. “Learning,” by contrast, is a conscious process resulting in knowledge 'about' the language (ex: knowledge of grammar rules).

The Monitor hypothesis: According to Krashen, the acquisition system is the utterance initiator, while the learning system performs the role of the 'monitor' or 'editor.' The monitor helps a person polish their speech or writing and may be over-used (ex, heavy concern about mistakes). Usually extroverts are under-users of the monitor, while introverts and perfectionists are over-users.

The Natural Order hypothesis: For any given language, some grammatical structures tend to be acquired early while others late. This does not mean teachers should delay introducing those language structures because students will not reliably reproduce them until later (perhaps much later). Students need more repeated exposure to natural-sounding language input over a longer time to acquire these elements of the target language

The Input hypothesis: The learner progresses along the 'natural order' as he/she receives second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her current linguistic competence. If a learner already has acquired language competence ‘i,’ they will acquire more language through exposure to comprehensible input ‘i + 1.’ Krashen believes natural communicative input will provide all learners with ‘i

Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition (Assimilação Natural - o Construtivismo no Ensino de Línguas)

Short description of Krashen's 5 main hypotheses on second language acquisition with comments in Portuguese.

+ 1’ regardless of each learner’s current level of competence.

The Affective Filter hypothesis: Krashen claims that learners with low motivation, low self-esteem, and/or debilitating anxiety can 'raise' the affective filter and form a 'mental block’ to their progress. Teachers will want to plan lessons that reduce these hindrances by providing interesting, even compelling, content (from the learners’ perspective, not the teacher’s) and by not shaming learners for errors or over-using correction techniques that cause anxiety.