Exploring+Krashen

= It's time for another lesson in SLA theory! Topic: Stephen Krashen and the Field of ESL =

** Stephen Krashen - Biography ** Stephen Krashen has done a lot of work in the field of linguistics and education. Krashen was born in 1941 in Chicago, IL. A brief history of his academic accomplishments include the following:

- Krashen taught in Ethiopia for two years with the Peace Corps. - Krashen has a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of California - Los Angeles. His dissertation topic was "Language and the Left Hemisphere." - Krashen joined the School of Education at the University of Southern California. - Krashen has published over 350 books in the areas of linguistics, ESL, and education (Biographical Dictionary, n.d.).


 * Stephen Krashen's Website ** : @http://www.sdkrashen.com/
 * Stephen Krashen on Twitter ** : [|http://twitter.com/skrashen]

The Natural Approach [[image:http://www.haydenhillsgrovestonemasonry.com/.library/Steps-natural-bluestone-4.U46128d006bf3d.jpeg align="center" caption="It's all about the steps!"]]
The Natural Approach (NA) is a second language acquisition theory created by Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell. The NA is centered around a natural occurring stages of language acquisition. The stages of language acquisition are preproduction, early production, speech emergence, and intermediate fluency.


 * ** Preproduction ** - Preproduction occurs between ten hours and six months of exposure to English. The learner in the preproduction stage has a vocabulary of approximately 500 receptive words and zero expressive words.
 * **// Teacher Tasks for the Preproduction Stage // - ** The use of gestures and repetition is very important for the learner in the preproduction stage.
 * ** Early Production ** - Early production occurs between three/six months and one year of exposure to English. The learner in the early production stage has a vocabulary of approximately 1,000 receptive words and of those 100 are expressive words.
 * **// Teacher Tasks for the Early Production Stage // - ** The use of yes/no questions and appropriate L2 modeling is very important for the learner in the early production stage.
 * ** Speech Emergence ** - Speech emergency occurs between one to three years of exposure to English. The learner in the speech emergency stage has a vocabulary of approximately 7,000 receptive words and of those 700 are expressive.
 * // Teacher Taks for the Speech Emergence Stage: // The use of performance-based assessment and open-ended questioning stimulates interaction for the learner in the speech emergence stage.
 * ** Intermediate Fluency ** - Intermediate fluency occurs between three to four years of exposure to English. The learner in the intermediate fluency stage has a vocabulary of approximately 12,000 receptive words and of those 120 are expressive.
 * // Teacher Task for the Intermediate Fluency Stage // - The use of focused education through the use of literature that is on the appropriate level is critical for the learner in the intermediate fluency stage (Middle Tennessee State University, n.d.).

** Five Hypotheses ** **Hypothesis 1 - Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis** - The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis provides a contrast of the qualities of acquisition and learning. Krashen identified differences between acquiring language through natural interaction in L2 and formal education on grammar rules. This theory is connected to the idea of explicit and implicit learning (Romeo, n.d.).
 * Hypothesis 2 - The Natural Order Hypothesis ** - In the Natural Order Hypothesis, Krashen provides an explanation that the order the acquisition of grammar structures occurs in a natural, reliable order (Romeo, n.d.).
 * Hypothesis 3 - The Monitor Hypothesis ** - Through the Monitor Hypothesis, Krashen describes the acquisition and learning processes. A learner in the South may acquire //y'all// as appropriate lexicon. However, the learning process in a formal classroom will probably describe that word as slang and not appropriate in professional contexts. The monitor hypothesis describes that process of cleaning up what has been acquired (Romeo, n.d.).
 * Hypothesis 4 - The Input Hypothesis ** - Through the Input Hypothesis, Krashen describes ideal input. Ideal input is input that is just beyond the learner's present level. This is very similar to the ideas of scaffolding and Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (Ito, n.d.).
 * Hypothesis 5 - The Affective Filter Hypothesis ** - The Active Filter Hypothesis describes distractions that can prevent input from becoming intake . Things like anxiety and other stressors can prevent input from being internalized into intake (Romeo, n.d.).

Stephen D. Krashen's Website - http://www.sdkrashen.com/
This is a website maintained by Stephen Krashen. On this site Krashen offers books and articles online.

Stephen D. Krashen - 88 Generalizations About Free Voluntary Reading - http://www.sdkrashen.com/handouts/88Generalizations/index.html This is a website maintained by Stephen Krashen. This site offers information about silent sustained reading (SSR).

**References for This Post** Biographical Dictionary. (n.d.). //Stephen Krashen//. Retrieved from: http://www.s9.com/Biography/Stephen-Krashen

Ito, Y. (n.d.). //Effect of Reduced Forms on ESL Learners’ Input-Intake Process.// Retrieved from: http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/uhwpesl/20(1)/Ito.pdf

Romeo, K. (n.d.). //Krashen and Terrell's Natural Approach.// Retrieved from: http://stanford.edu/~kenro/LAU/ICLangLit/NaturalApproach.htm#Acquisition-Learning

Middle Tennessee State University. (n.d.). //Overview of the Natural Approach//. Retrieved from: https://elearn.mtsu.edu:443/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=1579251&tId=14348626 University of Southern Florida. (n.d.). //The Natural Approach: Stages of Second Language Development//. Retrieved from: http://tapestry.usf.edu/Nutta/data/content/docs1/NaturalApproachNarrative.pdf

Jonathan Hooper jdhooper@jmcss.org