Stephen Krashen
Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus at the
University of Southern California, is a highly acclaimed, controversial linguist, who has put forth a number of hypotheses on second language acquisition, particularly in
bilingual education.
One of the more important ideas he puts forth is that in order for a student to acquire language, he must be exposed to 'comprehensible input' which is roughly tuned to a level slightly higher than he can himself produce. He distinguishes this from 'learned' language. 'Acquisition' occurs in communicative situations in the 'real world'. 'Acquired' knowledge is readily available to communicate meaning. 'Learning' occurs through formal training (the classroom); it cannot be used to communicate meaning. Instead, it monitors the proper
grammatical use of 'acquired' language knowledge.
Krashen believes that language learners must build on their knowledge through processing language at a level slightly beyond their ability: 'current competence + 1' (i +1).
[Krashen (1982), p. 21.] This is also known as
instructional scaffolding.
Krashen also penned a piece with
Tracy D. Terrell on the
natural approach (
1983), which is more or less a continuation of the comprehensible input theme with the added idea that
affective filters or
emotional barriers must be lowered in order for learning to take place.
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Articles by Stephen Krashen*
An article criticizing Krashen
