Krashen's Second Language Acquisition Theory Whether one is an advanced degree student in education or linguistics, or simply attending a four-week

program in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), he or she will be exposed to Stephen Krashen's theories and hypotheses about ho w people acquire a second language. They are, by far, the most influential and p redominant theories in use today despite the fact that his theories have come under considerable academic criticism over the years. Stephen D. Krashen, PhD Professor Emeritus, USC The major criticism of Krashen's theories essentially consists of two main point s. First, most of them are not based on or have ever been subjected to empirical research. Hence, they have not been "scientifically proven." Apropos to this cr iticism is the story behind California's bilingual education program during the 1990s, of which Krashen was the chief architect. In what was referred to as the "whole language program," teachers were forbidden from teaching grammar, writing , phonics, or using other traditional tools of academia. Essentially, the progra m proved to be a dismal failure and was challenged in a massive grassroots movem ent through the landslide approval of California Proposition 227 in 1998, which allowed parents the right to petition the schools to end it, (see, for example: Stewart, 1998; Crawford, 1999). The second and related criticism, is that many of his terms are loosely and very broadly defined and, thus, may actually defy verification through use of the sc ientific method altogether (Gregg, 1984). For example, how does one measure (or operationally define) "subconscious process," which Krashen claims is critical t o second language acquisition? Despite academic criticism from a few corners and the scandal surrounding Califo rnia's bilingual education program during the 1990s, Dr. Krashen's theories are widely and enthusiastically embraced by the TEFL community-at-large primarily be cause they feel intuitively correct. In addition, the absence of empirical resea rch does not necessarily invalidate the accuracy or reliability of a theory: It simply means it remains scientifically unproven and will be regarded with far gr eater skepticism by some. Input Hypothesis Second language acquisition theories tend to fall under two broad categories: Th ose that can be classified as naturalistic or innate and those that can be class ified as environmental or interactional, i.e., requiring interaction with the pr oper environment . For example, Noam Chomsky's Universal Hypothesis holds there is an inborn or innate neurological faculty for learning language that he refers to as the Learning Acquisition Device (LAD): this would be an example of the fi rst type of theory (Shannon, 2005). Krashen's Input Hypothesis (originally refer red to as the Monitor Model) consists of five correlates or sub-hypotheses and w ould be broadly classified as an interactional or environmental model. Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis This hypothesis, which is the most fundamental of the five, draws a clear distin ction between language learningand language acquisition. Krashen argues that lan guage learning alone does not lead to the acquisition or functional use of a lan guage. Thus one can be an expert in English grammar and syntax, i.e., have a gre at deal of knowledge about a language, but still not be able to use the language with which to effectively communicate with others: herein lies the greatest cri ticism of China's foreign language program (Fabisz, 1998). Chinese English teachers teach English almost exclusively in Chinese as if it wa s a course in math or science. Typically what they will do is write a complex se ntence in English on the blackboard and then spend 15 minutes analyzing and disc ussing the sentence structure, i.e., parts of speech, structure and syntax, comp letely in Chinese. Thus, most Chinese students have an excellent academic unders tanding of the English language and most are far more aware of the mechanics of the language than are their Western counterparts: The problem is, they rarely ac quire a functional use of the language, especially in regard to listening and sp eaking skills. Most college-educated Chinese, however, can read and understand s imple English sentences because that is what they practiced doing for so many ye

ars in school. Monitor Hypothesis The monitor hypothesis attempts to bridge the schism between language learning a nd language acquisition by illustrating the relationship between them and it par allels how children naturally acquire their first language (L1). Obviously, chil dren learn how to speak years before they ever attend school and this is where t hey will then learn about the language, i.e., acquisition precedes learning. As the child learns about the form and rules of the language over time, he or sh e then begins to self-monitor speech productions that are checked against this " knowledge base" of rules and form. That is, even native speakers will occasional ly make a grammatical error or produce a "slip of the tongue" in speech now and then but, if they are aware of the proper form or rule, they will usually catch the error and correct themselves immediately afterwards. This would be evidence of the Monitor (ibid). However, a considerable fear of making a mistake or the absence of proper langua ge acquisition to begin with can result in what Krashen refers to as a "type one performer," that is, someone who overuses the Monitor. This results in speech p roduction that is unnatural and far too controlled or measured. Chinese EFL stud ents are notorious "type one performers" and, as will be discussed in the next u nit, your greatest and most difficult task as a foreign English teacher will be to get them to relax and not worry so much about making a mistake in front of yo u or their peers, i.e., you will need to temporarily neutralize or suspend their fear of losing face. Natural Order Hypothesis This hypothesis simply states that grammatical structures are acquired in a natu ral or predictable order in English as a second language. For example, EFL stude nts will acquire mastery of the progressive verb tense well before the use of th e possessive noun form, which typically comes last (if at all). It is not a coincidence therefore that the Chinese have considerable difficulty with the use of possessives as discussed in the previous unit. Even most well-ed ucated Chinese English teachers and professors will write out "the bicycle of Mi ke is in the garage of the house of Emily" instead of more naturally and simplis tically writing, "Mike's bicycle is in Emily's garage." In fact, this is the onl y hypothesis for which there is clear and compelling empirical research evidence derived from morpheme studies conducted with both children and adults (Krashen and Terrell 1983:29). Input Hypothesis The input hypothesis seeks to directly answer the question "How do learners actu ally acquire a second language?" Simply stated, the answer is that they acquire a second language by receiving input in the target language that is just slightl y above their current level of acquired understanding. Krashen illustrates this as i + 1, with "i" representing the current level of acquired understanding and "1" being equal to the next level of input that is just above the students' curr ent level. It needs to be emphasized here that the input hypothesis addresses it self to acquired meaning in communication, and not to classroom language learnin g in the traditional sense. That is "understanding" here is not used to refer to an intellectual understanding of the correct rules of grammar or form, but an u nderstanding of what was originally intended in meaning (Krashen, 1981, p. 103). If there is any validity to the input hypothesis, then it is a theoretical justi fication for the abundant use of activities and games for facilitating the acqui sition of a foreign language assuming that the level of input required by the task i s just slightly above the current acquired level of understanding. However, it i s doubtful that showing entire Western films in an EFL class is an effective way to facilitate speaking and listening skills unless it can be demonstrated that there is not a significant percentage of vocabulary in excess of the students' c urrent level of understanding. In such an instance, even if the teacher were to have the students memorize lists of "movie vocabulary words" beforehand, doing s o would not theoretically facilitate second language acquisition if the percenta ge of new words exceeded i + 1 (because memorizing a word and acquiring its use functionally are two different things, according to Krashen as well as others).

Audiovisual aids, therefore, will be most effective when used in a limited and m easured manner and especially when combined with a corresponding textbook and pl ayed for a relatively brief period of time, such that the film or audiotape help s facilitate acquisition. A good example of this application are companion CDs t hat often accompany EFL textbooks for beginning second language learners featuri ng 10-minute video segments for each unit. "Foreigner talk" or "teacher talk," i.e., the use of simplified or reduced-rate communication during class, also referred to as "roughly-tuned input" (speaking around or near-to the students' current acquired level of understanding) is theo retically justified by the input hypothesis, although career EFL teachers appear to be divided on this issue. However, in reality, this is very tricky to effect ively put into practice because it necessarily requires erring in one direction or the other, assuming the current acquired levels of understanding among one's students are widely dispersed (as they almost always are). That is, speaking "ne ar to" one particularly weaker student's current level of understanding could ea sily be perceived as infantilizing or insulting to the more advanced students. W hat most EFL teachers do is either teach towards the predetermined middle or div ide the class into fairly homogenous groups, based on level of understanding, an d then assign differential group tasks to realize i + 1 for each group. Affective Filter Hypothesis The affective filter hypothesis essentially refers to how tense, angry, anxious, or bored the student is. Simply stated, those who are emotionally disturbed or distracted will employ high affective filters and will acquire very little of th e language, while those who are relaxed, comfortable and at ease will present wi th very low affective filters and will acquire the most of a second language. In Krashen's own words: Performers with high or strong filters will acquire less of the language directe d at them, as less input is "allowed in" to the language-acquisition device. The presence of such a filter, according to Dulay and Burt, may explain which of al ternative models the acquirer will internalize (e.g. why children acquire the di alect of their peers rather than that of their elders), why acquisition prematur ely ceases in some cases, and often what parts of language are acquired first. T hus, attitudinal factors relating to language acquisition will be those that con tribute to a low affective filter (ibid, p. 26). According to the affective filter hypothesis, there are three attitudinal or aff ective (emotional) factors that contribute to the presence of either a high or l ow filter. These factors are: 1. Motivation. Performers with high motivation generally do better in secon d language acquisition. 2. Self-confidence. Performers with self-confidence and a good self-image t end to do better in second language acquisition. 3. Anxiety. Low anxiety appears to be conductive to second language acquisi tion, whether measured as personal or classroom anxiety. For anyone who has spent any time at all teaching English as a foreign language, these three aforementioned factors are self-evident and intuitively correct and constitute common knowledge. The next unit will delve more specifically into th e educational psychology of motivation, especially as it applies to Chinese EFL students.