Topics in Linguistics

COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT THEORY

Stephen Krashen

BACKGROUND

Stephen Krashen has a Ph.D. in Linguistics.

He is the author of more than 250 articles

about: second language acquisition, bilingual

education and neurolinguistics.

Krashen has six hypothesis on the field

of language acquisition :

KRASHEN´S HYPOTHESIS

1. The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis2. The Monitor hypothesis3. The Natural Order hypothesis4. The Input hypothesis5. The Affective Filter hypothesis6. The Reading Hypothesis

WHAT IS THIS HYPOTHESIS ABOUT?

According to the British Council website the Comprehensible input is language input that can be understood by learners despite them not understanding all the words and structures in it. 

Krashen´s theory states that the comprehensible input should be one step beyond the learner’s level (more complicated).It is represented as i + 1Ii = the current state of the knowledge of the studentPlus extra elements which makes it a little more difficult for the learner.

Moreover, the learner wouldn´t be able to produce but will be able understand. It involves more than just words, this includes taking in consideration the of context, explanation, the use of visual cues and meaning negotiation. The message effectively understood creates the learning experience.

TARGET LANGUAGE

The theory remarks the use of target

language.

According to the British Council website, the target language is the language learners are studying, and also the individual items of language that they want to learn, or the teacher wants them to learn.

PURPOSE

The main objective of a language program is to allow learners to communicate effectively. Comprehensible input is important when learners are not exposed to communicational interactions outside of the class.In this way language acquisition process may be easier.

HOW CAN THIS HYPOTHESIS HELP STUDENTS TO LEARN?

Students will be able to improve their skills and their performance in the language that they are learning, since the input they receive is challenging but still easy to understand without requiring a lot of conscious effort from the learner. With this method students can learn easily new words or structures, to communicate naturally.

HOW CAN THIS HYPOTHESIS HELP TEACHERS? 

Trough this hypothesis the teacher will be able to measure the knowledge their students have. Also, the teacher will be able to provide different kinds of materials to see the progress in language acquisition among the learners.

PRACTICAL EXAMPLES

The comprehensible input could be used in a language class among two language skills, that are: Reading Listening

The teacher gives the learners ,that are in an intermediate level, an article with new vocabulary and written in a informal style; however, it is still easy to understand. In this way students will be able to learn new syntactic structures and new words with this comprehensible input.

The teacher could show the students, that are in an intermediate level, a video of an interview to a famous celebrity. In this way students will understand al least the main idea of a natural conversation between two people.With this comprehensible input the learners will acquire new vocabulary and useful expressions.

In a class where the students are a beginners level, the teacher could make the learners watch a TV program for children. The comprehensible input will be higher than the learner´s level but it will still be easy to understand.The learners will acquire new vocabulary.

Online Sources:http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.htmlhttp://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/http://

www.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/best%20of%20bilash/krashen.html

http://www.languagebooks.com/authors/krashen.htmhttp://bogglesworldesl.com/glossary/comprehensiblein

put.html

Book:Text used in class (chapter 5 “Second-Language

Acquisition and models of instruction”)Beatty, K. (2010). Teaching and Researching

computing-assisted Language Learning .

SOURCES