Krashen's Five Hypotheses

Stephen D. Krashen

Written By: Jezreel Madsa

            I. The Acquisition- Learning Distinction

As far as Second Language Acquisition is concerned, this hypothesis, according to Stephen D. Krashen, is the most fundamental of all the hypotheses he ever formulated.  Krashen, proposed that there are, at least, two ways of developing language acquisition: First is by language acquisition, and second is by language learning. Both of these two are processes to developing learning. The former, refers to a subconscious process—that is, language acquirers, are not aware of the fact that they are acquiring language, one way or another, but are said to be aware only of using the language for communication. On the other hand, the latter denotes the conscious knowledge of a second language; that is, it deals about knowledge of the rules and its proper application.

Implication:

Having in mind that there are two processes, whereby a learner could develop his own competence, it is therefore necessary for teachers to encourage their students to keep on reading different books. Inasmuch as, there is a huge tendency that they may subconsciously develop their language competency—even by just cursory reading, non-deliberate research and other implicit learnings. But on the other hand, it is equally important to enrich the other side of the coin, so to speak. That is, teachers should emphasize the significance of grammatical rules. Apparently, it is one thing to acquire competence; and another thing to know how to use them. Therefore, students must have them both.

II.                  The Natural Order Hypothesis   

  The Natural Order Hypothesis was one of the discoveries in language acquisition research in past decades that considerably receives a far ranging critique from modern linguists and other educators in the field. It nevertheless argues that the acquisition of language structures proceeds in a foreseeable sequence.  Stephen D. Krashen, in his book, (Principles & Practice of Second Language Acquisition p. 19) has said, “Acquirers of a given language tend to acquire certain grammatical structures early, and others later. The agreement among individual acquirers is not always 100%, but there are clear, statistically significant, similarities.”

Implication:

Teachers should not only teach a wide variety of grammatical rules, their duty is to pick wisely the appropriate topic fitted for their respective students. Just as a little child is not yet able to grasp algebraic computation, so are the students in language. First of all, it is imperative to nourish them with the rudimentary or basic parts, before they can go further to the complex ones. When teachers tend to interchange the first with the last, the basic with the complex—there is a tendency that a child will get confused of its intricacy and will ultimately produce apathy—leading to the loss of interest in studying language.

III.                The Monitor Hypothesis

 The Monitor Hypothesis explains the relationship between acquisition and learning. According to this theory, these two are used in very specific ways. Krashen posits that acquisition normally “initiates” our utterances in a second language and is responsible for our fluency. Learning, on the other hand, has only one function, and that is as a Monitor, or editor. Learning comes into play only to make changes in the form of our utterance, after it has been “produced” by the acquired system.

Implication:

Learners of Second Language, on the one hand, should not be over-users of Monitor, because the moment they become overly pedantic with grammatical rules-- they tend to speak hesitantly and unconvincingly. They fear that they might commit error either in grammar or in pronunciation. But on the other hand, learners should, all the more, not be under-users of Monitor. They cannot be reliable if students would lean merely on what “seems good” to them. While “acquired competence” is important, it cannot stand alone apart from the complementation of the “learned competence”. So there must be a proper balance between overusers and underusers of Monitor. Krashen proposed that it is the optimal users that every learner should become. Learners should know how to navigate or use the monitor when it is appropriate and when it does not interfere with communication.  

IV. The Input Hypothesis

The input hypothesis is concerned focally on the acquisition of language and peripherally on learning. It answers the epistemological inquiry of how one acquires competence and how does the current competence progress from one level to another. Moreover, It argues that the necessary condition for one to advance into another level is its primary focus on the meaning and not the form of the message.

Implication

First of all, it is very important that learners should focus first on the semantic dimension of words. The structures of sentence worth absolutely nothing, if the words embedded in it are not understood outright. While forms or structures are important, it is not supposed to be the primary focus of the learners—the meaning behind words instead should go first. For instance, a learner may know a great deal about grammatical rules, but does not know what every word denotes. What advantage does it give? Nothing.

The Affective-Filter Hypothesis

According to Krashen, The Affective-Filter Hypothesis states how affective factors relate to the second language acquisition process. Various research over the last decades has confirmed that a variety of affective variables relate to success in second language acquisition.

Implications

There are causative variables that relate to Second Language Acquisition process; those are, self-confidence, motivation and anxiety. Teachers should embolden their students to be confident, motivate them to study hard, and help them lessen their anxieties. When learners have self-confidence and a good self-image, they tend to do better; the same can be said with learners who have strong motivation; and when one has low-anxiety, it appears even more conducive in learning Second Language Acquisition. 


REFERENCE:

Stephen D. Krashen, Principles & Practice in Second Language Acquisition