A repost from a few summers ago:
Dr. Beniko Mason is a professor at Shitennoji University in Osaka, Japan. She has known and worked with Dr. Krashen for over twenty years and fully embraces his Comprehensible Input Hypothesis. She is looked upon by many as the Dr. Krashen of Asia. In Agen last summer (see pic below), Tina and I were lucky enough to share breakasts with Dr. Krashen and Beniko during the week. We really got into talking about non-targeted/untargeted comprehensible input. The text below by Dr. Mason is in support of it. It’s an idea whose time has come, and is a source of amazement to me that the so-called TPRS “experts” out there today reject it. Their rejection is a scathing indictment of a mindset in our community that refuses to take a good look at new ideas and embrace them if they can but help even one child.
Dr. Mason:
The very reason I was very curious about the effects and efficiency of the Non-targeted lessons was pure curiosity to find out whether what Dr. Krashen proposed was true. Then I realized that it was to contribute to the advancement of this field of language acquisition. But then I realized even more important was that if this was true we could save millions of children all over the world.
The theory claimed, “CI alone is sufficient.”
What a beautiful idea!
You don’t need a textbook; you don’t need a trained teacher; you don’t need money.
Once I was told that if a method is too complicated and only a handful of teachers can be successful with the method, then the method is not useful. Every teacher should be able to do it.
But what I am doing is nothing special. This is something every mother and father have done to their children.
Now, how could something that every mother/father have done be so effective and efficient for language acquisition?
Because that is how children acquired their native language and they are fluent speakers when they enter an elementary school.
I think they used to call it “Mother Talk”.
That is the goal of my teaching. I want my students to reach the level of the 3rd to 6th graders language proficiency level while they are with me. I am trying to provide as much CI as possible while they are with me in class and convince them to read at home as many pages as they can.
The goal of language education is to help them reach the high intermediate level (Krashen, 1997 or 1998: The Easy Way).
I have been to Thailand for about 15 years, and I went to Cambodia and Laos several years ago. Poor people live there. They have very little money. If these children could acquire English they don’t have to be treated badly and abused. They can find a job.
If a lot of people knew how to help these kids acquire English then there would be less suffering children.
All one needs is a thick storybook to go to a country like this and start telling stories to these kids day after day and then these kids will acquire English and they will be able to get a job at a hotels, restaurants, shops, and airports.. and other places. They may be able to go to school.
What I am doing is very simple. Just tell stories – that is all – nothing special – anyone can do it – so it will not sell – no business involved.
I learned all this from Stephen Krashen.
