Krashen – Easy Way 2 (Acquisition)

Again, with Dr. Krashen’s permission, I am posting selected passages from Foreign Language Education, The Easy Way (out of print). This is the second such installment here, and it describes more theory about comprehensible input and the process of acquisition of a language:
…given enough comprehensible input, structures students are “ready” to acquire are invariably present in the input. We do not have to make sure that certain structures or vocabulary are covered. If students get enough comprehensible input, they will be…. (p. 6)
To me, this does not mean that we can’t still try to agressively limit new structures in stories. Krashen is an expert on reading and he may be coming from that background in this book. We all know that the greatest gains in vocabulary come from reading. I prefer to think of stories and PQA as teaching primarily grammar, with less emphasis on vocabulary acquisition.
Further:
…the actual relationship between the amount of CI obtained and individual progress depends on whether the CI contains aspects of the target language that the acquirer has not yet acquired, but is developmentally ready to acquire. Thus, progress for very advanced acquirers may be slow, even if they live in the country where the language is spoken, becuase the comprehensible input they recieve has little in it that they have not already acquired….(p. 6)

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn

Leave a Comment

  • Search

Get The Latest Updates

Subscribe to Our Mailing List

No spam, notifications only about new products, updates.

Related Posts

The Problem with CI

Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and

CI and the Research (cont.)

Admins don’t actually read the research. They don’t have time. If or when they do read it, they do not really grasp it. How could

Research Question

I got a question: “Hi Ben, I am preparing some documents that support CI teaching to show my administrators. I looked through the blog and

We Have the Research

A teacher contacted me awhile back. She had been attacked about using CI from a team leader. I told her to get some research from

$10

~PER MONTH

Subscribe to be a patron and get additional posts by Ben, along with live-streams, and monthly patron meetings!

Also each month, you will get a special coupon code to save 20% on any product once a month.

  • 20% coupon to anything in the store once a month
  • Access to monthly meetings with Ben
  • Access to exclusive Patreon posts by Ben
  • Access to livestreams by Ben