Terms Explained
Krashen's Input Hypothesis
What Exactly is...
Krashen's Input Hypothesis
Dr. Stephen Krashen is
the godfather - so to speak - of Second Language Acquisition. An
esteemed researcher and Professor emeritus of education at the
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Dr. Krashen developed a Theory of Second Language Acquisition that has had a monumental impact in all areas of second language teaching and research since the 1980's.
Wait - back up - What is Second Language Acquisition?
Second Language Acquisition is an academic term describing the field of research tasked with understanding how second languages are
learned and used. The purpose of SLA research is to improve pedagogy;
that is, scholars want to understand how languages are learned in order
to improve teaching. However, the field is decidedly interdisciplinary,
with scholars approaching issues from many perspectives, including
psychology/psycho-linguistics, sociology, education, and linguistics.
For more, see this article.
Ok, back to Krashen. What is his input hypothesis?
Within his main theories of second language acquisition, his Input Hypothesis remains
one of the most influential. Krashen argues that language acquisition
is born of “meaningful interaction” in the target language. He
identifies Comprehensible Input as
the single most important factor in learning another language. In other
words, to effectively acquire a language, learners should be flooded with comprehensible input.
"Acquisition requires meaningful
interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which
speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with
the messages they are conveying and understanding."
-- Stephen Krashen
So learners just need huge amounts of comprehensible input?
Not exactly. The input that Krashen emphasized didn't stop at just being comprehensible. Krashen argues that it must also be compelling. Yes, to acquire a language, lots of exposure to comprehensible input is critical.
However -- if that input is not interesting, the learner will not be
engaged, which means they will check out of the entire process all
together.
“Compelling means that the input is so interesting, you forget that it is in another language.” - Stephen Krashen
TL; DR
(Too Long, Didn't Read) Version
Research over the past 50 years has shown that language learners need
lots and LOTS of comprehensible and compelling interaction in the target
language in order to acquire the language. There is an entire field of
research dedicated to this (SLA: Second Language Acquisition). The biggest name in SLA is Dr. Stephen
Krashen and his hypotheses have become the base for which most modern
research stems from.
Dive Deeper
To learn more about Krashen's Hypotheses, see the following resources:
