Stephen Krashen on Language Acquisition Part 1 of 2

Filmed talk by S.Krashen - You can watch as is or you can use Self Access note-taking Task THP V 9 on Self Access page in your wiki
RELATED interview 1drv.ms/f/s!Am12wbAxAmhukddc7...
Here you can watch an interview taken by Marisa Constantinides, DOS of CELT Athens in 2012 - this was at the end of a conference where he talked about compelling reading and listening as the best means for acquisition

[@JermJus]

I love the ending of this part one clip. "It's boring" This guy is correct. School is boring. I'm having more fun learning Chinese on my own than any class I had in public school.

[@GypsyCurls]

I took French for five years. It started in 7th grade. The teacher on the first day took out his guitar and starting playing and singing “Alouette” and by the end of class all the kids were too. He spoke in French a lot but it was comprehensible. If all teachers taught like this; I would be speaking French to this day. I can barely remember 5 sentences out of 5 years now. Did Spanish for two semesters in college. Same thing. Now I am learning on my own and know way more in a few months than years of teaching.

[@luciananotarfranco3692]

Gypsy Curls uuiuuuuuuuuuuuuuyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[@AngieSJ3]

Yeah

[@Electodiminuendonulecresedo]

11年了，好奇有无放弃🙄

[@nothandomzulwini6283]

I agree with you. In schools everything is complusary and they don't explained the use or what it is the subject.

[@DrKojiin]

"Worst problem with the grammatical syllabus..it's boring." I am glad he pointed that out.

[@CELTAthens]

I have taught some pretty exciting grammar lessons but if you are talking about syllabus listings, yes, fully agree, I have read more exciting stuff in an obituary!

[@moodi579]

This guy is amazing he helped me to speak English in 7 months

[@almazkairosh7976]

@@Reno10bon Watch and read a lot of things that you are interested in.

[@israelgalindo78]

Seriously? I have tried and I haven't got success in English learning. Congratulations

[@almazkairosh7976]

@@israelgalindo78Try more

[@masteroffootball5828]

​@@Reno10bon can you help me?

[@GypsyCurls]

This video ages well. See him know and his theory has yet to be disproven. I was skeptical. I started trying to learn Spanish again this year. And I went the learning route because I didn’t really know any better. Had tried Pimsleur and fell off. It seemed to be missing something for me. I picked up a lot of books on learning Spanish and etc. I did one book completely and it helped with grammatical stuff (I think) but I still can’t let Spanish roll of the tongue after doing all those exercises. Then I ran into Matt vs Japan who immersed himself into Japanese from home (mainly) and became fluent in 2 years. Amazingly fluent. His site and his KZbin videos challenged how I approached Spanish. And he did what Steven Krashen is talking about. And it shows impressively with Matt. So, I threw away (begrudgingly) my preconceived notions and way of learning Spanish to do it this way. Because the backdrop is my taking French for 5 years and never reached fluency or anything akin to it. I started out like Matt days by simply listening (actively, passively, and background) every chance I got. I am using Gritty Spanish as my medium. There are so many different accents on there from Spain to Argentina with varying dialects. At first go; I couldn’t u detest and much because of the rate, speed, and dialect of which they are speaking. But after a week, things began to change and shift. I began hearing a few words here and there. Then more and more words. I began to hear where one word ends and another begins a little easier. I don’t know all the words. I still have a limited vocabulary, but when I run into the words through reading and text, I get that Aha moment. (One mention...Gritty Spanish gives texts side by side too). I’ve noticed my listening comprehension is growing even if I don’t know what they’re actually saying. But that is changing too. Because I am able to pick out more and more words now, I am starting to break down parts of the conversation meaning. If I keep this up; there is no way I wouldn’t become fluent in this language. Admittedly, all of it isn’t comprehensible to me yet or close to it. But each time, I practice it, more of it becomes comprehensible. This all leads me to believe I this theory of acquisition. The rest will follow. At first, I didn’t think it was going to work because I felt I needed to know vocabulary first. But getting my ear accustomed to the flow, rhythm, sounds, intonation, stresses, rest period and etc of the Target language is key. This seemingly major change is already reaping me rewards and benefits. This is for real yo! It works. People are showing that it does. And I am following it so that I acruallly become fluent in Spanish. It works below the conscious level. Remember at the first go, couldn’t understand anything and now I am hearing a lot of individual words I don’t k ow the meaning to yet, but I am hearing the words. Next I will be understanding the words and finally speaking the words.

[@alligator_detective]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'll definitely try the method. 😀

[@cmfrtblynmb02]

But you know this is actually the opposite of his theories? He says immersion without comprehension is nothing. He is actually against just listening to a language you don't understand. Why and how did you start understanding the spanish for example if all you did was listening to it? Where did the comprehension come from? He even gives the example you gave in a speech and says "there is not subconscious understanding, don't listen to tapes of languages you don't understand" My questions are honest. I am not trying to falsify what you say. If it worked for you, it should be really working. I am trying to find a way to learn the language I am trying to learn. So far nothing worked. I am at a dead end. I found Krashen's videos but I don't know what Comprehensible input correspond to in a workable manner. I understand pointing your head and calling 'this is a head' is CI but where is the rest?

[@25_inyomanwagindraandika17]

@@cmfrtblynmb02 I would argue that those are 2 different things yet they come hand in hand, comprehension helps with acquiring the model of the language, whereas listening immersion (not necessarily with comprehensible input) is a practice to introduce and get your ears used to the certain sounds that are produced in a certain language. As he said how he turned to be able to distinguish “individual word”, that doesn’t necessarily means to understand what each individual word means. However, managing to distinguish words is useful in comprehending an input, because then the brain could break down a sentence into smaller elements and comparing each element to previous experiences of encountering the same elements that are already understood, providing initial information to help comprehend the whole sentence even with some words being unbeknownst to the listener. Even if you’re starting a language from 0, you could comprehend a sentence with the help of context alongside the spoken input, by looking at representative pictures or videos for example

[@narsplace]

@@cmfrtblynmb02 don't forget she has done French, which like Spanish is Latin base so a lot the two are the same.

[@yamaxanadu7]

did you continue doing this since you left this comment? what is your current level like?

[@akashgautam1909]

Fun fact: Even by watching this video itself, we are acquiring the language!😂

[@pablojure3550]

it's fun? does it seem fun to you? There are people here trying hard to get ahead and you laugh. You know what's funnier is that on the street I make you understand the language with mere blows!

[@CELTAthens]

@@pablojure3550 Play nice please - no reason to mention blows!

[@pablojure3550]

@@CELTAthens i m joking man jaj

[@user-sr4tg8io9y]

The one man that actually 'gets it', if only more people could know about Krashen , such a genius

[@Tab985]

I agree

[@meemee-hf9ni]

I just realized I've been listening and understanding the whole thing without subtitles. when I went to part two the subtitles jumped on my screen and I was like wait... was I not reading in the first part? truly the power of aquestion

[@UserOfCommonSense]

begs the question - why are our language classes still light years behind?

[@ManForToday]

I think the modern approach makes teachers and classes less necessary, so it may indeed be economic, because real language learning (acquisition) is predominantly independent. You don't depend on a tutor like a piano student would need to.

[@cmfrtblynmb02]

@Vedic Parekh The question is what does this correspond to real life? He doesn't provide tangible methods that will take you from A1 to C1

[@youreawesome5283]

@@cmfrtblynmb02 Comprehensible input, is input that needs little to no translation to understand. It's self explanatory to you (like a children's book or cartoon with a lot of visuals that allow you to infer what they are speaking about easily) And that goes more and more difficult (in an i+1 fashion) using what you have already learnt as a basis for further reading and learning. And before you know it, you can read and understand real native material, books and spoken language. An example would be for example graded readers [search tadoku graded readers if you're interested in learning Japanese]... Also, getting to a C1 level is very very {hard}, I mean time consuming. and will always follow comprehensible input till you're reading advanced native content and literature.

[@tpsam]

@@ManForToday exactly you can't make standardized tests for acquisition You can't sell language courses for acquisition

[@tpsam]

@@cmfrtblynmb02 I do exactly as he says No need to learn anything just acquisition I focus as much as possible on acquisition I learn like 5 or way less than that % But do massive hours hours of acquisition I have extremely satisfying level of understanding in french and now I'm breezing through the acquisition of Spanish All done though what he says No learning just a lot of acquisition

[@hanins5435]

No doubt that acquisition is very important.I believe that the good point about acquiring a language is that a learner do not make an effort in learning a language.

[@ReZNoV9]

this man is something else, really he is something else, as a teacher, I am so proud of listening to such a brilliant mind in this field

[@jessicaaraus8641]

Beautiful speech. I love Krashen's theories on LA.

[@sultanalmuzaini7329]

LA or New York lol

[@Nicolas-vs9br]

I got ecstatic that I found this video here. This linguist is incredibly smart.

[@Tehui1974]

For the last year, I've gone from reviewing grammar structures to exposing myself to lots of reading, listening and watching in my target language. I've definitely felt a big improvement. I do find that I still have to review vocabulary in order for those words to 'stick' during the exposure activities.

[@anhpham1461]

I literally burst out laughing when he said "It's boring" =))

[@OurBrainHurtsALot]

Their improvement in speech comes from listening more things they can understand. If you don't listen to more comprehensible things, your speaking ability will remain the same, it maybe a little faster, but you're not acquiring new things just memorizing old phrases. For example, to be a good writer, you need to write but more important you need to read more, if you don't read more, your writing abilities will remain the same doesn't matter how much you write. Conversations good, monologues no.

[@tatianahawaii13]

I want to hug this guy. Can’t agree more

[@user-vf2sq6pt7p]

This guy is ahead of his time, meanwhile some years ago I had my french teacher telling us to write extensive lists of vocabulary which now I might only know a couple of words which are really similar to my native language words.

[@kittyloewenstein5433]

The fact that your ability to speak improves through speaking does not mean that the comprehensible input theory does not hold water. Stephen Krashen is talking about 'acquisition' here and when he says that speaking doesn't help, all he means is that you can speak and but this will not lead to you acquiring language. You need to listen and to read in order to do this. In order to improve your spoken fluency you most certainly need to speak and I can't imagine that Stephen disagree with this.

[@utopianistic]

Thank you, Marisa! I have long been searching for this lecture.

[@stromnessian]

Absolutely fascinating

[@mj680]

Awesome! Loved it.

[@algendy2011]

This man is simply great

[@intoarut]

"My best friends are grammarians. I love to discuss relative clauses." 🧡

[@legoandbikes]

Great video, thanks for sharing I have some of his books that was the first time I actually saw a video of himself. Good stuff. Thanks again!!!!

[@dragort10]

Thanks a lot !! It was like the lecture I attended when He was in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1992. Fascinating!

[@Nicolas-ht4iv]

Such an intelligent and classy teacher . Love it

[@mjb14722]

This is a great video! It backs up everything Moses McCormick and other polyglots say. Thanks for uploading it.

[@PhilBraxton]

This man is truly amazing

[@hassanalami6846]

Thanks for the explanation.That really helps out a lot.

[@Eistroll0Wie0]

Oh boy,best ending ever :D great talk

[@Boonweezy]

I love the point it ended at

[@hampTC]

This man is amazing

[@arifinjanggu2131]

thanks for sharing, I am really like this vedeo

[@Sonydir]

Amazing video

[@Veasna_Media]

I've read some of this hypothesises and found out it helps..

[@alcidessuarezl.746]

He is very intelligent.

[@davidjackson5231]

Krashen at his best.

[@taalibxabiib6952]

he has got an amazing argument

[@YairOrtega]

VERY GOOD!

[@Manuel4Languages]

Amazing

[@rusdayatiidrus5401]

But I do "Talking to Myselves a lot", Prof. Krashen. I do it to improve my pronunciation n to strengthen my love for English.

[@abigailjetaime]

Hello! First of all thank you for uploading this, it´s brilliant. I was wondering if you have any further information about this talk, I am currently in the process of writing a thesis to obtain my Bachelor's degree and I´d really like to mention some things about this video (basically I need to cite it). I'd really appreciate your help :) Thank you very much!

[@RayZin]

It’s not only in my left ear !!! LETSG GOO

[@SB-hs4yn]

I wanna meet him, just once.

[@maryyearlymoller8867]

DANKE

[@rusdayatiidrus5401]

Comprehensible input plus repetition in real setting will instill mastery n fluency.

[@rusdayatiidrus5401]

Prof. Krashen. I hope u load another podcast on this topic as this one doesn't hv quality vocal. I mean it is unclear.

[@AfranioBilkenvich]

Can anyone tell me to who or where this interview was given?

[@leocomerford]

Both parts together in one playlist: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJmZeaxsetFrbLM

[@CELTAthens]

Dr Stephen Krashen has a website where you can freely download all his books and journal articles here www.sdkrashen.com

[@kokounoah2847]

What are the different types of comprehensible inputs. As an ESL/EFL teacher i want to develop different CI, so help me

[@CELTAthens]

@utopianistic I think not even Mr Krashen had a copy of it - I know because he told me on Twitter :-)

[@chriskypri]

na se kala marissa gia to video tou DR. Krashen. Ton exw dei se dialeksi stin ameriki. einai top ston tomea tou.

[@MrBradWest]

Does anyone know when this video was created?

[@CELTAthens]

I think about 1980 - I checked with Mr Krashen himself :-)

[@MrBradWest]

Cool. Thanks so much.

[@owenbunny4023]

damn. that's old.

[@hannofranz7973]

I'm not entirely against language learning. Learning a foreign language at a beginner's level helps or at least may help but in order to get to a level of mastering a language well, you need to ger to a level of language acquisition. I keep comparing it with steering a car. From a certain stage on, you just don't realize when you change gears for having it interiorized.

[@CELTAthens]

In this talk, Sr Krashen concurs about explicit instruction up to the intermediate level after which he suggests acquisition type activities Later in his career - recently I mean he has gone over to the other side and talks about acquisition only . Will post a link soon

[@ChenCenter]

When was this recorded?

[@CELTAthens]

80's sometime, not sure exactly which year

[@eng.isashakir3369]

lyric please

[@VicePerignon]

My best friends are relative clauses and my wife is a 3rd conditional

[@Jah139]

What’s comprehensible input ?

[@CELTAthens]

It means any spoken or written text in which you understand MOST of it but not quite everything - what you understand will help you figure out what is new to you, what you don't already know

[@Gumikrukon]

"i love to discuss relative clauses" hahaha :D, NERD. But i love his scientific thinking.

[@grayfox1298]

I feel like im watching some lost secret message

[@FirstReviewer]

Affective Filter

[@aleveit9]

Hi fam! 🎉 Someone could explain to me what he means when he say comprehensible inputs? Thank you ❤

[@CELTAthens]

If you google it this is what you will get which is pretty accurate

[@CELTAthens]

What is comprehensible input? Comprehensible input is an instructional technique in which teachers provide input that allows EL students to understand most, but not necessarily all, of the language. The concept comes from American linguist, education researcher, and activist Dr. Stephen Krashen.

[@aleveit9]

@@CELTAthens Thank you 📚✅

[@ignacioa4114]

"comprehensible input" is not an instructional technique (the way Dr.Krashen is using this term here). What he really means by "input" is all the messages that come to you (when you listen or you read a story, a book, etc.) Comprehensible input is input that is comprehensible to you. If you watch a video and you understand less that 5% of the words, that's clearly incomprehensible input. It's input, but incomprehensible to you. Learners need rich, very interesting comprehensible input (optimal input) in a low-anxiety environment.

[@aleveit9]

@@ignacioa4114 Thank you so much for your time Ignacio! 🙏

[@euphoriabeez2992]

Can someone tell me bout the point?😣

[@CELTAthens]

Actually, no... you have to figure that one out all on your very own. If you can't, life is too short to worry

[@johnjustice8478]

14:02 "...the worst problem with the grammatical syllabus is that it's boring." Boring people find/make things boring.

[@duchi3215]

Who here for AJATT ?

[@TheInternetFan]

ok, so he keeps saying _Comprehensible Input_ over and over again, how it helps in Language Acquisition and it's way better than boring, Grammar drills. OK. Got it. *How?* What does it translate to for someone who's at a low-intermediate level?

[@CELTAthens]

Lots of reading and listening I presume - Krashen does not specify the methodology - and lots of opportunities for using language and ideas encountered in spoken and written texts

[@andro866]

Use duolingo for a month to learn the most basic words. Listen to children's audiobooks with subtitles in youtube. Read children's books.

[@AK-gt6om]

Check MIA, it's the most comprehensive approach based on this theory and many of its users have reached very high levels of language mastery.

[@galena6701]

2:30 3:00

[@mohamedbouzehra5267]

people who do not know this man, yeah you missed it.

[@youcandoit5248]

but he remains silent on the natural order H

[@ahmadazab7853]

When people cared more about science and research

[@deselby9448]

I agree with most of what he says. He is clearly a remarkable linguist. But he does himself a disservice by saying the language acquisition device contains no maturational constraints. If Stephen were correct then it would be easy to prove his hypothesis and simultaneously disprove the critical period hypothesis by merely demonstrating that a post pubescent language-deprived child or adult can acquire a language

[@keegster7167]

A language-deprived person would have brain deformities because of a lack of necessary social interaction, which is a different factor from merely not knowing a language. Thus, you might be wrong attributing the inability to learn a language to age.

[@albertomodesti2641]

How many languages did he speak? A person can get a Doctor degree in languages but still doesn't go further than the third language...I prefer to listen to people who can speak 10 or more languages (I speak 7 - 5 of which with fluency)

[@gerryjtierney]

No you don't

[@CELTAthens]

Despite your name you are not very modest; nor relevant, I should add.

[@rusdayatiidrus5401]

It is sad to realize how much money n time has bn wasted on lg acquisition researches on mathematical approach as proposed by the irrelevant Chomsky.

I think he is brilliant. However, I disagree with him a bit when he says that speaking is a result of language acquisition and not a cause of language acquisition. I think it can actually be a cause and a result of language acquisition. Certainly, the first part is listening to comprehensible input but when I try to put words together and then say them, they're solidified in my head. The Pimsleur method is proof of that.

[@garbygarb31]

Pimsleur is the worst language learning system in the world

[@danj.p5657]

My child didn’t speak a word of English or any other language until one day he opened his mouth and spoke fluently. Listening is all you need.

[@SeanOCallaghan0106]

What about pronunciation? If u wanna have a native pronunciation u need to learn how to use those muscles in a way u have never done before. So in a way speaking is also practise

[@CELTAthens]

True: no one said you have to swallow anyone's theory of language acquisition wholesale! Not true that you have to acquire a native pronunciation - whose accent? Yours? Is that the norm or is it some other variety of English? etc....

[@edmerc92]

13:30 - eh, that's a bit of a straw man. No teacher is going to spend just one day working on a grammatical tense.

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

This is too rigid and too sim0listic, I suspect he is drawing conclusions that are not supported by the evidence. I find that speaking to myself in French has helped me improve my accent, vocabulary and expression. Why do you think children babble, then talk to themselves when playing? Without practicing speaking, how do you learn to articulate the sounds and the intonation? If you read a book, according to him you automatically learn the words. How? Mmm, you have pictures, or a dictionary. Does a child instantly learn on looking at the picture? Or is repetition needed? Of course much of what he says is true, comprehensible input is essential. I lived in a French country for two years, I did not learn the grammar, though I could understand people, I could not speak. Thirty years later I started studying, yes learning some grammar, learning words, and hige amounts of listening and my French has improved massively. As I say, I think this video is too simplistic.

[@beatrizsales2636]

he said in other interview that speak to yourself will only help you loosing fear of talking in another language, the fact that you improved is related to the language acquisition and shadowing

[@warker6186]

It's boring

[@CELTAthens]

I am sure it is for some people - unless you are a teacher why would you want to listen to this ....

[@user-ox9wg1jj9w]

40 years last. Why we still learning grammar? Why this guy or anyone else hasn't developed any language learning program based on his hypothesis?