Stephen Krashen's theories on language acquisition - THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS

We are going over some of Professor Krashen's theories prior to our
virtual conference with him. - Dave Kees

===============================================================

There are five key hypotheses about second language acquisition:

3. THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS

The language that one has subconsciously acquired "initiates our
utterances in a second language and is responsible for our fluency,"
whereas the language that we have consciously learned acts as an editor
in situations where the learner has enough time to edit, is focused on
form, and knows the rule, such as on a grammar test in a language
classroom or when carefully writing a composition. This conscious editor
is called the Monitor.

Different individuals use their monitors in different ways, with
different degrees of success. Monitor Over-users try to always use their
Monitor, and end up "so concerned with correctness that they cannot
speak with any real fluency." Monitor Under-users either have not
consciously learned or choose to not use their conscious knowledge of
the language. Although error correction by others has little influence
on them, they can often correct themselves based on a "feel" for
correctness.

Teachers should aim to produce Optimal Monitor users, who "use the
Monitor when it is appropriate and when it does not interfere with
communication." They do not use their conscious knowledge of grammar in
normal conversation, but will use it in writing and planned speech.
"Optimal Monitor users can therefore use their learned competence as a
supplement to their acquired competence."

Part Four coming tomorrow...





^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   _o_     ~
c(___)/` U

    http://wikigogy.org our wiki

    TEFLChina Rules & Help: http://wikigogy.org/TEFLChina