The Natural Approach： Krashens Model of Second Language Acquisition.pdf

The Natural Approach: Krashen’s Model of Second Language Acquisition Frederick Shannon Abstract Over the last thirty years, second language acquisition theories and language educators have generated various theories in an attempt to better understand and explain human behavior. Academics conducting research in disciplines such as sociology, psychology, linguistics and education have made significant contributions in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) research. Like those in other social sciences, SLA theoretical perspectives are dynamic in that hypotheses are constantly evolving as new information about language is produced. First, this paper begins by briefly contrasting two main SLA theoretical perspectives, nativist and inatist theories of second language acquisition. It then shifts focus to Stephen Krashen’s natural approach hypothesis, also known as the monitor model. The purpose of this paper is to outline Krashen’s main hypotheses which constitute the natural approach to SLA. Moreover, this paper will analyze Krashen’s theory in terms of its weaknesses, strengths as well as address some of the obvious pedagogical implications that the model has had in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL). Keywords: Affective Filter, Interaction Hypothesis, Input Hypothesis, Innatist Theory, Learning Acquisition Device (LAD), Monitor Model, The Natural Approach Introduction Over the last thirty years, researchers have generated a number of theories in order to better understand and explain human behavior. Scholars working in disciplines such as sociology, psychology, linguistics and education have made great contributions in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) research. SLA theoretical perspectives, like those in other social sciences, are dynamic in that hypotheses are constantly evolving as new information about