Reflection Krashen's Sla Hypothesis

REFLECTION KRASHEN’S SLA HYPOTHESIS What I learned was that hypotheses and claims about SLA. For instance, adults and adolescents ‘acquire’ a second language but it is related how a learner exposes to the language, so one cannot achieve nativelike command of a second language in one hour a day. The learner creates a systematic interlanguage ; Turkish effects English in terms of the use of grammar for example, we say what comes to your mind instead of what comes to mind. There are predictable sequences in acquisition, we learn simple past tense before learning past perfect tense. Practice does not make perfect because it is not important how much practice you are doing but how meaningful the practice is as Bruner says. So, when I become a teacher I will try to do meaningful activities and I will benefit from learning activities which are relevant to students’ life because I believe that if teaching has relevance to students’ life , learning serves them in the future. I also learned Krashen’s second language acquisition hypothesis. The first one is input hypothesis. Krashen makes the distinction between acquisition and learning. Acquisition is the natural way like first language development in children. Those who acquire a second language pick up the rules subconsciously. Learning, by contrast, occurs as a result of conscious study of the formal properties of the language. Most teachers focus their attention on language learning. The problem here is that students cannot learn to communicate because communicative language skills can only be acquired . According to the theory, learning dosn’t lead to acquisition. So, when I become a teacher, I will do as much listening activities in the classroom as possible and I will benefit from authentic materials in my teaching. The second one is Monitor hypothesis. Krashen believes that fluency in second language performance is due to what we acquired not what we learned. Adults should do as much acquiring as possible fort he purpose of achieving communicative fluency. Their conscious knowledge serves only as a ‘Monitor’. Different individuals use their monitor in different ways, however we should be ‘optimal users’. We should use conscious knowledge when iit is appropriate. So, when I become a teacher, I will try to ignore my students’ speaking mistakes because if I correct their mistakes by interrupting them,they may not open their mouth again. Students’ making mistakes is good because they can learn from their mistakes. By making mistakes, students can learn speaking without using their ‘monitor’ and they can develope fluency.The third hypothesis is The Natural Order hypothesis. According to this hypothesis , certain grammatical structures are acquired before others in first language acquisition and there is a similar order in second language acquisition but this does not mean that grammar should be tought in this order of

acquisition. If it were like this, 3rd person singular –s would be thaught the end of the teaching. So, when I become a teacher, I can ignore my students’ third person singular –s mistakes because according to the theory i I know that students learn this rulet very last. The fourth hypothesis is The Input Hypothesis . Krashen claims that people acquire language best by understanding input that is a little beyond their present level. For example, if a learner is at a stage “i”, acquisition occurs when the learner is exposed to “i+1 level” comprehensible input ,so, students develope competence overtime. So, when I become a teacher, I I will pay attention that input isn’t so easy in that there’s nothing new to learn or it isn’t too difficult but should be given at such a level that the learner must work a little in order to understand. Fifth hypothesis is The Affective Filter Hypothesis. A number of affective variables play an important role in second language acquisiton. These are motivation, self-confidence and anxiety. Low motivation, low self-confidence and anxiety raise the affective fitler and form ‘a mental block’ that prevents comprehensible input from being used for acquisiton . In other words , when the filter is up , it prevents language acquisition. So , to prevent ‘the affective filter ‘ , I will try to create an enjoyable classroom set up. I can benefit from ‘desuggestopedia’ , I can hang some posters , balloons on the wall just to make my students feel secure during the lesson.What I had difficulty in figuring out was nothing. Everything was clear enough to understand.I suppose I need to focus more on Krashen’s hypothesis to benefit from them in practice in my teaching.