Page 116 - Beyond Methods

104 Facilitating negotiated interaction
INPUT HYPOTHESIS
The input hypothesis proposed by Krashen forms part of his Moni- tor Model of second language acquisition. The hypothesis states that “humans acquire language in only one way—by understanding messages, or by receiving comprehensible input” (Krashen, 1985, p. 2). By comprehensible input, Krashen refers to linguistic input containing structures that are a little bit beyond a learner’s current level of competence. He further states that learners move from i, the current level, to i + 1, the next level, by understanding input con- taining i + 1. According to him, all that is needed for L2 acquisition is comprehensible input made available in an environment that does not create high anxiety for the learners.
Krashen believes that listening and reading are of primary im- portance and the ability to speak or write will come automatically. Therefore, he does not attach much importance to the role of inter- action in L2 acquisition, arguing that it is useful only to the extent that it can be a good source of comprehensible input. He empha- sizes the significance of teacher-talk that is aimed at providing com- prehensible input. He asserts that when we “just talk” to our stu- dents, and if they understand our talk, then “we are not only giving a language lesson, we may be giving the best possible language les- son since we will be supplying input for acquisition” (Krashen and Terrell, 1983, p. 35).
Reflective task 5.1
Do you agree with Krashen that teachers can give “the best possible lan- guage lesson” by just talking? Imagine this scenario: a school in Wonder- land gives a free TV set to each of the beginning learners of an L2 on the first day of school. Every day, the learners watch programs that use simplified language with full of visual aids to make the input comprehensible (such as children’s programs). They do it with great enthusiasm and by their own will. If that’s all the assistance they get in their L2, will they ever develop ade- quate language competence? Give reasons.
According to Krashen, providing the best possible language les- son means providing manageable, comprehensible input. One way of increasing comprehensibility of the input is to use repetitions