M4: Krashen's Theories of Second Language Acquisition

The theories we have talked about up until now have been about learning in general (Sociocultural theory, Cognitivism, or Behaviorism) or about acquiring your first language (Chomsky's Innatism).  Now we are going to cover some theories about learning additional languages during or after you have already learned your first one.

This is Dr. Stephen Krashen.  He's an ESL guru,  who came up with some really important theories for ESL. 

Stephen Krashen published most of his early work and these influential theories around 1980.  So many aspects of language acquisition we may take for granted now were new in 1980 and Krashen developed quite a few of these theories.  Some of them have been amended, critiqued or expanded upon, but there are a few that you will need to know for your TExES exam and also to understand some of the thinking of ESL teachers. 

 

These theories are on p. 53-54 of your textbook (3rd edition).

 

We will also go over some more of his theories in the next few pages of this module.