Like this:

The chapter on Krashen has finally closed (doubt it won’t stay close for very long).

It’s not that I am happy to see it end but he has been happily screwing my mind with his ‘Monitor Model’.

I love the way he hypothesizes his theories which does make perfect sense if we think about but it just difficult to verify them.

 

Review of the ‘Monitor Model’

(a)         Acquisition – Learning Hypothesis

(b)         Comprehensible Input Hypothesis

(c)          The ‘Monitor’ Hypothesis

(d)         The Natural Order Hypothesis

(e)         The Affective-Filter Hypothesis

 

Krashen’s weakness here is not of his hypotheses but evidence to support his hypotheses. The hypotheses formulated by Krashen have rapport which supports each other.

 

Krashen (1987: 10) firmly states learning and acquisition is two different entities. One happens in a subconscious manner the other in a learned situation. Acquisition takes place automatically and without one being aware it. Krashen (1987: 21) believes L2 learners are able to acquire the TL in the same method as their MT if comprehensible input is given one level/step ahead. L2 learners exposed to i+1 acquired the meaning of the language and not the form. By understanding the meaning, form will come naturally. This takes us to the Natural Order, where L2 learners would learn morphemes in a predictable order as they do it in the MT (Krashen, 1987: 12). Krashen (1987: 15) duly noted that learning has no other purpose then to ‘monitor’ L2 utterance gained from acquisition. Finally, being in a relaxed, motivated and stress-free condition will apparently aid L2 acquisition and vice versa (Krashen, 1987: 31).

 

If I wasn’t studying TESOL, I would say these are brilliant theories.

But I am studying TESOL, and I still say the above are indeed great hypotheses. It’s these hypotheses which gave birth to healthy discussions and strong stands on Second Language Acquisition.

 

I acquiesce with the fact that comprehensible input is necessary for one to know the inner workings of a language but I firmly believe that learning consciously, for example by associating language/lexis with objects/actions/pictures, aids language acquisition. By associating language with objects, this demonstrates a sense of awareness during the cognitive processing in the mind, gently rebuffing the idea of acquisition and learning division. Acquisition and learning has to be inter-dependent for achieving a near native or native-like Second Language.

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