| Dr. Stephen Krashen's foundational principle in his | | | | our native languages. This process is a natural |
| theory of Second Language Acquisition is called | | | | event in which the learner of the language is |
| "The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis." In this idea, | | | | involved with the actual act of communication and |
| a distinction is made in that wonderfully exciting | | | | not so much in a formal relationship to |
| and gaiety-galore world of linguistics and language | | | | grammatical structures (the horse before the |
| pedagogy between learning a language and | | | | cart). "The learned system" is a system in which |
| acquiring it. "The acquired system" is the means | | | | the learner comes into a possession of a lot of |
| through which spoken fluency is acquired. I can | | | | information about the language. Rules of grammar |
| recall scores of students who come to | | | | and cold-memorization of vocabulary are the |
| Guanajuato, Mexico (where we live), who have | | | | thrusts of instruction. It is putting the "cart" |
| told me they would pay any amount of money to | | | | before the "horse" and expecting, somehow, the |
| have the spoken fluency of a Mexican child being | | | | cart to pull the horse. "Acquisition requires |
| packed off to his or her first day of class in | | | | meaningful interaction in the target language - |
| primary school. It is, after all, what most of those | | | | natural communication - in which speakers are |
| with whom I've spoken are after-spoken fluency. | | | | concerned not with the form of their utterances |
| Sure, they would love to read and write in | | | | but with the messages they are conveying and |
| Spanish but they seem to have an instinctive | | | | understanding." Stephen Krashen If what you |
| understanding of what comes first. They know | | | | seek is how to exegete a text of the target |
| the cart does not draw the horse. They are after | | | | language, then go for the cart. If what you want |
| the horse and then the cart. To acquire the | | | | is communication in the target language, then find |
| target language is the result of a process almost | | | | that horse. |
| identical to what we all went through in acquiring | | | | |