Dr. Stephen Krashen on Language Acquisition

Introduction

In this video, the speaker discusses language acquisition and the importance of comprehensible input.

Two Lessons

• The speaker introduces two lessons on language acquisition.

• Lesson one involves the speaker repeating a German phrase in various ways to demonstrate that repetition, volume, and visual aids do not aid in language acquisition.

• Lesson two emphasizes the importance of comprehensible input in language acquisition.

Comprehensible Input

• The speaker explains that we acquire language when we understand it through comprehensible input.

• Language acquisition is effortless and involuntary when given comprehensible input.

• From a theoretical point of view, language teaching is easy as long as people are given messages they understand and find interesting.

Overall, the video emphasizes that comprehensible input is key to language acquisition and that traditional methods such as repetition and memorization are not effective.