Stephen Krashen facts for kids

Stephen D. Krashen (born May 14, 1941) is an American expert in linguistics, which is the study of language. He is also an educational researcher and an activist. He is famous for his ideas about how people learn a second language. He developed something called the input hypothesis, which is a set of five main ideas about learning new languages. Dr. Krashen is currently a retired professor of Education at the University of Southern California.

How Stephen Krashen Studied Language Learning

Stephen Krashen earned his Ph.D. (a high-level university degree) in Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1972. He has written many books and articles, over 486 in total! His work has greatly helped us understand how people learn a second language. It also covers bilingual education (learning in two languages) and how we learn to read.

Krashen's Main Ideas About Language Learning

Dr. Krashen came up with several important ideas about how we learn new languages. These include:

• The acquisition-learning hypothesis: This idea suggests there are two ways to learn a language. One is by naturally "acquiring" it, like how babies learn their first language. The other is by "learning" it through rules and grammar lessons.
• The input hypothesis: This is one of his most famous ideas. It says that we learn a language best when we understand messages that are a little bit above our current level. He calls this "comprehensible input."
• The monitor hypothesis: This idea suggests that our "learned" language acts like a monitor or editor. It helps us correct mistakes after we've used the language.
• The affective filter: This refers to emotional barriers that can stop us from learning. Things like feeling nervous or unmotivated can make it harder to learn a language.
• The natural order hypothesis: This idea suggests that people learn grammar rules in a predictable order, no matter what language they are learning.

More recently, Dr. Krashen has strongly supported free voluntary reading. This means reading for fun in the language you are learning. He believes it is the most powerful way to learn a new language. He says it helps us learn both our first and second languages.

Awards and Recognition

Stephen Krashen has received several awards for his important work:

• 1985: He was a co-winner of the Pimsleur Award. This award is given for the best published article in foreign language teaching.
• 1986: One of his papers was chosen as a "Citation Class" by a group called Current Contents. This means it was a very important and often-cited paper.
• 1993: He received an award for a great presentation about school libraries.
• 1982: He won the Mildenberger Award for his book, Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning.
• 2005: He was honored by being added to the Reading Hall of Fame by the International Reading Association.
• 2005: He was also chosen to be on the Executive Board of the National Association for Bilingual Education.

Standing Up for Bilingual Education

Dr. Krashen is also known for being an activist for educational policy. This means he actively works to influence how education is done.

Fighting for Bilingual Programs

In his home state of California, some new rules made it harder for schools to offer bilingual education. Bilingual education helps students learn in two languages. Dr. Krashen strongly disagreed with these new rules. He started doing research to show why these policies were not good. He also gave many speeches and wrote letters to newspapers.

Speaking Out Against Proposition 227

In 1998, there was a big campaign in California for a law called Proposition 227. This law aimed to stop bilingual education in schools. Dr. Krashen worked very hard against it. He spoke in public meetings, appeared on TV and radio shows, and gave many interviews to journalists. He wanted to explain why bilingual education was important.

Encouraging Researchers to Speak Up

Dr. Krashen believes that researchers should do more to help the public understand the truth about bilingual education. He thinks that many people have wrong ideas about it. He has written that if experts don't speak up, there might be no bilingual education left to defend. He has sent over 1,000 letters to newspaper editors to share his views. He wants researchers to work together to explain and protect bilingual education across the country.

See also

In Spanish: Stephen Krashen para niños