comment on Krashen’s Input Hypothesis

Krashen s Input Hypothesis is a very important theory in second language acquisition and has aroused great attention in foreign language teaching field As an initial teacher I am interested in English teaching Krashen s Input Hypothesis really gives me some inspirations and I think to be a good teacher understanding and using this hypothesis deeply and flexibly can help us a lot Krashen claims that Humans acquire language in only one way by understanding messages or by receiving comprehensible input That is to say language acquisition depends on trying to comprehend what other people are saying He argues that language input should have four requirements comprehension interesting and relevant not grammatically sequenced and i 1 I really agree with him because during my probation in JinHua No 1 Middle School I find if a teacher uses this theory in teaching it is efficient both in teacher s teaching and students learning The class that I attended was very successful and efficient the teacher achieved her teaching goals easily and the students got the learning point easily The whole atmosphere between teacher and students is relaxing and pleasant the teacher was energetic in teaching and the students were happy in learning After class I was wondering why this class was so successful Latter I realized that this teacher used Krashen s Input Hypothesis in her teaching Here I will show a pre reading of this reading class on USEFC Module 2 unit 5 Music The article on this unit is The Band That Wasn t It tells a band Monkees which was as famous as Beatles in 1960s Students are unfamiliar with this topic because they are all born after 1990s If the teacher drives to this passage directly it may be difficult for the students further reading since this reading material is incomprehensible to them So the teacher realizes the importance of comprehensible input she designs several steps for her students also we can say she builds scaffolding for them to help them reach the position in which they can understand the information In pre reading stage 4 steps are designed to build a comprehensible input Step1 Play the song sung by Beatles Let It Be and ask What s the theme of this song How much do you know about the band She firstly introduce Beatles by listening song then asks a question which expands students cultural horizon and arouses their interests Step2 Play the theme song in the film Shrek I m a believer Shrek is a famous movie which is familiar with students and the theme song of Shrek is sung by Monkees This design will make students feel closer to this band Step3 Play the same song again sung by the Monkees and then lead to the theme This step makes students interested in the next reading and let them feel this band is relevant to their life Step4 Complete the title the band that wasn t Teacher asks students to skim the passage quickly and find the differences between Montees and other banks and use words and phrases to complete the blank In my understanding this activity follows the principle of i 1 the teacher gives a task that a little beyond students current level of competence and with the help of context and they will be able to understand language containing unacquired grammar such as attributive clause in the form of prep which whom clause After that the problem I am considering now is how to improve my teaching with the help of Krashen s Input Hypothesis in future Next year if I m a middle school teacher what should I do to hold an efficient class And Krashen s Input Hypothesis gives me some inspirations Firstly increase comprehensible input or make the information be more acceptable Some topics in teaching material are unfamiliar with the students so the task for teachers is to arouse their interests and make the information be relevant to real life Also that will improve the input efficiency Secondly create a real situation Language is used to communicate English as our foreign language we don t have a native environment to practice our speaking but we can create a situation Teachers should avoid using mother tone in class and encouraging students express their opinions in English this will improve the language input environment Last but not least give some complements Just as the principle of i 1 to improve students comprehensive ability we should input a certain amount of information For example there are only 2 discourses in