Stephen Krashen on Language Learning in the Polyglot Community

Dr. Stephen Krashen is one of the most influential figures in the field of second-language acquisition (SLA), and has made a major contribution to the way we now think about language teaching and learning.

I was delighted to get the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Krashen in Montreal to discuss a range of topics, in particular the extent to which his theories of language acquisition can be observed in the learning techniques of polyglots - people who learn multiple language.

In this fascinating interview, you'll hear about:
• Krashen’s background with music, and the relationship between music and language learning
• Do language teachers have an obligation to learn languages themselves?
• The languages that Krashen speaks himself
• The role of “comprehensible input” in language learning
• What does he think of the polyglot community?
• What’s the one language mystery that Krashen would like to see solved?

For a full summary of the interview, please visit the original blog post:

Get in touch with Dr. Krashen:
• Twitter: @skrashen

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My name is Olly Richards, and on this channel I document my experiments in foreign language acquisition:

• Rapid language learning
• Writing Chinese characters
• Languages and travel...on location!
• Daily study routines
• Advanced level tactics

To see some of my previous experiments, why not try…

[jen]

I truly enjoy your interviews, Olly! You don’t interrupt, are kind, and listen. Mr. Krashen shows so much passion and humility when he is interviewed too.

[ronnygefferson]

"If you are a language teacher, you have to be a language learner".

[whhhattevveerr]

I'm really glad they mentioned the monolingual language teacher issue. That confuses me to no end. How can someone who has never learned a language themselves, teach and guide students to learn a language? Its like taking dance lessons from someone who has never danced. I've looked into job postings for ESL teachers and they want a masters degree and jump thru a dozen other hoops...but being monolingual (the most important thing! ) is perfectly ok

[johnfioravanti]

"Smart people never study. They try to solve problems."

[CrimsonDX]

Stephen Krashen is a treasure. I have started putting his methods to work, and I feel I have learned more in this maybe one or two months of casual self learning with reading graded readers and trying to turn the subtitles off on the anime I watch than I ever did in an entire two years of Japanese in high school.

[ReunionDeLenguas]

what an amazing interview! I'm a Spanish teacher and you guys just changed the way I see language learning! Thank you for making me a better teacher. Ana

[DFHarr]

Wow, i thoroughly enjoyed listening to you gentlemen converse about the theoretical and practical aspects of multiple language acquisition. With so much rubbish on the internet, it's refreshing to find interviews/conversations that encourage intellectual growth. Thank you very much!

[redmed]

Totally agree that teachers should be learners. Teachers are normally fluent in L1, almost fluent in L2 and probably beginner to intermediate in L3 because they've often got to be able to teach a second language to basic level. After a certain level they reach a ceiling to say that's enough and then they forget what it's like to be a learner.

[brightstar]

Listening to Stephen just fuels you with energy and remind you why are we teachers ❤

[Jiraiya]

I moved to Japan about 6 months ago and only started studying the language a couple of months before that. Like almost every other English speaking foreigner I moved here by getting an English teaching job. I'm monolingual and after studying Japanese myself and researching a lot the different ways to study, my limited opinion basically aligns with Krashen. It really makes it hard to care about teaching English since 1 I only plan to do it for a limited time and especially 2 I completely don't agree with the schools teaching methods and I do think it's absolutely insane how easy someone that only speaks one language can get a language teaching job. Anytime I go into a class I just want to tell them go home and read A LOT then listen to tv or podcasts or audiobooks A LOT and save your money then after a while if you want to practice speaking just go online and find some native speakers for cheap or free to practice. I feel like I've learned so much more Japanese in 6 months than a lot of these students that just focus on classes learn in a couple years.

[gina]

Dr krashens theory is so comforting and healing, especially he says not to worry about accent and relax and just enjoy the interesting stories or books or contents. I’ve been living in the u.s. for 20 years working as a nurse and still not confident with my English

[angelsrosena]

Music for me is a powerful tool to help me work on my pronunciation and I love it.

[HezyTech]

I agree with the interviewer when it comes to music. As a singer/ pianist I am used to changing my mouth shapes and patterns to get the desired result. I picked up my Spanish accent quickly, and the rolled r's were seriously a piece of cake. I am also use to performing with tones of confidence. So when I speak Spanish it feels like I'm putting on a show, I don't care or mind and my spanish comes out great. As a self taught professional musician I know what it takes to become better, so I just spent 9 hours a day learning. Being a musician helps. But it's not the be all and end all.

[Geo_Babe]

Legendary I cannot count how many times I’ve watched/listened to the pod of this conversation. Anyone learning a language just needs to start here. It’s that simple!

[ifh]

30:14 making a comment so can find this gold later when I come back to this.

Thank you both so much!

[futurez]

I agree with a lot of this. I'm also a fan of Steve Kaufman. The trouble I have is with this 5-10% unknown words. First of all, it's really, really tough to keep finding new material that is exactly in this pretty narrow "sweet spot, " and secondly, if you work only with material that has 5% new words it'd take you a ridiculous amount of time to expose yourself to enough new words. I can't really understand why you'd limit yourself like that.

What I tend to do is find anything that's between 50-90% comprehensible, which immediately opens up a much wider range of material. I then work through it, looking up each unknown word, not to memorise it, but rather to aid my overall understanding of the text. Then I repeatedly listen to it and reread it until I feel like I've got out of it as much as I'm going to, then I move on.

I find looking up the unknown words helps push the comprehension up towards that 90%+ level, if only for that short period I'm working with the material. So long as you make sure the text isn't too long, and you keep it short, no longer than 5 minutes or so of audio, I feel like it works well and you'll be exposed to more new words than if you kept with your 90-95% known words. That is unless, of course, you put in longer sessions.

[solea]

most days I spend at least one hour studying. Sometimes I miss a day with pencil and pad but I do listen to something. In my case either italian or spanish. I believe that listening has a fantastic unconcious impact.

[katakana-kun]

Hey man, I learned about your channel through Matt vs Japan. I already thought so while watching your interview with Matt, but you're an excellent interviewer! I'm so grateful that you got to interview Steven Krashen so we can hear some things no one else has asked him about before.

[CraigDG]

So true for me. Learning French right now. I came across a piece of writing on a French learning website, it was a Translation exercise from French to English. the article was to do with April Fools Day and how it is celebrated in France. I was compelled by the story which made me more dedicated to understanding what was being said. I found an historical error in the article that just could not have been factually correct. But this made me more determined to keep reading and translating. what krashen says is true. Compelling input really helps you learn a language.

[SpanishtoMind]

Thanks for sharing this interview Olly. Very, very interesting, I especially related when Stephen said that the best accent is inside of us, it has happened so many times to me that one moment I pass for an English native speaker but then on a different conversation I feel an 'unnatural accent', that but now I know that its more of a psychological thing.