Dr. Stephen Krashen, a Conversation About Language Acquisition

I am an admirer of Dr. Stephen Krashen. For decades he has done research into language acquisition and then explained the process clearly and simply. By cutting through the fog of traditional language instruction theories, he has helped learners acquire languages naturally and enjoyably .
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#languages #stephenkrashen #languagelearning

[LucaLampariello]

Thanks Steve for making this happen! Love both of you. Hugs from Budapest and keep rocking! 🙂

[coryjorgensen]

Language teacher here, have read several of Krashen's books, used his methods on myself, then implemented them in my classroom. The results speak for themselves. Keep up the good work, gentlemen!

[Klinoklaz]

"We don't force it unless we think we are ready. We just wait, we just listen, and then it comes."
"You're forbidden from correcting anybody for doing anything."

Dr. Krashen deserves a Nobel prize for sharing this idea.

[Geo_Babe]

My two language learning HEROES right here!!!! Love when you two have a conversation! Such a blessing for all of us LLs!!

[LukesEnglishPodcast]

Really enjoying this conversation! Thanks to The Two Steves!

[robertalenrichter]

Without getting into the details, I obtained a high level in French and German through listening and reading, without any inclination to communicate. That took care of itself when I moved to Germany, but nowadays I can converse and write very well in French as well, despite the fact that I've hardly ever had occasion to speak it -- when there is a very rare opportunity, they're astonished when I tell them that I've hardly ever talked. The language establishes itself in your brain, piece by piece, simply from exposure. Strange as it may sound, we don't necessarily have to speak, to learn how to speak.

[alexmazitov]

Greetings from Kharkiv, Ukraine! Thank you for this interview!

[justinwr]

So so glad I found both of these guys. I really don't think I would have ever turned the corner on my language learning without them.

[seayellow]

What I was touched most in the video is that, when speaking, don't mind mistakes, and use simple worlds and sentences at the beginning, and always speak when you're ready. The Chinese education I had in school told me to use fancy sentences and words in your writings and speeches, which definitely isn't great. The amazing thing about native speakers, is they always choose surprisingly simple words and still communicate pretty well. In other words, never use complicated words unless necessary.

[kuklakukla]

Love this conversation, and agree with most of what you say, but there is one thing that I would like to touch on, just because I feel it's important, and that is on the topic of correcting. Dr. Krashen said that mother's don't correct their children, but I hear mothers correct their children all the time. It may not always be in an explicit way, but I often hear it as the mother simply repeating what the child said, but correctly. In my personal experience, growing up in a bilingual household, my Czech acquisition was very reliant on correction, even though it's my first language. Perhaps if I had been living in the CZ and completely immersed in the language rather than just having it at home it would be different, but even so, while in Czech I hear parents correct their children all the time, and my grandma continues to do it to everyone this day. Now, you mentioned that when you correct someone during a lesson they turn around and say it incorrectly in the next sentence, and in my experience both as a student and as a teacher that is true, but it is also true that as time goes by and a mistake is corrected more than once, you eventually start to hear your own mistake, and then are able to fix it. Now, on the contrary, there are so many people I know in the US who have been there for over 20 years and continue to make basic grammatical errors, and having had conversations about it with them, they themselves claimed it was because no one ever corrected them. I also agree that one shouldn't worry about making mistakes, but that doesn't mean one can't strive to reduce them and that it isn't helpful to be corrected while speaking. Perhaps the question is more of when and how correction happens. When learning Spanish I often had people correct me when I spoke, which was extremely helpful. Now with mandarin, my greatest frustration (besides most people trying to speak English with me) is that very few people correct me when I am speaking, even after asking them to. The result of that is that it makes me very self conscious and unsure of whether or not what I am saying is correct, and it makes output more difficult, in contrast to having conversations with people who do correct me, and help me find words, or repeat what I say, but correctly, which makes me feel very comfortable and confident speaking with them and generally also makes for a more interesting conversation. I would argue that it helps me feel less pressure, because I know that I am being understood and that if I say something that doesn't make sense, I will he helped. It is clearly important on how people correct one when they are trying to speak, as of course it can be very distracting, and that it is not always helpful or appropriate, but in both my personal experience and in form what I have observed, being corrected during language learning is not only helpful but a very important part of learning a language and being able to speak it fluently. My best teachers have always not been shy to correct, and those I have who never do frustrate me beyond belief. Of course this is very nuanced and there is so much more that could be said on this topic, but it struck me as quite surprising that both of you seem to be against correcting across the board. I think it would be valuable to delve deeper into your perspective on this topic and perhaps have a discussion with a linguist who disagrees. Thanks for continually posting so much wonderful content!

[trevorwcurrie]

"Culturally weightless" is the most beautiful phrase

[valq]

I watched a BBC documentary on language acquisition featuring Dr Krashen when I was in my teens. I was never the same. He gave me not just a passion for languages, but for good science too.

[VainoOtsonen-humq]

23:10 I love the fact that when Stephen start saying he has a joke about french, Steve immediately starts asking if it's clean ...

[Edu-Coimbra]

It's so precious to listen to the olders! Learn to listen to them and respect them even more!

[agustinalarriera]

Oh guys you´re so inspiring! Thank you so much for this conversation, so smart, and humble and open at the same time! You relax us and makes us want to be even more curious and confident, all the best and thanks again!!

[wardachrouaa]

I can relate to mr. Krashen. Never had amazing grades for my French, but I got interested in learning Arabic when I became 17 years old. After I noticed that apparently I could speak it after 2 years, while my French (8 years of school learning) never got that good. That's when it struck me that maybe motivation might be the trigger. And to stay motivated you need to get interesting input for yourself.
This knowledge motivated me to study more languages.

[KristenLB]

Loved hearing some of the psychology behind why we sound so different and ( often bad) to ourselves while we're trying to speak out loud to a native vs talking to ourselves alone. I think it's extremely observant to say it's an "outsider-ness" we feel; I definitely feel like that, like an imposter sounding more ridiculous the more I try to do what I know is a more authentic accent. Hardly anyone I've found covers these topics and it really helps me to feel more validated in language learning struggles most don't talk about.
When I have tried to frame myself as some actor doing a role or being asked to fake the accent to the best of my ability for the purpose of the production or to imitate it in a silly way, that's the only time I feel confident it's pretty good. The more you care, take it way too seriously and worry, it just seems to come out all over the place. But finding the balance between how to loosen up and still care is very very hard for me.

Thank you for yet another wonderfully motivational video.

[stephen]

Thank you Steve and Stephen from another Stephen! As I said in a comment to your announcement video, Steve, I'm really pleased you're doing this one. Stephen Krashen's work has formed the intellectual foundation for my entire approach to language learning. Without it, I would have given up by now. And perhaps worse, I wouldn't understand so well how the mind works. His work deserves to be widely known (which should be easy since he communicates so well!) and should form the basis of language tuition in schools and elsewhere (much harder since there are so many preconceived notions!).

[urso]

Meeting of two great and brilliant minds of the present century. It's an honor to be able to watch and learn from you.

[AskTetsu]

Ha ha, I love how Krashen showers Kaufmann with compliments on his Mandarin, and says "Live with that!", or "I'm sorry to say all these nice things about you, but I have no choice..." So much respect for these two titans.