“Noam Chomsky pointed out, the number of possible sentences is infinite in any language; there is no limit to the grammatical combination of words. Behaviorism cannot explain how, after relatively limited exposure to a mother tongue, young children acquire complex… — James Crawford Copy Share Image
“conscious learning remains the method and goal of skill-building models. To the extent that students acquire any language at all in such classes, Krashen… — James Crawford Copy Share Image
“the federal Institute of Education Sciences reviewed these studies and found all of them lacking—that is, none could “establish that the comparison group was… — James Crawford Copy Share Image
“It is unnecessary, he added, to pressure students to produce speech or writing in the second language before they are ready, because “output” contributes… — James Crawford Copy Share Image
“skill-building” approaches, which feature explicit instruction in the formal aspects of language, have a poor record of success. Hence the dismal results of most… — James Crawford Copy Share Image
“Teachers needed to emphasize the message, not the medium. Ideally, the curriculum should be so engaging that students would forget which language the teacher… — James Crawford Copy Share Image
“not focusing on language turns out to be an effective way to teach language in sheltered classrooms, especially the kind of academic language that… — James Crawford Copy Share Image
“Nevertheless, in the field of second and foreign language teaching, behaviorist pedagogy—i.e., direct instruction in various forms—maintains a large following, which seems to grow ever larger in this era of high-stakes testing. The connection is obvious. When educators’ evaluations, pay, promotions, and job security depend on “metrics” of student performance, there is a natural tendency to teach to the test.… — James Crawford Copy Share
“Third, the Comprehension Hypothesis, on which Krashen’s concept of sheltering is based, holds that input is what matters in second language acquisition—not output. As noted above, forcing students to “produce” a second language can be counterproductive. Output per se does not contribute directly to language acquisition, and forcing speech before students have acquired enough language to express their meaning tends… — James Crawford Copy Share
“educators of English learners should be well-versed in theories of second language acquisition and in methodologies such as sheltering and scaffolding. Their work should be informed by professional development and coaching from experienced colleagues on effective techniques in the classroom. But is there no room for diversity in teaching styles and techniques? Is there really just one way to shelter… — James Crawford Copy Share
“it’s hard to imagine a more tedious approach, practically guaranteed to deaden the enthusiasm of 12-year-olds.” — James Crawford Copy Share Image
“Krashen’s insistence that a sheltered classroom consists of second language learners only.” — James Crawford Copy Share Image
“Scaffolding is applied in this context, not to engage students through authentic and meaningful activities, but to transmit a designated set of skills and… — James Crawford Copy Share Image
