How can we banish the fear of English?

Danton Remoto (“The siren call of English,” Sept. 7) gives me undeserved credit for introducing the idea of the “affective filter,” an emotional barrier that prevents language acquisition. (It was actually introduced by scholars Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt in the 1970’s). But Remoto is correct: the filter needs to be weakened or even eliminated for successful language acquisition.

How language is acquired

The last 50 years of research has provided massive evidence that we acquire language by understanding what we hear and read, that is, when we get “comprehensible input.” We do not acquire language by speaking, writing, studying grammar, or memorizing vocabulary. Spoken fluency, having an acceptable writing style, accurate grammar and a large vocabulary are the result of acquiring language through comprehensible input.

Weakening the Filter

The Affective Filter prevents input from reaching those parts of the brain that are responsible for language acquisition. By far the best way to weaken or even eliminate the filter is by providing “compelling” comprehensible input, input that is so interesting that we in a sense temporarily “forget” that we are listening to or reading another language. 

This happens when students hear highly interesting stories and when they read books that they select ourselves, that they are genuinely interested in. 

Studies done over the last few decades consistently tell us that students acquire vocabulary and grammar far more efficiently via story listening and self-selected reading than through instruction.

If the research is correct, it means that our most urgent task is to provide easy access to interesting reading material at all levels. It means that Francis Mangubhai and Warwick Elley were right when they wrote: “The provision of a rich supply of high-interest storybooks is a much more feasible policy for improving English learning than any pious pronouncements about the urgent need to raise teacher quality. ” – Stephen Krashen [email protected]

(Stephen Krashen is Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California. He is the most widely cited scholar in the world in the field of second language acquisition, the author of a dozen books and over 500 papers published in professional journals. Many of his books and articles are available for free download at sdkrashen.com.)