What is the 'Natural Approach' to Language Education?

[Madam H]

The 20th of September, 2008 was the day Dr. Dtephen Krashen came to Bangkok and spoke to some 200 teachers, mainly from international schools in Bangkok, about what it means to 'acquire' a language and to 'learn' a language.

Dr. Krashen's theory on Language Education is not new. He's done his studies as early as the 80's. For me, what is striking about the notions he supports is the fact that he has a Ph.D in Grammar, and yet, promotes the emphasis on 'meaning' in language learning, rather than on the 'form' of the language.

Perhaps it is his ideas that spawned many more studies on the Communicative Approach, and other related theories/principles on language education.

In this thread, I am going to break up his talk into a series of short articles. This way, conversation will be more focused on one idea/strategy/priniciple. I invite everyone and anyone who may have an opinion to the posts that shall follow to enter into the conversation. Thank you in advance for your participation and may we learn lots of new and old things, together...

[Madam H]

Let us begin this conversation by looking back at times in your life when you read books or any printed medium, for that matter, simply because you wanted to. It was not because of some reward, nor was it because you wanted to avoid some kind of negative consequence by not reading. What was it like then?

Chances are, you enjoyed the experience so much that you probably did not notice the time. You felt you had all the time in the world to immerse yourself in the words of the book. Most probably, the experience was so vivid in your memory that you could still remember the stories, the authors, the book series, even characters’ names, and more.

Would you say that those moments were meaningful? Rewarding, even?

If so, then why do we have to reward learners of English when they read? When by doing so, it has been said (Krashen in Bangkok, September 20, 2008), we send out the notion that reading is NOT an enjoyable activity?

I  subbed for another teacher once and her reading program involved giving students stickers everytime they finish reading a story. For those students who were really keen on the stickers, they mostly chose books that didn’t have many words in it, and to them, reading was like a race. They would sit down on the rug in class, read through the pages as fast as they could, and then came to me for the stickers. I thought it was a very sad affair.

The children, on the other hand, who did not pay so much attention to the stickers would take time to read each page. They would be looking at the pictures, talking to their friends about what’s happening in the story, and laughing here and there when they see something funny. And when you start asking them questions about the story, they could tell you a lot of details about it, and would even have an opinion or two about what they are reading. They also like the stickers, but to them, it didn’t seem like a consequence of them reading. They simply enjoyed reading more than getting the stickers.

From a teacher’s point of view, there is no doubt in my mind that the second group of learners will develop into lifelong readers, and would improve in their language skills so much faster than the first group.

And so while it is great to reward effort in reading, care should be taken to ensure that learners derive pleasure from reading itself, but not do it to get a reward. The enjoyment they get from their reading, is in itself, THE reward.

Please visit www.heddatan.com

[Madam H]

Dr. Krashen talked about the homerun book for every reader, and how crucial it is to jumpstart ALL other reading interests in the future.

He says for every lifelong reader, there is that one book or one reading experience that started it all. And it could happen at any age. This homerun experience is so special or distinct that many readers could still remember the title, or the auhtor, or the characters of the first story/book that ever got them started on reading. It's the one book/story that they could hardly put down, that they were most probably not 'told' to read, and one they definitely read up to the very end.

In my adult reading program, I asked students what their homerun books were. Not surprisingly, those who can identify their homerun books are the strong readers. And so it occurred to me... if you wish to improve your reading, and actually, improve your overall language abilities, find your homerun book!

It doesn't have to be a novel the likes John Grisham writes. It could be your Sweet Valley High series, or The Hardy Boys. It can even be Captain Underpants, Scooby-Doo or Archie's Digest/Betty and Veronica. The catch is, you have to really want to read it; you can hardly put it down to go relieve yourself in the restroom. You find it so exciting you can hardly wait to know what happens next.

That's the kind of anticipation that builds reading interest. And so, if you wish for your learners to become lifelong readers, or you have children of your own whom you want to motivate to read, or you yourself wish to BE a reader, then find that homerun book today!

[TARSIER]

Thank you very much Madam H for posting them here. Indeed, I just learned how rewards compromise our goal to instill the value of reading among our students.

I could still remember how reading got my attention. It was not because of rewards although rewards were given to those who spend much of their free time in school reading at the library. Ever since, I had an inclination to books but not reading them. I loved to collect books and I never spent much of my time reading them. I had collected outdated books thrown from our school library and books read by my brother-in-law.

A day came when I came over this books which talked about what would happen in the year 2000. That book really got my attention and I spent a lot of times reading that book again and again until my love for reading sprouted.  Right now, I could hardly get away from good books. 

The school where I used to work implemented a “Reading Program” where they gave rewards to the students who spend much of their time reading at the library. Students have their booklets with them wherein their teachers could sign every time they saw them reading at the library. It’s so dreadful that I ended up signing the booklets of the students queuing before me every time I am in the library. I don’t think most of them became book lovers. They were just after of a piggy bank reward. 

[Madam H]

Thanks for sharing, Tarsier.

For sure, all these reward programs came out of good intentions from well-meaning teachers/administrators. It's just not based on sound principles anymore.

[erick]

Wow! Very informative!

Speaking of READING ACTIVITIES, I remember a topic called "ENHANCING LITERARY APPRECIATION TECHNIQUES" ( forgive me I forgot who authored it) which helps in getting the learners ( young children; teenagers even)  appreciate what they're reading in the classroom.

I'm sure most of us are aware of these techniques:

Chamber Theater
Choral Reading
Storytelling
etc.

The learners are focused not only to vocabulary building but to the development of their comprehension skills, personality and creativity.

Perhaps, we could start a workshop on this someday??
 

[Madam H]

I could do one on storytelling, no problem.

But I would be very much interested to attend one of yours on the other topics you mentioned, Erick! 

[Darfur]

i could do chamber theater...