COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT

Krashen is an expert linguist in the University of Southern California. He is specialized in the language acquisition and
development. Much of his research deals with the theory of second language acquisition. In this theme we are going to see the
importance of teaching referring to communication.

THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS

Krashen says that the input hypothesis is one of the most important hypotheses which deals with the acquisition of the language
and its teaching. The language we teach must be comprehensible; this means that the students have to understand what the teacher
says.

His question is: “how do we acquire the language?”

Krashen says that we acquire language when we understand language which contains structure that is “a little beyond us”, this
means structures which are a little more difficult than what we already know.

This is what Krashen calls ‘input + 1’, that is, input is the language we receive and understand and 1 is the next stage of
difficulty.

What can help us to understand what we don’t know?

We can understand language that contains structures we have not acquired because we use the linguistic competence and also the
context, our knowledge of the world, this is our previous knowledge, and our extra-linguistic information, and this is gestures,
mimic, body language, flashcards …

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘ACQUISITION’ AND ‘LEARNING’. (KRASHEN)

 ‘Acquisition’ is the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire
their first language. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language.

 ‘Learning’ is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious
knowledge ‘about’ the language, for example knowledge of grammar rules. According to Krashen ‘learning’ is less
important than ‘acquisition’.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AT EARLY STAGES FOR COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT

As we have seen, teaching foreign language at preschool implies that the input the children receive must be comprehensible,
otherwise there is no communication.

Krashen and Terrell (1988) suggest several techniques to work with children who have to participate without the need to respond
in the foreign language.
Total Physical Response: children have to respond or act out to different commands given by the teacher. As children do not have
to produce any language, they have to focus on understanding what the teacher says. This provides Comprehensible Input.

There are other activities like describing the children from the class.
The teacher chooses a boy, Pablo, and with the hand makes a movement indicating that he has to go to the front.
o Teacher: Pablo, come to the front.
o Pablo stands up and goes to the front where he/she is.
o Teacher: Children, look at Pablo, he has dark hair and blue eyes.
o Teacher: Who has got dark hair and blue eyes?
o Children: Pablo.
o Teacher: Well done.
The teacher must do everything he/she can to be understood, mimic, gestures, body language and context because they are all in
the class.
With this example the teacher can describe more children with different parts of the body, with different clothes they are wearing,
and many different adjectives as colours, sizes, numbers, feelings… (Who is wearing a red jumper? Who is wearing a pink skirt?)

What Krashen and Terrell say is that the only thing the children have to do is remember the names and they forget they understand
the foreign language. This is good for having the affective filter low.
Another activity could be with different pictures abut means of transports. The teacher shows the picture of a car and gives it to
the child, then shows the picture of a bus and gives it to another child. The question the teacher asks is Who hast got the picture of
the car? And the children have to respond the name of the child who has got the
picture of the car.

The same happens when the teacher works with small groups and shows pictures about the different members of the family,
mother, father, brother, sister … the teacher asks Where is the brother? And the child has to point to the brother in the picture. If
the teacher wants to increase the level of the language depending on the age of the children, he/she can ask different questions like
is the mother wearing a skirt? Is the father wearing a hat? And so on. The children have to answer Yes/No.

Another example of increasing the Comprehensible Input is telling stories using repetition. The story of The Chick Plácido Bazo
told you in class. Sentences which are repeated several times help to understand the story. That is why stories in preschool must be
repetitive. Children at that age forget very easily.

All this work in previous production stages, the children must be comfortable, without the need of producing the foreign language.
Bit by bit the children are involved in the foreign language and they will be able to produce the language in the future.

THE AFFECTIVE FILTRE HYPOTHESIS

The Affective Filtre Hypothesis proves how affective factors are related to the second language acquisition. Krashen says that this
concept of the Affective Filtre was proposed by Dulay and Burt (1979).

The Affective Filter Hypothesis deals with the “affective variables” which play an important role in second language acquisition.
These affective variables include: motivation, self-confidence and anxiety.

 Motivation: students with high motivation do better in second language acquisition.

 Self-confidence: students with self-confidence and good self-image tend to do better in second language acquisition.
 Anxiety: low anxiety appears to be also good to second language acquisition.

Krashen says that a student with high motivation, self- confidence, a good self-image and a low level of anxiety is better prepared
for success in second language acquisition. Low motivation, low self-esteem, and debilitating anxiety can increase the affective
filter and stop comprehensible input from being used for acquisition. In other words, when the filter is 'up' it
stops language acquisition.

When the affective filter is low the students are open to acquire more language because they obtain more input, if the affective
filter is high means that the children’s attitudes are not optimal for the second language acquisition, so they will receive less input.

CONCLUSION
After dealing with these two concepts related to second language acquisition, we have to consider them when we teach English as
a foreign language. It is just a method to put into practice if we want our children to acquire the language and we have to be
conscious all the time that the most important matter is to use the language for communication. If there is no
understanding there is no message.