Best Practices for American/International School Educators Reflection on Dr.

Stephen Krashen

Tom Johnson | ict-design.org EDU 594

Tom Johnson | ict-design.org 720026373

EDU 594 Best Practices for American/International School Educators

720026373

On October 5th, 2008, Dr. Stephen Krashen described the difference between learning and acquisition. In his accompanying handout, he avowed, acquisition [is the] subconscious [or can be described as the] picking up of a language. While it is happening, we are not aware that it is happening [and] once we have acquired something, we are not usually aware that anything has happened. He compared this to learning [which is] conscious [It is] the rules and the grammar. He further declared, Acquisition is what the brain does well and learning is what the brain does poorly. Krashens presentation about Language Acquisition was both informing and controversial. One of the most important ideas relating to language learning, he declared, was that proficiency and development of the native or first language was most necessary because it provided background knowledge and aided in literacy acceleration for other language learning. He stated that many issues influenced the attainment of a language, these included: reading and income levels, libraries, stress, comprehensible input, and also marking and grading. This paper will look at each of these factors and demonstrate a thorough understanding of Dr. Stephen Krashens topics and will explain how we are applying this information professionally in our school community.

READING AND INCOME LEVELS Krashen stated the problem with reading acquisition lay in a seemingly impossible solution, and that was access to books. He said schools and administrators need to beef up their libraries in order to present a range of offerings to a prospective book reader. Parents also need to have a healthy set of books on hand in a household. This is because of what he called, The Homerun Book. This was essentially the book that was engaging enough to a new reader that it hooked them into reading for the rest of their life because the reader had a good first experience. He summarized: the more money to buy books, the more books that can be bought; the more books that are bought, the higher the likelihood reading occurs and stronger the ability for acquisition of a language. ability to offer Homerun books to income levels. The immediate solution to a low income problem was to have students create the books and stories themselves. These stories could be read aloud immediately and the better ones could be passed on or kept for later use. Pat Cunningham also mentions these budget-friendly solutions: A school can subscribe to a few popular magazines; they can subscribe to news magazines for kids; they can share (with other classes and possibly with other schools); and finally they can have their older grades buddy up with kindergarten classes in order to become big buddy readers. (2005) Krashen related the problem of access and the

Tom Johnson | ict-design.org 720026373

EDU 594 Best Practices for American/International School Educators

LIBRARIES The amount of books was one factor in libraries, but another determinant was the proper use of librarians. Krashen pointed to librarians as a key resource. He stated librarians must be used to their full potential in a library setting, and that was as a resource for students to use and ask questions to. The librarian should be used to direct the students towards a book or groups of books that could prove to be Homerun Books or continue to be the best book(s) for the situation. However, Krashen observed the way librarians are often being used and that is as book shelvers, book

organizers and people doing monotonous jobs that should be done by someone who only need to know how to read and follow the Dewey Decimal system. Our school was to take immediate action by allotting time designated to the librarian to perform her job effectively, as well as to give our librarian sufficient support staff, so that she was not bogged down with menial tasks. Herbert White says, Librarians need to review books that are requested or sought after from individuals and staff. They need to consider whether the book has value in itself, as well as if the book is considered a redundancy to the collection. Again, these were just more reasons in which our librarian needed time given to her in order to make effective decisions in selecting. Another key issue pertaining to libraries was ensuring that it was a welcoming environment in structure and aesthetic. Susan Kent says, Good libraries make good communities. Folks see the library in their community as essential, vital, vibrant, and as a spark to community development. (Albanese, 2001) If a library is positively situated and properly designed it will be an environment students, staff, administrators, and possibly even parents and outside parties flock to, rather than avoid. It should be spacious, comfortable, have ample working, sitting and even lounging space, as well as have a general sense of order and calm that one would expect from a reading environment. It should relax its users with peaceful and serene atmosphere. Our school allots a considerable portion of its funding into resourcing and outfitting the library. Schools and communities need to follow our example and shift expendable capital into the library, as they can and often turn around a community into a thriving area. Bradbury reiterates this conjecture saying, The librarys construction is a perfect example of a successful public/private sector partnership. (Albanese, 2001) He states that public arenas that are appropriately equipped will bring businesses to the surrounding areas because they are natural drawing cards. When applying this to

Tom Johnson | ict-design.org 720026373

EDU 594 Best Practices for American/International School Educators

the school setting, they can become the area of the school that becomes the place of tranquility and escape from all other realities.

STRESS This brings me to a point that I would consider to be one of the most important arguments made by Stephen Krashen. This was about stress and how it affects the level of acquisition. Krashen posited, Anxiety, or the lack thereof, is related to motivation and self-esteem. It helps with the Language Acquisition Device input. With a stress-free or low stress environment a student is able to acquire a language more easily. For a teacher teaching through simple structure procedures; creating positive attitudes; maintaining high student expectations; being consistent; role modeling positive behaviors and courteousness; empathizing and caring for students (Wong, 2008) are all positive factors that are reinforced in our school through mentoring, team-teaching, leadership meetings and professional development.

COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT, MARKING and GRADING However, factors that are often considered necessary, but contribute to stress are: forced output & incomprehensible input. Krashen stated that talking is not practicing and this is what he calls forced output. The ability to speak is the result of acquisition and correcting this has little or no value. (Krashen & Truscott 2003) In 1929, Alfred North Whitehead coined the term inert knowledge problem. He used it to refer to the fact that students learn things in the classroom that they cannot later put to their own purposes outside of the classroom. (Prez-Llantada, 2007. pp. 158) Incomprehensible input is information given to a student that is above or outside of the level of his or her understanding. It can also be routine busywork that has been created by the teacher which is not enforcing or giving new knowledge to the students. Rather than direct teaching or presenting rote learning, if a teacher is using an inquiry-based approach in education, such as one enabled through the International Baccalaureate Organization, as we are at our school, they are allowing the student to attain knowledge in his or her own way. In doing so teachers present explicit opportunities [for students] to practice using the new language to negotiate meaning in interactive settings. (Harper & Jong, 2004) Couple this system with cross-curricular links, which the IBO also asserts, and a student will connect meaning and reference to

Tom Johnson | ict-design.org 720026373

EDU 594 Best Practices for American/International School Educators

concepts outside of the single-subject area. If they begin to apply new meaning to other subject areas, then they will more readily recognize significance in the outside world.

This brought a controversial point to the surface for teachers, parents and the teaching practice. The point was that the attention given to learning grammar that schools traditionally focused upon could be disregarded in primary and middle years because it was outside of the realm of comprehensible knowledge when learning a language at this level. Krashen said elementary teachers could fundamentally throw away their red pens and save two to three hours of marking every night by not focusing on grammar correcting. The fact that many teachers were going home and marking class assignments in order to teach the students proper practice was not only a waste of the teachers time and energy but was also a near exercise in futility because the students were not likely to look at every marked up page in order to learn from it and if they did it was still incomprehensible input. Krashen suggested instead that comprehensible input through full immersion and reading were main factors having influence over the acquisition of a language. This was an ideal notion to most teachers who were present, but it did not bode well for the traditions and expectations of the school or the school community. For example, from Krashens assessment, almost every practice of benchmarking and testing would need to be re-examined as output from a student did not reflect the input and acquisition that was taking place by the student. Krashen said that listening and observing by the student could and probably would ensue for a long period of time before any actual output, through writing or speaking would actually take place for a student who was new to a language environment. He mentioned that output did not represent acquisition, but this would pose a problem for our school because parents and even teachers and administrators often have unrealistic expectations to prove that learning is taking place. Krashens case argues against measurable accountability of the student, which is ideal for learning and the breakdown of stress, but convoluted in the presence of transferring students to other organizations or levels which will expect transcripts and grading in order to compare and assess. To our school this initially means we have to educate the parents about output versus comprehensible input. Once the parent population starts to become informed and appeased, we could then set out as a teaching profession to change strategies of marking without much argument or misunderstanding. Education of parents would be on-going

Tom Johnson | ict-design.org 720026373

EDU 594 Best Practices for American/International School Educators

through Parent-Coffee seminars from the director and principal. It would also take place through presentations by staff and through reinforcement at assemblies where the ideals could be reiterated. However, we would be fighting an uphill battle. If other institutions were not on board with the idea about this marking scheme, or lack thereof, it would become hopeless for a student in need of a transcript to get anything but.

In summary, every faction participating in one way or another in school activities needs to be involved and have intimate understanding of the processes taking place. This goes beyond the infrastructure of the school or the schooling community. This spans to all educating institutes. There are processes taking place in many colleges and Universities where they are looking beyond marks. We, as a school, need to reflect and remember that success will come in all subjects if language acquisition is taking place. We need to remember to strengthen the first language. We need to remember that reading is the key element in doing so. Therefore, we need to set forth to strengthen every aspect and periphery that is going to get our kids to read. We need to start with the attainable, restructure our budgets for new attainables, and work together as educational units to prove empirically that what we are doing is right. When we have done this more and more people and institutions will be on board and we will be able to change the path of this behemoth of a ship we call education for the better.

Tom Johnson | ict-design.org 720026373

EDU 594 Best Practices for American/International School Educators

References: Albanese, Andrew Richard. (2001) Libraries as Equity Building Blocks. Library Journal. Cunningham, Pat. (2005) If they dont read much, how they ever gonna get good? (pp. 88-90) International Reading Association. The Reading Teacher. Harper, Candace & Jong, Ester de (2004) Misconceptions about teaching English-language Learners. (pp. 152-162) International Reading Association. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Krashen, Dr. Stephen (2008). Language Acquisition [Handout] (no pagination). Bangkok, Thailand: Concordian International School: Special Seminar. Krashen, Dr. Stephen, Personal communication, Oct 5th, 2008 Prez-Llantada, Ma Carmen (2007), New Trends in Grammar Teaching: Issues and Applications. Asociacion Espanola de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos. Universidad de Zaragoza. White, Herbert S. (n.d.) What do Librarians do? They Buy Books! White Papers. Indiana University, Bloomington. Wong, Harry and Rosemary. A Stress-free Teacher Effective Teaching. (2008) Teachers Net. Retrieved Oct. 31, 2008 from http://teachers.net/wong/FEB02/