Self-selected free voluntary reading: The missing link in language education
S Krashen (www.sdkrashen.com; twitter; skrashen; facebook Stephen Krashen)
ECIS ESLMT conference
Two views of language/literacy development
A. The comprehension hypothesis: we acquire language when we understand it.
1. grammar, vocabulary = RESULT of language acquisition
2. pleasant immediately
B. The skill building hypothesis: first learn about language, practice rules
1. grammar, vocabulary learned first, then you can use the language
2. delayed gratification (that never arrives)
3. Superiority of methods based on comprehensible input: http://skrashen.blogspot.com/2014/08/comprensible-input-based-methods-vs.html
Second/foreign language acquisition: TPR, Natural Approach, TPRS
Intermediate second/foreign language acquisition (sheltered subject matter teaching)
Literacy: success of whole language over heavy phonics methods
Special case of the comprehension hypothesis: the reading hypothesis - the source of our reading ability, writing ability (writing style), vocabulary, spelling, grammar)
The case for free voluntary reading
SSR = sustained silent reading The Fiji Island study (RRQ, 1983): Elley & Mangubhai
Grade | ALM | SSR | Big Books |
4 | 6.5 | 15 | 15 |
5 | 2.5 | 9 | 15 |
year 2: larger differences, readers better in writing, listening and grammar
Richard Wright: “I bought English grammars and found them dull. I felt I was getting a better sense of the language from novels than from grammars."
Predictors of performance on the Spanish subjunctive by English speakers
Predictor | Beta | p-value |
Study | 0.0052 | 0.72 |
Residence | 0.051 | 0.73 |
Reading | 0.32 | 0.034 |
subjunctive study | 0.045 | 0.76 |
From: Stokes, Krashen & Kartchner, 1998
UK Study: Sullivan and Brown: Predictors of scores on vocabulary test given at age 42
1. Reading at age 42 counts, independent of reading at 16 or younger & previous vocabulary.
2. Fiction counts: high-brow and middle-brow, but not low-brow
3. Reading counts even when control for subjects' & parent education, parent occupation
Sullivan, A. & Brown, M. 2014. Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University of London
Compelling Comprehensible Input: So interesting not aware of language, sense of time, sense of self diminishes = Flow (Csíkszentmihályi): the end of motivation
Case histories: language acquisition never the goal, but a by-product. It was the story.
1. Paul: Cantonese & English speaker, acquired Mandarin from cartoons and lots of TV shows, movies, with no particular motivation to acquire Mandarin. (Lao, C. and Krashen, S. 2014. Language acquisition without speaking and without study. Journal of Bilingual Education Research and Instruction 16(1): 215-221; http://sdkrashen.com/articles.php?cat=6)
2. Fink (1996/6) 12 former dyslexics. 9 published creative or scholarly works. 11 learned to read between 10-12, one in 12th grade. “As children, each had a passionate personal interest, a burning desire to know more about a discipline that required reading … all read voraciously, seeking and reading everything they could get their hands on about a single intriguing topic."
2nd/foreign language education in terms of compellingness: traditional > TPR > Natural Approach > TPRS
The END OF MOTIVATION: It's the story that counts
Language & literacy development = by-product
The extreme pleasure of self-selected reading
"perhaps the most often mentioned flow activity in the word (Csikzentmihalyi, 1991)
-resident of Italy - when he reads, “I immediately immerse myself in the reading, and the problems I usually worry about disappear” (Massimini, Csikzentmihalyi, & Della Faye, 1992.)
- A reader interviewed by Nell (1988): “reading removes me ... from the irritations of living ... for the few hours a day I read ‘trash’ I escape the cares of those around me, as well as escaping my own cares and dissatisfactions.
- Somerset Maugham, in Nell (1988): “Conversation, after a time, bores me, games tire me, and my thoughts, which we are told are the unfailing resources of a sensible man have a tendency to run dry. Then I fly to my book as the opium-smoker to his pipe ...”
Nell: reading before you go to sleep - level of arousal increased during reading, declined just after reading below original level
- 24/26 pleasure readings read in bed “nearly every night” or “most nights” (p. 250).
“Even if I read for only five minutes, I must do it - a compulsion like that of a drug addict!”
“My addiction to reading is such that I almost can’t sleep without a minimum of ten minutes (usually 30-60 minutes) of reading” (Nell, p. 250).
Develops Knowledge: Stanovich & colleagues: those who read more know more about SKrashen: Self-selected free voluntary reading: The missing link in language education:
