Positive and significant correlations ranging from 0.34 to 0.51 were found between self-reported pleasure reading (books, newspapers and magazines) and self-reported competence in speaking, listening, reading and writing English, among teachers in Korea whose responsibilities included teaching English as a foreign language. This result confirms…

Nobody disagrees that reading is good for students' language development. The more they read texts that they can understand, the more confident and adept they become. However, it can be quite a struggle to get students started on their reading journey. We suggest that this is partly due to a lack of access to comprehensible and compelling reading…

In this article, Huw Jarvis and Stephen Krashen ask "Is CALL Obsolete?" When the term CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) was introduced in the 1960s, the language education profession knew only about language learning, not language acquisition, and assumed the computer's primary contribution to second language acquisition…

In previous reviews of studies comparing explicit and implicit instruction (Krashen, 1981, 1982, 1999, 2003), the author argued that explicit instruction will show a positive effect only when the following conditions for the use of the conscious Monitor are met: (1) the acquirer consciously knows the rule or the meaning of the item--that is, has…

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has repeatedly mentioned that immigrants to the United States should do what he did to acquire English: Avoid using their first languages and speak, listen to, and read a vast amount of materials in English--a combination he referred to as "immersion." Yet, Schwarzenegger's real path to successful English…

Both the popular media and professional literature are filled with suggestions on how to improve reading, but the one approach that always works is rarely mentioned: provide readers with a supply of interesting and comprehensible books. Instead, people are given advice that is dead wrong as a means of improving reading (e.g., roller skating and…

File and Adams (2010) conclude that their data confirm the superiority of form-focused vocabulary instruction over incidental acquisition. The authors of this response argue that File and Adams's data actually confirm the reality, robustness, and possible superiority of incidental acquisition. Their subjects heard two passages read to them that…

The recent past in language teaching has been dominated by the Skill-Building Hypothesis, the view that we learn language by first learning about it, and then practicing the rules we learned in output. The present is marked by the emergence of the Comprehension Hypothesis, the view that we acquire language when we understand messages, and is also…

Stephen Krashen has a long and enduring legacy in the field of second language acquisition. His "Input Hypothesis" was among the very first attempts to create a coherent theoretical account of second language learning. Krashen argued that learners can acquire language through the process of comprehending it. While elements of his model…

Cobb (2007) argues that free reading cannot provide L2 readers with sufficient opportunities for acquiring vocabulary in order to reach an adequate level of reading comprehension of English texts. In this paper, the authors argue that (1) Cobb severely underestimates the amount of reading even a very modest reading habit would afford L2 readers,…

A new urban legend claims, "As a result of the state dropping bilingual education, test scores in California skyrocketed." Krashen disputes this theory, pointing out that other factors offer more logical explanations of California's recent improvements in SAT-9 scores. He discusses research on the effects of California's Proposition 227,…

Reviews research that provides evidence that nonnative speakers of English in the United States use English a great deal and have acquired it very well. Misreporting of facts has suggested that immigrants are not acquiring English. English as a Second Language classes do facilitate the development of conversational language. (SLD)

Describes how an English-as-a-Second-Language program can move as painlessly as possible from conversational to academic English in order to cover the use of English in business, politics, and science. The article focuses on helping students progress in their acquired language, in the absence of native speakers, after the program is over. (12…

Examines why the whole-language approach to literacy development has failed, presenting several definitions of whole language, discussing some of the research on whole language and whether it works, and providing information about the impact of whole language in California (which suggests that California's reading-performance problems are not…

Addresses issue of whether free voluntary reading (FVR) is appropriate for programs whose primary goal is development of academic second-language competence, such as university-level programs for international students. Argues that FVR does have a place in these programs, even though FVR often means reading light fiction; competence gained via FVR…