Krashens

Monitor Model

Caroline Val Madin

Language Department

Learning Outcomes
1.
2.
3.
4.

demonstrate an understanding of
Krashens Monitor Model
explain the five hypothesis of the
Monitor Model
identify the relationship between the
five hypothesis of the Monitor Model
explain the implications of this model
for teaching.

 Second

language acquisition theory

seeks to explain how and by what
processes individuals acquire a second
language.
A predominant theory of second
language acquisition was developed by
Steven Krashen from the University of
Southern California.
Krashen is a specialist in language
acquisition and development and his
influential theory is widely accepted in
the language learning community.

The following are some quotes

from Krashen (1982) about
language acquisition.
"Language acquisition does not require
extensive use of conscious grammatical
rules, and does not require tedious drill.
"Acquisition requires meaningful
interaction in the target language natural communication - in which
speakers are concerned not with the form
of their utterances but with the messages
they are conveying and understanding."

The following are some quotes

from Krashen (1982) about
language acquisition.
The best methods are therefore those that supply
'comprehensible input in low anxiety situations,
containing messages that students really want to
hear. These methods do not force early production
in the second language, but allow students to
produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that
improvement comes from supplying communicative
and comprehensible input, and not from forcing
and correcting production."
"In the real world, conversations with sympathetic
native speakers who are willing to help the acquirer
understand are very helpful."

Krashen explains five fundamental components which he calls hypotheses - as the basis for his
language teaching model. Each of the
components relates to a different aspect of the
language learning process. The five components
are as follows:
1. The Input Hypothesis
2. The Affective Filter Hypothesis
3. The Acquisition Learning Hypothesis
4. The Monitor Hypothesis
5. The Natural Order Hypothesis

Based on the 5
hypotheses in
Krashens Monitor
Model, discuss in
groups on the:

The Input Hypothesis

Main

idea(s) as proposed by Krashen

What is comprehensible input?
How do the learners learn a second
language?
In what situations can the evidences for
the input hypothesis be found?

The Affective Filter Hypothesis

Main

idea(s) as proposed by Krashen

How do the learners learn a second
language?
What is the relation between anxiety and
motivation in second language learning?
What are the barriers to learning that can
also be found in any negative feelings that
a learner has about the language?

The Acquisition-Learning
Hypothesis
Main

idea(s) as proposed by Krashen

How do the learners learn a second
language?
What is acquired system and learned
system?
What are the differences from
acquisition and learning?

The Monitor Hypothesis

Main

idea(s) as proposed by Krashen

When is this best used?
What are the three conditions required
by the Monitor?
How do the learners learn a second
language?

The Natural Order Hypothesis

Main idea(s) as proposed by Krashen
How do the learners learn a second
language?
How are mistakes viewed in this
hypothesis?
What is combined model of acquisition
and production as proposed by Krashens
(1982) The Input Hypothesis Model in L2
Learning and Production?

The Acquisition-Learning
Hypothesis
According to Krashen, language is acquired, not
learned.
The acquired system relates to the unconscious
aspect of language acquisition.
When people learn their first language by speaking
the language naturally in daily interaction with
others the acquired system is at work.
Here speakers are more concerned with the act of
communicating meaning than the structure of
their utterances.

Acquisition

Learning

implicit, subconscious

explicit, conscious

informal situations

formal situations

uses grammatical 'feel' uses grammatical rules

depends on attitude

depends on aptitude

stable order of
acquisition

simple to complex
order of learning

The Monitor Hypothesis

The monitor hypothesis seeks to explain how
the learned system affects the acquired system.
According to Krashen, the formal rule system
acts as the Monitor in the acquired system.
When second language learners monitor their
speech, they apply their understanding of
learned grammar to edit, plan, and initiate their
communication.
This action can only occur when speakers have
ample time to think about the form and
structure of their sentences.

The Monitor Hypothesis

The Monitor is best used when:
we have to be very careful
when language is necessarily
formal
e.g. writing letters of application,
speaking to a hierarchical superior
in a formal situation.

There are three conditions required by the Monitor:

Time
The learner must have time to use the monitor.
Using the monitor requires the speaker to slow
down and focus on the form of language.
Focus on correctness of form
The learner must be focused or thinking about
the form of language. A learner may find it
difficult to focus on meaning and form at the
same time.
Knowledge of rules
The learner must know the rules. This means that
the speaker must have had explicit instruction on
the language form that he or she is trying to
produce.

The Monitor Hypothesis

There

three types of monitor users overusers, under-users and optimal-users.

Monitor over-users try to always use their
monitor, and are so concerned with
correctness that they cannot speak with any
real fluency.
Monitor under-users have not consciously
learned or choose not to use their conscious
knowledge of the language. Error correction
by others has little influence on them, as
they can often correct themselves based on
a "feel" for correctness.

Teachers should aim to produce optimal monitor

users, who use the monitor when it is appropriate
and when it does not interfere with
communication.
They do not use their conscious knowledge of
grammar in normal conversation, but will use it in
writing and planned speech.
Optimal monitor users can therefore use their
learned competence as a supplement to their
acquired competence.
Krashen suggests that we should leave the
monitor unemployed most of the time, and
concentrate upon the meaning that we wish to
convey, rather than on the form of our utterances.

The Natural Order Hypothesis

According

to this hypothesis there is a natural

order to the way second language learners
acquire their target language.
Krashen states that there is a natural order
in which learners pick up a language and
this order is roughly the same for all learners
regardless of their linguistic background.
Research shows that this natural order seems
to go beyond age, the learner's native
language, the target language, and the
conditions under which the second language is
being learned.

Mistakes

made by learners are a

necessary part of language
learning.
These mistakes are not
random, but are very similar
to the errors that children
make when learning their
first language.

 In

addition, the sequence of errors for acquired

language is not the same as the sequence of
learned grammar items.
Some grammatical morphemes which appear
simple from the learning point of view are in fact
acquired late the 's' of TPS.
Chinese learning English make the same mistakes,
and will learn in more or less the same order as
the French.
According to Krashen, this indicates that there is
a natural order in which learners pick up a
language.
In addition, these mistakes will be made in
the same order whether the learners have
been taught the grammar or not, and that
teaching grammar will not help them change

The Input Hypothesis

Krashen

believes that the main factor in

acquisition is not language use but
language input, in other words what the
learner hears and reads.
The most useful form of input has to be
understandable and it should be just a
little beyond the learner's present capacity.
If it is too far beyond, the learner will not
pay attention to the input, and if it is not far
enough, the learner will learn nothing.

The learner improves and progresses along the

'natural order' when he/she receives second
language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her
current stage of linguistic competence.
If a learner is at a stage 'i', acquisition takes place
when he/she is exposed to 'comprehensible input'
that belongs to level 'i + 1.
Here i refers to the current language level the
learners are at. i + 1 means a level higher than
the level the students are at or the next level along
the natural order.
Natural communicative input is the key to designing
a syllabus, thus ensuring that each learner will
receive some 'i + 1' input that is appropriate for
his/her current stage of linguistic competence.

Krashen

suggests that teachers

should give rough-tuned input
and a wide variety of
materials, supported by visual
cues and realia which gives it
a context within which the
learner may guess at the
content.
As such, language teachers must
make input comprehensible by
contextualizing it.

Evidences for the input hypothesis

can be found in the following
situations:
Effectiveness

of caretaker speech from an

adult to a child/ people speak to children
acquiring their first language in special ways.
Adults speaking to children modify their
language in order to aid comprehension.
Adults roughly-tune to childs level of linguistic
competence. These include use of baby-talk
and short simple sentences.
Teacher-talk from a teacher to a language
student. Teachers simplify their language to
make L2 learners understand or go down to L2
learners comprehension.

Evidences for the input hypothesis

can be found in the following
situations:
Foreigner-talk

from a sympathetic
conversation partner to a language
learner or acquirer. Some of the ways a
foreigner talks to a language learner
include slower pronunciation, omission
of features of connected speech,
heavier stress on key words, short
responses, use of gestures and
demonstrations.

Evidences for the input hypothesis

can be found in the following
situations:
L2

learners often go through an

initial Silent Period. A learner is
silent to build up competencies in
2nd language via listening.
Speaking only emerges after the
learner has enough competence in
the language.

Krashen indicates that the comparative success

of younger and older learners reflects provision of
comprehensible input.
The more comprehensible input the greater the
L2 proficiency.
The lack of comprehensible input delays
language acquisition.
As such teaching methods work according to the
extent that teachers use comprehensible input.
One finds that immersion teaching is successful
because it provides comprehensible input.
As for bilingual programmes, they succeed to the
extent teachers provide comprehensible input.

The Affective Filter Hypothesis

This

hypothesis describes external factors

that can act as a filter that impedes
acquisition. These factors include motivation,
self-confidence, and anxiety.
If a learner has very low motivation, very low
self-confidence, and a high level of anxiety,
the affective filter falls into place and inhibits
the learner from acquiring the new language.
On the other hand, learners who are
motivated, confident, and relaxed about
learning the target language have more
success acquiring a second language.

High
Affective
Filter
Motivation
Self-Confidence

Anxiety

Low Affective
Filter
Motivation
SelfConfidence
Anxiety

The Affective Filter Hypothesis

Barriers

to learning can also be

found in any negative feelings
that a learner has about the
language, the method used, the
institution or the teacher.
These feelings become a kind of
filter, which keeps the input out.
Hence, the teacher's job is to
make language learning free of
stress and enjoyable.

Criticisms on Krashens Monitor Model

The Acquisition-Learning Theory cannot be tested
empirically. Because acquisition is more subconscious
and learning is relatively more conscious, it is difficult or
even impossible to test the hypothesis empirically and
comprehensively. It can be argued that acquisition and
learning are not separate. Acquired language can
become learnt knowledge. Once learnt knowledge is
practised, it may reach a level of automatization that
equates to acquired knowledge, being available in in
spontaneous unconscious conversation.
The Monitor Model does not explain the cognitive
processes that underlie acquisition and learning. Thus,
the Monitor Model is a black box theory of language
acquisition. It does not specify what goes on in the
cognitive process to explain second language
acquisition.

Criticisms on Krashens Monitor

Model
Another

line of criticism concerns the Monitor

Hypothesis.
In reality, is there a distinction between rule
application (as in the Monitoring Device) and
having a subconscious feel for what is right and
wrong in a communication situation?
Is there an underlying ability that makes people
aware of the correctness or incorrectness of their
language communication?
The theory needs extending to explain variability
between individuals in language learning.

Implications for Teaching

Krashens

Monitor Model has its implications for

ESL/EFL teaching. Input hypothesis focuses on
comprehensible input at i + 1 level. To enable
learners to advance in language acquisition,
teachers need to expose them to large amounts
of authentic language. The language need not be
specifically graded in terms grammatical
progression, but adapted to the students
interests and purposes for learning the language.
A wide variety of input, supported by visual
cues and realia should be contextualized in a
way that the learner can understand a large
amount of spoken or written language.

Implications for Teaching

According

to Krashen comprehension precedes

production. As such, L2 learners often go
through an initial Silent Period. Teachers
should provide time for silent period to allow
learners to build up acquired competence in a
language before they begin to produce it.
In line with the Affective Filter Hypothesis,
language acquisition should be done in
relaxing and friendly conditions. Affectivehumanistic activities such as dialogues,
interviews, personal charts and tables are
encouraged.