The Natural Approach

Background

The Natural Approach is an approach to language teaching that is based on the hotly debated theories of second language acquisition developed by Dr. Stephen Krashen of the University of Southern California. Krashen’s theories were first put into practice in Spanish as a second language classes by his colleague, Dr. Tracy Terrell from the University of California at San Diego. Their book, The Natural Approach (1983), contains theoretical sections prepared by Krashen and sections on implementation and classroom procedures prepared mostly by Terrell. Since the book’s publication, the Natural Approach has been implemented in elementary- to advanced-level classes with several other target languages. The underlying principle of the Natural Approach is that a second language is learned in much the same way as the mother tongue.

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is often used as a general term to describe the process of learning or acquiring a language other than the student’s mother tongue. The Natural Approach, however, makes a clear distinction between language acquisition and language learning. Krashen describes language acquisition as inductively developing linguistic competence by using language for real communication or building proficiency in an authentic context, which is typically expressed as topics or situations with a focus on vocabulary and meaning. Contrastingly, he defined language learning as a deductive process designed to gain knowledge of a language’s grammar rules and structures

The learner study language as unconsious.

Unconsious                                     Consious

Acquisition                                     Learning

Characteristics of the Natural Approach

The principles that Krashen proposed demonstrate how acquisition takes place.

1.      The first general principle of the Natural Approach is that comprehension precedes production.

2.      The second general principle of the Natural Approach is that production is allowed to emerge at the learner’s own pace in stages.

3.      The third general principle is that the course syllabus consists of communicative goals.

4.     The final principle is that activities aimed at acquisition must foster a lowering of the affective filter of the students.

The Five Hypotheses of the Natural Approach

1.      The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

2.      The Monitor Hypothesis

3.      The Natural Order Hypothesis

4.    The Input Hypothesis

5.      The Affective Filter Hypothesis

Teacher Roles

The Natural Approach teacher typically plays at least three distinctive roles that distinguish this approach from many others.

1.      First of all, the teacher is the language catalyst or input generator.

2.      Secondly, the teacher sets the mood. The Natural Approach teacher creates a friendly classroom atmosphere where there is a low affective filter.

3.      Thirdly, Natural Approach teachers act like a symphony conductor, carefully orchestrating resources and materials for a wide range of skills and abilities.

Learner Roles

Language learners in the Natural Approach are considered to be language acquirers. Their job is to process comprehensible input, but this does not mean that they are just passive receptors of information.