Krashen’s Five main Hypotheses on Second
Language Acquisition
→ The Acquisition-Learning Hypotheses
→ The Monitor Hypotheses
→ The Natural Order Hypothesis
→ The Input Hypotheses
→ The Affective Filter Hypotheses
 Stephen Krashen (University of
Southern California) is an expert in
the field of linguistics, specializing in
theories of language acquisition and
development
The Acquisition-Learning Hypotheses
 According to Krashen, there are two
independent processes of second
language performance -
"Acquisition" and "Learning".
 Acquisition
 Product of subconscious
process
 Developing language skills
subconsciously
 Learners learn through their
surrounding environment.
 Learning
 Consciously learning
language
 Learners learn through error
corrections
 Conscious knowledge
The Monitor Hypothesis
 Learning needs monitor
 Monitor works as an editor
 Checks the grammar, rules and
forms
 Monitor used, less error happens
Three Conditions
 Time
 Focus on form
 Know the rule
Individual Variation in Monitor
 Monitor Over Users: learners who
attempt “monitor” all the time
 Monitor Under Users: learners who
prefer not to use their conscious
knowledge
 Optimal Monitor Users: learners
who use monitor appropriately.
The Natural Order Hypothesis
 The acquisition of grammatical rules
emerge in a predictable order
 The grammatical rules acquired in
first language acquisition of English
and a similar natural order is found
in second language acquisition.
The Input Hypothesis:
 explains how the learner acquires a
second language
 the learner improves the natural
order when he receives second
language "input”
 The input far away from the
learner's current level
The Affective Filter Hypothesis
 is a kind of mental block that may
fall the acquisition rate of learners
 learner's motivation, self-confidence
and anxiety can decrease the
affective filter and for that learners
can perform well.
  But low motivation, low self-
confidence and weaken anxiety can
increase the affective filter and for
that learners cannot perform well.
 Krashen believes that success in
second language acquisition
depends on the high motivation,
self-confidence and anxiety.
Stephen Krashen
 Expert in the field of linguistics
 Specializing in “Theories of
Language Acquisition and
Development.
 Recent Research : study of non-
English and bilingual language
acquisition
Behaviorist Theory
 Learning a language as a set of
mechanical habits which are formed
through the process of imitation and
repetition.
Nativist Theory
 Believes that children have language
specific abilities that assist them as
they work towards mastery of a
language.
Cognitivist Theory
 Focus on internal process of learning
 Using conscious and reasoned
thinking
NATIVIST THEORY
 Language acquisition is the study of
the processes by which a person
learns a language. Nativist theories
hypothesize that language is an
innate fundamental part of the
human genetic make-up and that
language acquisition occurs as a
natural part of the human
experience. 
  Nativist theorists argue that
children are born with an innate
ability to organize laws of language,
which enables children to easily
learn a native language
 They believe that children have
language-specific abilities that
assist them as they work towards
mastering a language.
Noam Chomsky
 Nativist theory
  he suggests that language is an
innate faculty - that is to say
that we are born with a set of
rules about language in our
heads which he refers to as the
'Universal Grammar'.
 The universal grammar is the
basis upon which all human
languages build.
 Chomsky gives a number of
reasons why this should be so.
 Among the most important of
these reasons is the ease with
which children acquire their
mother tongue.
 He claims that it would be little
short of a miracle if children
learnt their language in the same
way that they learn mathematics
or how to ride a bicycle. This, he
says, is because :
1. Children are exposed to
very little correctly
formed language. When
people speak, they
constantly interrupt
themselves, change their
minds, make slips of the
tongue and so on. Yet
children manage to learn
their language all the
same.
2. Children do not simply
copy the language that
they hear around them.
They deduce rules from
it, which they can then
use to produce sentences
that they have never
heard before. They do
not learn a repertoire of
phrases and sayings, as
the behaviorists believe,
but a grammar that
generates an infinity of
new sentences.
3.  Children are born, then,
with the Universal
Grammar wired into their
brains. This grammar offers
a certain limited number of
possibilities - for example,
over the word order of a
typical sentence.
4. Some languages have a
basic SVO structure