THE NATURAL APPROACH 1 November

2021

Compared to the previous names of “belief about langauage and its nature,
ways of learning and ways of teaching it”, this approach ( The Natural
Approach) is unique. Its basic principles, however, actually have been followed
or imitated by proponents of some methods.

It is said that this approach is the combination between Tracy David Terrell’s
idea and Steven David Krashen’s theory of second language acquisition.(see
Setiyadi, 2006). Terrell and Krashen are dua guru besar dalam ilmu
pemerolehan bahasa. They base their thesis or phylosophy on the acquisition
of language in any societies - through “nature” which means that language
comes into being naturally. To put it in another way people ( orang Sasak,
orang Bali, orang Sumbawa, orang Jawa, orang Bima, dll) can acquire their
mother tongue or first language because they live intimately /directly with the
language. If they are isolated , they will not be able to use the language. You,
we, every body will not be able to speak Bahasa Sasak, Bahasa Sumbawa,
Mbojo, Bahasa Bali, Bahasa Jawa, and so on if there is no langauge available
around them. Geni, is one of the cases. She was kept for most of her life by
her father in a dark isolated room with no communication at all. You will get
informed about this in detail in SLA theory lecture.

Exposure of the target language is very important. Thus the foreign learners
who want to be skillful users of English, must be exposed to English. In second
language learning theory , the language which they listen to, and use in their
place, they read and write in order to communicate is called “input”.

In the classroom the input is provided by the teacher. The input must be
comprehensible. Some more important points to know in the Natural
Approach are:

# In class students are allowed to respond in L1/L2

# errors are not corrected.

# grammar is studied at home

# syllabus varries according to student’s interest

# input is made comprehensible by repeating, simplification, changing the form
of sentences

# using Yes/No question

Basically this approach has the same assumption with CLT (the method you got
previously) in assuming that language is vehicle to communication. That is , in
short saying, we acquire language by using the language itself. Students of
FKIP, English Derpartment, are to use English as much as possible if they want
to be able to speak English. So they have to listen to English in order to speak
and read much in English before they become skillful writers. Why do they
have to listen and read? Because listening and reading are two INPUTS.

ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT LANGUAGE LEARNING

The five hypotheses of Krashen in second language learning underly the
Natural Approach.

1. The Acquisition – learning hypothesis.

These two terms are different. According to Krashen in this hypothesis,
people develope ability in second language through two ways.
Learning and acquiring . Learning is a conscious process that results in
“knowing about the language” (Krashen, 1985: 1). Belajar bahas secara
formal di dalam kelas yang penuh dengan penghafalan rumus-rumus
bahasa ( language usage).
Acquisition is subconscious process identical to the process children
( seluruh dunia) use in acquiring their first language. The children pick
up the language.
Kita foreign learners menempuh cara learning. Sebaliknya kalau guru
menempuh cara acquiring guru harus mempersiapkan environment
husus for the process to take place.
2. Natural Order Hypothesis
The proponents of the Natural Approach support the hypothesis that
there is a natural order which is relatively the same among language
learners. Krashen and Terrell give example of Natural Order Hypothesis.
 Bunyi S seperti “he is going to work lebih awal diperoleh daripada S
untuk plural as in two hats . Kemudian berturut turut order yang lain
seperti S pada singular subject and S untuk apostrofi. Urutan
pemerolehan setingkat morpheme seperti itu relatif sama for foreign
learners di berbagai negara. Pemerolehan sejenis itu menurut Krashen
dalam bukunya “The Natural Approach”, memiliki rute yang sama akan
tetapi bisa saja berbeda dalam kecepatan. Artinya dari rute yang satu ke
rute yang lain ada saja yang membutuhkan waktu lebih singkat dari yang
lainnya. Tetapi jalur atau rutenya sama. Tidak diketemukan
pemerolehan apostrofi S dulu baru S pada present continuous tense.
3. The Monitor Hypothesis
Our ability to produce utterance (speak) comes from our acquired
competence. Learning hanya berfungsi sebagai editor atau Monitor
untuk mengoreksi our acquired system before or after we write or speak
yang biasa disebut self correction
4. The Input Hypothesis
Learners acquire language only in one way; understanding messages or
by understanding input that is available. It is the teacher’s job to make
the input comprehensible. Foreigner’s talk is used by native speakers
of English to non Native speakers of English for example and teacher’s
talk is used by the teacher to the students in the classroom or other
places.
Learners of foreign language usually lack of input. Input is the language
we hear. In Mataram for instance, we don’t have foreigners to talk with.
They are not available in the street. Or if there are many tourists in the
beach, we are not allowed to buther them. Or it is impossible to invite a
native speaker of English ( a BULE) to our class as a guest. Thus, the only
way is for the teacher to provide input in class. One technique to
proveide input is by having SPEAKING class, journals in English,
newspapers, posters, and so on.

5. Affective Filter Hypothesis

Comprehensible input only is not enough for acquisition. The learners
must be open to the input. The term Affective filter is taken from
psychology. So if the students are learning they are free from the
 affective filter. Or the filter may not be “up”. If it is up, the learners
may hear or read the input but the input will not reach the Language
Acquisition Device (LAD). This can happen if the students are
unmotivated, threatened, the teacher is angry, the students are worried,
tertekan, gelisah, tegang, takut, hawatir, tidak nyaman, minder etc.
Itulah sebabnya suasana atau lingkungan belajar diciptakan sekondusif
mungkin, menyenangkan, dan silabus diatur menurut minat/kesenangan
siswa. Dengan demikian Filter nya turun ke dasar alias santai.
Pembelajaran bisa berjalan lancar.

Makanya banyak baca.