Second Language Learning

THE MONITOR MODEL AND THE LEVERTOV MACHINE

IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND ACQUISITION

Stephen D. Krashen's Monitor Model embodies the researcher's theories on second language acquisition and learning. Fundamental to the Monitor Model are five hypotheses, viz. the Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis, the Natural Order Hypothesis, the Input Hypothesis, the Affective Filter Hypothesis, and the Monitor Hypothesis.

The Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis

This construct dichotomizes distinctly between acquisition and learning, where acquisition is the subconscious process of apprehending language in both its form and meaning, and learning the conscious or explicit apprehending of knowledge about language, i.e. essentially about its form. Acquisition is thus the picking up of communicative language, whereas learning is the encrypting of grammar or rules which formally govern the structure of language. Acquisition is unaware of and unconcerned with syntactical and other errors as long as communication is perceived as appropriate: it does not self-correct. Learning, on the other hand, is aware of and essentially concerned with errors: it self-corrects. Acquisition focuses on substance (meaning), where learning focuses on form (structure). Both processes are usually carried out in the development and attainment of linguistic production performance. However, to Krashen, acquisition is the more important process because it and only it can lead to fluency--whether at th

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ment of fluency; underusers do not correct grammar at all and rate low on accuracy; optional users resort to the Monitor only when it does not interfere with communication, and thus would seem to achieve most efficient (if not effective) languaging performance. It should be noted that the Monitor Model has been developed for understanding the acquiring/learning/teaching processes taking place for American English only. Whether the hypothesis is applicable to other languages remains unknown. Stevick's Levertov Machine The American poetess Denise Levertov taught poetry at Vassar and came to the conclusion that training in poetry did not necessarily and of itself equate with proficiency in producing valid poetry. Trained poets, however, made better critics of poetry than untrained ones. In this perspective, critics of poetry do not differ from professional critics in any other endeavor. Literary critics may not have written a book; film critics hardly ever have made a film. Earl Stevick thought that Levertov had thus shown to possess the same insight as Krashen had in his development of the Monitor Model. Grasping and manipulating linguistic form (learning) is likened to the ability to analyze poetic form (criticism), whereas gra

Category: Psychology - S