Krashen Keynote

I thought this was absolutely fascinating, though I guess there were some that found it a bit boring. Not this girl! I was amazed at the sheer genius of this man and the fact that he was in front of me! I have my photos of me and Blaine and Von and me on the bulletin board in my classroom and now I have another "celebrity" I want to add. (I also have a picture of me and Jason Sudeikis...number one on my "list")

Krashen presented 5 areas of discussion

1. Krashen talked about a program called Reach out and Read where pediatric office workers, nurses, and doctors are briefly trained in how to teach parents how to read aloud to their children. During the wait time for the well-child check-up, the parents were talked to about read-alouds and GIVEN a free book. In this tiny way, research shows that the achievement gap can be reduced significantly. So, we should read to our children and our students to increase vocabulary development.


2. Compelling input-Krashen proposes that compelling input (where the listener is transported to another world and forgets that the story is in the target language) can destroy the affective filter and eliminates the need for motivation. We provide this by talking about the most fascinating subject in the entire world to students...them!


3. Next, Krashen talks about a study that shows how to delay dementia...good news for languages! Being bilingual is one way to delay dementia. The other two ways to help with dementia are to read fiction and non-fiction and to drink coffee!


4. I had a hard time following his next point about Arnold Schwarzenegger...But I think he is making the point that immersion does not make for fluency alone. The input has to be comprehensible in order to be beneficial. This reminds me of why I don't teach 100% in the TL anymore. It was like a game of charades where the kids are frustrated, I'm frustrated and little progress is made.


5. Okay, I'll admit that I got lost here as well, but it was at least entertaining. Krashen talked about aliens and if they have visited us and how they communicate. What I took from this point is that we have to be proactive in trying to change the way language instruction is seen in modern culture. Is it seen as "kill and drill"? Is it seen as memorized dialogues? If we see something that we don't agree with (as Krashen saw on Star Trek), we should be vocal and call or email the creators.

I was very impressed with Krashen's knowledge level and his wonderful sense of humor. Maybe I'll send him a pound of Kansas City's own Roasterie coffee.