Teaching and Learning Effectiveness in Perspective of Krashen’s Input Hypothesis

熊锐

【Abstract】With the implementation of the Criterion for New Curriculum in middle schools, great changes have taken place in class teaching. However, there still exist many problems which go against its core ideas. And teaching effectiveness is the most serious one. According to Krashens Input Hypothesis, this paper will put forward some suggestions to improve teaching and learning effectiveness.

【Key words】Krashens Input Hypothesis; teaching effectiveness

I. Introduction

In English class, many teachers are confused when they can not get across to students. So the author of this paper made a research during the internship in Shanghai No.8 middle school in teams of teaching and learning effectiveness. As for the senor middle school students, they are tired of some mechanical teaching methods. But teachers teaching act affects students learning results. In addition, the exam-oriented system has had a great effect on the current English class teaching. In view of these facts, a new-round teaching reform should be held to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning.

By means of combining Krashens input hypothesis and the research into the teaching practice, the author puts forward some advisable advice to help guide teachers to make a radical change in effective teaching. Generally speaking, this study has three aims. Firstly, it makes a survey on the current situations of effectiveness in teaching and learning behaviors in senior English class. Secondly, after finding the problem, the reasons for the phenomena should be found out and analyzed which can enormously contribute to the realization of effective teaching and learning for the sake of teachers in the future teaching. Last but not least, the main purpose of this paper is to seek solutions to make a positive change. And the application of these effective suggestions can improve teaching effectiveness to a large extent in class.

II. Literature Review

1. Effective Teaching

As for the definition of effective teaching, there has been no consensus so far. On one hand, it refers to the type of teaching which brings about the best teaching effect after a certain amount of teaching input (time, energy and efforts). On the other hand, it means facilitating students effective learning, aiming at motivating students to learn better. Therefore, effective teaching deals with the effectiveness of teachers teaching activities.

2. Krashens Input Hypothesis

In the 1970s, the researches on Second Language Acquisition became popular in USA. This hypothesis demonstrates four points.

Firstly, the input hypothesis is relevant with acquisition instead of learning. Acquisition, as the mean approach to acquire language, happens unconsciously and naturally. Only through acquisition can we really obtain the knowledge more effectively.

Secondly, this hypothesis postulates that humans acquire language in only one way by receiving “comprehensible input”. If an acquirer is at stage of level i, the input one understands should contain i+1. This is called “comprehensible input”.

He also insisted that comprehension is necessary in order for input to become “intake”—language data that is assimilated and used to promote further development. According to this hypothesis, the input of second language can not be too hard or too easy. Whats more, in order to understand the new language input, students often resort to their previous knowledge experience, the context and other non-linguistic information.

III. Research Methods

1. subjects

Shanghais No.8 middle school is a key middle school in Huangpu district. There are nearly 60 students in Class 4 and Class 5 which are the ordinary classes in Grade 2. They share the same English teacher.

2. Research Instruments

There are primarily three methods. The first one is classroom observation. During the internship, about three weeks has been spent observing the teachers teaching behaviors and students learning attitudes. Next, another important part of the internship is homework correction which reflects and checks students learning results. Besides, an interview was made to find the detailed reason.

3. Findings

For a new unit, one class is used to lead students to comprehend the text, two classes are used for grammar explanation, and most classes are for exercise. In order to make sure that students have grasped the language points, the teacher usually lets students write from memory again and again at the beginning of class. Students who pass will get a letter P, and students who fail will get a F. Every week, there has a vocabulary exam on Thursday. The teacher asks the students who get a score below 60 to copy the words and phrases five times. Many exams are taken every month. Students have to copy the language points where they have made mistakes or errors.

We can see that all of these are assessment methods. The functions of assessment are diagnosis, inspiration and improvement, judging and reflecting students performance in learning. It aims to manifest what has been achieved or what deserves further efforts in English learning. And the most important thing is to develop students creative thinking.

But this teachers aim is just to let students grasp and remember the key knowledge easily existing in the exams. And students learning results are not satisfying. Even though they remembered temporarily, it is easy for them to forget. This kind of memorizing has become so mechanical that they can not make use of knowledge, let alone the positive transfer. They concentrate on whether they have got the letter P instead of understanding and grasping the language points.

Whats more, the Criterions for New Curriculum propose that ELT should provide various choices to adapt to ones individual needs and optimize the learning style to improve the ability of autonomous learning.

From the interview, some students complain that their teacher pays less attention to the comprehensibility of language input. From correcting homework, many students are always making the same mistakes. Maybe the students have not assimilated the input.

IV. Solutions

1. Transfer rote teaching to reflective teaching

Teachers should keep it in mind that teaching objectives should be concordant with learning objectives. They should often reflect their teaching behavior according to students learning results. It is believed that to teach is to improve students abilities instead of to prepare for examinations. Developing learners ability of understanding is one of teachers tasks. Cultivating students habit of thinking in English can not only acquire English better, but also prevent the birth of Chinese-English. In addition, students are different from each other. So it would be better if teachers can help students master learning methods which suit themselves to increase teaching and learning effectiveness.

2. Treatment of the input

The ideal language input that Krashen thinks should be of comprehensibility. Understanding the new input language material is necessary for language acquisition, and incomprehensible input is just a kind of noise for learner. Secondly, the input should be interesting and relevant. The more interesting and relevant the new input language materials are, the easier the acquisition takes place in language teaching and learning. Teachers should help learners acquire the target language by creating a relaxing teaching and learning environment. Another character of the ideal input is the adequacy. Besides the quality of input, the quantity is also necessary.

V. Conclusions

Through the theoretical study and practical research of the current situations of teaching and learning effectiveness in senior English class, the most important problem is the poor teaching effectiveness. And the main reason for this phenomenon is the inadequate and incomprehensible language input. Hence, teachers should first of all transfer rote-teaching to reflective teaching, and then treat the language input in a better way in order to improve the teaching effectiveness.

References：

[1]王桂.初探高中英語课堂教学有效性[D].浙江大学,2011.

[2]Krashen,S.D.The Input Hypothesis[M].London:Longman.1985.

[3]吴丽君.新课标下高中英语词汇教学有效性的实践研究[D].浙江大学,2012.