"We are not aware we are acquiring
when we are acquiring, and after we acquire, we are not aware that
anything has happened."
This is my favorite
Krashen
quote because it is at once both silly and correct. He's speaking of
language acquisition. In Krashen's world, grammar drills have no use
and explicit grammar correction no function. The only benefits would
be seen on grammar tests, where the "monitor" can decide
the grammiticality of a given item and correct it.
I recall
beginning my ESL teaching in Micronesia with
Betty
Azar's black grammar book (a.k.a. the Black Betty). We filled and
drilled, filled and drilled, etc. until the students could get a
TOEFL score of above 470. (I was learning the grammar along with the
students. It was quite interesting to me!) Then we would write essays
and of course the students would not apply any information from the
drills into the essays. I almost became a
"But I told them
the rule!" teacher. This sort of teacher blames the
students, thinking that exposure to the grammar rule should
automatically translate into success. No success? Show them the rule
some more -- only louder! It's an exercise in frustration. (And we
changed the classes a couple of years later, ditched the TOEFL and
disowned the Azars -- not that it caused a great leap in student
success, but at least we were teaching for communication rather than
drills.)
Krashen's theory explains this experience and
replaces the drills with "meaningful input."
The
"Communicative Approach" which is now the hip model in ESL,
and what I am trained in, is concerned with "meaningful
output."
Somewhere there's a happy medium (she's probably
talking to Elvis right now) -- what I like to call the "meaningful
quantum revolving door of merry-go-round-put." In this theory
the input goes in a revolving door, part of it decides to go grab a
snack in the frontal lobe and the another part meets an old friend
and goes back through the door as output. Thusly does acquisition occur.