REFLECTION 5

NATURAL APPROACH

According to Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrel, communication is the primary

function of language.They proposed the Natural Approach as an example of communicative
approach.
The tenets of the theory that the desing and procedure in the NA are based:
The Acquision /Learning Hypothesis: According to the this hypothesis, people have
two distinctive ways of developing competence in second language.The distinction between
them is that; learnimg is more formal and consicious than acquision.For example; people
acquire their native language,parents do not teach their childs grammar rules or sentence
structures consiciously.
The Natural Order Hypothesis: According to the this hypothesis, acquire the rules of
languge in a predictable order.That is to say; some grammatical structers of any language
tend to be acquired earlier than others.
The Monitor Hypothesis: According to the this hypothesis, consicious learning exists
when the student become as a monitor or editor.The learners acquire the target language by
the means of natural communication in that languge.In a natural communication speakers
are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are
conveying.
The Input Hypothesis: According to the this hypothesis, learners acquire language by
receiving ‘comprehensible input’.The comprehensible input should be at a sligtly higher level
than the learners’level.The learners have a silent period at the beginning stages,they speak
when they are ready.
The Affective Filter Hypothesis: According to the tis hypothesis; many adult learners
have a mental block caused by affective or emotional factors and this mental block can make
difficult to learn a target language.
The goal is the ability to communicate with native speakers of the target
language.Thus,teaching according to the NA focuses on communicative abilities.It is desing
to help beginner become intermediate.Learner needs are important.
The NA adopts techniques and activities from different sources and uses them to
provide comprehensible input.For example,some techniques of TPR such as mime and
gesture,and group techniques are similar to CLT,are used.In addition to these affective-
humanistic activities,problem solving activities,games and content activities are used.
This method, like the Lexical Approach,is not completed yet.
I know that there is a silent period and the teachers should know it and they must
not force the student to product.Using comprehensible input sligtly above the learners’ level
can develop the learners.I can use games and I will be tolerant to errors, in this way I will
decrease the affective filter of learners.

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