This document outlines several principles and theories of second language acquisition, including the Natural Approach, Communicative Approach, and Whole Language Approach. Some key principles discussed include: comprehension preceding production, allowing production to emerge in stages, focusing on communicative goals over grammatical structures, lowering students' anxiety, exposing students to language at their current level plus additional complexity, using language to transmit messages rather than explicitly teaching forms, and emphasizing authentic language use and literacy experiences. The document provides implications of each principle for classroom activities and instruction.

1. Principles of IM Development
and Lg Learning Approaches
Prepared by: Marites M. Roh

2. PRINCIPLES

3. Underlying Principles
“There is no best method
out there ready and
waiting to be discovered.”

4. Importance ofTheories and
methods
 enable teachers to feel secure and
confident with the activities they will
carry out in their classrooms.
 allow them to be creative and
autonomous.

5. In other words, teachers who are
knowledgeable of the theory are more
likely to adapt and create materials to suit
the needs of the students they have in
front of them.

6. Three major theories
• Krashen and Terrell's Natural Approach
• Communicative Approach
• Whole Language Approach

7. 1. THE NATURAL APPROACH
 have been developed from research in
the field of second language acquisition
in the last fifteen years.

8. a. Comprehension precedes production.
(Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p. 20)
Implication:
Many students should be allowed, a silent
period in their early stages of second language
development. While some students will be eager
to speak the new language they are being exposed
to, others will prefer to listen to it. This also implies
that in the early stages of second language
acquisition language instruction should be aimed
at helping students understand meaning before
they are asked to speak (listening comprehension).

9. b. Production is allowed to emerge in stages.
(Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p. 20)
Implication:
 Students should not be forced to speak in
complete utterances if they are not ready to do so.
Non-verbal communication and simple responses,
such as No, O.K, you, and me should be allowed
because this is communication. Phrases and simple
combination of words should also be allowed. In
addition, speech errors which do not interfere with
communication should never be corrected.

10. c. The course syllabus consists of
communicative goals.
(Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p.20)
Implication:
Classroom activities should be organized
around themes and not around grammatical
structures. Therefore, the goal of the class
should he that students learn to
communicate in their second language as
they discuss topics of interest to them, and
not that they learn English grammar

11. d. Classroom activities aimed at acquisition
must foster a lowering of the affective
filter of the students.
(Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p. 21)
Implication:
 Teachers need to create an atmosphere in their
class-rooms where students feel at ease (low anxiety
level). Students must feel that there is good rapport
with the teacher and a friendly relationship with other
students in the classroom.
This principle also implies that activities developed in
the classroom are interesting and relevant to the
students. These factors will motivate students to
participate in activities and become active learners.

12. e. Language is acquired by being exposed to
input that is a little beyond student's current
level of competence.
(Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p. 32)
Implication:
 Students should be exposed to language
that in-cludes structures that they still have
not acquired (they still do not know). lt also
means that both listening and reading are
going to be very important in the second
language classroom for introducing students
to more challenging content.

13. f. Language is best taught when it is being used to
transmit messages, not when it is explicitly taught for
conscious learning.
(Krashen and Terrell, 1988, p. 55)
Implication:
 Whatever helps comprehension is important. For
example, visual aids should he used in the ESL
classroom as much as possible because they help
students pay attention to the message and not to the
structures being used.
This principle also implies that emphasis should be
placed on understanding the message (listening
comprehension).

14. g. Krashen recommends narrow and extensive
reading, focusing on a single topic or author to take
advantage of natural repetition of vocabulary and
syntax as well as familiar context. Such an
approach entails early, rather than late,
specialization in the works of a single author in
literature courses, and courses that focus on a
single topic or series of related topics (as in
“immersion" programs). Using narrow reading,
acquirers can progress comfortably, gradually
expanding the range of their reading
(Krashen and Terrell, 1988, p. 137).

15. Implication:
 Prior knowledge of topics and structures
should be given special attention in the reading
class. lf students are familiar with the topics of
the reading, they will find the reading selections
easy to understand. They will also pay less
attention to isolated sentences and vocabulary.

16. Implication:
 Vocabulary learning is essential in the ESL
classroom. Reading familiar topics where
students are exposed to the same
vocabulary in different contexts enables
students to acquire the new words.
Teaching vocabulary within a context
should be the preferred way of teaching
vocabulary.

17. h. New words should he introduced, then
reused many times before the students are
expected to use them in responses. Thus, at
any given time the comprehensible input
serves to introduce new vocabulary, reuse
vocabulary which has previously been
introduced, and to give an opportunity for the
students to produce vocabulary which has
been used by the instructor so often that it
has been acquired.
(Krashen and Terrell, 1988, p. 80)

18. 2. THE COMMUNICATIVE
APPROACH
a. Students achieve skill in using a language
when their attention is focused on conveying
and receiving authentic messages (that is,
messages that contain information of interest
to speaker and listener in a situation of
importance to both.
(Rivers, 1987, p. 4).
 Implication: Classroom activities should all
be based on situations that are authentic, of
interest, and real to students.

19. b. Through interaction, students can increase
their language store as they listen to or read
authentic linguistic material, or even the
output of their fellow students in discussions,
skits, joint problem-solving tasks, or dialogue
journals.
(Rivers, 1987, p. 4)
 Implication: Classroom activities should give
students opportunities to interact with
language in real contexts. This helps students
understand that a language is used for
communication.

20. c. Language use consists of many abilities. The
nature of the particular abilities needed is
dependent on the roles of the participants, the
situations, and the goal of the interaction.
(Savignon, 1983, p. 24)
Implication:
 Language should center around situations of
interests the learners. Therefore, classroom
instruction ought to be based on meaning and
contexts appropriate to the learners' needs to
communicate and to express themselves in English.

21. d. Language is primarily an interpersonal
act and the principal mechanism used by
human beings to socialize and get things
done
(Savignon,1983. p. 24)
 Implication: Many opportunities should
be given in classrooms for students to
participate in conversations that lead them
to follow up with another task. Other
activities that help students socialize with
their peers should he encouraged.

22. e. Second language learning, like first
language learned, begins with the needs
and interests of the learner
(Savignon, 1983, P. 24)
Implication: An analysis of` learners' needs
and interests should also be conducted to
facilitate the preparation of activities.

23. f. Reading is a problem-solving behavior that actively involves
the reader in the process of deriving meaning and assigning
meaning.
(Papalia. 1987. p. 70)
 Implication: Reading is an interactive activity. Therefore, the
prior knowledge the reader brings to the text is just as
important as the text itself. Teachers need to activate this
prior knowledge to ensure that students are aware of all of the
information they already know about the topic about which
they will be reading. If the students do not have any prior
knowledge, teachers should provide any information they
already know about the topic about which they will be
reading. If the students do not have any prior knowledge,
teachers should provide any information they consider
essential for the comprehension of the text.

24. g. If reading is the activity, there should be
lively interaction of reader and text -
interpretation, expansion, discussing
alternative possibilities of other
conclusions. Often reading leads to
creative production in speech or writing, as
students are inspired to write stories,
poems, plays radio programs, or film
scenarios, or their own dénouements for
stories and plays they have been reading.
(Rivers, 1987. p. 12)

25.  Implication:
Reading leads to other interactive activities
in the ESL classroom. There should be a strong
connection between reading and writing activities.

26. h. Writing is not necessarily a solitary
activity on the part of the author but can
be intensely interactive, involving the
instructor, other students, and individuals
outside of the formal class-room setting.
Normally, we write to be read, and our
writing improves as we respond to the
reactions of others. Our desire to write
also increases as others show interest in
what we have written.
(Russo. 1987. p.83)

27.  Implication:
Writing is an interactive activity. Writing
means sharing and talking about ideas. It also
implies that writing improves as students re-
write. Therefore, writing needs to be seen as a
process that involves many stages and many
participants (student-writer, teacher, other
students, and readers).

28. i. In an interactive classroom there will be,
first of all, much listening to authentic
materials, with no prohibition or
discouragement of spoken response or
student-initiated contribution. The
listening will be purposeful as students
prepare to use in some way what they
have heard.
(Rivers, 1987, p. 1 0 )

29.  Implication:
Listening comprehension activities should be
planned so as to ensure that this skill is not being
overlooked. For instance, teachers can read aloud
parts of stories and students will be reading later in
class.

30. 3. THE WHOLE LANGUAGE
PHILOSOPHY
 WHP traces its roots back to the works
of Piaget, Chomsky, andVygotsky.
 It was pioneered in the 1980s by the
researcher Kenneth Goodman who
focused on four beliefs about learning.

31. 3. THE WHOLE LANGUAGE
PHILOSOPHY
 Whole language is an approach to
learning that sees language as a whole
entity, and writing, speaking, reading, and
listening should be integrated when
learned. In whole language, learning is built
upon the real experiences and
background knowledge of the learner.

32. 3. THE WHOLE LANGUAGE
PHILOSOPHY
 It is an approach or attitude toward
learning, not a teaching method. Each
whole language teacher implements the
theories of whole language as he or she
sees fit for a particular class.Therefore,
each whole language classroom will be
different.

33. 3. THE WHOLE LANGUAGE
PHILOSOPHY
a. Language learning is a process of social and
personal invention.
(Goodman, 1986, p. 18)
 Implication:
Language is only learned when it is used
for real communication and when students
are allowed to use it creatively. lt also implies
that error correction must be deemphasized
and communication stressed.

34. b. Form forms function in language
development. Children know what they want to
do with language, and that stimulates their drive to
control the form of language so that it meets their
needs.
(Goodman, 1986. p. 18)
 Implication:
Classroom activities should be developed
based on topics of interest to the students, and not
on structures (grammar) . Having something to say
will motivate learners to want to say it.
Subsequent attempts to communicate may focus
on grammar.

35. c. Language is actually learned from whole
to part.
(Goodman, 1986, P-19)
 Implication:
Language should always be presented
in contexts. It should never be presented in
isolation from a meaningful situation that
learners can relate to.

36. d. All learning involves risk.
(Goodrnan, 1986, p.18)
 Implication:
Students should be encouraged to
take risks in trying to use the second
language. Risks will be encouraged if errors
are seen as part of the process of second
language acquisition.

37. e. Authentic language and literacy
experiences are central throughout the
curriculum.
(Goodman, 1986)

38.  Implication: The activities developed, in the
classroom should be based on the real world, how
the second language is used or can be used in real
contexts. it also means that literature should be an
important component in the language classroom.
Be-cause literature depicts real life many times, it
is an excellent springboard for relating the topics of
the readings to connect classroom activities to the
real world. Reading and writing should also be
connected and not seen as separate activities.

39. f. Teachers play various non-traditional roles in
whole language classrooms.
(Goodman, 1986)
 Implication:
Teachers become participants. Teachers are
also guides. Many times they must become kid-
watchers. This means that teachers should spend
some time observing students as they are learning
and practicing the second language. This will help
teachers understand these learning processes, and
it will also help them improve their own teaching
practices.

40. g. Choice is crucial in whole language
classrooms.
(Goodman, 1986)
 Implication: All teachers and learners
should participate in decision-making
regarding the activities to be carried out in
the classroom.

41. h. Assessment is continuous, intertwined with learning
and teaching.
(Goodman, 1986)
 Implication:
Teachers no longer evaluate at the end of units
or at the end of a semester. They are constantly
observing how learning is taking place for purposes of
improving their own teaching and the learning taking
place in the classroom. Stu-dents are also continually
observing how learning is taking place. Students are
also made responsible for their learning.

43. References:
www.ponce.inter.edu/cai/bv/curriculum/un
derly.htm
 Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2001).
Approaches and methods in language
teaching (2nd ed.). New York:
Cambridge University Press.