Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1989. 19/3. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 19)

Budai, László: Some Basic Assumptions Underlying Foreign Language Teaching Strategies

- 97 into implicit knowledge. Unfortunately, Krashen fails to define the terms 'conscious' and 'subconscious' (McLaughlin 1978). Does 'conscious' entail 'incapable of becoming unconscious'? Does 'subconscious' mean 'nnt across Hi lo to Ihn conscious' or 'not conscious at a given moment'? "If by definition the 'subconscious' is inaccessible, and conscious 'learning' is always accessible, then Krashen's claim that 'learning' does not become 'acquisition' is of course trivially true, but uninteresting. On the other hand, if (some) unconscious knowledge is capable of being brought to consciousness, and if conscious knowledge is capable of becoming unconscious... then there is no reason whatever to accept Krashen's claim, in absence of evidence" (Gregg 1904). Let us now go on to Krashen's Input Hypothesis

. He says that the Input Hypothesis may be the single most important concept in language acquisition. His claim is dramatic: it is that those who receive comprehensible input acquire language, whereas conscious learning does not help acquisition. Although it may lielp the learner to monitor bio output, it is, essentially, a luxury (Harrier 1983). "The major function of the second language classroom is to provide intake for acquisition. This being a very difficult task, one could also say that the major challange facing the field of applied linguistics is to create materials and contexts that provide intake" (Krashen 1981: 101). Some further requirements need to be added: (1) successful acquisition requires large quantities of comprehensible input (it seems to take about two Imurs per day for one year -- about 700 liours -- to reach medium levels of proficiency); (2) the input needs to be so interesting and relevant that the acquirer actually forgets he is listening or reading in a foreign language and is totally focussed on the meaning (He does not acquire by first learning the rules and then trying to use them: he acquires by focussing on meaning. He is aided in comprehension by his knowledge of the world, by the context, as well as his knowledge of the language.); (3) the input needs to get progressively more complex (The input needs to be a roughly-tuned, i. e. language adapted to a level at which the acquirer can understand what he hears or reads even though tie may not know all the items of language included.)