Stephen Krashen | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1941-05-14)May 14, 1941 (age 83) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United States of America |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Linguist |
| Institutions | University of Southern California |
| Main interests | Second-language acquisition |
| Website | www.sdkrashen.com |
Stephen D. Krashen (born May 14, 1941) is an American linguist, educational researcher and activist, who isEmeritus Professor of Education at theUniversity of Southern California.[1] He moved from thelinguistics department to the faculty of the School of Education in 1994.
Stephen Krashen received a Ph.D. inLinguistics from theUniversity of California, Los Angeles in 1972.[2]Krashen has among papers (peer-reviewed and not) and books, more than 486 publications, contributing to the fields ofsecond-language acquisition,bilingual education, and reading.[3] He introduced various hypotheses related to second-language acquisition, including theacquisition-learning hypothesis, theinput hypothesis, themonitor hypothesis, theaffective filter, and thenatural order hypothesis.[4] Most recently, Krashen promotes the use offree voluntary reading during second-language acquisition, which he says "is the most powerful tool we have inlanguage education, first and second."[5]
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As education policy in Krashen's home state ofCalifornia became increasingly hostile tobilingualism, he responded with research critical of the new policies, public speaking engagements, and with letters written to newspaper editors. During the campaign to enact an anti-bilingual education law in California in 1998, known asProposition 227, Krashen campaigned aggressively in public forums, media talk shows, and conducted numerous interviews with journalists writing on the subject. After other anti-bilingual education campaigns and attempts to enact regressivelanguage education policies surfaced around the country, by 2006 it was estimated that Krashen had submitted well over 1,000 letters to editors.
Krashen has been an advocate for a more activist role by researchers in combating what he considers the public's misconceptions about bilingual education. Addressing the question of how to explain public opposition to bilingual education, Krashen queried, "Is it due to a stubborn disinformation campaign on the part of newspapers and other news media to deliberately destroy bilingual education? Or is it due to the failure of the profession to present its side of the story to reporters? There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence in support of the latter." Continuing, Krashen wrote, "Without a serious, dedicated and organized campaign to explain and defend bilingual education at the national level, in a very short time we will have nothing left to defend."[6]
