And the closing part of an interesting article
6. The natural order hypothesis
The grammar and vocabulary of a language are acquired in the same general order, irrespective of who the learner is, which language they are acquiring and the order of the grammar syllabus. You can teach students reported speech, such as in the sentence, 'she mentioned that she had been at the shop that morning', but learners won’t acquire it unless they are ready to. Certain elements of grammar are 'late-acquired', such as the third person '-s', and others are 'early-acquired'. This explains why my little niece continues to say things like 'Daddy go to work every day', even when she has already mastered more complex grammatical structures such as a conditional sentence like, 'I would do it if I had time'. Evidence for this 'natural sequence' of language acquisition can be found in the morpheme studies by Dulay and Burt. This casts doubt on the teaching of many points of grammar too early, that is, before students are ready to acquire them, such as the future perfect tense at intermediate level.
The advantages children have over adult learners
Before looking at the classroom implications of Krashen’s insights, we should remind ourselves of some of the advantages that children learning their first language have over adults learning a second language. One of the principle advantages is that children are exposed to copious amounts of comprehensible input at just the right level, and there is no pressure on them to speak until they are ready to do so. Children can also take their time and wait until they feel confident before attempting to speak. Moreover, they often have lower expectations of themselves and this helps to ensure that their anxiety levels are low, which, in turn, increases their rate of acquisition.
One of the most surprising things is that when children acquire a language, the language acquisition itself is not their objective. Rather, it is a by-product of the achievement of some other purpose, such as making friends in a school playground. Moreover, they pick up the elements of their first language in its natural order. They are not 'force-fed' grammar too early before their language acquisition devices are ready for it. Instead, they acquire the language first and then consider its structure after acquisition has already taken place. Finally, they learn the elements of a language in the natural order.
The practical implications of Krashen's ideas for the classroom
From Krashen's theories, and having looked at the advantages that children have over adults when it comes to learning languages, we can draw certain conclusions about what conditions make for a successful learning environment. First, class time should be taken up with as much comprehensible input as possible. Second, classes should be stress-free environments where students are encouraged to relax and acquire the language by having fun with it.
One particularly important implication of Krashen’s findings is that students, particularly at lower levels, should have lower demands made on them to speak, and materials and teacher talking time should be modified for each student's level. Furthermore, grammar instruction should be done on a need-to-know basis, and only with older learners. Last, but perhaps most important, lessons should not be based on grammar points, but rather on the exchange of meaning.