Biography:

       Professor Emeritus Stephen Krashen of USC (University of Southern California) has published more than 300 papers as a linguistic researcher. His contributions to the fields of second language acquisition (SLA) and bilingual education are extremely profound.

       Born in Chicago in 1941, Dr. Krashen spent two years in the Peace Corp teaching English to impoverished children in Africa. Returning to the United States, he earned a Ph. D in Linguistics at UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) in 1972.

       He is most famously known for his Theory of SLA, which including 5 hypotheses: Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis, the Input Hypothesis, Monitor Theory, the Affective Filter, and the Natural Order Hypothesis. Dr. Krashen puts great emphasis on the nature of non-English acquistion and a rejection of common beliefs such as the need for “conscious grammatical rules” or “tedious drill.”

       Dr. Krashen is a strong proponent of bilingual education, and has written several papers on the topic. He believes that the mastery of second language greatly augments future cognitive development.