Webinar: Presentaton 3

Presentation 3  Krashen

1.     Nontarged comprehensible input

2.     The role of writing

3.     Access to books

NONTARGETED COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT: Krashen, S. 2013 The Case for Non-Targeted, Comprehensible Input. Journal of Bilingual Education Research & Instruction 15(1): 102-110. (http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles.php?cat=6)

1.     The natural order hypothesis: Should we aim at i+1?

2.     Hypothesis: Given enough comprehensible input, i+1 is covered.

3.     Problems with grammatical syllabus

a.     individual variation

b.     few learn the grammar well

c.     hard to make input interesting/compelling and comprehensible

4.     Non-targeted input:

a.     individual variation ok if input comprehensible

b.     our only goal (hard enough): comprehensible/compelling input

WRITING

Increasing writing does not incurease writing proficiency: Writing is output, not input.

Recent evidence:  Sari, R.  IJFLT 2013 8(1)  

COMPONENTS OF THE COMPOSING PROCESS

Writing makes you smarter, inspiration the result of writing, not the cause (Boice)

The CP:  strategies to use writing to solve problems, keep your place

The classical composing process

I. Revision :

Neil Simon:  “mediocre writers write, good writers  rewrite.”

Vonnegut: "Novelists have, on the average, about the same IQs as the cosmetic consultants at Bloomingdale's department store. Our power is patience. We have discovered that writing allows even a stupid person to seem halfway intelligent, if only that person will write the same thought over and over again, improving it just a little bit each time. It is a lot like inflating a blimp with a bicycle pump. Anybody can do it. All it takes is time"

II. Flexible Planning: “experienced writers refuse to leave on a trip without a map." Murray, 1984

Good writers plan, but not always formally, are willing to change their plans

Overplanning: rigid plan – new ideas are an annoyance

III. Rereading: “I rise at first light and I start by rereading and editing everything I have written to the point I left off” (Hemingway, in Winokur, 1990, p. 247).

Jonathon Kellerman rereads  to “segue into new material” (Perry, 1999, p. 178)

IV. Delay Editing:  This draft may not be the final one!

Disturbs the flow, coming up with ideas. “Tony” (Perl, 1979): a concern with form “that actually inhibited the development of ideas. In none of his writing sessions did he ever write more than two sentences before he began to edit” (Perl, 1979, p. 324).

Peter Elbow: “Treat grammar as a matter of very late editorial correcting: never think about while you are writing. Pretend you have an editor who will fix everything for you, then don’t hire yourself for this job until the very end” (Elbow, 1973, p. 137).

Additional elements of the composing process

Incubation: "Composition is not enhanced by grim determination" (Frank Smith)

Problem-solving often requires “an interval free from conscious thought” to allow the free working of the subconscious mind (Wallas, 1926,)

Helmholz: After previous investigation, "in all directions," .. " happy ideas come unexpectedly without effort, like an inspiration ... they have never come to me when my mind was fatigued, or when I was at my working table ... They came particularly readily during the slow ascent of wooded hills on a sunny day" (Wallas, p. 91).

Tolle (1999): “All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness … Even the great scientists have reported that their creative breakthroughs came a a time of mental quietude” (p. 20).

Poincare (1924) there must be a "preliminary period of conscious work which also precedes all fruitful unconscious labor.”

Incubation not allowed in school writing.

Daily Regular Writing

Rosellen Brown:  writing “is a job, not a hobby" (Winokur, 1999, p. 188).

Irving Wallace: vast majority of published authos keep, some semblance of regular daily hours..." (Wallace & Pear, 1971, pp. 518-9).

WHEN is variable: Michael Chabon:10 pm-4 am, Maya Angelou 6:30 am- 12:30, 1:30.

Time keepers:  Irving Wallace (Wallace and Pear, 1971) (Flaubert, Conrad,Hemingway).

Page counters: (Updike, Bradbury); Word counters: (Haley, Wambaugh) (Murray, 1990)

Source of inspiration is writing:

Stephen King: don’t “wait for the Muse.  Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you are going to be every day from nine 'till noon or seven 'till three”

Susan Sontag: "Any productive writer learns that you can't wait for inspiration. That's the recipe for writer's block” (Brodie, 1997, p.  38),

Madeleine L’Engle: "Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it”

Regular writing vs binging:

Woody Allen, "If you work only three to four hours per day, you become quite productive. It's the steadiness that counts" (Murray, 1990, p. 46).

Boice (1982):  junior faculty members who had a “regular, moderate habit of writing,” compared to those who were “binge” writers  (“… more than ninety minutes of intensive, uninterrupted work)” over a six year period. The regular writers produced more than five times as much, and all got tenure or promotion. Only two binge writers got tenure.

The regular writers were more relaxed: The binge writers showed three times as many signs of "blocking":  When binge writers actually wrote, "they more commonly did nothing or very little (for example, recasting a first sentence or paragraph for an hour; staring at a blank screen).” Binge writers "were three times more likely to be rushing at their work … three times more likely to put off scheduled writing in favor of "seemingly urgent, no more important activities.”

Why DRW helps: incubation between sessions, warming up

Flaubert:  "I have the peculiarity of a camel - I find it difficult to stop once I get started and hard to start after I've been resting” (Murray, 1990) Gore Vidal: "I'm always reluctant to start work, and reluctant to stop."

If Charles Dickens missed a day of writing, "he needed a week of hard slog to get back into the flow" (Hughes, in Plimpton, 1999, p. 247).

Should we test writing?

1. writing form comes from reading

2. writing: quality of ideas = measure of creativity, hard to score

3. most time consuming, most expensive

ACCESS

If self-selected reading is so important, the big question = access to books

1. Children of poverty have very little access to books

The Beverly Hills/Watts study: (Smith, Constantino & Krashen)

(1)  Available books in the home: BH = 200; Watts = .4

(2)  Classroom libraries: BH = 400; Watts = 5

The Philadelphia study (Neuman & Celano): middle-class children "deluged" with books, high poverty have difficulty getting any access

Their only chance: the library

2. What we know about libraires

Children get their books from libraries

study	percent getting books from libraries
Gaver, 1963	30-63
Lamme, 1976	81
Ingham, 1978	72 -99
Swanton, 1984	70
Doig & Blackmore, 1995	school lib= 63; class lib = 25, public = 57
Worthy, Moorman, and Turner, 1999 High SES	school = 19; class = 3; public = 14
Worthy, Moorman, and Turner, 1999 Low SES	school = 34; class = 6; public = 14
Ivey and Broaddhus, 2001	school = 55; class = 28, public = 61

From: Krashen, S. 2004. The Power of Reading, 2nd Edition

Ages	library	bookstore	school list
6 to 11	77%	28%	21%
12 to 17	58%	38%	19%

From: Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report, 5th Edition, 2014.

N = 2500 parents and children.

Better libraries >  better reading achievment

Keith Curry Lance: elementary schools in Colorado (eventually in other states) – more $ put into schools did not impact reading scores, unless you consider the library: more $ in libraries > better reading scores

Independent predictors: Number of books, credentialed librarian, Staffing

Lance studies: http://keithcurrylance.com/school-library-impact-studies/

CAN ACCESS BALANCE THE EFFECT OF POVERTY?

Predictors of NAEP grade 4, 2007, 51 states

predictors	beta	t	P
Poverty	-0.72	7.42	0
Access	0.53	1.62	0.055

r2 = .63

Access = bks/student in school libraries, circulation in public libraries

Predictors of PIRLS:

Predictors of the reading test: PIRLS 2006

predictor		p
poverty	-0.41	0.005
independent reading in school	0.16	0.14
library: 500 books	0.35	0.005
Instruction	-0.19	0.085

r2 = .63 

Krashen, S., Lee, S.Y. and McQuillan, J. 2012. Is the library important? Multivariate studies at the national and international level. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 8(1): 26-36.

Replication:  PIRLS 2011

Predictor	beta	p
SES	0.52	0.01
library: 5000 bks	0.20	0.08
class libr	0.08	0.28
parent read	0.065	0.31
early lit	-0.26	0.04
Instruction	-0.016	0.5

r2 = .62

Note: Parental reading and classroom library correlated with PIRLS reading scores, but the effect disappeared in the multiple regression.

Note: Poverty and access are the main predictors of reading achievement in all studies.

Some Disturbing Data: In general, countries with high SES have high PIRLS reading scores and people (children and adults) say they like to read:  "baseline" data -

Country	HDI	parent likes	child likes	PIRLS
Hong Kong	0.898	14	21	571
Taiwan	0.882	17	23	553
Italy	0.874	24	23	541
Singapore	0.866	21	22	567
MEANS	.88 (.01)	19 (4.4)	22.3 (.96)	558 (13.7)
Baseline	.9 (.02)	43.7 (5.2)	33 (2.5)	538.4 (9.7)

But in some countries with high SES and high PIRLS scores, there is much less enthusiasm for reading (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy, Singapore).

"Test-prep" countries? PIRLS scores = true compentence?

Loh, E.K.Y. and Krashen, S. 2015. Patterns in PIRLS performance: The importance of liking to read, SES, and the effect of test prep. Asian Journal of Education and e-Learning 3(1).  http://ajouronline.com/index.php?journal=AJEEL

An allergy to SES and access to books? Fryer & Levitt (2004): SES accounts for 2/3 of gap, books in home accounts for the rest.

Fryer, R. & Levitt, S. 2004. Understanding the black-white test score gap in the first two years of school. The Review of Economics and Statistics 86(2): 447-464.

Meanwhile library funding is being cut in the US. School library cuts greater in high poverty areas (American Library Association, 2010. The State of America's Libraries; Kelley, M. 2010, Budget survey: Bottoming out? Library Journal, 2010.).

What about e-books? Major increase in the US: 28% of adults! http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/01/16/e-reading-rises-as-device-ownership-jumps/

Who owns e-book readers?

Income	tablet	e-reader
under 30,000	26%	14%
30 to 49,999	45%	35%
50 to 74,999	47%	42%
75,000+	65%	53%

Pew report. Adults age 18 or over.

The cost: $80 to $200. http://ebook-reader-review.toptenreviews.com/

The cost of e-books:  average best-seller - $10 to $15 http://www.howmuchisit.org/ebooks-cost/

To provide real access, e-books and e-book readers need to be A LOT cheaper.