STEM Fever

Maybe We Should Stem the Panic and Consider Needs
Published in the Wall Street Journal, Jan. 9, 2014

Ms. Stotksy thinks that all high school  students should be required to take trigonometry and precalculus to be ready for the brave new world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

Even if the STEM crisis were real, this is not a good idea. Of course, advanced math classes should be offered, but there is no reason to require them of everybody: Michael Handel of Northeastern University has concluded that only about 10% of the work force uses math beyond algebra II. 

Also, it is not clear that the crisis is real. It is not clear that there is a compelling need for more STEM workers. Some studies conclude that there are too many qualified candidates. Rutgers University professor Hal Salzman has reported that there are approximately three qualified graduates annually for each science or technology opening, and recent studies have also shown the United States is producing more Ph.D.s in science than the market can absorb.

Stephen Krashen

original article: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304020704579278060483138096


Some sources:
Math in work force: Handel, M. 2010. What do people do at work? OECD, forthcoming. Available at www.northeastern.edu/socant/wp-content/.../STAMP_OECD2a_edit2.doc‎
Three graduates for each opening:
Salzman, H. & Lowell, B. L. 2007. Into the Eye of the Storm: Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1034801
Salzman, H. and Lowell, L. 2008. Making the grade. Nature 453 (1): 28-30.
Salzman, H. 2012. No Shortage of Qualified American STEM Grads (5/25/12) http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-foreign-stem-graduates-get-green-cards/no-shortage-of-qualified-american-stem-grads.
See also:
Teitelbaum, M. 2007. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation. Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, November 6, 2007
More Ph.D's than the market can absorb: Weissman, Jordan. The Ph.D Bust: America's Awful Market for Young Scientists—in 7 Charts. The Atlantic, Feb 20, 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/the-phd-bust-americas-awful-market-for-young-scientists-in-7-charts/273339/



The common core ignores the evidence

Sent to the Los Angeles Times, January 2, 2013

Al Austin, in his letter to the Times (Jan 2) notes that the common core calls for "a sharp reduction" in literature in schools in favor of increased exposure to informational text.

This policy was created without any empirical evidence. The common core designers ignored  (or were not aware of) not only studies showing that reading literature contributes to an "enhanced theory of mind," described in the Times by Robert Sapolsky ("Another use for literature," Dec. 29) but also the massive amount of published research showing that self-selected "lighter" reading (largely fiction) contributes powerfully to literacy development (reading ability, vocabulary, grammar, spelling) and supplies the foundation for the reading of challenging texts.

Stephen Krashen

original articles:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-le-0102-thursday-literature-mind-20140102,0,6884773.story#axzz2pH5o2Ugw
 http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-sapolsky-theory-of-mind-20131229,0,2431766.story#axzz2pH5o2Ugw

Japan's 2020 push to English: A suggestion to the "panel of experts"

Sent to the Japan Times, Dec. 31, 2013.

Experts have criticized Japan's reform plan for English for not including enough hours of English instruction to accomplish its goals and have also noted the lack of resources and staffing ("English to get 2020 push but teachers not on the same page," Dec. 31, 2013).

There is an easy way to help solve both of these problems and ensure that growth in English will continue after students finish school: Invest in libraries and promote recreational reading. 
Study after study shows that self-selected pleasure reading results in profound gains in vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and writing style in first and second languages.  Also, reading can be so pleasant that students are often eager to do it on their own. Many of these studies have been done with those acquiring English as a second language in Japan, and they have been published in scholarly journals all over the world. 

I hope that the panel of experts about to be created by the Ministry will study the work of some of the prominent scholars in Japan who have done quality research in this area, including Beniko Mason, David Beglar, and Atsuko Takase.  Prof. Mason has reported that older English acquirers who develop a reading habit in English make impressive gains on the TOEIC, even without any extra English classes.  (One of her subjects was in his 70's!)

Stephen Krashen

Original article:  http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/12/31/national/english-to-get-2020-push-but-teachers-not-on-same-page/#.UsODxfaxPhM

Sources:
Mason, B. (2011). Impressive gains on the TOEIC after one year of comprehensible input, with no output or grammar study. The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 7(1). Available at IJFLT.com.
Mason, B. (2013). Substantial gains in listening and reading ability in English as a second language from voluntary listening and reading in a 75 year old student. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 8(1). Available at IJFLT.com

The Compelling (not just interesting) Input Hypothesis.

Stephen Krashen

The English Connection (KOTESOL). 15, 3: 1 (2011)

It is by now well-established that input must be comprehensible to have an effect on language acquisition and literacy development. To make sure that language acquirers pay attention to the input, it should be interesting. But interest may be not enough for optimal language acquisition. It may be the case that input needs to be not just interesting but compelling.

Compelling means that the input is so interesting you forget that it is in another language. It means you are in a state of "flow" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). In flow, the concerns of everyday life and even the sense of self disappear - our sense of time is altered and nothing but the activity itself seems to matter. Flow occurs during reading when readers are "lost in the book" (Nell, 1988) or in the "Reading Zone" (Atwell, 2007).

Compelling input appears to eliminate the need for motivation, a conscious desire to improve. When you get compelling input, you acquire whether you are interested in improving or not.

The evidence for the Compelling Input Hypothesis includes improvement as an unexpected result, the many cases of those who had no conscious intention of improving in another language or increasing their literacy, but simply got very interested in reading. In fact, they were sometimes surprised that they had improved.

I included several cases like this in The Power of Reading (Krashen, 2004, pp. 22-24): Both students and teachers were surprised by the students' startling improvement in English after they became avid readers in English.

More recently, Lao (Lao and Krashen, 2009) described the case of Daniel, a 12-year-old boy who came to the US at age eight from China. Daniel's Mandarin proficiency was clearly declining, despite his parents' efforts: They sent Daniel to a Chinese heritage language school but it was clear that Daniel was not interested in Mandarin. He was also not an enthusiastic participant in a summer heritage language program supervised by Dr. Lao, even though it included free reading.

Then Dr. Lao gave Daniel a few books written in Chinese to take home. One was an illustrated chapter book, "The Stories of A Fan Ti." Daniel loved it. The book was a bit beyond his level, but thanks to the illustrations and his ability to understand some of the text, Daniel was very interested in the story, and begged his mother to read it to him. When Dr. Lao learned of this, she loaned Daniel more books from the "A Fan Ti" series, in comic book format. Daniel begged his mother to read more, from two to five stories everyday. Daniel liked the books so much that he would do the dishes while his mother read to him. Both Daniel and his mother were quite happy with this arrangement. Daniel's Mandarin was clearly improving, but he wasn't aware of it, nor was he particularly interested. He was only interested in the stories.

The Compelling Input Hypothesis also explains why self-selected reading is typically more effective than assigned reading (e.g. S.Y. Lee, 2007).

An important conjecture is that listening to or reading compelling stories, watching compelling movies and having conversations with truly fascinating people is not simply another route, another option. It is possible that compelling input is not just optimal: It may be only way we truly acquire language.

References

Atwell, Nancy. 2007. The Reading Zone. New York: Scholastic.

Csikszentmihalyi , M. 1990. Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Perennial.

Krashen, S. 2004. The Power of Reading. Second edition. Portsmouth: Heinemann and Westport: Libraries Unlimited

Lao, C. and Krashen, S. 2008. Heritage language development: Exhortation or good stories? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 4 (2): 17-18.

Lee, S. Y. 2007. Revelations from Three Consecutive Studies on Extensive Reading. Regional Language Center (RELC) Journal , 38 (2), 150-170.

Nell, V. 1988. Lost in a Book. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.

Lifetime readers (October, 2004)

Letter published in Education Week October 20, 2004, as More on How to Produce Lifelong Reading Habits

In his letter to the editor, Hugh Calkins asks what reading method is most likely to produce lifelong readers ("Why Is There No Answer to This Reading Question?" Letters, Sept. 29, 2004).

A number of studies describe how dedicated readers developed their interests in reading, but a valid study needs to include a comparison with nonreaders as well.

I know of two studies that provide hints to an answer. Vincent Greaney reported that 6th grade boys in a sustained-silent-reading program did more leisure reading at the end of the program than boys in a comparison program. Six years later, he contacted the boys again: Those who had been in the reading group were still reading more.

Olga Emery and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi compared 15 men of working-class backgrounds who became college professors with 15 men of very similar backgrounds who became blue-collar workers. We do not know if the two groups had different reading programs in school, but there were profound differences in their lives outside of school. The future professors lived in a much more print-rich environment and, likely as a result of this, did far more reading when they were young.

These studies suggest that the crucial activity is reading itself, with access to plenty of books. But they are only scraps. Mr. Calkins has asked the right question, and it deserves a better answer. I hope other scholars know of additional studies, and I hope we turn our attention to more investigation of what it takes to produce a lifelong reader.

Stephen Krashen

Rossier School of Education

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, Calif.

What research really says about "explicit and structured" phonics

Sent to the West Australian (Dec. 28)
 

"New reading rules for kids," (Dec. 27) states that " ...international research has found that explicit and structured teaching of phonics - the relationship between letters and sounds - is the most effective way to teach reading."
 

Not so. What research says is that the impact of explicit and structured phonics is strong only on tests in which children read lists of words in isolation; it is minuscule on tests in which children have to understand what they read.

By far, the best predictor of how well children read for meaning is the amount of self-selected, recreational reading they have done.

If Western Australia is interested in a "back to the basics" approach, the first step is to make sure all students have access to interesting reading material, and the best way to do this is to support librarians and libraries.

Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California

Original article: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/20508718/new-reading-rules-for-kids/


Sources:
Impact of phonics: Garan, E. (2001). Beyond the smoke and mirrors: A critique of the National Reading Panel report on phonics. Phi Delta Kappan 82, no. 7 (March), 500-506.
Garan, E. (2002) Resisting Reading Mandates. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Krashen, S. 2009. Does intensive decoding instruction contribute to reading comprehension? Knowledge Quest 37 (4): 72-74.

Impact of recreational reading: Krashen, S. (2004) The Power of Reading, Heinemann and Libraries Unlimited. Krashen, S. (2011) Free Voluntary Reading. Libraries Unlimited.

Impact of libraries: Libraries and reading achievement: Krashen, S., Lee, SY., & 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. Lance, Keith Curry. 2004. “The Impact of School Library Media Centers on Academic Achievement.” In School Library Media Annual, edited by Carol Kuhlthau, 188–97. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Lance, K.& Helgren, J. 2010. “The Impact of School Libraries on Studenr Achievement: Exploring the School Library Impact Studies.” www.lrs.org/impact.php

No shortage of high-tech workers

Sent to the Los Angeles Times, Dec. 27, 2013.

In "Its no sin to be rich," (Dec. 27), Richard Riordan and Eli Broad state that jobs that don't require higher education "have left the country" and the "good jobs" that will stay require technological know-how.  They conclude that we must work harder at educating our workers in technology.
It is not clear that there is a demand for high-tech workers. In fact, some studies conclude that there are too many qualified candidates. Rutgers University professor Hal Salzman has reported that there are approximately three qualified graduates annually for each science or technology opening, and recent studies have also shown the United States is producing more Ph.D.s in science than the market can absorb.
Additional evidence that we are over-producing high-tech workers comes from studies showing that about 1/3 of college-bound high-school students take calculus, and only about 5% of jobs require this much math.

Stephen Krashen

Some sources:
Three graduates for each opening:
Salzman, H. & Lowell, B. L. 2007. Into the Eye of the Storm: Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1034801
Salzman, H. and Lowell, L. 2008. Making the grade. Nature 453 (1): 28-30.
Salzman, H. 2012. No Shortage of Qualified American STEM Grads (5/25/12) http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-foreign-stem-graduates-get-green-cards/no-shortage-of-qualified-american-stem-grads.
See also:
Teitelbaum, M. 2007. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation. Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, November 6, 2007
More Ph.D's than the market can absorb: Weissman, Jordan. The Ph.D Bust: America's Awful Market for Young Scientists—in 7 Charts. The Atlantic, Feb 20, 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/the-phd-bust-americas-awful-market-for-young-scientists-in-7-charts/273339/
1/3 of college-bound high school students take calculus:
www.macalester.edu/~bressoud/talks/2011/portland-apcalc.pdf‎
5% of jobs require calculus: Handel, M. 2010. What do people do at work? OECD, forthcoming. Available at www.northeastern.edu/socant/wp-content/.../STAMP_OECD2a_edit2.doc‎

Original article: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-1227-riordan-broad-wealth-20131227,0,575925.story#axzz2oiSGVJo6