Background

The Natural Approach was proposed in 1977 by Tracy Terrell, a teacher of Spanish at the University of California. Later, Terrel joined force with Stephen Krashen, an applied linguist at University of Souththen California, Drawing on Krashens influential theory of Second Language Acquisition, they tried to provide a detailed rhetorical rationale for the natural Approach .In 1983, their joint effort came out in a book The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom, which states the principles and practices of the Natural Approach. The book contains theoretical sections prepared by Krashen and sections on implementation and classroom procedures prepared mostly by Terrell. The most striking proposal of the Natural Approach theory is that adults can still acquire second languages and that the ability to pick up languages does not disappear at puberty. Thus, Krashen's contribution to Chomsky's LAD (Language Acquisition Device) proposition is that adults follow the same principles of Universal Grammar. The theory behind the Natural Approach implies that adults can acquire all but the phonological aspect of any foreign language, by using their ever-active LAD. What makes adults different from children is their abstract problem the solving skills of a that make them consciously process grammar foreign language.

Therefore, adults have two paths to follow: Acquisition and learning. However, children have only one: Acquisition. In their book, Krashen and Terrell refer to their method of picking up ability in another language directly without instruction in its grammar as the traditional approach. They consider their approach as a traditional one whereas many methodologists

consider Grammar Translation Method as the traditional method. For Krashen, even Grammar Translation Method is not as old and traditional as the method of acquiring a language in its natural environment, a method which has been used for hundreds of thousands of years. The term natural emphasizes that the principles behind the Natural Approach are believed to conform to the naturalistic principles found in successful second language acquisition. One may think that the Natural Approach and the Natural Method are similar. The Natural Method (or the Direct Method) and the Natural Approach differ in that the former lays more emphasis on teacher monologues, formal questions and answers, and error correction. Krashen and Terrell note that the Natural Approach is in many ways the natural, direct method rediscovered [and] it is similar to other communicative approaches being developed today. The Natural Approach, like TPR, is regarded as a comprehension-based approach because of its emphasis on initial delay (silent period) in the production of language. What novel is that the Natural Approach focuses on exposure to input instead of grammar practice, and on emotional preparedness for acquisition to take place.

Problem Formulation
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What is the definition of Natural Approach? What is the theoretical basis of Natural Approach? What are the objectives of Natural Approach? What are the basic principles of Natural Approach? What are the characteristics of Natural Approach?

6. How is the design of Natural Approach? 7. How is the teaching procedure of Natural Approach? 8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Natural Approach?

Discussion
I. Definition
Natural Approach is one of the language teaching approaches to develop learners ability in using language as a tool for communication by applying the principles of natural language acquisition into classroom context. Natural Approach emphasizes natural communication rather than formal grammar study and is tolerance of learners error. The core of the Natural Approach is language acquisition, which is considered a subconscious process, dependent on two factors: the amount of comprehensible input the students obtain; and the amount of the students allow in. The Natural Approach emphasizes the central comprehension and believes that: 1. Comprehension abilities precede productive skills in learning a language; 2. The teaching of speaking should be delayed until comprehension skills are established; 3. Skills acquisition through listening transfer to other skills; 4. Teaching should emphasize meaning rather than form; 5. Teaching should minimize learners stress.

II. Theoretical Bases

A. Theory of Language
1. Communication as the primary function of language; and emphasis on meaning. Krashen and Terrell see communication as the primary function of language and since their approach focuses on teaching communicative ability, they identify

the Natural Approach with the Communicative Approach. What Krashen and Terrell emphasize in their approach is the primacy of meaning. 2. Importance of vocabulary. Krashen lexicon. 3. Not necessary to analyze grammatical structure; and rules automatically provided in the input. Krashen and Terrell hold that grammatical structure does not require explicit analysis or attention by the teacher, by the learner, or in language teaching materials. They assume that if we provide input over a variety of topics while pursuing communication goal, the necessary grammatical rules are automatically provided in the input. and Terrell stress the importance of vocabulary, suggesting that a language is essentially its

B. Theory of Learning
The theory as well as the design and procedures in The Natural Approach are based on Krashens language acquisition theory. The basic principles of Krashens theory are outlined in his Monitor Model (1982), a model of second language acquisition consisting of five hypotheses: 1. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis The Acquisition-Learning distinction is the most fundamental of all the hypotheses in Krashens theory and the most widely known among linguists and language practitioners. According to Krashen there are two independent systems of second language performance: the acquired system and the learned system. The acquired system or acquisition is the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children

undergo when they acquire their first language. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concentrated not in the form of their utterances, but in the communicative act. The learned system or learning is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious knowledge about the language, for example knowledge of grammar rules. According to Krashen learning is less important than acquisition. 2. The Monitor Hypothesis The Monitor hypothesis explains the relationship between acquisition and learning and defines the influence of the latter on the former. The monitoring function is the practical result of the learned grammar. According to Krashen, the acquisition system is the utterance initiator, while the learning system performs the role of the monitor or the editor. The monitor acts in a planning, editing and correcting function when three specific conditions are met: the second language learner has sufficient time at his/her disposal, he/she focuses on form or thinks about correctness, and he/she knows the rule. It appears that the role of conscious learning is somewhat limited in second language performance. According to Krashen, the role of the monitor is - or should be - minor, being used only to correct deviations from normal speech and to give speech a more polished appearance. Krashen also suggests that there is individual variation among language learners with regard to monitor use. He distinguishes those learners that use the

monitor all the time (over-users); those learners who have not learned or who prefer not to use their conscious knowledge (under-users); and those learners that use the monitor appropriately (optimal users). An evaluation of the persons psychological profile can help to determine to what group they belong. Usually extroverts are underusers, while introverts and perfectionists are over-users. Lack of self-confidence is frequently related to the overuse of the monitor. 3. The Natural Order Hypothesis The Natural Order hypothesis is based on research findings (Dulay & Burt, 1974; Fathman, 1975; Makino, 1980 cited in Krashen, 1987) which suggested that the acquisition of grammatical structures follows a natural order which is predictable. For a given language, some grammatical structures tend to be acquired early while others late. This order seemed to be independent of the learners age, first language background, conditions of exposure, and although the agreement between individual acquirers was not always 100% in the studies, there were statistically significant similarities that reinforced the existence of a Natural Order of language acquisition. Krashen, however, points out that the implication of the natural order hypothesis is not that a language program syllabus should be based on the order found in the studies. In fact, he rejects grammatical sequencing when the goal is language acquisition. 4. The Input Hypothesis The Input hypothesis is Krashens attempt to explain how the learner acquires a second language. In other words, this hypothesis is Krashen's explanation of how

second language acquisition takes place. So, the Input hypothesis is only concerned with acquisition, not learning. According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses along the natural order when he/she receives second language input that is one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence. For example, if a learner is at a stage i, then acquisition takes place when he/she is exposed to Comprehensible Input that belongs to level i + 1. Since not all of the learners can be at the same level of linguistic competence at the same time, Krashen suggests that natural communicative input is the key to designing a syllabus, ensuring in this way that each learner will receive some i + 1 input that is appropriate for his/her current stage of linguistic competence. 5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis The Affective Filter Hypothesis embodies Krashens view that a number of affective variables play a facilitative, but non-causal, role in second language acquisition. These variables include: motivation, selfconfidence and anxiety. Krashen claims that learners with high motivation, self-confidence, a good self-image, and a low level of anxiety are better equipped for success in second language acquisition. Low motivation, low selfesteem, and debilitating anxiety can combine to raise the affective filter and form a mental block that prevents comprehensible input from being used for acquisition. In other words, when the filter is up it impedes language acquisition. take place. On the other hand, positive affect is necessary, but not sufficient on its own, for acquisition to

These five hypotheses have obvious implications for language teaching. In sum, these are: 1. As much comprehensible input as possible must be presented. 2. Whatever helps comprehension is important. Visual aids are useful, as is exposure to a wide range of vocabulary rather than study of syntactic structure. 3. The focus in the classroom should be on listening and reading; speaking should be allowed to emerge. 4. In order to lower the affective filter, student work should center on meaningful communication rather than on form; input should be interesting and so contribute to a relaxed classroom atmosphere. C. Application of the Hypotheses In this part, we will try to sift through the practical value of the approach for foreign or second language classes by taking its theoretical bases into consideration. 1. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis The first and the most useful hypothesis, the acquisition-learning hypothesis tells us that we should balance class time between acquisition activities and learning exercises. It is important to realize that students or any human being cannot both learn and acquire at the same time because one can focus on only one thing at a time, either on form or on meaning. Therefore, there must be a separation between acquisition and learning activities in foreign language classes and the relative weight of acquisition classes should be over that of learning classes. The Natural Approach instructor does not expect students at the end of a particular course to have acquired

a specific grammar point. Instead she/he does expect them to display their comprehension. It is necessary and inevitable, as has been mentioned earlier, to employ two separated classes: Input and grammar classes (i.e., acquisition and learning classes). In input classes, students are given as much comprehensible input as possible. In grammar classes, however, grammar rules are presented deductively or inductively depending on the age of the students (also on whether they are field-independent or field-dependent). The role of grammar classes is to produce optimal monitor users and to aid comprehension indirectly. Therefore, the core of the Natural Approach is acquisition activities which have a purpose other than conscious grammar exercises such as audiolingual drills and cognitive learning exercises. 2. The Monitor Hypothesis What is implied by the Monitor Hypothesis for foreign language classes is, therefore, to achieve optimal monitors. Students may monitor during written tasks (e.g., homework assignments) and preplanned speech, or to some extent during speech. Learned knowledge enables students to read and listen more so they acquire more. Especially in early stages, grammar instruction speeds up acquisition. This is one of the reasons why adults are faster than children in terms of the rate of achievement. However, the Natural Approach teacher wishes his students to use the monitor where appropriate. 3. The Natural Order Hypothesis In the Natural Approach, teacher should be tolerant against errors. He uses a semantic syllabus for acquisition activities and grammatical syllabus for grammar lessons

(i.e., for learning sessions). As is known the grammatical syllabus assumes that we know the correct natural order of presentation and acquisition, we dont: what we have is information about a few structures in a few languages. (Krashen, 1983: 72). Therefore, the teacher will not organize the acquisition activities of the class about grammatical syllabi and only meaning errors are to be corrected in a positive manner. 4. The Input Hypothesis As for the application of the Input Hypothesis, the instructor should provide input that is roughly-tuned. The teacher should always send meaningful messages and must create opportunities for students to access i+1 structures to understand and express meaning. For instance, the teacher can lay more emphasis on listening and reading comprehension activities. Extensive reading is often preferred because of ample amount of input provided. Outside reading is also helpful (e.g., graded readers, magazines and the like). 5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis The application of this hypothesis would be that acquisition environment. should The be achieved in a a low-anxiety comfortable teacher creates

atmosphere in the classroom by lowering the affective filter. There is no demand for early production speech and no radical concern for correctness in early stages of acquisition. This, of course, reduces the anxiety of students considerably. Our pedagogical goal in an foreign language class should, then, not only include providing comprehensible input but also creating an atmosphere that fosters a low affective filter.

III. Objectives
The basic objective of Natural Approach is primarily designed to develop basic communication skills both oral and written and is designed to help beginners become intermediates. The students are expected to be able to function adequately in the target situation, for example, be able to understand the speaker of the target language and to convey their requests and ideas. However, since the Natural Approach is offered as a general set of principles applicable to a wide variety of situations, as in Communicative Language Teaching, specific objectives depend upon learner needs and the skill (reading, writing, listening, or speaking) and level being taught. In general, the specific objectives of Natural Approach are: 1. The goals of the Natural Approach class are divided according to basic personal communication skills and academic learning skills, with focus on the former.
2. The goals of a Natural Approach class are based on an

assessment of students needs, the situations in which they will use the target language and the sorts of topics they will have to communicate information about. 3. Communication goals are specified in terms of situations, functions and topics. 4. The students should be able to make the meaning clear but not necessarily be accurate in all details of grammar. 5. The functions are not specified or suggested but are felt to derive naturally from the topics and situations. There is no specified order of grammar rules.

IV. Basic Principles

1. Language is best taught when it is being used to transmit messages. The Natural Approach considers input as the most important element of any language teaching programme. Language is best taught when it is being used to transmit messages, not when it is explicitly taught for conscious learning. 2. According to the Natural Approach, speaking is not absolutely essential for language acquisition. The input hypothesis claims that the best way to teach speaking is to focus on listening (and reading) and spoken fluency will emerge on its own. 3. Grammar instruction has a limited role. Grammar use should be limited to situations where it will not interfere with communication. The time to use the Monitor is in writing and in prepared speech. 4. Between the two tools for communication, vocabulary and grammar, vocabulary is the most essential one. 5. In a Natural Approach classroom, most of the classroom time is spent on activities which foster acquisition. 6. There is no demand for early speech production in the Natural Approach. The teacher will not ask the students to speak the target language until they are ready.

V. Characteristics
The Natural Approach has the following characteristics: 1. Class time is devoted primarily to providing input for acquisition.
2. Natural Approach has several implications for classroom

practice, which are:

a. Whatever helps comprehension is important.

b. Vocabulary is important. With more vocabulary there will be

more comprehension and with more comprehension, there will be more acquisition.
c. Students must understand the message. d. Classroom may be a very good place for second language

acquisition.
e. Effective classroom input must be interesting.

3.

The teacher speaks only the target language in the classroom. Students may use either the first or second language. If they choose to respond in the second language, their errors are not corrected unless meaning is affected.

4.

Homework may include formal grammar work, errors are corrected.

5. Activities may involve the use of a certain structure, but the goals are to enable students to talk about ideas, perform tasks, and solve problems.

VI. Design
A. The Syllabus
Krashen and Terrell (1983) approach course organization from two points of view: 1. First, they list some typical goals for language courses and suggest which of these goals are the ones at which the Natural Approach aims. They list such goals under four areas: Basic personal communication skills: oral (e.g. listening to announcement in public place). Basic personal communication skills: written (e.g. reading and writing personal letter). Academic learning skills: oral (e.g., listening to lecturer).

 Academic learning skills: written (e.g., taking notes in class). 2. Second point of view holds that the purpose of a language course will vary according to the needs of the students and their particular interest. The syllabus underlying the Natural Approach is topical and situational. It is a semantic or notional syllabus, simply a series of topics that students will find interesting each and the activity teacher is can discuss by in a not comprehensible way (Krashen, 1985:55). The focus of classroom organized topic, grammatical structures. What is more interesting is that Krashen and Terrell have not specified or suggested the functions which are believed to derive naturally from the topics and situations. Therefore, basic communication goals (both written and oral) are achieved mainly through topics and situations; and each topic and situation includes various language functions that the students will acquire. As discussed earlier, a grammatical syllabus may be used in learning classes where learners are given conscious knowledge about the target language. Needless to say, the relative weight of acquisition activities is to be over that of learning activities. Similarly, practice of specific grammatical structures is not focused on in the above mentioned semantic syllabus.

B. Types of Learning and Teaching Activities

Learners remain silent during the first stage. This does not mean they are inactive. What they do in this stage is to understand the teacher talk that focuses on objects in the classroom or on the content of pictures. Students are only

expected to respond to teacher commands without having to say anything. The purpose of the beginning stage is not to make students perfect but to help them proceed to the next stage. When students feel ready to produce speech, the teacher asks questions and elicits one word answers. This is the second stage where the teacher asks yes/no questions, either- or questions, and wh-questions that require single word utterances. Students are not expected to use a word actively until they have heard it many times. Pictures, charts, advertisements are utilized to proceed to the third stage where acquisition activities are emphasized (e.g., group work and whole class discussion). The Natural Approach instructor uses techniques that are borrowed from other methods and adapted to meet the requirements of the Natural Approach theory. Among these techniques are TPR activities of Asher, Direct Method activities in which gesture and context are used to elicit questions and answers, and group work activities that are often used in Communicative Language Teaching. But, what makes the Natural Approach different is that every specific technique has a theoretical rationale. That is, the Natural Approach theory is so strong that within its framework classroom activities can be accounted for. This feature of the Natural Approach makes it superior to other methods like Communicative Language Teaching which lacks a sound theory of language learning.

C. Leaner Roles
The language acquirer is regarded as a processor of comprehensible input. They are challenged by input that is a little beyond their present level of competence. They are

expected to be able to assign meaning to this input through dynamic use of context and extra linguistic information. Acquirers' roles, in fact, vary according to their stage of linguistic development. Some of their roles are to make their own decisions on when to speak, what to speak about, and what linguistic expressions to use while speaking. The Natural Approach segments the complex process of second language acquisition into three basic levels or stages, which are: 1. Preproduction In the preproduction stage students participate in the language activity without having to respond in the target language (Krashen and Terrell 1983: 76). For example, students can act out physical commands, identify student colleagues from teacher description, point to pictures, and so forth. 2. Early Production In the early production stage, students respond to either-or questions, use single words and short phrases, fill in charts, and use fixed conversational patterns (e.g., How are you? Whats your name?).

3. Speech Emergence In the speech emergence phase, students involve themselves in role play and games, contribute personal information and opinions, and participate in group problem solving. Learners have four kinds of responsibilities in the Natural Approach classroom:

1. Provide information about their specific goals so that acquisition activities can focus on the topics and situations most relevant to their needs. 2. Take an active role in ensuring comprehensible input. They should learn and use conversational management techniques to regulate input. 3. Decide when to start producing speech and when to upgrade it. 4. Where learning exercises (i.e., grammar study) are to be a part of the program, decide with the teacher the relative amount of time to be devoted to them and perhaps even complete and correct them independently. Learners are expected to participate in communication activities with other learners. Although communication activities are seen to provide naturalistic practice and to create a sense of camaraderie, which lowers the affective filter, they may fail to provide learners with well-formed and comprehensible input at the i+1 level. Krashen and Terrell warn of these shortcomings but do not suggest means for their amelioration.

D. Teacher Roles
In Natural Approach, we may speak of three crucial roles for the teacher, which are: 1. The teacher is the primary source of input that is understandable to the learner. It is the teacher that attempts to maintain a constant flow of comprehensible input. If she/he maintains students attention on key lexical items or uses context to help them, the students will naturally be successful.

2. The teacher creates a friendly classroom atmosphere where there is a low affective filter. 3. The teacher chooses the most effective materials and employs a rich mix of classroom activities.

E. The Role of Instructional Materials

Materials used in a natural approach classroom aim at making activities and tasks as meaningful as possible, they foster comprehension and communication. Authentic materials, like brochures or maps, as well as visual aids and games are used to facilitate acquisition and to promote comprehension and real communication.

F. The Role of Grammar

For starters, we must realize that learning does not turn into acquisition. While the idea that we first learn a grammar rule and then use it so much that it becomes internalized is common and may seem obvious to many, it is not supported by theory nor by the observation of second language acquirers, who often correctly use rules they have never been taught and don't even remember accurately the rules they have learned. However, there is a place for grammar, or the conscious learning of the rules of a language. Its major role is in the use of the Monitor, which allows Monitor users to produce more correct output when they are given the right conditions to actually use their Monitor, as in some planned speech and writing. However, for correct Monitor use the users must know the rules they are applying, and these would need to be rules that are easy to remember and apply a very small subset of all of the grammatical rules of a language. It is not worthwhile

for language acquisition to teach difficult rules which are hard to learn, harder to remember, and sometimes almost impossible to correctly apply.

VII. Technique & Teaching Procedure

The Natural Approach The is designed to develop of basic basic communication skills. development stages

communication skills in Natural Approach are Preproduction, Early Production, and Speech Emergence. The following are teaching procedures based on those stages.

A. Preproduction
At this stage, the teacher provides comprehensible input, maintains focus on the message and helps lower affective filters. This pre-production stage allows the students an opportunity to begin the acquisition process. Teacher activities in this stage are:
1. Total

Physical

Response

(TPR).

The

teacher

gives

commands to which the students react with their bodies as well as their brains.
2. Supplying

meaningful

input

based

on

items

in

the

classroom or brought to class. (Who has the________? Who is wearing a ________?)

3. Supplying meaningful input based on pictures.

Student Responses in this stage are: 1. An action (TPR). 2. The name of a fellow student (from b., c. above). 3. Gestures 4. Students say yes/no in English. 5. Students point to an item or picture.

6. Children

do

not

initially

make

many

attempts

to

communicate using words; rather they indicate their comprehension nonverbally.

B. Early Production
In non-threatening environments, students move voluntarily from preproduction stage into early production stage. The early production or early speech stage begins when students begin using English words to give:
a. Yes/no answers b. One-word answers c. Lists of words d. Two word strings and short phrases

The following are instructor question techniques to encourage the transition from preproduction stage to early speech Stage. a. Yes/no questions (Is Jimmy wearing a sweater today?) b. Choice questions (Is this a pencil or an eraser?) c. Questions which can be answered with a single word. (What does the woman have in her hand? Where? When? Who?) d. General questions which encourage lists of words. (What do we see on the table now?)
e. Open sentence with pause for student response. (Mike is

wearing a blue shirt, but Ron is wearing a _____ shirt.) During the Early Speech Stage, the instructor must give a meaningful and understandable input which will encourage the transition to speech emergence stage. Therefore all student responses should be expanded if possible. Here is a sample exchange between the teacher and the class:

Instructor Class Instructor Class

: :

What do we see in this picture? Yes, there is a woman in this picture. Is

: Woman. there a man? : Yes. : Yes, there is. There is a man and a woman. Where is the man?

Instructor Class

: Car.

Other sorts of activities which can be used in Early Speech Stage:

a. Open dialogues b. Guided interviews c. Open-ended sentences d. Charts, tables, graphs

e. Newspaper ads

C. Speech Emergence
In the Speech Emergence Stage, speech production will normally improve in both quantity and quality. The sentences that the students produce become longer, more complex and they use a wider range of vocabulary. Finally, the number of errors will slowly decrease. Students need to be given the opportunity to use oral and written language whenever possible. When they reach the stage in which speech is emerging beyond the two-word stage, there are many sorts of activities which will foster more comprehension and speech. In general, we may classify language acquisition activities into four types:
1. Affective-humanistic

activities

attempt

to

involve

students feelings, opinions, desires, reactions, ideas, and

experiences. Open dialogues, interviews, reference ranking, personal charts, supplying personal information, description, etc. are often used to involve students in communicating information about themselves.
2. Problem-solving

activities

are

those

in

which

the

students attention is focused on finding a correct answer to question, a problem or a situation.

3. Games are the third group of activities. The primary focus of

any particular game is on words, discussion, action, contest, problem solving, and guess.
4. Content activities are the ones whose purpose is for the

students to learn something new other than language. They include slide shows, panels, individual reports and presentations, show and tell activities, music, films, film scripts, TV reports, news broadcasts, guest lectures, native speaker visitors, reading and discussion about any sort of the target language and culture.

VIII. Advantages & disadvantages

A. Advantages
1. Teaching materials are designed very well. Students can acquire language from easy to difficult, from simple to complex, and from concrete to abstract. 2. The classroom consists of acquisition activities can be an excellent environment for beginners. The Natural Approach is an attempt to simulate in the class an environment that will be similar to the context in which children acquire their first language, as they creates utterance to express their own thoughts. 3. Comprehensible and meaningful practice activities are emphasized.

In the Natural Approach, a focus on comprehension and meaningful communication as well as the provision of right kind of comprehensible input provide the necessary and sufficient condition for successful classroom second and foreign acquisition. It emphasizes comprehensible and meaningful practice activities, rather than production of grammatically perfect utterance and sentences. Listening comprehension is also emphasized.
4. The teacher creates speeches which enable students to

interact using the target language. 5. Students are not force to respond in the target language immediately. 6. Students interact in meaningful situation at their own level. The Natural Approach classroom contains a teacher whose main purpose is to create a net of speech, which will enable students to interact using the target language, and to begin the language acquisition process. The teacher can provide a large amount of language input without force the students to responds in the target language immediately .In the classroom, student also has the advantage of being able to interact in meaningful situations with other students at or their own level of competence.
7. The teacher knows students needs and concentrates on

appropriate and useful areas. Another important feature of the classroom is that the teacher is aware of the specific vocabulary need of the students and can concentrate on appropriate and using domains. Thus the conclusion is that while the Real world can provide excellent input for intermediate or advanced

acquires, the classroom consisting of acquires actives can be an excellent for beginners.

B. Disadvantages
1. The Natural Approach ignores many factors essential in second language course design. Krashen in his early work appeared not just to ignore but to view as irrelevant many factors that had previously been considered essential in second language course design. 2. The techniques recommended by Krashen and Terrell are often borrowed from other methods and adapted to meet the requirements of the Natural Approach theory. 3. There is nothing novel about its procedures and techniques within the framework of a method. 4. Students may use the target language fluently, but they cannot use it accurately. 5. Teachers should collect various teaching aids and use them appropriately. 6. There are still many problems in the research method.

Conclusion
History
The Natural Approach was proposed in 1977 by Tracy Terrell and Stephen D. Krashen. In 1983, their proposal came out in a book The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom, which states the principles and practice of the Natural Approach.

Definition
Natural Approach is one of the language teaching approaches to develop learners ability in using language as a tool for communication by applying the principles of natural language acquisition into classroom context.

Theory of Language
Communication as the primary function of language; and emphasis on meaning. Importance of vocabulary. Not necessary to analyze grammatical structure; and rules automatically provided in the input.

Theory of Learning
The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis The Monitor Hypothesis The Natural Order Hypothesis The Input Hypothesis The Affective Filter Hypothesis

Objectives

Natural Approach is primarily designed to develop basic communication skills both oral and written and is designed to help beginners become intermediates.

Basic Principles
Language is best taught when it is being used to transmit messages. Speaking is not absolutely essential for language acquisition. The best way to teach speaking is to focus on listening (and reading) and spoken fluency will emerge on its own. Grammar instruction has a limited role. Vocabulary is essential. Most of the classroom time is spent on activities which foster acquisition. There is no demand for early speech production. Characteristics Class time is devoted primarily to providing input for

acquisition. Natural Approach has several implications for classroom practice, which are: Whatever helps comprehension is important. Vocabulary is important. Students must understand the message. Classroom may be a very good place for second language acquisition. Effective classroom input must be interesting. The teacher speaks only the target language in the classroom. Students may use either the first or second language. If they choose to respond in the second language, their errors are not corrected unless meaning is affected.

 Homework may include formal grammar work, errors are corrected. Activities may involve the use of a certain structure, but the goals are to enable students to talk about ideas, perform tasks, and solve problems.

Syllabus
The syllabus of the Natural Approach is topical and situational. The purpose of a language course will vary according to the needs of the students and their particular interest.

Types of Learning and Teaching Activities

Learners remain silent during the first stage. When students feel ready to produce speech, the teacher asks questions and elicits one word answers. The Natural Approach instructor uses techniques that are borrowed from other methods and adapted to meet the requirements of the Natural Approach theory.

Leaner Roles
The language acquirer is regarded as a processor of comprehensible input. Learners have four kinds of responsibilities in the Natural Approach classroom: Provide information about their specific goals so that acquisition activities can focus on the topics and situations most relevant to their needs. Take an active role in ensuring comprehensible input. They should learn and use conversational management techniques to regulate input. Decide when to start producing speech and when to upgrade it.

 Where learning exercises (i.e., grammar study) are to be a part of the program, decide with the teacher the relative amount of time to be devoted to them and perhaps even complete and correct them independently.

Teacher roles
The teacher is the primary source of input that is understandable to the learner. The teacher creates a friendly classroom atmosphere where there is a low affective filter. The teacher chooses the most effective materials and employs a rich mix of classroom activities.

The Role of Instructional Materials

Materials used in a natural approach classroom aim at making activities and tasks as meaningful as possible, they foster comprehension and communication.

The role of Grammar

Its major role is in the use of the Monitor, which allows Monitor users to produce more correct output when they are given the right conditions to actually use their Monitor, as in some planned speech and writing.

Technique & Teaching Procedure

Preproduction Total Physical Response (TPR). Supplying meaningful input based on items in the classroom or brought to class. Supplying meaningful input based on pictures. Early Production Yes/no questions Choice questions

 Questions which can be answered with a single word. General questions which encourage lists of words. Open sentence with pause for student response. Other sorts of activities which can be used in Early Speech Stage: Open dialogues Guided interviews Open-ended sentences Charts, tables, graphs Newspaper ads Speech Emergence Affective-humanistic activities attempt to involve students feelings, opinions, desires, reactions, ideas, and experiences. Open dialogues, interviews, reference ranking, personal charts, supplying personal information, description, etc. are often used to involve students in communicating information about themselves. Problem-solving activities are those in which the students attention is focused on finding a correct answer to question, a problem or a situation. Games are the third group of activities. The primary focus of any particular game is on words, discussion, action, contest, problem solving, and guess. Content activities are the ones whose purpose is for the students to learn something new other than language. They include slide shows, panels, individual reports and presentations, show and tell activities, music, films, film scripts, TV reports, news broadcasts, guest lectures, native speaker visitors, reading and discussion about any sort of the target language and culture.

 Advantages & disadvantages

Advantages Teaching materials are designed very well. The classroom consists of acquisition activities can be an excellent environment for beginners. Comprehensible emphasized. The teacher creates speeches which enable students to interact using the target language. Students are not force to respond in the target language immediately. Students interact in meaningful situation at their own level. The teacher knows students needs and concentrates on appropriate and useful areas. Disadvantages The Natural Approach ignores many factors essential in second language course design. The techniques recommended by Krashen and Terrell are often borrowed from other methods and adapted to meet the requirements of the Natural Approach theory. There is nothing novel about its procedures and techniques within the framework of a method. Students may use the target language fluently, but they cannot use it accurately. Teachers should collect various teaching aids and use them appropriately. There are still many problems in the research method. and meaningful practice activities are

References
Krashen, S. and Terrell, T. 1983. The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Richards, J. and Rodgers, T. 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Krashen, S. 1981.Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Terrell, T.D. (1977). "A natural approach to the acquisition and learning of a language". Modern Language Journal, 61. 325336. Krashen, S.D. (1981). Bilingual education and second language acquisition theory. In Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework. (p.51-79). California State Department of Education. Krashen, S.D. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. New York, Longman. Krashen, S.D. (1991). The input hypothesis: An update. In James E. Alatis (ed.) Georgetown and Linguistics Teaching University 1991. issues: Round Table on D.C.: Languages Krashen, S.D. Washington, Formal

Georgetown University Press. 409-431. (1993a). Another grammar instruction. educator comments . . . . TESOL

Quarterly, 26, No. 2. 409-411 Krashen, S.D. (1993b). The effect of formal grammar teaching: Still peripheral. TESOL Quarterly, 26, No.3. 722-725. Krashen, S.D. & Terrell, T.D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. London: Prentice Hall Europe.

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