Krashen’s claims through a usage-based lens

Abstract

In the following, I will briefly outline how Krashen's Input Hypothesis, Acquisition/Learning distinction, and the Natural Order Hypothesis hold up when seen through the lens of usage‐ based approaches. A number of frameworks fall under the umbrella label of usage‐based approaches, including cognitive‐functional linguistics (Evans et al., 2007), usage‐based construction grammar (Goldberg, 2006, 2019), and dynamic systems theory (de Bot et al., 2007). As diverse as these frameworks are in terms of the questions they focus on and the methods they employ, they are united in their commitment to two fundamental assumptions about language and language acquisition: First, that the primary impetus of language acquisition is the learner's exposure to usage events, that is, their communicative experience using their second language; and second, that the cognitive mechanisms that learners employ are not exclusive to language learning, but the same ones at work in any kind of learning (Ellis & Wulff, 2020).