The Power of Popular Literature in Language Education
Abstract
During the last 45 years, evidence supporting the Input Hypothesis has been growing: We acquire not by "study" but by understanding what we read and hear. There is also increasing acknowledgement of the importance of fiction, including "popular" fiction. Those who read more fiction do better on reading, writing, and vocabulary tests and have more knowledge of a wide variety of topics. The path to high levels of literacy and knowledge may be a path of pleasure.
Bio-note
Stephen Krashen has published over 500 articles and a dozen books in literacy, language acquisition, neurolinguistics, and bilingual education. He no longer writes books because nobody can afford them, but many of his articles and books are available for free download at sdkrashen.com.