2007 Keynote Speaker

Dr. STEPHEN KRASHEN

Stephen Krashen

Stephen Krashen is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southern California. He is best known for developing the first comprehensive theory of second language acquisition, introducing the concept of sheltered subject matter teaching, and as the co-inventor of the Natural Approach to foreign language teaching. He has also contributed to theory and application in the area of bilingual education, and has done important work in the area of reading. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from UCLA, was the 1977 Incline Bench Press champion of Venice Beach and holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He is the author of The Power of Reading (Heinemann, 2004, second edition). His recent papers can be found at www.sdkrashen.com.

2007 Feature Workshop

Free voluntary reading: Why not?
Saturday, October 13, 02:30 PM - 05:30 PM

Free voluntary reading, or recreational reading, is the most powerful tool we have in language education. Those who read more read better, write better, have larger vocabularies, and have better control of complex grammatical constructions. Although free voluntary reading is our most powerful tool, it is also the least utilized. The problem in foreign language education is access to interesting reading material, a problem that should be easy to solve.