Stephen Krashen is currently emeritus professor of education at the University of Southern California. He is active in language acquisition, bilingual education, literacy development, and heritage language development.  Many of his articles and books can be downloaded for no charge from www.sdkrashen.com

     He invites you to follow him on twitter (skrashen), where he posts information about and provides links to research, old and new. He no longer writes books because nobody can afford them. He only reads and publishes research in “open access” journals (no charge to writers or readers) because nobody can afford to subscribe to non-open access journals.

     The case for self-selected pleasure reading, including fiction, is strong in both first and second language development.

(1)  It has a positive impact on language and literacy development (spelling, vocabulary, grammar, writing).

(2)  It increases knowledge in a variety of areas, including social studies and science, and may be more effective than “study.”

(3)  It gives us a deeper understanding of others. “It is quite possible—overwhelmingly probable … that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology” (Noam Chomsky).    The evidence comes from different areas of research not usually in contact with each other. One of these areas is library science, especially the work of Keith Curry Lance: In the US, better public school library collections and the help of a certified librarian are related to higher reading competence.