語言學家克拉申的可理解假說認為理解意思才能習得語言,而語境和非語言信息等可以幫助我們理解稍難的下一階段(i+ 1)的內容。視覺輔助工具就屬于非語言信息,也提供了語境。
“How can we understand language that contains structures that we have not yet acquired? The answer is through context and extra-linguistic information. Caretakers provide this context for young children by restricting their talk to the "here and now", to what is in the child's domain at the moment. Good second language teachers do this by adding visual aids, by using extra-linguistic context. ”(P 32)
參考來源:Stephen Krashen, Tracy Terrell, 1983, The Natural Approach