Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

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e. Thus, mechanical drills are at best only partially suitable for acquisition. Together with free conversation (the "structure" and the "conversation" class combination), they may succeed in encouraging some language acquisition, but I think the second language classroom can do much better. My analysis of what intake is predicts that what is called "meaningful" and "communicative" drills or exercises can be more efficient in producing language acquisition. These are activities in which students can really communicate or in which communication can be simulated. My impression is that designing materials for mechanical practice is not difficult. Nor is it difficult to think of things to talk about in class. Providing intake via meaningful and communicative activities is quite a challenging task, however. In order to qualify as intake, these exercises must be understood, be at the appropriate level, and be "natural". I have tried to come up with activities that fit these requirements as an ESL teacher, and I found it very difficult to think up interesting, natural communicative situations in which to contextualize "the structure of the day". I have also been struck by the popularity of presentations at language teaching conferences and workshops that give teachers ideas for contextualization of structure. Such presentations are well attended and eagerly received. One rarely sees, these days, demonstrations of new mechanical drills. I interpret this trend as the recognition of the fact that language acquisition develops better when the intake is communicative and understood. Even meaningful and communicative drills may have their limitations, however. Even if they manage to hit the "next" structure (i + 1), which is unlikely for all students in a given class, they may fail to provide enough input or be natural enough for language acquisition. Perhaps the correct generalization is that the best activities are those that are natural, interesting, and understood. When these requirements are met, and where there is a great deal of input of this nature, it may be the case that i +1 will "naturally" be covered and reviewed many times over, and progress in language acquisition will result. If intake does indeed have these characteristics, and if intake is the most essential part of the language teaching program, the classroom may, in fact, be the best place for adults to acquire language, at least 104
up to the intermediate level. As Wagner-Gough and Hatch (1975) have pointed out, the "outside world" is usually unwilling to provide the adult with intake. Children acquiring second languages often do have the advantage of receiving real intake, but adults may not. Consider this conversation between a 5-year-old ESL acquirer and an adult: Adult Paul Is this your ball? Yeah. What colour is your ball? (no answer) Is that your doggy? Yeah. Is that your doggy or Jim's doggy? Jim's doggy. (Huang, cited in Wagner-Gough, 1975) In this exchange, the requirements for intake are clearly met. Paul's responses indicate that he understands much if not all of the speech directed at him (thanks, perhaps, to the adult's adherence to the "here and now" principle), it is simple input, most likely at or near the level Paul needs in order to acquire more English, and it is quite natural. Compare this to the input that the older acquirer needs to deal with. As Wagner-Gough and Hatch point out, the language is quite complex, displaced in time and space, and probably incomprehensible to acquirers such as Ricardo, a 13-year-old acquirer of English as a second language: Adult Ricardo What are you gonna do tonight? Tonight? I don't know. You don't know yet? Do you work at home, do the dishes or sweep the floor? Water... Flowers. Mud. Oh. You wash the mud down and all that. What else do you do at home? Home. (Butterworth, 1972; cited in Wagner-Gough, 1975) Despite this sort of behavior from native speakers, there may be useful sources of intake outside the classroom. One resource is the foreign student peer group. The language our ESL students direct at each other may come quite close to meeting the requirements for intake. Their communication with each other is certainly natural and usually understood, and the presence of peers who are slightly more 105
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Second Language Acquisition and Sec
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Acknowledgments I would like to tha
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Introduction This book is concerned
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performance..." (p.35). Corder (196
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when it does not get in the way of
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language (some similarities to firs
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In the second part of this chapter,
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far more valuable then the exercise
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Monitoring generally improves accur
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overconcern with correctness, howev
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language is spoken or may be expose
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2. Attitude and Aptitude in Second
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1973, p. 8). Carroll also suggests
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outines and patterns, and at a more
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Sentences, Paired Associates, and S
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stay-ins appeared to be integrative
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motivation played no role because o
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(1977), after interviewing teachers
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did not produce the same results. T
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a stage many people, but not all, r
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The Good Language Learner Revisited
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predict differences in student achi
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settle the issue of whether adults
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language had higher scores than stu
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Table 1. English proficiency and ye
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The "self-study" reinterpretation o
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series the evidence for learning is
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4. The Domain of the Conscious Gram
Page 57 and 58: Ann Fathman, confirmed our earlier
Page 59 and 60: significant differences for any of
Page 61 and 62: Table 1. Studies analyzing grammati
Page 63 and 64: Table 3. Counterexamples to orderin
Page 65 and 66: Table 4 (cont.) ___________________
Page 67 and 68: ut *der Katze Ohr (The cat's ear).
Page 69 and 70: Research Findings 1. First language
Page 71 and 72: First-language-influenced errors he
Page 73 and 74: and (4) Ich weiss nicht, I know not
Page 75 and 76: ain", the right hemisphere, appears
Page 77 and 78: second language acquisition in adul
Page 79 and 80: hemisphere is removed, and the pati
Page 81 and 82: Monitor, to exist, and the degree t
Page 83 and 84: advantage in the first language. En
Page 85 and 86: while English "orients its users to
Page 87 and 88: 7. On Routines and Patterns in Lang
Page 89 and 90: adulthood. A. Smith (1966) describe
Page 91 and 92: "That's a _______") which were char
Page 93 and 94: variation. Nelson, for example, dis
Page 95 and 96: which he had learned by imitation.
Page 97 and 98: and often incorporated them into hi
Page 99 and 100: what utterances mean by observing h
Page 101 and 102: Furthermore, she associated strings
Page 103 and 104: and patterns other than as discours
Page 105 and 106: similar difficulty orders for gramm
Page 107: understanding language that is "a l
Page 111 and 112: practical only in a foreign languag
Page 113 and 114: is making some effort at making him
Page 115 and 116: It may be useful to distinguish thr
Page 117 and 118: the luxury of building up acquired
Page 119 and 120: marker /-s/, and the regular and ir
Page 121 and 122: to speak the language they were lea
Page 123 and 124: 9. The Theoretical and Practical Re
Page 125 and 126: contact with. "Teacher-talk" is the
Page 127 and 128: language in Los Angeles. S. K. also
Page 129 and 130: Caretaker Speech and Language Acqui
Page 131 and 132: speech is so well rooted in the "he
Page 133 and 134: speech is: they are simpler than na
Page 135 and 136: Freed (1980) reports that foreigner
Page 137 and 138: e boredom. When they overshoot, the
Page 139 and 140: class was conducted entirely in Fre
Page 141 and 142: more expansions as well as repetiti
Page 143 and 144: Broen, P. (1972) The Verbal Environ
Page 145 and 146: Dulay, H. and M. Burt (1977) "Remar
Page 147 and 148: Hakuta, K. and H. Cancino (1977) "T
Page 149 and 150: Learning Aptitude. Rowley, Ma.: New
Page 151 and 152: Academy of Aphasia. Victoria, Briti
Page 153 and 154: Smith, A. (1966) "Speech and other
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Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

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