Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

It may be useful to distinguish three distinct ways in which second language
production may be performed. First, a performer may simply utilize his acquired
system to imitate utterances. Normally, performance using the acquired system does
not emerge right away. As mentioned above, comprehension precedes production:
children acquiring second languages typically exhibit a "silent period" during which
acquired competence is built up via active listening, via intake (Chapter 5, this
volume); this period may last several months. Performers have two alternative
means for outperforming their acquired competence, however. One is the use of
prefabricated patterns and routines, sentences that are memorized wholes (routines
such as "What's your name?", "How are you?") or partially memorized wholes
(patterns with an open "slot" for a word or phrase, such as "Down with ______" or
"That's a ______"). The use of routines and patterns may be of immense practical
value. Performers in a second language situation may need to say things very early
on, before their acquired competence is "ready" to produce sentences using the
acquired system. Routines such as "Where is the _____?", "My _____ hurts", etc.,
are commonly taught early for good reason. Scarcella and I have reviewed the
literature on routines and patterns in language acquisition and neurolinguistics, and
conclude that the development of patterns and routines is a process that is quite
independent of "normal" language acquisition (Chapter 6, this volume).
Theoretically, routines and patterns do not contribute much to language acquisition,
but practically, they may help quite a bit. 1
A third way to produce utterances in a second language is to rely on the surface
structure of the first language, and to attempt to make changes/corrections using the
conscious grammar, the Monitor. According to Newmark (1966), the second
language performer may "fall back" on his first language when he wishes to
produce an utterance but has not acquired enough of the second language to do so.
In terms of the Monitor model, the performer uses the first language as a substitute
utterance initiator. My review of the available literature on the effect of the first
language on second language performance (Chapter 5) supports Newmark's idea-we
see first language influence just when it would be expected, in
111