Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

an explicit mental representation of 28, and begins to apply his conscious rule at time 1. He is thus
able to supply rule 28 when the conditions for Monitor use are met: time and focus on form, and his
performance on rule 28 is therefore variable. U ignored the formal presentation of 28 in class and
does not supply it at all until time 2. At time 2, both M and U acquire 28, and use it consistently and
appropriately in performance from time 2 on. This acquisition was due to the intake both M and U
received up to time 2. (Again, I assume sudden and perfect acquisition, and the authors cited above
have shown that this does not occur--acquisition curves are gradual and somewhat irregular. I ignore
this source of variability in the example.)
Looking only at M, it appears to be the case that his conscious control of 28 was responsible for his
automatic-like control of 28 at time 2. There is, however, another possibility--M's conscious use of
28 before time 2 may have had nothing to do with his subsequent acquisition of rule 28. Rather, 28
was acquired by both M and U through understanding intake, where the focus was on meaning and
not form. (In a trivial sense, M's own use of 28 was intake, especially at the time M was "ready" for
28 and may have added to the intake from other sources.) The model I am proposing predicts,
moreover, that U, dealing with the same intake, would acquire 28 at the same time as M (or maybe
slightly later--see comments above). In the case of U, no conscious knowledge preceded acquired
competence.
In a sense, M was "faking" 28 until his acquisition caught up, or until he arrived at rule 28
"naturally". Until time 2, he was outperforming his acquired competence.
Some performers will not make it to 28 at all; they will "fossilize" (Selinker, 1972) earlier, due to
failure to obtain enough intake, or a failure to utilize intake for acquisition due to an overactive
affective filter. The conscious rule may, in this case, be the permanent solution.
Positing a natural order and the existence of language acquisition in the adult allows us to explain
the failure of conscious rules to always become automatic competence, and also explains cases like
the above, where it appears that conscious rule was responsible for acquisition just because it "came
first".
3 Another use for conscious learning is to give Monitor overusers some confidence in the acquisition
process. I have had the experience of teaching rules to advanced ESL students, and to have them
comment "Oh yes, that's exactly right, that's exactly how it works". Such responses indicated to me
that the students had already acquired the structure I was attempting to teach, but had not learned it
until my lesson. Students are often very happy to get this knowledge and feel they have really
learned something. The only benefit I can see that such teaching may give, aside from the "language
appreciation" function, is that an occasional overuser may be brought to understand that
subconscious language acquisition is indeed a reality, and that he or she has a great deal of acquired
competence that is worthy of his or her trust.
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