Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

class was conducted entirely in French, as mentioned above. Besides the actual
pedagogical examples, such as exchanges of the sort given above, teacher-talk
included explanation of grammar and vocabulary, the teacher's participation in the
"free play" surrounding the exercises, mentioned above, occasional anecdotes,
classroom management, etc. My fellow students reported that they understood
nearly everything the teacher said in class. The teacher-talk, not the grammar per se,
was probably what motivated the same student who needed to firm up his grammar
to comment: "She gives you a feeling for French ... she makes you want to speak
French. " This is language acquisition, not language learning.
One example is worth mentioning. One session, the phrase "telle ou telle" came up
in one of the readings. After several attempts to supply synonyms and explain by
example what this expression meant, our teacher gave up. She had failed to make us
understand what "telle ou telle" meant, and she felt bad, thinking she had wasted
several minutes of valuable classtime. According to my interpretation, the time was
not wasted at all. For five minutes, we had the benefit of excellent input; we were
understanding and acquiring French.
This particular class may have been so successful because the members of the class
were good Monitor users who were getting both acquisition and learning at the
same time. Certainly, one can learn grammar in the mother tongue, and one can
receive good input without instruction in grammar. If acquisition alone were the
goal, the class could have been in nearly any subject-matter of interest. These
students, however, were interested in the structure of French and believed that
learning structure formally would help them. This belief and attitude focused them
off form and on communication for the teacher-talk, and on form for their use of
grammar in exercises. They were thus getting both learning and acquisition, from an
approach that seems to be well suited to the good Monitor user interested in
language (see also the description of the "traditional approach" used in the Canadian
Public Service Commission Language Training Branch, described in Wesche,
1980).
Despite the fact that I am perfectly capable of studying French grammar on my
own, the class was immensely valuable. In fact, if I were a second language acquirer
in another country, I would happily
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