Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

7. On Routines and Patterns in
Language Acquisition and
Performance
In this chapter we will consider the role of prefabricated routines and patterns in
first and second language acquisition and performance. The relationship of these
"fixed and semi-fixed" expressions to the development of syntactic structure and
their status in performance are issues that are both theoretically interesting and of
practical importance in second language teaching.
In defining terms, we distinguish between routines and patterns. Prefabricated
routines are simply memorized whole utterances or phrases, such as "How are
you?" or "Where is your hotel?". A performer may use these without any knowledge
at all of their internal structure. Entire lines from memorized dialogues qualify as
prefabricated routines, as do expressions learned from foreign language books.
Hakuta (1974) has noted that prefabricated patterns are distinct from routines.
These are partly "creative" and partly memorized wholes; they consist of sentence
frames with an open "slot" for a word or a phrase, such as "That's a _____" (pen,
knife, banana), or Lyon's (1969) example, "Down with ______". Lyons called such
constructions "phrase and sentence schemata", and defined them as "utterances that
are grammatically unstructured or only partially structured, but which can yet be
combined in sentences according to productive rules" (pp. 177-178). Audio-lingual
pattern practice is based on the use of prefabricated patterns.
The issue we will be dealing with here is the relationship of routines and patterns to
language acquisition, namely, whether routines and patterns play a direct role in the
creative construction process. We can distinguish three different positions with
regard to this question:
1. Prefabricated routines may evolve into prefabricated patterns.
According to this position, purely propositional language does
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