Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

Teaching and language input
L2 learning differs from L1 learning in that the majority of students fall by the
wayside before they get to a high level. An important element in L2 success
appears to be how learners are treated: the teaching method they encounter, the
language they hear and the environment in which they are learning. The purpose
of language teaching in one sense is to provide optimal samples of language for
the learner to profit from – the best ‘input’ to the process of language learning.
Everything the teacher does provides the learners with opportunities for encoun-
tering the language.
At this point, communicative and task-based methods of teaching mostly part
company with the listening-based methods. The communicative methods have
emphasized the learners’ dual roles as listeners and as speakers. A typical exercise
requires students to take both roles in a conversation and not only to understand
the information they are listening to, but also to try to express it themselves. They
are receiving input both from the teacher and from their peers in the class. The 
listening-based methods, however, confine the student to the role of listener. In a
technique such as total physical response, the students listen and carry out com-
mands, but they do not have to speak. Hence the input they receive is totally con-
trolled by the teacher. An example from Krashen and Terrell’s The Natural Approach
(1983) consists of getting the students to choose between pictures according to the
teacher’s description: ‘There are two men in this picture. They are young. They are
boxing.’ This approach was encapsulated in Krashen’s slogan, ‘Maximize compre-
hensible input’ (Krashen, 1981b).
Proponents of communicative teaching methods have often felt that it is bene-
ficial for students to listen to authentic language consisting of judiciously chosen
samples of unexpurgated native speech, as we have seen. Authentic speech evi-
dently needs to be made comprehensible in one way or another if it is to be use-
ful. Its lack of any concession to the learner needs to be compensated for in some
way, for example, with explanations or visuals.