Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

particular group of students. SLA research can help define the goals of language
teaching, assess how achievable they may be, and contribute to their achieve-
ment. These issues are debated in Chapter 11.
SLA research is a scientific discipline that tries to describe how people learn and
use another language. It cannot decide issues that are outside its domain. While it
may contribute to the understanding of teaching goals, it is itself neutral between
them. It is not for the teacher, the methodologist or any other outsider to dictate
whether a language should be taught for communication, for brain training, or
whatever purpose, but for the society or the individual student to decide. One
What a teacher can expect from SLA research 9

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country specifies that group work must be used in the classroom because it
encourages democracy. Another bans any reference to English-speaking culture in
textbooks because English is for international communication, not for developing
relationships with England or the USA. A third sees language teaching as a way of
developing honesty and the values of good citizenship; a speaker at a TESOL con-
ference in New York proclaimed that the purpose of TESOL was to create good
American citizens (to the consternation of the British and Canadians present in
the audience). SLA research as a discipline neither commends nor denies the value
of these goals, since they depend on moral or political values rather than science.
But it can offer advice on how these goals may best be achieved and what their
costs may be, particularly in balancing the needs of society and of the individual.
Teachers need to see the classroom from many angles, not just from that of SLA
research. The choice of what to do in a particular lesson depends on the teacher’s
assessment of the factors involved in teaching those students in that situation. SLA
research reveals some of the strengths and weaknesses of a particular teaching
method or technique and it provides information that can influence and guide
teaching. It does not provide a magic solution to teaching problems in the form
of a patented method with an attractive new brand name.
Insights from SLA research can help teachers, whatever their methodological
slant. Partly this is at the general level of understanding; knowing what language
learning consists of colours the teacher’s awareness of everything that happens in
the classroom and heightens the teacher’s empathy with the student. Partly it is at
the more specific level of the choice of teaching methods, the construction of teach-
ing materials, or the design and execution of teaching techniques. The links
between SLA research and language teaching made here are suggestions of what can
be done rather than accounts of what has been done or orders about what should be
done. Since SLA research is still in its early days, some of the ideas presented here are
based on a solid agreed foundation; others are more controversial or speculative.
While this book has been written for language teachers, this is not the only way
in which SLA research can influence language teaching. Other routes for the
application of SLA research include:
1 Informing the students themselves about SLA research so they can use it in
their learning. This has been tried in books such as How to Study Foreign
Languages (Lewis, 1999) and How to Be a More Successful Language Learner (Rubin
and Thompson, 1982).
2 Basing language examinations and tests on SLA research, a vast potential appli-
cation but not one that has yet been tried on any scale, examination designers
and testers usually following their own traditions.
3 Devising syllabuses and curricula using SLA research so that the content of
teaching can fit the students better. We shall meet some attempts at this in var-
ious chapters here, but again, SLA research has not usually been the basis for
syllabuses.
4 Writing course materials based on SLA research. Some coursebook writers do
indeed try to use ideas from SLA research, as we shall see.
Often these indirect routes may have a greater influence on teaching than the
teacher.
Background