"no". For example, Spanish speakers often have a long period in their acquisition of English in which they produce no + v for the English negative, a structure that is similar to a transitional form in English as a first and second language (Schumann, 1979). It may be the case that earlier no + v performance is the use of the L1 rule, while later no + v performance is the true intermediate form. It may be the case that only the latter can help the system "move forward".⁹

To summarize, use of L1 rules is hypothesized to be the result of falling back on first language knowledge when a second language rule is needed in production but is not available. It may temporarily enhance production, but may not be real progress in the second language. The real cure for "interference", according to Newmark, is not drill at the points of contrast between the two languages (Newmark and Reibel, 1973, p. 239). Drill will, at best, produce learning, and, as we have seen, this is only a short term cure. The real cure "is simply the cure for ignorance" (Newmark, 1966, p. 81): real language acquisition. This can happen only when the acquirer obtains comprehensible input.^10,11,12

(v) Applied linguistics research. The input hypothesis is also consistent with the results of what can be called "method comparison" experiments. Several scholars and groups of scholars have attempted to determine directly which teaching methods are best by simple comparison. Groups of students studying second and foreign languages using two different methods are compared, both in long-term and short-term studies. We will have a detailed look at this research in Chapter V, but I will state my own conclusions in advance. My reading of studies comparing the more commonly used methods (audio-lingual as compared to grammar-translation or cognitive-code) is as follows:

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