The acquisition-learning distinction is not new with me. Several other scholars have found it useful to posit similar kinds of differences. Bialystock and Frohlich (1972) distinguish "implicit" and "explicit" learning, and Lawler and Selinker (1971) discuss mechanisms that guide "automatic" performance and mechanisms that guide "puzzle and problem solving performance" (p. 35). Also, Corder (1967) and Widdowson (1977) suggest similar ideas.

Those of us who have studied languages with a great deal of inflectional morphology in school, using methods that focus on grammatical accuracy, often have first-hand experience with this phenomenon. Consider what happens just before a grammar test in a language such as German; students carefully review the inflectional system (der-das-die; den-das-die; plus the list of prepositions that take different cases) on the way to the exam. As soon as they sit down in class to take the test, they immediately scribble what they can remember of the inflectional system on the side of the page, so that when they need the correct marker, they can find it and use it. At the end of the exam, before handing in the paper, they erase their notes. The morphology on the side of the page is, most likely, late-acquired, and unavailable in rapid conversation for most people. The notes on the side, then, act like a conscious Monitor, raising the accuracy of the output in situations where the student has time, is focused on form, and can access the rule; grammar tests fill these conditions nicely. Students thus do much better in terms of grammatical accuracy on such tests than they would in free conversation, the late-acquired, or not-yet-acquired, items that are learnable rising in rank.

An interesting parallel hypothesis is that we will see greater numbers of transitional forms in Monitor-free conditions. The literature is consistent with this hypothesis, since the transitional forms noted for adult acquirers have all been found in subjects who appear to be non-users, or under-users of the conscious Monitor, for example, Schumann's Alberto (Schumann, 1978); Nelson's McGill university janitors (Nelson, 1980), and Hanania and Gradman's Fatmah (Hanania and Gradman, 1977). This is predictable, since transitional forms are hypothesized to reflect the operation of the acquired system.

To be more precise, speaking skills that depend on acquired competence emerge over time as a result of comprehensible input. There appear to be, however, at least two ways of beating the system, at least over the short run. We can produce using memorized language, or routines and patterns (Krashen and Scarcella, 1978), and we can also produce by using the first language surface structure plus conscious grammar (L1 plus Monitor Mode). As we shall see later, both of these methods of performing without acquired competence have drawbacks and limitations.

Interlanguage talk, the speech of second language acquirers to each other, may or may not be useful for acquisition. This is an important question that, to my knowledge, has not been directly dealt with in the professional literature. Arguments in favor of its utility for language acquisition are these: it satisfies the input hypothesis in that it is meant