the most attentive students in the class, had a clear understanding of what was being done, and seemingly enjoyed the class. She also had a positive attitude towards what and how she was learning. At no time was she coerced into active participation.

"Then one day in the ninth week of school she sat in the front row and actively participated throughout the whole hour. From that point on, she continued to participate actively in a more limited way and at times helped others and was helped by others..." (p. 491)

While there may have been other reasons for this student's silence, this example suggests that the silent period should be respected, and that some students develop speaking readiness later than others.

Given the same amount of comprehensible input, the child's silent period in second language acquisition may turn out to be longer than the average adult silent period for other reasons. What I am suggesting here is that the silent period in child second language acquisition would not be as long if more of the input the child hears is comprehensible.

Note that if we assume that an acquirer in the natural environment receives about two hours per day of comprehensible input, 720 hours translates into about one year "abroad". This assumes that classtime = comprehensible input, which may not be true with the traditional methods the FSI chart is based on. It is, however, in accord with the informally accepted idea that a year abroad will result in a fair degree of fluency in the case of European languages.

The material contained in this section is simply my summary of what I have learned from discussions with Steven Sternfeld, Robin Scarcella, and Batyia Elbaum. I thank them not only for the information and intellectual stimulation, but also for their patience.