Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning

First language influence may thus be an indicator of low acquisition, or the result of the performer attempting to produce before having acquired enough of the target language. It is, not surprisingly, found most often in foreign language, as opposed to second language situations, where opportunities for real communication are fewer, and is only rarely seen in "natural" child second language acquisition. Children are usually allowed to go through a "silent period", during which they build up acquired competence through active listening. Several scholars have suggested that providing such a silent period for all performers in second language acquisition would be beneficial (see for example, Postovsky, 1977)

Note that it is possible for performers to use the first language and the Monitor to perform without any acquired competence in the second language. This bizarre mode is severely limited, yet its use may give the adult a temporary head-start over children, who presumably rely on acquisition alone for the most part.

This chapter is a slightly expanded version of a paper that originally appeared in On TESOL '77 (Krashen, 1977a).

Neurological Correlates

Chapter 6 was originally published in the SPEAQ Journal, coauthored with Linda Galloway (Krashen and Galloway, 1978). It discusses current research in two areas of neurolinguistics and the relationship of this research to the acquisition-learning hypothesis. The first part of this chapter deals with the development of cerebral dominance, and explores research bearing on Lenneberg's hypothesis that child-adult differences in second language acquisition are due to the completion of the development of cerebral dominance, hypothesized by Lenneberg to occur at around puberty. More recent reports place the completion of the development of cerebral dominance much earlier (some claiming age 5, others claiming that laterality is present at birth). The implications of this research are that the "critical period" and cerebral dominance may not be related at all. Other explanations of child-adult differences are discussed, namely the hypothesis presented in Chapter 2, that Formal Operations causes an increase in our ability to learn but damages our ability to acquire.