I mean I write it and then I see if it sounds correct." Also, "I listen to things, I don't know the rules. Really, I don't know them." On the other hand, she feels that conscious rules are necessary to speak "correctly". Interestingly, however, she advises a nonrule approach to second language study: "I think when you are a foreigner in a country and you need the language just to speak it daily, you need an audio-visual course, and not, not grammar."

While students like I and V many not directly profit from a rule-type approach to second language, they think they will, and this fact may be a factor in lesson planning.

Conclusion and Summary

Table 1 summarizes the sorts of individual variation discussed here. While this certainly is not an exhaustive listing of every kind of variation seen in adult second language classrooms, it may cover some common types.

*May pay lip service to value of rules (see text).

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