In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stephen Krashen developed Monitor Theory--a group of hypotheses explaining second language acquisition with implications for language teaching. As the L2 scholarly community began considering what requirements theories should meet, Monitor Theory was widely criticized and dismissed, along with its teaching…

In this article, we challenge the notion that aptitude--operationalized as grammatical sensitivity as measured by the Words in Sentences section of the Modern Language Aptitude Test--is central to adult second language (L2) acquisition. We present the findings of a study on the acquisition of two properties of Japanese, head-final word order and…

This article reports the findings of a study in which we investigated the possible effects of word order on the acquisition of case marking. In linguistic typology (e.g. Greenberg, 1963) a very strong correlation has been shown between dominant SOV (subject object verb) word order and case marking. No such correlation exists for SVO (subject verb…

Responds to comments made regarding an earlier article written by the author on processing instruction in second language learning. (Author/VWL)

Reviews processing (PI) instruction, outlines a model of input processing, describes the nature of PI, and discusses research on it to date. (Author/VWL)

Reviews five major findings of language research about the effect of explicit instruction and relates them to second-language teaching and learning, covering such areas as the route of acquisition, psycholinguistic readiness, error correction, classroom versus nonclassroom learning, and access to comprehensible and meaningful input. (37…

In response to a published study of second-language input processing and processing instruction, a relatively new concept in language teaching, misinterpretations of theoretical and conceptual issues are pointed out and methodological concerns about the study are discussed. (MSE)