A review of the literature of second language teaching suggests that a significant gap exists between linguistic theory and language teaching practice. However, psycholinguistics has influenced development of language teaching policies to the extent that many language teachers have advanced a more semantic, social, and communicative view of language. An extension of this approach suggests that reading for pleasure from appropriate second language (L2) texts provides subconscious and progressively more difficult L2 input much like that essential for native language (L1) acquisition. The process is enhanced, it is proposed, by the interest and pleasure engendered by the texts. This hypothesis is supported by psychological principles of learning. The L1=L2 hypothesis suggests that L2 learning, like L1 acquisition, follows a highly predictable pattern. It is concluded that if the conditions of L1 acquisition are approximated by extensive L2 reading (i.e., substantial unconscious, comprehensible input), the L2 learner can achieve a native-like communicative competence in a formal instructional setting. A 37-item bibliography is included. (MSE)