From Input to Output (Part II)

From Input to Output

Chapter 3 (cont'd): Receiving explicit instruction after a period of implicit instruction can be facilitative, according to VanPatten. It can aid learners by helping them notice features of input they made not have been consciously aware of. Because I like to understand the "why", which is often a futile in the quest of grammar comprehension, this concept made perfect sense to me.

Chapter 4: Here VanPatten shifts to discuss output, as that which the language learner produces with communicative purpose. He talks about fluency and automatization--I'm curious to see how my proficiency exam goes. I have considered my own level proficiency, but it will be something new to have it officially measured.

In this chapter, he also considers monitoring in both one's L1 and L2. VanPatten makes the distinction that one relies on his or her implicit system to monitor in L1 and the explicit system to monitor in L2--interesting!

Chapter 5: VanPatten wraps up with FAQ about SLA. A couple that stood out in my mind were whether first language can cause interference and what role do imitation and repetition play in acquisition. To me it seems that first language must cause interference. On a linguistic level, everything from one's understanding of phonemes and morphology in L1 affects the way they one accommodates L2 instruction. And lastly, he distinguishes between different kinds of drills and their value--mechanical, meaningful and communicative. All important questions for me to consider.