THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTION IN ESL

THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTION IN ESL: LEARNING AND ACQUISITION

It is a common belief that children acquire their first language naturally (Tchalo n.p.) i.e. without instruction. A closer examination of the dynamic and interactive context in which language is acquired, however, shows that instruction, formal and informal, does play a significant role in first language acquisition. Moreover, I intend to give evidence herein to the fact that, according to many behaviorist and cognitive code theoreticians, second language acquisition essentially plays by some of the same rules as instruction. In other words, it appears clearly that acquisition--in the Krashen sense of the term--has a significant instructional component.

Indeed, there is no education without instruction. There is no open system (such as education) which does not contain closed subsystems (such as instructional ones). There is no process unless there are products to process. Linguistic processes are apt to vary widely with individuals and are dynamic by definition. Linguistic products are entitative, unique, inherent to a system, more static than dynamic, objectified else they could not be perceived. Thus, languaging is the individual's processing of linguistic forms. Instruction as a process can be extrinsic, i.e. provided by outer forces (teacher, book, f.i.), or intrinsic, i.e. provided by the learner's inner forces (awareness, motivation, f.i.); yet, in both cases the products of

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ure, specific areas, perdurability, and intensity of such effects--whether positive or negative. What they also question is the validity of some research or at least of some of their conclusions which may ignore or even deny the role of instruction in ESL acquisition. Here are some examples of such research and some opinions by some of the major protagonists of the argumentation. Long remarked that "many of the conclusions about the limitations or inefficacy of instruction are non sequiturs or, at best, inferences from studies that have looked not at the effects of instruction, but at similarities in the interlanguages of naturalistic and classroom learners" (118). Krashen was of the opinion that "second language class is a very good place to acquire a second language. It is a place where the beginning student, especially the older beginner, can obtain the input necessary for improvement, CI (Comprehensible Input) that the outside world is often unwilling or unable to give" (59). Harris, in her study of memorization in ESL instruction, proposed the technique of Interactive Memorization in response to the uncovered essential and primary need for developing memory for large amounts of content forms. Memorizing, she contended, is a

Category: Psychology - T