Page 113 - Beyond Methods

CHAPTER 5
Facilitating Negotiated Interaction
(T)he importance of interaction is not simply that it creates learning opportunities, it is that it constitutes learning itself.
—DICK ALLWRIGHT, 1984, p. 9.
One of the aspects of learning to talk in an L2 is talking to learn. Studies on L2 learning and teaching point to the significance of talk in the learners’ comprehension of linguistic input exposed to them. As Swain and Lapkin (1998, p. 320) recently concluded on the basis of an experimental study, dialogue “provides both the occasion for language learning and the evidence for it.” A remarkably similar statement was made a hundred years ago by one of the pioneers of language teaching methods, Henry Sweet (1899–1964), when he observed that “conversation in a foreign language may be regarded from two very different points of view: (1) as an end in itself, and (2) as a means of learning the language and testing the pupil’s knowl- edge of it” (p. 210, emphasis added).
As a means of language learning, conversation may not be a causal factor in language acquisition, but it is considered to be a priming device that sets the stage for acquisition to take place (Gass, 1997). The precise role of conversation in L2 development has not been sufficiently investigated. Nevertheless, many researchers believe that an L2 learning and teaching environment must include opportuni- ties for learners to engage in meaningful interaction with competent speakers of the target language. A recurring theme in the L2 profes- sional literature is that meaningful interaction increases the possi- bility of a greater amount of input becoming available, thus consid- erably enhancing the opportunities for the activation of fundamental processes that are essential to L2 development.