Key Questions in Second Language Acquisition An Introduction

This chapter defines what kind of input contains the data necessary for acquisition (communicatively embedded input) and focuses on its fundamental role in acquisition. Subsequently, we review the claims on the role of output and interaction, focusing on these major issues: comprehensible output is necessary for acquisition; comprehensible output is beneficial for acquisition; comprehensible output does little to nothing for acquisition. We also discuss the nature of interaction more generally, focusing on whether interaction affects the acquisition of formal features of language.