The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

The linguistic environment for second language (L2) acquisition may be 1lought of in many ways, but perhaps most fundamentally in terms of the positive and negative evidence speakers and writers provide learners about the target language (TL). As positive evidence, in the process of communicating they offer models of what is grammatical and acceptable (not necessarily the same) in the L2, but also instances of ungrammatical language use at a time when learners do not know which is which. Under certain conditions they adapt their speech or writing in ways that make those models comprehensible to the learner and thereby usable for acquisition. As negative evidence, they provide direct or indirect information about what is ungrammatical. This may be explicit (e.g., grammatical explanation or overt error correction) or implicit (e.g., failure to understand, incidental error correction in a response, such as a confirmation check, which reformulates the learner's previous utterance without interrupting the flow of conversation-in which case, the negative feedback simultaneously provides additional positive evidence-and perhaps also the absence of items in the input). In addition, con? versational partners may be important as facilitators and shapers of learner output and as participants in a process whereby nonnative speakers (NNSs) learn at least part of a new grammar by doing conversation.