Input and Interaction

Abstract

The role that input plays in second language learning and the interactions between learners and other speakers of the language which provide some of that input are two of the most discussed topics in the contemporary field of second language acquisition [SLA]. Several surveys of the considerable body of literature on input and interaction have appeared recent books on SLA (Hatch 1983a ch. 9, Ellis 1985a ch. 6, Young and Doughty 1987, Chaudron 1988 chs. 3–5) and two collections of papers on input and interaction research have been published (Gass and Madden 1985, Day 1986). This essay will outline the main issues which have emerged form this scholarship and comment on some of the more important theroretical and empirical papers.