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Comprehensible Output, From Occurrence to Acquisition:An Agenda for Acquisitional Research
Author(s) -
Shehadeh Ali
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9922.00196
Subject(s) - second language acquisition , psychology , competence (human resources) , linguistics , language acquisition , second language , applied linguistics , cognitive psychology , mathematics education , social psychology , philosophy
After over a decade of research into Swain’s (1985) comprehensible output (CO) hypothesis, there is still a severe lack of data showing that learner output or output modifications have any effect on second–language (L2) learning. Izumi and Bigelow (2000, p. 245) argued that this is because, in most cases, researchers assumed rather than showed whether and how output helps with language learning. In this article, I will argue that this, in turn, is because existing research on CO was mostly descriptive in nature, focusing primarily on occurrence per se rather than acquisition or whether and how output can be a source of competence in the L2. I will outline a research agenda that makes acquisitional research central to the study of CO.