Drawing on second language acquisition theory, this chapter establishes why language input is so fundamental to language learning. It explores ‘teacher talk’ as one major way for learners to get maximum exposure to input and discusses the challenge for teachers and learners of teachers using the target language in the classroom. Examples from classrooms and teachers’ comments/perspectives are included. The chapter explores, with examples, how teachers may offer ‘environmental support’ to help learners deal with challenging language input. The chapter discusses the type of input that learners need for learning and the type of input that is likely to engage adolescent language learners. It suggests ways that teachers can address the difficulty of maximising access to the target language, looking at opening up opportunities beyond the language classroom. The use of the learners’ first or other languages, in the language classroom, is discussed.

Chapter 9 is devoted to aspects of general extender use by second language (L2) learners, with discussion of research and examples from first language (L1) speakers of Dutch, French, German, Persian and Swedish, plus data from English L1 speakers learning other languages. The phenomenon of low-frequency use of discourse/pragmatic features among L2 learners is noted. The more limited repertoire of L2 learners results in the complete absence of some forms and a reliance on, and hence overuse of, only a few expressions. Another aspect of L2 learner usage is the creation of novel expressions, some of which can be analyzed as interlanguage forms. Novel forms, and new uses of old forms, are also exemplified in the use of English as a lingua franca. Proposals for the inclusion of general extenders in L2 teaching are based on the explicit presentation and analysis of examples, with a contrastive approach discussed and exemplified. The chapter concludes with four exercises designed to raise awareness of how different English general extenders are typically used.

Affect has been one of the most neglected areas in L2 research with the possible exception of language anxiety. This overall lack of scholarly attention to affect appears to be even more evident in corrective feedback (CF) research. This chapter discusses this relatively under-explored area, describing empirical research conducted so far in relation to the role of affective variables in CF-driven L2 learning. Given the scarcity of relevant research and a space limit, the chapter focuses mainly on language anxiety, learner beliefs/attitudes, emotions, and other related issues (e.g., motivation, self-efficacy). The brief overview of research illustrated in this chapter suggests that affect mediates L2 learning processes involving CF, and that learners’ affective states are often influenced by teacher feedback. Findings also indicate that L2 learners experience changes in affective domains, which in turn lead to varying degrees of intra-individual variability in their perceptions of CF. Nevertheless, the current state of affairs does not offer more than a potential link between CF and affective variables, and, of course, is inconclusive in terms of the extent to which these seemingly important affective variables influence the way CF contributes to L2 learning process and overall development.

Increasingly, large numbers of adult immigrants and refugees who are not alphabetically literate are engaging in SLA and becoming orally multilingual. However, there is good reason to suspect that many theoretical claims about the role of corrective feedback in second language acquisition do not hold for such learners. In particular, the research reviewed in this chapter shows that adult L2 learners who have low levels of alphabetic print literacy do not appear to benefit from oral corrective feedback on form as much as their alphabetically literate counterparts do. These findings suggest that it is alphabetic print literacy that provides learners with language processing tools required for noticing of form-focused corrective feedback. Theoretical claims implying the universal efficacy of oral corrective feedback in SLA must be fine-tuned to reflect the actual learning processes of this growing population of successful L2 learners.

This chapter reports on research in a study abroad context at a UK university. It centres on the use of literature which has been dramatised on television (the popular TV series Sherlock) and how this can be harnessed to develop a greater awareness of typical features of spoken language – in this case the use of ellipsis. An experimental study was undertaken which compared the results of three groups: one receiving explicit instruction plus input enhancement (experimental group 1), one receiving explicit instruction only (experimental group 2) and a control group who received no instruction. Both treatment groups worked with three short extracts from Sherlock over three lessons and were given explicit instruction, comprehension tasks and exercises to raise awareness of several features of spoken language, including ellipsis, requesting and modality. The experimental groups received the same explicit teaching (here understood as the teacher making it clear to the students what the lesson focus was), but experimental group 1 also had their transcripts enhanced via textual enhancement to highlight the aforementioned features of spoken language. Results were measured using a comprehension test and a test which measured receptive knowledge of ellipsis in spoken language administered at a pre-, post- and delayed test stage, which was 3 weeks after the classes. In addition, six members of each experimental group took part in a focus group to discuss the extent to which participants found the classes helped to develop awareness of ellipsis and how useful and motivating they found the literature materials to be. Results show clear effects for instruction, with significant gains made over time on the receptive tests for experimental group 1 when compared to the control group. However, no significant difference between treatment types was shown in the post- and delayed tests. Focus groups indicated that participants found the dramatised literature materials to be motivating and useful, and they also reported some noticing of ellipsis in their contact with English outside class time.

This chapter advocates the use of contemporary literature to help second language (L2) learners to become more aware of how their target language is typically used in speech to achieve intended effect. The approach being proposed is a text-driven approach in which a written or spoken text is used initially to engage the learners affectively and cognitively and then as a source for discovery activities designed to help the learners to become aware of how a particular linguistic or discourse feature is being used to achieve intended effects. The emphasis is on spoken interaction, and the focused feature is investigated further in learner out-of-class activities. After describing, justifying and exemplifying the proposed approach, the chapter reports the results of a research project seeking to find out the responses of language teachers to the approach. Language teachers in a number of different countries were asked to rate the potential value and the contextual feasibility of such an approach by responding to units of materials driven by the approach. In the conclusion to the chapter, recommendations are made with regard to materials development, to teacher and learner adaptation of materials and to assessment of learner achievement.

Sociocultural and social cognitive theories have begun to make a lasting imprint on English Language Teaching (ELT) and learning as it is undertaken and understood today across a range of contexts (Steffensen and Kramsch ). This chapter reports on a study conducted with English language learners involved in Literature Circles (LCs) over an extended period and centres on an analysis of the discourse generated within these post-reading, group discussions. The chapter begins by contextualising LCs as a vehicle for reader response and collaborative engagement within an ecological perspective to second language (L2) development. Drawing on sociocultural theory (Lantolf, Thorne and Poehner ) and its application to collaborative engagement in a language learning environment, the discourse presented undergoes an ecologically grounded, dialogical analysis. This analysis interprets examples from the group conversations as affordances for language development identified as an emergent phenomenon, co-constructed and mediated by the support of peers, the shared reading experience and relevant scaffolding. The current study suggests that this dynamic combines collaborative interaction and interpersonal communication with ecosocial processes to promote spoken L2 development, where deep processing of shared interpretation, critical evaluation, collective noticing and expression of affect are externalised within the discussions.

This chapter explores Japanese EFL learners’ responses to poems of different levels of familiarity. The aim of the project was to try to uncover learners’ interactions with poetry and then to consider the benefits of speaking about poetry for second language learning. A Japanese poem by Kenji Miyazawa in English translation was used as a familiar text, and a Dylan Thomas poem as an unfamiliar poem. Four pairs of learners were asked to talk together about the poems and report on what they understood the poems to mean. They were also asked to give a personal response to the poems. It was anticipated that in speaking about the familiar poem, learners’ background knowledge of the Japanese text would support a more detailed interpretation, while the unfamiliarity of the new poem would present barriers to understanding of meaning but could present opportunities for co-constructed meaning creation through speaking. Three sources of data are used in the chapter: (1) a bilingual questionnaire which identified learners’ poetry-reading backgrounds; (2) the learners’ conversations, used to explore spoken responses to the two poems; and (3) follow-up interviews. The results indicate that poetry-reading processes such as noticing, questioning and interpreting meaning occur with both types of poem. The results also suggest that speaking about poetry could be useful for the development of speaking skills such as elaborating, negotiating and also practising specific spoken language such as use of discourse markers and conversation skills. The results also suggest that poetry discussions may help learners to express their feelings in English, which could develop their familiarity with conversational strategies when using their speaking skills in future situations.