Pica, T.  (1994).  Questions from the language classroom:  Research perspectives.  TESOL Quarterly, 28.  pp.49-79.

2. Which is more helpful to learning: comprehension or production?
 

• Stephen Krashen’s theories, in particular The Natural Approach (Krashen and Terrell, 1983) argued that comprehension is the most important aspect of language learning.  The most familiar embodiment of this concept is the idea of comprehensible input, part of Krashen’s Input Hypothesis.

 
• There have been many researchers that argue that while comprehension is necessary, it is not sufficient.

 
• Gregg (1984) and McLaughlin (1987) argue that the hypothesis is an uncontroversial observation, its terms are poorly defined and its conclusions are without proof.

 
• Negotiation for meaning plays an important role - It is not clear whether the benefit comes from simplifications to the input, or from the fact that the attempt at negotiation simply gives listeners more time to process the information.

 
• Learner output plays an important role:  If native speakers take what they think the learner is trying to say and reformulate it into a yes/no question, the need for the learner to make another try is eliminated.

 
• Even in situations where learners were making adjustments in their speech in order to make themselves understood, factors such as the nature of the task and the gender of speaker and interlocutor had significant effects.

 
• Concerning error correction by teachers: “Teachers’ practice of modeling correct versions of student responses rather than giving them time to reformulate and try again, needs to be tempered by their encouragement and support of student responses and use of open-ended questions and clarification requests.”

 

 

References
Gregg, K. (1984). Krashen’s monitor and Occam’s razor. Applied Linguistics, 5, 79-100.

Krashen, S.D. & Terrell, T.D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. London: Prentice Hall Europe.

McLaughlin, B. (1987). Theories of second language learning. London: Edward Arnold.