ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to learning that takes place in the classroom. It is not a chapter intended to be a “how to” manual for teachers; rather, the focus is on learning that is specific to an instructed environment. In the other chapters in this book, we do not differentiate between different contexts of learning. In other words, even though some examples are taken from a classroom context and others from outside a classroom, we do not focus on the contextual difference in the conclusions we draw. This is mainly due to an assumption that processes involved in learning a second language can be thought of as independent of the context in which the language is being learned, though they may apply differentially by context. For example, whether or not some mechanism, such as UG, is responsible for the learning of core grammar is not to be thought of as dependent on the context of that learning. Whatever psycholinguistic processing takes place in a naturalistic situation presumably takes place in a classroom situation. Whatever starting point for learning turns out to be valid does not depend on where language learning takes place.
