ABSTRACT
Learners must first take in input in order to be able to produce output. This applies whether people are talking about a first language, or a second language. One of the major discoveries of language researchers in the 1960s and 1970s is that language acquisition is critically dependent on processing language input during communication. One of the earliest widespread attempts to maximize learner exposure to comprehensible input can be found in Canadian immersion programs. French and English are the official languages of Canada. In the 1960s and 1970s, immersion programs were developed to teach English-speaking students French. English-speaking children attended some or even all of their content courses in French. Mastery learning is an educational philosophy, popular since the late 1960s, that encourages teachers to keep teaching something in different ways until all students can achieve a certain mastery goal.
