1. Input, Interaction, Foreigner and
Teacher Talk
Damaris Escobar
June, 2012

2. Content
Input and interaction in second language
acquistion
Teacher Talk
Foreigner Talk

3. Input
• Stephen Krashen took a very strong position on the importance of
input, asserting that comprehensible input is all that is necessary for
second-language acquisition.
• Krashen pointed to studies showing that the length of time a person
stays in a foreign country is closely linked with his level of language
acquisition.
• Further evidence for input comes from studies on reading: large
amounts of free voluntary reading have a significant positive effect
on learners' vocabulary, grammar, and writing.

4. Interaction
• According to Long's interaction hypothesis the conditions for
acquisition are especially good when interacting in the second
language.
• Conditions are good when a breakdown in communication occurs
and learners must negotiate for meaning.
• The modifications to speech arising from interactions like this help
make input more comprehensible, provide feedback to the learner,
and push learners to modify their speech.

5. Teacher Talk It is the language used
by teachers while
addressing their
students. Heath (1982)
also shows that among
teachers, caregiver talk
carries into the
mainstream classroom.

6. Teacher Talk Features
• Modifications/simplifications in vocab, syntax and discourse to
accommodate learners’ proficiency level and to increase
comprehension.
• Shorter utterances, degree of subordination tends to be lower, more
declaratives and statements than questions, more self-repetitions,
grammatical well-formedness.

7. Teacher Talk Features
• Teachers tend to talk more in class with louder and more distinct
speech. Teachers are likely to take longer pauses in speaking.
• Special teaching strategies such as repeating one's own questions,
repeating and expanding learners' answers (recasts), as well as
prompting answers (Gaies, 1977)

8. Teacher Talk Features
• Metatalk. L2 teacher talk focused on L2 learning, which is
intimately linked with L2 language classroom, can also be called
metatalk (Faerch, 1985).
• Use of non-verbal support of the meanings that teachers are
communicating by means of gestures and visual aids
• Some teachers tend to use code-switching between L1 & L2

9. Teacher Talk
• As learning context varies according to different L2 learning
situations, L2 teacher talk also varies in the degree to which
teachers focus on form or on meaning (Johnson, 1995).
• Teacher talk is supposed not only to provide the learners with
simplified L2 input, to help them understand L2 input, but also,
simultaneously, to manage L2 classroom learning process (Majer &
Majer, 1996).

10. Foreigner Talk
The language used by native
speakers while addressing non-
native speakers

11. Forigner Talk Features
• The feature which is most characteristic in foreigner talk, as well as in
caregiver talk, is its focus on communication with a less proficient and
less experienced language user (Snow & Ferguson, 1977).
• Such a focus results in NS simplification at all language levels:
phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, in the slower pace of
speech, as well as in modifications of discourse structure. Syntactic and
semantic simplification may also entail elaboration if, for example, a
given vocab item is paraphrased (Wesche, 1994).

12. Forigner Talk Features
• Although simplifications and adjustments to Non Native
Speakers level of comprehensibility have been discovered in
numerous studies, their amount, range and type vary and
depend on NSs' experience in communicating with NNSs,
their attitude towards NNSs, and their motivation to engage
in successful communicative exchanges (Wesche, 1994)

13. Bibliography
• http://chrisallenthomas.wetpaint.com/page/Tea
cher+Talk+vs.+Foreigner+Talk+%26+Caregiver
+Talk
• http://teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl/artic
le/viewFile/504/335