Input enhancement
Encyclopedia
Input enhancement is a concept in second language acquisition
, coined by Mike Sharwood Smith
, that is commonly used to signal methods that an instructor uses to make selected features of a second language more salient for learners in such a way as to facilitate acquisition (Sharwood Smith 1991, 1993). It may be contrasted with similar but not identical to concepts such as motherese or teacher talk where the main aim is to make the language comprehensible and where acquisition is not necessarily intended or is at least not the primary motive. It includes, but is not limited to a number of techniques such as avoiding vowel reduction typical of rapid or casual speech in some languages, simply slowing down the rate of speech, using exaggerated stress and intonation, more repetition of words and phrases, less pre-verbal modification and more post-verbal modification, use of gestures, visual enhancment in written text such as boldface and underlining, and the use of video. It also includes explicit, more traditional techniques drawing the learner's attention more overtly to how the language system works by discussing particular aspects of grammar and usage. Sharwood Smith distinguishes between external input enhancement, as illustrated above, and internal input enhancement where particular aspects of the target language become salient at a given stage simply as a result of some natural developmental process outside the learner's control and not because of outside intervention.
Input enhancement was a term designed to replace the term 'grammatical consciousness-raising' (CR) (Sharwood Smith 1981, Rutherford and Sharwood Smith 1985) since the newer term did not necessarily imply that any changes in the mind of the learner would necessarily result from any changes in the external environment that may have been deliberately devised by language teachers or textbook writers.
Second language acquisition
Second-language acquisition or second-language learning is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the name of the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process...
, coined by Mike Sharwood Smith
Mike Sharwood Smith
Michael Sharwood Smith is a researcher into the acquisition of non-native languages. He is a founding editor of Second Language Research, successor to the Interlanguage Studies Bulletin....
, that is commonly used to signal methods that an instructor uses to make selected features of a second language more salient for learners in such a way as to facilitate acquisition (Sharwood Smith 1991, 1993). It may be contrasted with similar but not identical to concepts such as motherese or teacher talk where the main aim is to make the language comprehensible and where acquisition is not necessarily intended or is at least not the primary motive. It includes, but is not limited to a number of techniques such as avoiding vowel reduction typical of rapid or casual speech in some languages, simply slowing down the rate of speech, using exaggerated stress and intonation, more repetition of words and phrases, less pre-verbal modification and more post-verbal modification, use of gestures, visual enhancment in written text such as boldface and underlining, and the use of video. It also includes explicit, more traditional techniques drawing the learner's attention more overtly to how the language system works by discussing particular aspects of grammar and usage. Sharwood Smith distinguishes between external input enhancement, as illustrated above, and internal input enhancement where particular aspects of the target language become salient at a given stage simply as a result of some natural developmental process outside the learner's control and not because of outside intervention.
Input enhancement was a term designed to replace the term 'grammatical consciousness-raising' (CR) (Sharwood Smith 1981, Rutherford and Sharwood Smith 1985) since the newer term did not necessarily imply that any changes in the mind of the learner would necessarily result from any changes in the external environment that may have been deliberately devised by language teachers or textbook writers.