We respond here to Pienemann's critique of our study that appeared earlier this year in the Language Learning Special Issue entitled "Orders and Sequences in the Acquisition of L2 Morphosyntax, 40 Years On" and guest edited by Jan Hulstijn, Rod Ellis, and Søren Eskildsen. Pienemann objected to our claim that the Teachability Hypothesis…

This article feeds into debate about the feasibility and usefulness of educational experiments by discussing methodological issues arising out of a study which sought causal links between teaching and learning of one aspect of French as a foreign language. The study involved two small-scale experiments which tested a hypothesis regarding the…

Discusses the scarcity of research on the characterization of the second-language (L2) initial state, where "L2 initial state" refers to the starting point of nonnative grammatical knowledge. The article emphasizes that exploring the mechanisms of "development" of interlanguage requires an understanding of what a particular stage changed "from."…

Reviews several teaching methodologies in terms of negative affect. Findings indicate that in those situations where students have little incentive to do well or admit that they wish to do poorly, increased negative affect can motivate them to function at a level of operational tension and achieve optimum learning and performance. (36 references)…