SLA and Classroom Instruction: Reading

Abstract

Theories and models of seond language acquisition have tended to focus on the role of oral language. While some acknowledgement is given to the role of reading (andwriting) in SLA (e.g., by Krashen 1984; 1985), the relative inattention given to reading in SLA had resulted in a dearth to reading research which is explicitly tied to the most popular theories and models of SLA or which is expressly designed to deal with issues commonly addressed in SLA. Although there is no simple explanation as to why SLAresearch has focused almost exclusively on oral language, to the neglect of written language, it is interesting to speculate about why the “canonical” theories of SLA do not to any significant extent deal with reading and writing, especially when there seems to be broad consensus that language has to be considered from a textual point of view, and when written as well as oral language may be a substantial source of language input. One possibility is that SLA, while in some sense part of the backlash against the structuralism of the audiolingual approach, has nonetheless simply maintained the focus on oral-aural language of audiolingualism (which itself originated as a reaction against earlier grammartranslation models relying heavily on reading and writing).

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