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INPUT, INTAKE, AND CONSCIOUSNESS

The Quest for a Theoretical Foundation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

John Truscott  and
Michael Sharwood Smith
John Truscott*
Affiliation:
National Tsing Hua University
Michael Sharwood Smith
Affiliation:
Heriot-Watt University and English Institute, SWSPiZ, Warsaw
*
*Address correspondence to: John Truscott, Center for Teacher Education, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30013; e-mail: truscott@mx.nthu.edu.tw.
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Abstract

Over the last 40 years, there have been successive attempts to define or refine a set of key concepts intended to guide theory and experimentation in SLA. These include input, intake, and consciousness. This article tries to take these attempts a stage further by integrating the conceptualization of these notions into a larger interdisciplinary framework called Modular Online Growth and Use of Language (MOGUL). Past work, which is problematic both in terms of the theoretical development itself and in terms of the way the resulting ideas have been applied, is critically reviewed. A reinterpretation of key concepts in MOGUL terms is presented, in hopes that this reformulation will provide a clearer theoretical understanding and serve as an improved foundation for future research.

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ARTICLES
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Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 497 - 528
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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