Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1989. 19/3. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 19)

Budai, László: Some Basic Assumptions Underlying Foreign Language Teaching Strategies

' \ - 98 i ü i I. V In short, the input tines not have to be grammatically sequenced; it just has to be understood. If it is comprehensible, and if liiere is enough of it, and if it is varied, it will contain everything the acquirer needs (Krashen 1982b). The fundamental claim of the Monitor Hypothesi

s is that conscious learning is available to the language performer only as a Monito

r ... and makes only a small contribution to communicative ability, there being several constraints on the use of the Monitor: (1) the performer must have sufficient time, (2) he or she needs to know the rule. Conscious learning is therefore very difficult to apply to performance successfully (Krashen 1981). The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis also helps to interpret the terms language aptitud

e and attitude

. It has been stated that both aptitude and attitude (i. e. affective variables) are related to foreign language achievement, but are not related to each other. Language aptitude is directly related to conscious learning, while attitude is more closely linked to unconscious acquisition. According to Sav Igt ton (1976), "attitude is the single most important factor in second language learning". Language aptitude can be defined in terms of (1) phonetic coding abilit

y (i. e. the ability to store new sequences of sounds in memory), (2) grammatical sensitivity

, and (3) inductive ability

. (Through this third factor, foreign language aptitude is probably closely related to general intelligence.) (Carroll 1973) Attitudinal factors can either encourage intake or enable the student to utilize input for acquisition. The Affective Filter Hypothesis, originally proposed by Dulay and Burt (1977) says that the student must not only understand the input, but lie must also be 'open' to it. Many people are thought to have an 'affective filter', a mental block that prevents them from achieving competence in a foreign language. Wlien the filter is 'up', comprehensible as the input may be, it does not reach those areas of the brain which are responsible for acguisition. The following attitudinal factors are said to contribute to a low affective filter: (1) integrative motivatio

n /the desire to be like valued members of the community; (2) instumental motivatio

n /the desire