Hypothesis of Interaction: Reflections on its Theoretical and Practical Contributions for Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

Abstract

This article is about one of the most influential hypothesis in the fields of applied linguistics and language learning. It is based on the work of a number of scholars who contributed to the understanding of this hypothesis such as Steve Krashen, Mike Long, Teresa Pica and Merrill Swain. It starts with a brief introduction about the significance of interaction hypothesis generally in language learning in general and its central role in second language acquisition (SLA). The next section reviews some of the fundamental works and studies that have investigated the theoretical and practical understanding of this phenomenon and its relationship to learners’ achievement. It also highlights the contribution of interaction hypothesis to learning in two basic areas: noticing and feedback. There are explanatory examples presented in the following section in order to show how interactional modification techniques are used by learners. The last section presents some concluding thoughts pertaining to this topic with a focus on how it can be employed in language learning classrooms.