Classroom SLA research and second language teaching

In Lightbown (1985a), I summarized SLA research by stating ten generalizati ons which were consistent with the research to that date. I concluded that SLA research could not serve as the basis for telling teachers what to teac h or how. One of the reasons for that was the limited scope of SLA research at that time. Another reason was that most of the research had not been de signed to answer pedagogical questions. However, I suggested that SLA resea rch was one important source of information which would help teachers set a ppropriate expectations for themselves and their students. In this paper, f ollowing a review of language teaching practices of the past fifty years, I reassess the ten generalizations in light of the considerable amount of cl assroom-based SLA. research which has been carried out since 1985, especial ly that which has addressed pedagogical concerns in primary and secondary s chool foreign and. second language classes. For the most part, this researc h tends to add further support to the generalizations, and this gives them greater pedagogical relevance. Nevertheless, I argue that teachers need to continue to draw on many other kinds of knowledge and experience in determi ning the teaching practices which are appropriate for their classrooms.