The Monitor Model: Some Methodological Considerations

The Monitor Model has been proposed (Krashen 1975, 1977a) as a general model for adult second‐language performance. The model claims that adult second‐language performers have two means of internalizing the rules of a target language: (1) language acquisition , which is primarily subconscious, is not influenced by overt teaching or error correction, and is very similar to primary language acquisition in children; (2) language learning , which involves the conscious representation of pedagogical rules, and is influenced by teaching and error detection. The model hypothesizes that learning is available to the adult second‐language performer only as a Monitor—that is, people use conscious grammar only to alter the output of the acquired system. This paper examines the Monitor Model and presents a methodological critique of the research on which the model is based. An attempt is made to provide an outline of an alternate model that more parsimoniously accounts for the data and that ties into a theory of human information processing generally.