The Psycholinguistics of the Output Hypothesis

In this article I attempt to elucidate the psycholinguistic mechanics of Swain's “output hypothesis”. Taking the information processing approach as a starting point and relating that to Levelt's model of language production and Anderson's learning theory, I argue that output serves an important role in second language acquisition, in particular because it generates highly specific input the cognitive system needs to build up a coherent set of knowledge. Output also plays a direct role in enhancing fluency by turning declarative knowledge into procedural knowledge. Output can also play an indirect role in the acquisition of declarative knowledge by triggering input that the learner can use for the generation of new declarative knowledge. On the basis of an analysis of think‐aloud protocols, I hypothesize that the locus of the effect of output is in the transition of declarative to procedural knowledge.