Comparisons are drawn between natural language learning and language intervention concerning content, sequencing, pacing, reinforcement, and context. The Lockean and Rousseauean philosophies of intervention as respective precursers of behaviorism and psychosociolinguistic orientations are compared. Six specific intervention strategies are presented in terms of basic principles, underlying assumptions, applications, and limitations. The six strategies are first-language learning, second-language learning, intermodality transfer, language rehabilitation, systematic extension of available repertoire, and spontaneous exploration and variation of available verbal repertoire.
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John R. Muma (1977) studied this question.