FROM COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT TO COMPREHENSIBLE OUTPUT: REBALANCING THE UNIVERSITY LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Abstract

For four decades, second language pedagogy has oscillated between two poles: flooding learners with comprehensible input, as Krashen's input hypothesis recommends, and pushing learners to produce language, as Swain's output hypothesis demands. This article argues that the dichotomy is pedagogically unproductive. Drawing on interactionist research and sociocultural theory, it proposes a rebalanced model for the university classroom in which input, output, and negotiated interaction are sequenced rather than opposed. The article concludes with five practical principles for course design and a discussion of the unresolved empirical questions that should guide future research.