nificance (p. 16). To Klein, spontaneous learning denotes the acquisition of language through "everyday communication, in a natural fashion, free from systematic guidance (p. 16). Only marginal attention is paid to the language itself; the focus is on communication. He notes Krashen's dichotomization between learning and acquiring, learning being guided learning, acquiring being spontaneous learning. Except for the differences in terminology, it would seem that Klein and Krashen are in broad agreement; after all, it is Krashen who, with Terrell, proposed The Natural Approach. Yet, Klein reserves the term acquisition (or acquiring process) for all manners of language performance development, and learning as a purely stylistic variant (p. 20) thereof. "What is important is that both terms refer to the perspective of the learner..." (p. 20).
Doubtlessly, it aids explain how people learn and how they can be taught if one clearly dichotomizes between spontaneous learning and guided learning--however one wishes to call the processes, and whether the distinction is theoretically valid. Krashen's Monitor Theory is based on a clear distinction between learning and acquiring. Klein thinks that the validity of Krashen's assumptions is open to debate. Nevertheless, "What is certain is that the theory, if correct, carries important implications for language instruction" (p. 29). Inasmuch as Krashen's theory has gained much favor among American linguists and teachers, and as it constitutes a practical and useful framework for the development of teaching methodologies, it seems wise for ESL teachers to adopt it until something better comes along.
According to Krashen (1987), people develop second language ability in two different and independent ways, viz. acquisition and learning. Acquisition he defines as "the process children use to acquire first language" (p. 35). Both the process and the product (knowledge) are subconscious. Learning, on th...