Barreto Rocio

Lense 3
2019

Ellis draws together several studies on second language acquisition and creates with them 10
principles which I'm going to use to analyze the book “new challenges 3”. Those are: principle 4
(instruction needs to be predominantly directed at developing implicit knowledge of the L2 while
not neglecting explicit knowledge); principle 7 (successful instructed language learning also
requires opportunities for output); principle 6 (successful instructed language learning requires
extensive L2 input); principle 2 (instruction needs to ensure that learners focus predominantly on
meaning).
Principle 4: according to Ellis, explicit knowledge is held consciously, and it is accessed through
controlled processing with the use of the L2. In contrast, implicit knowledge is held unconsciously,
and can only be verbalized if it is made explicit. In unit 4, for example, the focus is on the use of
the past tense (simple and continuous) where students were asked to establish the difference
between the use of the past simple and the past continuous. There's also opportunities for
students to develop implicit knowledge through practice: students are given repeated practice in
written texts and oral work (with support) in which learners had to write what they were doing, what
they did and didn’t do in primary school; then read the sentences so their classmates could guess
which sentence is false. In another lesson, students can speak their minds and give opinions
about a certain topic.

This las part relates directly to principle 7, where contrary to Krashen’s theory, now many
researchers acknowledge that learners’ output is important and necessary. In Unit 5, students
were asked to give an opinion (using the past tense) about famous women. Students get involved
in the text manipulation in that they had to use their own linguistic knowledge to give their opinion.
This, of course, would have been possible if they were not first been exposed to the necessary
amount of input; which leads to principle 6. If learners do not receive exposure to the target
language, they cannot acquire it. The more exposure they get the more they will learn. According
to Ellis, to ensure this happens, teachers need to maximize use of the second language inside the
classroom. This can be seen throughout all the units, from simple instructions to more complex
ones. Unit 4 introduced the grammar needed for students to use to give opinions in unit 5 (Present
tense/past tense/when/while).
Barreto Rocio
Lense 3
2019

Regarding principle 2, Across culture 2, for instance, focused predominantly on semantic rather
than pragmatic meaning. Students learn different names of food, then they must classify them and
finally read a text about healthy food. An occasion where they must focus on pragmatic meaning is
during the project of this Across Culture, in which students must create a survey, asks their
classmates several questions and then write a report about their findings.

In conclusion, every principle created by Ellis gives teachers a key to understand students
better, understand what to focus on, understand how to keep students interested on learning
English. These approaches give teachers the opportunity to help students.