This chapter covers two groups of instructional modification factors that contribute to the successful teaching of new input in L2 classrooms. The first group (interaction and discourse-related factors) includes several considerations related to classroom interactions such as cooperative learning and scaffolding. More specifically, this section focuses on the changes that teachers can make to regulate specific learning behaviors (e.g. motivation), processes of mediated dialog (e.g. group activities), scaffolding (e.g. positive interdependence) and student (e.g. reporter) and teacher (e.g. facilitator) participatory roles in the classroom. The section on modification-related factors explains how certain changes in discourse and pragmatics may facilitate the learning of new input. In this section, a broad range of possible instructional adaptations varying from the curriculum and instructional materials to the teacher, learner and setting-related factors are discussed and supported with visual aids (Figures 11.1 and 11.2).

Interactionand Discourse-related Factors and CI

Cooperative learning and scaffolding

There is a plethora of research suggesting that exposure to CI through culturally situated and augmented social interactions results in success in L2A (Krashen, 2003; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006; Long, 1983). Since learning is meaning construction, successful acquisition of new input largely depends on the dialogic mechanisms and processes of negotiation of meaning. Such processes are further enhanced through constant feedback and modifications, as shaped by dynamic systems of a discourse and interaction (Walsh, 2006). As a result, how L2 teachers maneuver factors related to discourse and interaction to facilitate the learning of new input necessitates special attention. Whether championing the primacy of the language learner and their interactions or the society in L2A processes, the role of individual and sociocultural factors and the mechanisms and processes of mediated dialog (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006) and languageing (Swain, 2006) mandate a thorough exploration of possible adjustments that the classroom teachers can make to facilitate the comprehension of new input.