Second language learners acquire knowledge beyond what is present in the input

Learners acquire unconscious knowledge about the language they are learning that could not have come exclusively from the input.

For example:

• Learners learn constraints on what is grammatical in a language which are not explicitly taught and not evident in what they hear or read.
• Learners learn about ambiguity: in the sentence Albert asked Bill if he was a bear, the point of controversy could be whether Albert is a bear or Bill is a bear.

See: [[ Logical problem of language acquisition]], [[Poverty of the stimulus ]].

References

• vanpatten2015introduction: 9