"affective filter" may exist, a filter that "delimits" input before it can be processed by the "cognitive organizer". In our terms, some potential intake may not make it to the "language acquisition device": acquirers' motivations and attitudes, if they are less than optimal, may filter out certain aspects of the input, so that they are no longer available to the acquirer as intake, even if the requirements for intake outlined above are met. Thus, motivational and attitudinal considerations are prior to linguistic considerations. If the affective filter is "up", no matter how beautifully the input is sequenced, no matter how meaningful and communicative the exercise is intended to be, little or no acquisition will take place. Again, I refer the reader to Chapter 2 of this volume for detailed discussion of those aspects of attitude that have been found to be related to language acquisition.

Figure 2 illustrates the relationship between attitude and motivation

Fig. 2. The relationship between affective factors and language acquisition

and language acquisition. It clearly implies that attitude and motivation are of central importance, a fact that most language teachers seem to be aware of already.

The second node under the "acquisition" node of the tree is labeled "fluency". While intake builds acquisition, some fluency work may be necessary to enable the performer to perform this competence in a workable way. To what extent this is to be done depends, of course, on the situation. In foreign language acquisition (e.g. French in the United States), it probably does not pay to emphasize this aspect of the program, as students will not need to perform in French in their everyday life. In second language programs (e.g. ESL) there is a real need for early and functional second language production, and the program needs to deal with this need.

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