It is now generally agreed that some form of focus on the target code is necessary in adult L2 instruction. One question that remains to be answered is whether all aspects of L2 grammar are equally amenable to pedagogic intervention. A number of researchers have examined the effectiveness of instruction with regard to simple vs. difficult grammar rules. To address this question specifically from the learner's perspective, a questionnaire was administered to two groups of Polish adult learners of English. The first group was asked to assess the difficulty of a number of key areas of English grammar. The second was asked to assess the usefulness of instruction in the same areas. The results indicate that there is a considerable overlap between the judgements of both groups: that is, learners feel they benefit the most from instruction in difficult areas. Problems with purely experiential instruction The term 'experiential instruction' can be used to refer to all those kinds of instruction in which L2 learning is supposed to take place as a result of learners experiencing the target language and using it as a tool for communication. Different aspects of communication have been stressed by different proponents of such non-interventionist teaching. For example, in Krashen and Terrell's (1983) Natural Approach, all that is necessary for L2 acquisition to take place is that learners are provided with comprehensible input. In purely experiential task-based instruction, learners simply interact with one another in the target language while performing various cognitive tasks. In content-based instruction, learners are taught non-linguistic subject matter (e.g. geography) through the medium of the target language.

This article reports an empirical study that examines to what extent learners can identify and understand the grammatical structures they produce when they speak spontaneously. In the study, 20 upper-intermediate Polish learners of English were interviewed in English by the researchers. The structures used accurately by each learner were isolated and each of the participants was then administered a separate test. The task in the test was first to identify correct sentences and then to provide relevant grammar rules. The results show that in most cases, the learners were able to identify and explain the grammar rules that accounted for their own accurate L2 performance. In terms of second language acquisition (SLA) theory, this means that there were few grammatical structures or categories that the learners knew only implicitly. For teachers, the study indicates that explicit grammar rules can, in an indirect way, contribute to SLA.

Foreign language teaching methodologies of the 20th century were dominated by the principle of monolingualism. Language teaching specialists and linguists of that time generally argued in their publications against using learners' own languages in the classroom and described translation as a dull activity which did not contribute anything to language learning. However, since the beginning of the 21st century calls for a reassessment of translation have begun to appear. This article offers an argument for a reassessment of grammar-translation in language teaching based on learners' perceptions of this activity. It reports a study in which 45 secondary school Polish learners of English were asked to evaluate two consciousness-raising activities they had performed: a grammar-translation task and a communicative language exchange. The results show that the learners considered translating sentences from Polish into English to be as useful and interesting as communicatively-oriented consciousness raising.

Learning a language in a natural way is normally understood to involve the development of implicit knowledge of that language. The acquisition of such knowledge takes place through communication and is driven by learnerinternal mechanisms which cannot be directly influenced by formal instruction. In the case of foreign or second language (L2) learning, the role of instruction is, then, to provide learners with opportunities for communication, and with assistance in those areas in which implicit learning is impossible or inefficient.This article argues that in the case of adult L2 learners the term "natural learning" should be interpreted as referring to explicit learning. This means that adult L2 instruction should primarily aim to engage the learners' problemsolving mechanism by providing them with explicit rules about the target code, and then with opportunities for proceduralizing and automatizing those rules. L2 acquisition is thus treated as the acquisition of a complex skill.

This paper describes how two very young Polish children were introduced to English through children's animation series, with meaning being made clear through translation. The children were first exposed to English when they were 21 months. After two years of exposure, documentation of their English utterances took place over a period of six weeks starting when the children were four years and three months. The children's use of language is compared with utterances produced by children attending monolingual English instruction in a formal setting. The comparison shows a more spontaneous and creative use of English by the children in this study. This indicates that a bilingual approach in which children simply experience a foreign language at home may be more effective than monolingual teaching in a formal setting.Keywords: very young learners, English as a foreign language, children's animation series, mother tongue in language teaching, bilingualism Niniejszy artykuł opisuje w jaki sposób dwoje małych dzieci zostało zapoznanych z językiem angielskim za pomocą dziecięcych seriali animowanych z częściowymi tłumaczeniami na język polski. Dzieci zaczęły oglądać seriale w wieku 21 miesięcy, a po dwóch latach takiej ekspozycji na język angielski, gdy dzieci miały cztery lata i trzy miesiące, spontaniczne uż ycie języka angielskiego przez dzieci było monitorowane przez sześć tygodni. Uzyskane wyniki zostały następnie porównane z wynikami obserwacji dzieci uczęszczających na monolingwalne kursy w szkole językowej. Porównanie ukazuje bardziej spontaniczne i kreatywne uż ycie języka przez dzieci w tym badaniu. Oznacza to, iż podejście bilingwalne, w którym dzieci doświadczają języka obcego w domu, moż e być bardziej efektywne niż monolingwalne nauczanie w szkole językowej.Słowa kluczowe: nauczanie małych dzieci, angielski jako język obcy, dziecięce seriale animowane, podejście bilingwalne, translacja w nauczaniu języka obcego Monolingual and bilingual first language acquisitionChildren are successful language learners. If they are born in monolingual families, they normally acquire the language spoken by their parents and bs_bs_banner