Second language acquisition specialists all over the world are familiar with generations of students who, despite having spent ten, twelve, or fifteen years in classes learning a second language, emerge as non-functioning adults in second language performance, especially with respect to oral performance. On the other hand, countless number of cases of second language learners can be cited who have learned to use the second language with ease and facility without ever going to school. They seem to have acquired this skill virtually in the street, far from the classroom.
These apparent contradictory cases represent two different approaches to second language development. The first group represents the formal group that learns the second language through formal classroom instruction and the second group represents the informal group that learns the second language through informal natural exposure.
The main purpose of the present study was to investigate how formal classroom instruction and informal natural exposure operate in the context of second language development, especially with reference to the development of oral proficiency in English as a second language.
