What I am saying, in short, is that at zero beginner, false beginner and intermediate level, there is a valuable source of spontaneous, comprehensible "input" that current dogma dictates should never or hardly ever be tapped. This is a teacher who can provide 'good interactive teacher-talk'.

Good teacher-talk is highly interactive. The teacher does not simply 'talk', but talks in such a way to encourage the class to interrupt, to ask questions and to initiate topic change and further talk, not only by the teacher but by other members of the class. Bad 'teacher-talk' is the 'drone and groan' variety. The teacher does little or nothing to encourage the individual learner or group of learners to talk. In short, good teacher-talk has the following characteristics.

1. It is broken into sense groups within sentences.
2. It is simplified but not unnatural
3. The teacher regularly pauses and does other things that encourage or invite students to interrupt, comment and ask questions.
4. When new vocabulary or structure is taught, the teacher gives typical examples that illustrate pragmatic meaning.
5. The teacher gets regular feedback through questions and other devices.
6. The teacher constantly 'scans' the group and maintains eye-contact with different members of it, and is thus constantly alert to non-verbal and well as verbal indications of incomprehension, problems of attention-span or potential disruptive behaviour.
7. The teacher gives students chances to interact with each other as well as with teacher.
8. The teacher constantly uses language that is 'comprehensible', rarely or never falling below the 'switch off' barrier. In other words, the class may not understand every word but always understands the 'main gist'.
9. A great deal of what the teacher says has 'here and now' relevance'.

Notice that the ninth characteristic of 'Good Teacher-talk' above directly reflects Ellis' Fourth 'Facilitator'. I interpret 'here and now' to mean 'of close or immediate relevance to the learner, and about things and events which the learner knows about or about which the learner's interest can easily be awakened'. This means that sometimes the teacher introduces topics which at first may appear 'alien and unknown' but which also learners can become deeply involved in and with. Many examples can be found in the fairy-tales which seem to be universal features of the kind of input children get when learning their "L1' or native-language. Dragons and one-eyed pirates with cutlasses are not often found in the 'real world' of such children. However, the 'real world' as seen through a narrow and dogmatic perspective can be far less real, immediate and interesting than a world of monsters and one-eyed pirates in a child's imagination or the equally 'alien' world depicted in some highly successful textbooks that have reached millions of learners all over the world.

But what of the three 'classic facilitators that Rod Ellis has identified which I have not referred to at all? These are facilitators 2 (The learner's perceived need to communicate in the L2), 3 (Topic Choice) and 8 (Uninhibited Practice). These three facilitators are highly relevant to my other two propositions.