Helping learners to develop an effective L2 inner voice

Unfortunately, the L2 (second language) classroom learner has little exposure to the L2 inner voice and is taught from the very beginning to produce outer speech utterances.  Most coursebooks and teachers require immediate and public responses to their questions and activities. As a result, silence is regarded as failure and very little thinking time is given to learners. In addition, any use of a restricted L2 code either as outer speech or as private speech receives negative feedback and is soon discouraged.

In his insightful article, Brian Tomlisnson, one of the world's leading experts on materials development for language learning, argues about the significance of inner voice in the process of learning a second language. He also suggests some ways of helping learners to develop an effective L2 inner voice.