The Garden of Eden and Beyond: On Second Language Processing. CLCS Occasional Paper No. 44.

Just as learning a first language is sometimes compared to existence within the relatively sheltered world of the Garden of Eden, the process of learning a second language is viewed as analogous to survival after expulsion from the Garden into a relatively harsh world, in which the learner must come to a conscious understanding of form and meaning through his errors. The problem of partial attainment among second language learners has been explained generally in two ways, both interpretable through the Garden of Eden phenomenon. The dichotomy between conscious analysis on one hand and intuitive "noticing" on the other is common in research and theory on second language learning. It is suggested that these processes can be linked in second language learning by the individual's exercising his metalinguistic knowledge to test unfamiliar constructions. In this way, focus on form can be used to facilitate language learning. (MSE)