A Study on the Input Hypothesis and Interaction Hypothesis

In Second Language Acquisition theory, input and interaction are considered as two key factors greatly influencing the learners' acquisition rate and quality, and therefore input and interaction research has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. Among the large amount of research, Krashen's input hypothesis and Long's interaction hypothesis are perhaps most influential theories, from which most of input and interaction studies have developed. Input hypothesis claims that comprehensible input is the only one way to acquire language, whereas interaction hypothesis argues that interaction is necessary for language acquisition. Therefore,this thesis attempts to conduct a descriptive analysis between input hypothesis and interaction hypothesis, based on their basic ideas, theoretical basis, comparisons and empirical work. It concludes that input hypothesis and interaction hypothesis succeed in interpreting the process of language acquisition to some extent, and offer both theoretical and practical inspirations on second language teaching.