Reazioni all’errore ed eccezioni all’inevitabilità delle regole nella Didattica delle Lingue Seconde

Rules and errors have always been central in language teaching practice and research.The configuration of these constructs and their allegiance is dealt with as first in the present contribution. Only very recently, and at present very marginally, it has begun to surface awareness of the relevance of the concept of "exception" - in a variationistic sense- for teaching purposes. The potential of such a perspective will be addressed in the conclusions to the essay.