This paper aims to explore the role of intake in second language learning.Based on her literature review and the case of an English lesson in a Chinese secondary school,the author argues that L2 acquisition does not take place directly from input to output.In each sqecific part of L2 acquisition process,intake plays various important roles such as filtering,facilitating in comprehensible input and processing in pushed output.In the Chinese foreign language teaching context,it is also found that L2 acquisition is an arduous task for learners to extract information from the input,utilize it in forming a grammar and produce target language forms accurately and fluently.It is the same with L2 teachers who need to play their roles of a controller,a corrector,an organizer and a prompter in the learning process.
