This study aims to examine two proposals for classroom teaching, provide examples from classroom interaction to illustrate how the proposals get translated into classroom practice, and discuss how the findings from some of the formal research in SLA fit them. For each proposal, a few relevant studies will be presented, discussed, and compared with one another. These proposals are: 1) get it right from the beginning, 2) say what you mean and mean what you say. In this paper, we will find that‘Get it right from the beginning’ does not correspond to the way most successful second language learners have acquired their proficiency, and‘Say what you mean and mean what you say’means opportunities for learners to engage in conversational interactions in group and paired activities can lead to increased fluency and the ability to manage conversations in a second language.