My Elevator Speech on Language Acquisition

If I were to give an elevator speech about language learning (especially to administrators!), I would pare it down to these five concepts (and by no means am I trying to oversimply the language acquisition process nor to reduce it to a series of general platitudes) - this is what I have learned about the language acquisition process over these many years from reading/listening to Stephen Krashen, Bill Van Patten, and so many others whom I deeply respect:

1. Language learning is unlike any other subject area, because it is not linear in nature.
2. Because of this, learners do not acquire language on a prescribed timeline or at the same pace.
3. The language acquisition process is subconscious in nature.
4. When encountering L2, the brain on its own is constantly creating, making connections to, and revising its mental representation of that language.
1. That language which the brain understands, it keeps and then creates, adds to, and refines those existing mental connections.
2. That language which the brain does not understand, it throws out.
5. As a result, learners need to interact with/have constant exposure to understandable, meaningful, purposeful messages in L2 so that the brain can create/revise its mental representation of that language.

For me, this elevator speech can then serve as a springboard to discuss other topics such as proficiency vs. performance, the need for compelling messages, the role of the affective filter in learning, the monitor hypothesis, etc.