Some researchers and educators have reacted to the version of communicative language teaching that advocates an exclusive focus on meaning. They argue that allowing learners too much ‘freedom’ without correction and explicit instruction will lead to early fossilization of errors. Once again we hear the call for making sure that learners ‘get it right from the beginning’. Unfortunately, it is difficult to test the hypothesis that a primary emphasis on form in the early stages of second language learning will, in the long run, lead to better results than those achieved when the primary emphasis is on meaning in the early stages. To test that hypothesis, it would be necessary to compare groups that are similar in all respects except for the type of instruction they receive. However, it is not easy for researchers to find proper comparison groups. On the one hand, there are many parts of the world where one finds only structure-based approaches to language teaching, with their emphasis on learning metalinguistic information and performing accurately from the beginning. In these settings, there are no classrooms where the teaching places the primary emphasis on meaning in the early stages of learning. On the other hand, the widespread adoption of communicative language teaching in recent years has meant that, in other parts of the world it is very difficult to make comparisons with classrooms that are primarily form-oriented because such classes simply do not exist. None the less, some findings from second language classroom research do permit us to assess the effect of instruction that is strongly oriented to the ‘Get it right from the beginning’ approach. These include descriptive studies of the interlanguage development of second language learners in audiolingual programmes (Study 12), and comparisons of the development of second language proficiency between groups of students receiving different combinations of form-and MEANING-BASED INSTRUCTION (Study 13)