Free, spontaneous interaction cannot be an attractive extra in a program which is rigid and mechanical. We must develop a smooth and natural transition from skill-getting to skill-using. Language learning, like other human activities, involves three parallel cognitive systems for processing information and storing it for use: the enactive, the iconic or perceptual, and the symbolic. We must select the type of activity appropriate to the kind of learning involved in various aspects of second language acquisition. Practice exercises should always be pseudo-communication, moving from teacher-directed demonstration to student-directed application, to autonomous student production, and to spontaneous interaction, every extension of linguistic competence being tested out immediately in natural communicative use. Practice exercises can be purely manipulative (Type A) or can require student autonomy in selection (Type B). It is the Type B activity which should predominate if students are to develop the confidence they need for interaction, which is the use of language for the natural purposes of language.