Fundamental issues in the study of second language acquisition

Abstract

The study of second language acquisition (SLA) forms a young academic discipline, emerging from fundamental paradigm shifts in SLA’s parent disciplines, linguistics and psychology. This paper gives a brief overview of how the study of SLA came into existence, formulates the fundamental questions concerning SLA, reviews some recent developments, and identifies possibilities and challenges for SLA theory construction and empirical research in the near future. To tackle the fundamental issues of SLA successfully, it is mandatory that SLA researchers, of whom the majority currently has a linguistic background, collaborate with researchers in psychology and other disciplines.

Elephants in the Room: An “Affective Turn,” Or Just Feeling Our Way?

“…The first is that researchers have primarily been interested in language learning and use as they relate to an individual's cognitive system or the brain:

Ultimately, language learning is a matter of biology and chemistry, implemented in the brain. (Hulstijn, , p. 200)

(…) a cognitive view (…) is the prevailing view in current SLA research. (Gass, Behney, & Plonsky, , p. 128)

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“…Ultimately, language learning is a matter of biology and chemistry, implemented in the brain. (Hulstijn, , p. 200)…”

Kompetisi Antara Petunjuk Sintaktis Dan Semantis Dalam Pemahaman Bahasa Inggris: Studi Eksperimental Berteknologi Semidaring

“…Waktu yang tersedia untuk memproses makna kalimat sangat terbatas sehingga minda pengguna bahasa harus bekerja secara mangkus dan sangkil dengan menggunakan segala perangkat yang dimilikinya (Hopp, 2006;Issidorides, 1988). Pada bahasa pertama proses itu berjalan relatif mulus sementara pada bahasa asing proses 177 itu berjalan belum sempurna (Hulstijn, 2007).…”

Carroll's Autonomous Induction Theory: Combining Views from UG and Information Processing Theories

“…How does L1 grammatical knowledge help to detect cues to the grammatical features, categories, rules, etc.?" In order to compensate for the limitations of UG-based approaches to both L1 and L2 acquisition, some scholars, mainly emergentists, have proposed models which account for both development and acquisition (Jackendof, 1987(Jackendof, , 1997(Jackendof, , 2002Levelt, 1989;Pienemann 1998Pienemann , 2003Carroll 2001Carroll , 2002Hulstijn, 2007;Ellis, 2008).…”