Language is at the centre of human

life. We use it to express our love or

hatred, to achieve our goals and
further our careers, to gain artistic
satisfaction or simple pleasure.
Through language we plan our lives
and remember our past; we exchange
ideas and experiences; we form our
social and individual identities.
(Cook 2001: 1)
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 Some people are able to do some or all of this in more

than one language. Knowing another language may
mean getting a job; a chance to get educated; the
ability to take a fuller part in the life of ones own
country or the opportunity to emigrate to another; an
expansion of ones literary and cultural horizons; the
expression of ones political opinions or religious
beliefs. A second language affects peoples careers and
possible futures, their lives and their very identities. In
a world where probably more people speak two
languages than one, the acquisition and use of second
languages are vital to the everyday lives of millions.
(Cook 2001: 1)

 To provide understanding of how languages

are acquired and how they are used, by
focusing on the linguistic, psychological and
social aspects of language acquisition.
To aid the students in their acquisition of
English and subsequent languages, by
helping them to understand better the
language learning process.
To provide sound theoretical foundations for
those who wish to follow the teaching career.
4

 SLA is the study of the acquisition

of a non-primary language, i.e. a
language beyond the native
language.

 L1 - first language, native language (NL),

mother tongue

the first language a child learns

all languages acquired in early childhood,
i.e. before the age of three
Can you have two L1s?

L2 - second language

any language learned after the L1

L2 can refer to any language learned after
learning the L1, regardless of whether it is the
second, third, fourth, or fifth language (Gass Selinker 2001: 5),
i.e. L3, L4, L5
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 second language acquisition - sometimes the

term is used with reference to the process of
acquiring an L2 in an environment in which that
language is spoken, i.e. in a naturalistic setting
foreign language learning - learning an L2 in
the NL environment, in a classroom context
target language (TL) - the (second) language
that is being learned
formal learning - classroom learning
informal learning - learning in naturalistic
contexts
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 bilingualism, multilingualism - the knowledge

of two or more languages
monolingualism - the knowledge of one
language only

SLA is the process of becoming

bilingual (Sharwood Smith 1994: 3).

 SLA is the study of the acquisition of a non-primary

language, i.e. a language beyond the native language.
Some questions asked by SLA researchers:
How do learners create a new language system with only limited
exposure to a second language?
What is learned of a second language and what is not learned?
Why do most second language learners not achieve the same
degree of knowledge and proficiency in a second language as they
do in their native language?
Why do only some learners appear to achieve native-like
proficiency in more than one language?
What is the nature of the hypotheses (whether conscious or
unconscious) that learners come up with regarding the rules of a
second language?
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1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

A young child (age 2) learning German as a first language

in Germany?
A young Turkish child (age 5) learning German as a second
language in Germany.
A Finnish boy (age 13) learning German as a foreign
language in Finnish secondary education.
An educated Danish elderly person (age 72) learning
German as a foreign language through a self-study
computer program.
An uneducated Polish woman (age 36) learning English
without formal instruction through working as a cleaning
lady in a hotel.

US entry into WW2 and the Cold War period created a need for
effective foreign language instruction for military personnel.
The first secret US Army foreign language school opened in 1941.
The consolidation of numerous military foreign language
programmes gave rise to the Defense Language Institute in 1963.
Military funding allowed to engage leading linguists of the time
(e.g. Fries, Bloomfield, Hockett) in the preparation of teaching
materials. The military foreign language programmes set up new
standards for foreign language teaching.
Military funding led to the creation of a new method of foreign
language teaching, the audiolingual method, sometimes called the
army method or the scientific method, since it was deeply rooted
in the prevalent psychological (behaviourist) and linguistic
(structuralist) theories of the time. This practical focus facilitated
research interest in the how and why of second language
acquisition, eventually giving rise to SLA.
SLA in its early stages was part of applied linguistics, because it
applied the findings of linguistics to language teaching.

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a practice-driven discipline
that addresses language-based
problems in real-world
contexts (Grabe 2002: 10)

Some time ago...

Linguistics
studied the properties of
language as abstract code
Applied linguistics
applied the findings of
linguistics to practical ends
(e.g. making dictionaries,
preparing teaching materials)

SLA
studied the acquisition of
languages other than the first

Now...
Linguistics
studies the properties of language
as abstract code
Applied linguistics
studies how people use language
in real life

SLA
studies the acquisition of
languages other than the first as
well as the L1 of L2 users; studies
the development of language in
people who know more than one
language
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Some time ago...

Linguistics
studied the properties of
language as abstract code

Now...
Linguistics
studies the properties of language
as abstract code

Applied linguistics
applied the findings of linguistics
to practical ends

Applied linguistics*
studies how people use language
in real world

SLA
studied the acquisition of
languages other than the first

SLA
studies the acquisition of
languages other than the first as
well as the L1 of L2 users
User-friendly linguistics (Wei 2007)
places the language user at the
centre of its interest.
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 Linguistics informs us about the nature of language,

characteristics of the languages being learned, etc.
Psychology, psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics
inform us about the cognitive processes involved in
language acquisition, the representation and
processing of language in the brain.
Social psychology focuses on group-related
phenomena, such as identity, social motivation,
social and interactional contexts of learning.
Sociolinguistics emphasizes variability in learner
linguistic performance.
(Saville-Troike 2006)

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(Valdes 2005: 421)

17

the field of SLA, a relatively young discipline, has been

influenced in its formation by other disciplines. In turn,
SLA has also exerted influence on these source
disciplines. At present, some would conceptualize SLA as
an independent field with its own research agenda and
with a multidisciplinary focus, whereas others would
conceptualize it as a subdiscipline of one source discipline
or another. It is our view that because SLA has a
substantial body of research and a strong research
tradition, it is best thought of as an independent discipline
with strong ties to other disciplines
(Gass & Selinker 2008: 159)

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Obligatory:
Gass, Susan M. - Larry Selinker. 2008. Second language
acquisition. An introductory course (2nd edition). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 1-15.
Li Wei 2007. A user-friendly linguistics. International Journal of
Applied Linguistics 17 (1): 117-119.

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