Contemporary approaches to second language acquisition (original) (raw)
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SUMMARY The proposed audience of " Second Language Acquisition: A Theoretical Introduction to Real World Applications, " by Allesandro Benati and Tanja Angelovska, is undergraduate students and trainee teachers. The goal of the book is to bridge the gap between theoretical and experimental work that has been done in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and its pedagogical implications. Besides the preface, which briefly outlines the goals and structure of the text. The book is divided into six chapters: Introduction to second language acquisition, Similarities and differences between first and second language acquisition, How learners process information in second language acquisition, How the internal system develops in second language acquisition, How learners learn to communicate in a second language, and What we know about SLA. There is also a short, but useful glossary of important terms used throughout the text. Each chapter begins with an overview of what will be covered, which is a helpful roadmap for the reader. The first chapter introduces and defines the concept of SLA, briefly describes the subfields of linguistics, and provides succinct summaries of the most influential theories in SLA, concluding with a model for SLA. The second chapter highlights the different factors affecting first language acquisition versus SLA, highlighting the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis versus the Fundamental Similarities Hypothesis; the chapter also discusses the well-known Critical Period Hypothesis, which looks at age as an influential factor. The third chapter focuses on what occurs in the learning process with a strong emphasis on individual differences. The fourth chapter explains what the interlanguage of learners looks like. The fifth chapter examines conversation and socialization as a means to foster SLA toward the end goal of communicative competence. The final chapter is essentially an overview of the past material with a larger portion devoted to the pedagogical implications, i.e. what theories and strategies we need to utilize in the classroom. Each chapter concludes with real-world applications and a reference list. EVALUATION As promised, this book provides an overview of SLA that is beginner-friendly. This is in contrast to other introductory texts that focus more on analyzing theories and their originating studies (e.g. VanPatten & Williams, 2015). What this allows for is gaining a general understanding that can aid teachers in thinking through both the rationale underpinning what they do in the classroom and the progression of the field
The development of theories of second language acquisition
Language Teaching, 2010
Second language acquisition (SLA) is a relatively new field of enquiry. Before the late 1960s, educators did write about L2 learning, but very much as an adjunct of language teaching pedagogy, underpinned by behaviourism, the then-dominant learning theory in psychology. In this view, the task facing learners of foreign languages was to rote-learn and practise the grammatical patterns and vocabulary of the language to be learnt, in order to form new ‘habits’, that is to create new stimulus–response pairings which would become stronger with reinforcement. In order for the ‘old habits’ of the L1 not to interfere with this process by being ‘copied’, or transferred, into the L2, researchers embarked on thorough descriptions of pairs of languages to be learnt, in order to identify areas that are different and would thus be difficult.