Concept
Second-language acquisition
Overview
Second-language acquisition (SLA), second-language learning or L2 (language 2) acquisition, is the process of learning a language other than one's native language (L1). SLA research examines how learners develop their knowledge of second language.
SLA research spans cognitive, social, and linguistic perspectives:
Cognitive approaches investigate memory and attention processes.
Sociocultural theories emphasize the role of social interaction and immersion
Linguistic studies examine the innate and learned aspects of language.
Individual factors like age, motivation, and personality also influence SLA, as seen in discussions on the critical period hypothesis and learning strategies. In addition to acquisition, SLA explores language loss, or second-language attrition, and the impact of formal instruction on learning outcomes.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Under the old _régime_ it was unquestionably a most serious problem to give the children a full and free use of language. The reason was obvious. The natural motive for language was seldom offered. In the pedagogical text-books language is defined as the medium of expressing thought. It becomes that, more or less, to adults with trained minds, but it hardly needs to be said that language is primarily a social thing…
John Dewey, The School and Society Being three lectures
States what Second-language acquisition is.
The use of our own language has led us to neglect it so far as to forget it altogether. Let us study children and we shall soon learn it afresh from them. Nurses can teach us this language; they understand all their nurslings say to them, they answer them, and keep up long conversations with them; and though they use words, these words are quite useless. It is not the hearing of the word, but its accompanying…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
States what Second-language acquisition is.
But since it will not be contended that in the acquisition of languages, as ordinarily carried on, these natural relations between words and their meanings are habitually traced, and their laws explained; it must be admitted that they are commonly learned as fortuitous relations. On the other hand, the relations which science presents are causal relations; and, when properly taught, are understood as such. While…
Herbert Spencer, Essays on education and kindred subjects
States what Second-language acquisition is.
Related ideas
- Personality
- Noam Chomsky
- Linguistics
- Phonology
- Motivation
- First language
- Connectionism
- Syntax
- Pragmatics
- Cognitive linguistics
- Lev Vygotsky
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Embodied cognition.
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