Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
Although most people acquire their first language(s) well enough to function in different social situations, the success in second langauge acquisition depends on a variety of factors. These include, but not limited to, the amount of exposure to (i.e., experiences in) the target language, aptitides (i.e., talents), learning strategies, learning styles, motivation and other social factors (e.g., percieved importance of the target language, identity, etc). The aim of SLA research is to uncover (1) how these factors relates to one another to influence the processes and outcomes of second langauge learning and (2) explain why certain people have better chances of acquiring the second langauge faster and better.
As an applied field investigating the real-world problems related to language, SLA research also concerns how teachers and learners facilitate their second language learning. This branch of SLA research is specifically termed Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA), and a range of research questions regarding how we can manipulate individual learning experiences in second/foreign languages is addressed in order to inform pedagogical decisions.
Selected topics in SLA (See Ortega, 2009)
Age effects: is the earlier the better really true?
Cross-Linguistic Influences: Does Language Distance matter?
Selected topics in ISLA (see Loewen & Sato, 2017)
second language vocabulary learning
What are the effects of practice in second language?
Bibliographies
Loewen, S., & Sato, M. (Eds.). (2017). The Routledge handbook of instructed second language acquisition. New York: Routledge.
Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Last Updated: 2019/5/22