Introducing Second Language Acquisition

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

What comes to mind for many people when they encounter the phrase 'second language acquisition', is the experience they had as school students when they were engaged in the study of one or more foreign languages. Second language acquisition, however, occurs in other forms in schools today as well. Bilingual education, for example, has been a reality in many parts of the world for years. There are several models for bilingual education programmes, but generally they exist for the purpose of helping students to maintain their native language or to continue to grow in their native language while acquiring a second language.

There are almost as many reasons to study SLA as there are places where second languages are acquired and used. First of all, the study of SLA is fascinating in its own right. It is a true conundrum. Understanding it requires drawing upon knowledge of psychology, linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and neurolinguistics, among others.

People have been interested in second language acquisition since antiquity, but in modern times much of the research emphasis was in fact placed on language teaching. Large comparative studies of language teaching methods were conducted. Less ambitious studies focused upon the most efficacious way to teach a particular skill or to sequence structures in a syllabus. The assumption seemed to be that if language teaching methods could be made more efficient, then learning would naturally be more effective.

  
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