Hanieh Shafiee Rad

SLA Course
Reaction Paper 1
29 September 2021
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) can be defined as the language that can learn

besides the first language to have an institutional and social role in the community. The

institutional and social role of the language and subsequent nature of a second language are the

diverging points that distinguish the field of SLA from studies in bilingualism and the field of

foreign language (FLL) learning. All three of these fields of inquiry, although closely related,

differ slightly in their scope and the area of interest as discussed below. It is worth first defining

the monolingual for further comprehension. A Monolingual is a person with the knowledge of

only one language. There is a debate that when people speak they use a different style, register,

and variety of one language and one cannot answer if these are different languages or not. In

addition, there are two different ideas in the history of defining bilingualism (Gass & Selinker,

2008). First, in the past scholars believe that only those individuals who grow up in the two

language environment are real bilinguals because they have the full command of these

languages. The second definition declares that any knowledge of another language will make

an individual bilingual, without taking into account the amount of competence. FLL also refers

to the target language learning outside of its context, mainly constrained in a classroom setting.

By searching the historical perspectives in the SLA field two interacting theories

fascinate everyone: empiricism and mentalism (Savill-Troike, 2006). The empiricism theory

was started by the idea of raw data (Lounge) and general patterns (Parole) putting forward by

Ferdinand de Saussure. Empiricism continued with different ideas such as behaviorism and

constructivism till 1990. After that, the new theory was introduced namely mentalism by

Chomsky and followed by other researchers. The famous concepts in the SLA are mostly

related to the mentalism theory and are very helpful for teachers and scholars of this field. One
of these concepts is acquisition (a subconscious process of learning) and learning (a conscious

process of learning). A subconscious process is not being aware of having noticed something

but in the conscious process, some level of attention is required (Ellis, 1994). Another

important concept in SLA is input (everything around us we may perceive with our senses) and

intake (what we pay attention to and notice). There are also differences between the concept of

incidental (e.g., reading for pleasure and learning new words) and intentional learning (e.g.,

learning a word from the dictionary). Recently, there is a debate if the SLA is instructed or

non-instructed. It can be noted that the acquisition takes place through a mix of instructed and

non-instructed learning and the decision on the preference is related to the learner.

Achieving an acceptable level of competence in the repertoire of subsystems (e.g.,

phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) is the process of SLA acquisition

(Gass & Selinker, 2008). These subsystems (according to the dynamic theory) are flexible and

react to each other in seemingly chaotic ways. In the other words, an individual's knowledge

of the language is not stable, it goes back and forth between gaining and losing. The concept

of attrition can be defined as the process of losing a second language caused by the lack of use

or exposure to a language over time (Ortega, 2009). Through the process of combining

subsystems, the unique linguistics system occurs namely interlanguage, and is distinct from L1

and L2. Interlanguage can be defined as unique properties similar to L1 and L2 systems,

alongside some characteristics that are unique to itself. There are some systematic errors in the

interlanguage that is the sign of its emergent, complex, and rule-governed nature (de Bot,

Lowie, & Verspoor, 2005).

Generally, it can be concluded that the SLA is an interdisciplinary field of study

primarily from within linguistics and psycholinguistics which emphasizes the differences and

similarities through the mental or cognitive processes that are being learned through the

acquisition/learning.
References
de Bot, K., Lowie, W., & Verspoor, M. (2005). Second language acquisition: An advanced

resource book. London and New York: Routledge.

Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford University Press.

Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (3rd

ed.). London and New York: Routledge.

Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. Great Britain: Hodder

Education.

Savill-Troike (2006). Introducing second language acquisition. New York: Cambridge

University Press.