Second Language Acquisition

Jensen, C. S. (2016). Ecological niches and affordances in second language acquisition, learning, and teaching. NyS, Nydanske Sprogstudier, 1(50), 252.

The aim of this article is to combine recent cognitive language theories with the field of second language acquisition, learning and teaching. This will be achieved through a theoretically reasoned critique of representative approaches within the existing second language teaching methods and research from a cognitive ecological perspective with a special focus on the theory of niches and affordances. The starting point for the critique is that language schools rarely focus on the learning and acquisition potential that exists outside language schools. This might be the reason why many learners rarely use their target language outside the classroom. An analysis of language school materials shows that the teaching seeks continuity and similarity between classroom activities and homework, despite the fact that learners are not doing homework in class. A central criticism of the second language research that focuses on learners’ everyday lives is that they either reduce opportunities for learning and acquisition, or overlook some important didactic aspects. This article makes a didactic proposal as to how the theory and teaching can be combined in order to create a dynamic, situated, and differentiated learning process.

Amritavalli, R. (2017). Second Language Acquisition. Language and Language Teaching, 11(1), 59-66.

Language and Language Teaching has been concerned primarily with building bridges between theory and practice, the researchers and classroom practitioners. Though we have succeeded to some extent, we have a long way to go. We are very happy with the kind of feedback that we have been receiving both from the researchers and practicing teachers and are making all efforts to address the issues and concerns of language teachers and researchers in the form of articles, landmarks, interviews, book reviews, language games, etc. In this issue, there is a major focus on Second Language Acquisition (SLA). In the Landmark, Amritavalli outlines the development of research in SLA starting from Corder’s suggestion that “the processes of acquiring the mother-tongue and the learning of a second language” may be similar. She moves on to Selinker’s concept of Interlanguage, an important stage in SLA. She shows how insights from the domain of SLA can lead to better pedagogical practices. Yasmeen Lukmani in her interview calls for the need to get rid of grammar and instead have task-based and contextualised teaching of language in classrooms. She emphasizes the need for teacher training as a crucial component in tackling the challenges of teaching in general.

Kootstra, G. J., Dijkstra, A. F. J., Starren, M. B. P., & Wright, J. D. (2015). Second Language Acquisition: a processing-based perspective. Wright, JD (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 349-359.

This article gives a review of second language acquisition (SLA) analysis from a psycholinguistic point of view. This review is fundamentally centered on cross-language connections amid sentence and word structures and cognizance at various focuses in the SLA process. Fundamentally, the author concludes that SLA is dynamic and intuitive. In view of this dynamicity and intelligence, the procedure and result of SLA can be impacted by a wide range of elements, the learning setting, similar to the similitude in the first and second language, student inspirations, the age at which the second language is learnt, and the student’s language capability and proficiency.

De Houwer, A. (2017). Bilingual language acquisition. The handbook of child language, 219-250.

Recently, there has been a great surge of enthusiasm for the investigation of young bilingual children’s language advancement. This advancement can be identified by two main considerations: first, a developing consciousness of the significance of bi‐ and multilingualism in our inexorably globally oriented world, and second, the increased enthusiasm for cross-linguistic research of language acquisition. The article reviews the most noteworthy discoveries on bilingual language acquisition that emerged from similar research in the past 12 years.

Dörnyei, Z. (2014). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Routledge.

Research results over the previous decades have reliably exhibited that a key motivation behind why numerous second language students excel with less exertion whereas others fail lies in the different student characteristics, which include, identity attributes and traits, inspiration, or language bent and aptitude. These traits have generally been classified as “individual contrasts” in Psychology. In this article, the author focuses on different individual traits by presenting a succinct overview of the psychological research of every attribute. he author characterizes the different learner traits and attributes as quantifiable constructs and along these lines, he incorporates a rundown of the most well-known tests and surveys in the different domains. 

Larsen‐Freeman, D. (2018). Second Language Acquisition, WE, and language as a complex adaptive system (CAS). World Englishes, 37(1), 80-92.

In this article, the author argues that the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has advanced to a point where the worldview gap between Second Language Acquisition/Development and world Englishes, distinguished by Sridhar and Sridhar, has become limited. This gap is expected to narrow down between Second Language Acquisition/Development and world Englishes deserting their ontological legacy of a static skill from linguistics and discovering shared opinion in a perspective of language as a complex versatile framework. While contrasts between the two fields are genuine and will out rightly prevail, there may currently exist an opportunity for dialogue to prompt narrowing down of this gap.

Song, S. (2018). Second language acquisition theories. In Second Language Acquisition as a Mode-Switching Process (pp. 9-36). Palgrave Pivot, London.

The author reviews the literature on SLA to demonstrate how the literature regarding this matter developed with time. The author portrays SLA hypotheses and theories in light of error analysis to cross-language and behaviorism, local language impact, and cognitive ad psychological points of view which clarify the role of theoretical insight in enhancing and supporting SLA, the author demonstrates how our comprehension of second language acquisition has made strides over time. By discussing SLA hypotheses and theories, the author shows that second language acquisition is a mind-boggling learning process influenced by numerous social, intercultural, linguistic, as well as psycholinguistic factors.

Lynch, A. (2015). Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition. In Second and Foreign Language Education (pp. 1-13). Springer International Publishing.

The author of this article argues that language scientists have drawn major distinctions between the phenomenon of “bilingualism” and the procedures and highlights of “second language acquisition”.The author states that records have by and large relied on factors of context, the age of acquisition, level of capability or capacity, “nativeness,” or “local resemblance,” and social character. In this review, the author gives a superficial clarification of the potential connection among bilingualism and second language acquisition, which points to a common ground between these two levels of inquiry.

Ellis, R. (2015). Understanding Second Language Acquisition 2nd Edition-Oxford Applied Linguistics. Oxford university press.

This new completely refreshed release keeps on giving a legitimate and profoundly comprehensible prologue to key zones of hypothesis and research in second language acquisition. The author gives a comprehensive outline of the diverse hypotheses and theories in this field and critically examines the basic responses to them. The book reflects late patterns in taking a gander at psychological, social as well as cognitive impacts of second language acquisition, and also analyzing the roles played by explicit and implicit guidance in SLA.

Oliver, R., & Azkarai, A. (2017). Review of Child Second Language Acquisition (SLA): Examining Theories and Research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 37, 62-76.

The second language acquisition field has recorded substantially more research attempted with grown-ups than with children, yet the two accomplices are very distinct in qualities and in their learning forms. This review gives a survey of child second learning acquisition research, more specifically, the study with an instructive core interest. The author begins by featuring the significance of age as a factor in second language acquisition research, citing previous studies that have highlighted the distinctions existing among more young and adult learners. The author additionally considers mediations that can bolster second language acquisition —including structure centered guidance and the utilization of tasks. The author wraps up by exhibiting a proposed change in the manner in which research with children is directed.