Second Language Acquisition/foreign Language Learning

Second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign language learning (FLL) have been and continue to be viewed by many as largely unrelated fields of research or at best being only weakly connected disciplines. Over ten years ago, Frechette (1976: 377) noted that, 'By and large, observation of classroom practices and talks with classroom teachers have revealed that many feel a large portion of [SLA research] efforts are of little relevance to them'.

....This perception implies that the psycholinguistic development found in SLA is somehow different than that found in FLL and that a different theory of psycholinguistics (and probably any other field of language study) is somehow necessary to account for FLL. Yet, there are three aspects of Higgs's comment that deserve attention. The first is that much of current reaction among foreign language (FL) professionals to SLA research and theory-building is a reaction to Krashen's Monitor Theory (in particular his Input Hypothesis). It is not a reaction to SLA research in general and most FL professionals have had little to say about other.


Approved by Englishcology