Outline of second language acquisition

Updated on Dec 25, 2024

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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to second-language acquisition:

Second-language acquisition – process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition (often abbreviated to SLA) also refers to the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process. Second language refers to any language learned in addition to a person's first language, including the learning of third, fourth, and subsequent languages. It is also called second-language learning, foreign language acquisition, and L2 acquisition.

What is second-language acquisition?

Second-language acquisition can be described as all of the following:

Language acquisition – process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate. Language acquisition is one of the quintessential human traits, because nonhumans do not communicate by using language.

Academic discipline – branch of knowledge that is taught or researched at the college or university level. Also called a field of study. Disciplines are defined (in part) and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong. A discipline incorporates relevant knowledge, expertise, skills, people, projects, communities, problems, challenges, studies, inquiry, approaches, and research areas.

Branch of science – systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. "Science" also refers to a body of knowledge itself, of the type that can be rationally explained and reliably applied.

Branch of social science – academic discipline concerned with the society and the relationships of individuals within a society, which primarily rely on empirical approaches.

Branch of linguistics – scientific study of human language.

Branch of applied linguistics – interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology.

A form of language education – teaching and learning of a foreign or second language. Language education is a branch of applied linguistics.

Branches of second-language acquisition

English as a second or foreign language – use or study of English by speakers with different native languages. It is also known as English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), English as an additional language (EAL), and English as a foreign language (EFL).

Chinese as a foreign language – study of the varieties of Chinese by non-native speakers.

Spanish as a second language – teaching and learning of Spanish for those whose mother tongue is not Spanish, particularly immigrants, tourists, indigenous peoples and refugees.

Etc.

Teaching English as a foreign language –

Learning objectives: language skills

Foreign-language vocabulary –

Linguistic competence –

Linguistic performance –

Language fluency –

Language proficiency –

Multilingualism –

Bilingualism –

History of second-language acquisition

Second-language acquisition phenomena

Second-language attrition – decline of second-language skills due to lack of use or practice of the second language and/or lack of exposure to it.

Code-switching – switching between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation.

Communication strategies in second-language acquisition

Interlanguage –

Second-language phonology –

Silent period – stage in second language acquisition where learners do not attempt to speak. Silent periods are more common in children than in adult learners, as there is often more pressure on adult learners to speak during the early stages of acquisition.

Factors affecting the learning of a second-language

Individual variation in second-language acquisition –

Foreign language anxiety

Language-learning aptitude – aptitude measurement via tests, the results of which correlate with how well the test takers will succeed at picking up a new language. Language aptitude test include:

Modern Language Aptitude Test – mainly authored by John B. Carroll, for adults, mainly used by government and military institutions to select employees for language training

Defense Language Aptitude Battery – developed and used by the United States Department of Defense to select candidates for jobs that will require them to attain fluency in a foreign language

Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery – authored by Paul Pimsleur, used to assess the language learning aptitude of students in grades 7 to 12

Modern Language Aptitude Test – Elementary – mainly authored by John B. Carroll, designed to test children in grades 3 to 6

Cognitive Ability for Novelty in Acquisition of Language - Foreign – developed by Grigorenko, Sternberg, and Ehrman in 2000, using a new concept of language aptitude as a theoretical base

Motivation in second-language learning –

Willingness to communicate – students willing to communicate in the second language learn how, those who are not willing, not so much.

Metalinguistic awareness –

Hypothesized success factors

Acculturation model – hypothesis in which effectiveness in acquiring a second language is due in part to how well the learner acclimatizes to the culture (and members) of the target language. The greater the social and psychological distances of the learner from the members of the target culture, the fewer opportunities he or she will have to learn the language.

Input hypothesis –

Interaction hypothesis – the development of language proficiency is promoted by face-to-face interaction and communication.

Comprehensible output hypothesis –

Competition model – posits that the meaning of language is interpreted by comparing a number of linguistic cues within a sentence, and that language is learned through the competition of basic cognitive mechanisms in the presence of a rich linguistic environment.

Noticing hypothesis – concept proposed by Richard Schmidt, which states that learners cannot learn the grammatical features of a language unless they notice them. That is, noticing is the essential starting point for acquisition. Whether the noticing can be subconscious is a matter of debate.

Second-language acquisition research

Good language learner studies

Second-language acquisition classroom research

National Association of Bilingual Education –

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA) –

Language camps – summer camps hosted by high schools, colleges and universities, high schools, colleges and universitieshave developed around the United States to meet a growing demand for language education, language camps . Many of these summer programs are