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The main purpose of theories of second-language acquisition (SLA) is to shed light on how people who already know one language learn a second language. The field of second-language acquisition involves various contributions, such as linguistics , sociolinguistics , psychology , cognitive science , neuroscience , and education .
Second-language acquisition (SLA), sometimes called second-language learning—otherwise referred to as L2 (language 2) acquisition, is the process of learning a language other than one's native language (L1).
These theories conceive of second-language acquisition as being learned in the same way as any other skill, such as learning to drive a car or play the piano. That is, they see practice as the key ingredient of language acquisition. The most well-known of these theories is based on John Anderson's adaptive control of thought model. [1]
Language learning involves formal instruction and, according to Krashen, is less effective than acquisition. [6] Learning in this sense is conception or conceptualisation: instead of learning a language itself, students learn an abstract, conceptual model of a language, a "theory" about a language (a grammar).
The theory has often been extended to a critical period for second-language acquisition (SLA). David Singleton states that in learning a second language, "younger = better in the long run", but points out that there are many exceptions, noting that five percent of adult bilinguals master a second language even though they begin learning it when they are well into adulthood—long after any ...
The proponents of these theories argue that general cognitive processes subserve language acquisition and that the result of these processes is language-specific phenomena, such as word learning and grammar acquisition. The findings of many empirical studies support the predictions of these theories, suggesting that language acquisition is a ...