Second Language Acquisition: A Framework and Historical Background on Its Research

Reviewed by: Second language acquisition by Roumyana Slabakova Tania Ionin Second language acquisition. By Roumyana Slabakova. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xxi, 483. ISBN 9780199687275. $40. Introduction This book is a textbook of second language acquisition (SLA) written within the theoretical framework of the generative approach to SLA research. The intended readers are advanced undergraduate students and graduate students who have some background in linguistics, in particular in syntax and semantics. The text is intended first and foremost for students with a prior background in generative linguistics. While the main linguistic concepts are explained when they are introduced, such explanations are necessarily brief, and students with no prior background in linguistics would find the more technical parts of the text somewhat difficult to follow. However, students or other readers who have a general interest in language and/or language acquisition, but lack a background in generative linguistics, should still be able to follow the main concepts presented in the book. This textbook is quite unique in that, while its focus is on theoretical research on SLA, it explicitly makes the link to potential pedagogical relevance of the research findings. Brief summary The book consists of thirteen chapters, divided into three parts. Each chapter ends with a section of exercises; at the end of the book are a glossary, references, and an index. Part I, ‘Language’, provides a brief overview of the relevant background information that readers need to have in order to fully appreciate the rest of the book. Ch. 1, ‘Language architecture’, lays out the central argument of generative linguistics for the innateness of language and introduces the reader to several famous proposals on the structure of the language faculty. Ch. 1 then addresses the task faced by a second language learner and lays out the logic of the methodology used in generative SLA research. Ch. 2, ‘Language variation’, walks the reader through the history of the generative study of language variation, from principles and parameters through the minimalist program. Like Ch. 1, Ch. 2 ends by considering the implications of the theoretical linguistic research for the learning task of a second language learner. The goal of Ch. 3, ‘The psychological reality of language in use’, is to prepare the reader for later chapters that address second language processing by reviewing the central models and findings of the literature on language processing and psycholinguistics more generally. Part II, ‘Language acquisition’, has the goal of placing the study of SLA into the study of language acquisition as a whole by considering a number of different language-acquisition scenarios. The focus of this part is on the respective contributions of age of acquisition and of input quantity and quality to the task of language acquisition. Ch. 4, ‘The critical period hypothesis’, goes over the history of critical period studies and addresses the debate about the existence of critical or sensitive periods in SLA. This chapter also considers the role of input, bringing together a number of quite distinct phenomena, including variable input, comparisons between heritage speakers and second language learners, and variability among native speakers at different educational levels. Ch. 5, ‘First language acquisition, two first languages’, provides an overview of the process of first language acquisition; most of the chapter is devoted to monolingual first language acquisition, but the last section discusses simultaneous bilinguals, who form a natural link between monolinguals and adult second language learners. In Ch. 6, ‘Child second language, multilingual and heritage language acquisition, language attrition’, a variety of other types of language acquisition scenarios are discussed. Throughout this chapter, and especially in the last section, the focus is, once again, on the relative contributions of age of acquisition and input quantity and quality to the outcome of the language acquisition process. The position taken in this chapter, and [End Page e198] throughout the rest of the book, is that the effects of age can potentially be overridden by rich input, and that universal grammar remains active in SLA by adults. Part III, ‘Second language acquisition’, is the heart of the book. In addition to providing an overview of SLA research in the core areas of linguistics (with the one exception of...

This article provides a critical analysis and historical overview of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) acquisition and learning among Saudi adults. It traces the evolution of EFL education in Saudi Arabia from the early 20th century to the present, highlighting key developments in curriculum, teaching methodologies, and policy. The review identifies numerous linguistic, educational, cultural, psychological, and environmental challenges encountered by adult Saudi EFL learners, such as limited vocabulary, inadequate teacher training, anxiety, and insufficient exposure to the language. The paper also discusses the primary motivations for English language acquisition, including professional advancement, academic requirements, economic development aligned with Saudi Vision 2030, and the desire for international communication and access to scientific knowledge. Concluding with practical implications, the article suggested that addressing these barriers through updated curricula, enhanced teacher training, and increased research on underexplored language skills will improve EFL outcomes for adult Saudis and support national goals.

It is not often that there is a need to publish a book made up of chapters selected from three previously published books. The Croatian national research project Investigating learning and acquisition of foreign languages at an early school age (led by Mirjana Vilke) and its sequel Investigating learning and acquisition of foreign languages in primary school (led by Yvonne Vrhovac), with their unique experimental longitudinal design and involving four foreign languages, caught attention of the international audience from the very start. The interest has continued to this day.With the growing importance of English as a modern lingua franca teaching English to young learners has spread to practically all parts of the world. This global change, combined with a lack of systematic studies into early language learning in the formal setting, has made findings such as those of the Croatian research highly valuable.The three volumes describing early learning and teaching of English as a foreign language to Croatian young learners from which the chapters in this book were selected – all called Children and foreign languages – were published in 1993, 1995 and 2001, respectively. What is quite unique to the three volumes, and to the present book, is that they offer an in-depth view into early teaching and learning of English from two perspectives: the researchers’ perspective and the teachers’ perspective.

The lack of informed knowledge about listening subskills and their relationships has hindered the development of the diagnostic English language track assessment (DELTA) in three participating Hong Kong universities. This study investigates English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' listening proficiency development in understanding different spoken genres in the Hong Kong Chinese tertiary contexts. It aims to: i) identify the subskills and/or cognitive processes that underlie student performance on the DELTA listening component; ii) examine the difficulty levels of the DELTA listening subskills, and, consequentially, their hierarchical order; iii) investigate the impact of text type on difficulty level and the hierarchical order of the subskills; and iv) infer principles underlying the development of listening proficiency in the Hong Kong tertiary education contexts. A multi-method approach was employed for data collection and analysis. The primary quantitative data were derived from the DELTA listening component items answered by 2830 Chinese ELF learners who studied in their first or second year in the DELTA participating universities in the 2013-14 academic year. The item pool included 207 multiple-choice questions (MCQ) from 33 texts of three text types – conversation, interview and lecture. Each MCQ is intended to measure a particular listening subskill, including: 1) identifying specific information (SSK1); 2) understanding main idea and supporting ideas (SSK2); 3) understanding information and making an inference (SSK3); 4) interpreting a word or phrase as used by the speaker (SSK4); 5) inferring the attitude or intention of the speaker (SSK5); and 6) inferring the speaker's reasoning (SSK6). By adopting inter-related Rasch analyses using Winsteps and Facets, all test items were calibrated and analysed to determine their difficulty measures and their respective difficulties across the three text types. Qualitative Stimulated Recall Protocol (SRP) discussions were then conducted with 62 examinees of varying estimated listening abilities one month later, in a simulated test situation, where the test-taking process was video-recorded and the participants were asked to recall and to verbalise their thought processes and strategies they used to answer each question. The SRP results reveal an array of both cognitive processes and test-taking strategies in the listening comprehension and test-answering process. Firstly, various combinations of cognitive processes were utilised by both the high and low ability examinees to answer questions targeting the same listening sub-skill; however, the dominant cognitive process that was reported to have been used to answer each question corresponded with the particular listening subskill intended by DELTA item writers. Secondly, an array of test-taking strategies best identified as elimination, and guessing, were reported as used by examinees during the test. While this finding might not be surprising given the exam-oriented atmosphere prevailing in Hong Kong secondary school education, it alerted the researcher to scrutinise the validity of the DELTA listening component. The most striking observation from the listening test analysis is that, the DELTA listening subskills are measurably separable from each other, and a hierarchical pattern is established. In terms of their interaction with text type, the results showed that SSK1 and SSK6 were, respectively, the easiest and the most difficult subskills, whereas the hierarchical orders of the other four subskills varied across the three text types. More generally, these findings provide empirical evidence for the proposition that EFL listening comprehension is composed of multiple listening subskills, which operate interactively and interdependently in the listening process. The results regarding the difficulty level and the hierarchy of listening subskills corroborate the findings of prior research that low-level processing, such as identifying specific information, poses less challenge than high-level processing, such as summarising and inferencing. Because of the complexity in the interaction between text type and listening subskills, it is difficult to identify an overarching hierarchical order of the six listening subskills across the three text types. A general pattern, however, is that the difficulty increased from SSK1, SSK2 to SSK6 irrespective of the text type, and this corresponds to the general subskill hierarchy. The study will benefit teachers and students with diagnostic profiling and bridge the gap in diagnostic test design with targeted items of appropriate difficulty for predicting learners' listening development. It will extend second language acquisition theory with a hierarchical trajectory of listening proficiency growth. Limitations and future research recommendations are discussed.

Japanese has figured frequently in second language acquisition (SLA) research, but more often than not it appears as the first language (L1) rather than the target. In this article, first I discuss the problems addressed and the insights obtained in these studies. I then consider two issues. One is what the field of SLA research should include. I suggest that it should include two categories, namely Core SLA Research, where second language (L2) linguistic knowledge is investigated, and Broad SLA research, where researchers study factors that influence the development of L2 knowledge. The other issue is what we can expect in Core SLA research concerning the L2 acquisition of Japanese. This article illustrates how studies of the L2 acquisition of Japanese can contribute to our understanding of SLA.

The second language acquisition (SLA) field has recently seen heightened interest in the study and application of positive psychology (PP). Emotion regulation is one of the concepts that has been stressed in PP. Several studies in PP have delved into how controlling one’s emotions improves second language learning/teaching. One of the concepts that has slipped the minds of researchers in the field is altruistic teaching. Unlike egocentric acts, altruistic teaching acts are performed to improve others’ well-being. Despite their importance in causing positive emotional effects, no study has investigated the impact of altruistic teaching acts on learners’ emotion regulation. To bridge this gap, the present study sought to investigate the effect of learners’ altruistic teaching on their emotion regulation. The study followed a sequential explanatory comparison group pre-test–post-test design. One hundred forty-one English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners were recruited for this intervention study and were divided into experimental and control groups. Learners in the experimental group performed altruistic teaching by teaching their peers how to write essays in English, whereas learners in the control group did group work tasks on English essay writing. The results of independent-sample t-tests and repeated-measures ANOVA showed that altruistic teaching significantly impacts EFL learners’ emotion regulation. The results of qualitative data pointed to five themes, including enjoyment, self-esteem, bonding, devotion, and progress. Overall, the results suggested that altruistic teaching impacts learners’ emotion regulation by enhancing their enjoyment, self-esteem, bonding, devotion, and progress. The paper has theoretical and pedagogical implications for SLA research and practice.

As a result of rigorous scholarship efforts over the past 50 years, a rich understanding has been gained regarding the processes associated with teaching and learning Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL). CFL particularly benefits from research in second language acquisition (SLA). This chapter provides a critical review of major SLA theories by examining three key constructs: learner language, second language learning processes, and second language learners. Implications of SLA findings on CFL learning and teaching are discussed in terms of setting realistic expectations for CFL learners, creating an optimal learning environment for CFL learning, and tailoring teaching to individual learners. The chapter concludes by highlighting areas in need of increased attention and alternate perspectives that will contribute to our understanding of the complexities associated with CFL learning and also generate theory-guided practices for CFL teaching and learning.

This study aims to explore the impact of age on vocabulary production in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and Spanish as an L1.Age is a recurrent variable in second language acquisition (SLA) research, but it also marks lexical knowledge in the L1.In terms of vocabulary production, age has been identified as a key factor affecting how speakers acquire and use vocabulary both in their L1 and additional languages.For this purpose, a semantic fluency task was conducted to explore the responses that senior primary (n = 17) and secondary school (n = 17) students elicit in response to the prompts 'Love' and 'Amar/amor'.All students (n = 34) shared Spanish as their L1 and had learned English through formal instruction, achieving a general proficiency level of A1/A2.The research questions that this study sought to answer were (1) to ascertain learners' vocabulary size in Spanish L1 and EFL, (2) to identify shared responses, and (3) to account for differences and similarities in lexical organisation between student cohorts.The results showed significant differences in the average number of tokens and types produced.The lexical availability graphs (LAGs) revealed that learners present similar categorisation patterns in both Spanish L1 and EFL.However, qualitative differences can be spotted in the most available words produced by older and younger learners.

In recent years, ELT publishers have been criticised for not incorporating the findings of second language acquisition (SLA) research into the design of their teaching materials. The first aim of this article is to inform teachers of key research findings from the cognitive-interactionist approach to SLA by discussing five environmental ingredients that contribute to optimal L2 learning. The second aim of this article is to demonstrate how these research findings can be practically applied to the selection and adaptation of teaching materials. It is the author’s hope that teachers will be encouraged to apply this knowledge to their teaching contexts, and be motivated to keep themselves informed of SLA research findings. Keywords: materials development, SLA research, cognitive-interactionism

Acknowledgements Introduction PART ONE - BACKGROUND Introduction 1. Second language acquisition research: an overview PART TWO - THE DESCRIPTION OF LEARNER LANGUAGE Introduction 2. Learner errors and error analysis 3. Developmental patterns: order and sequence in second language acquisition 4. Variability in learner language 5. Pragmatic aspects of learner language PART THREE - EXPLAINING SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: EXTERNAL FACTORS Introduction 6. Social factors and second language acquisition 7. Input and interaction and second language acquisition PART FOUR - EXPLAINING SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: INTERNAL FACTORS Introduction 8. Language transfer 9. Cognitive accounts of second language acquisition 10. Linguistic universals and second language acquisition PART FIVE - EXPLAINING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Introduction 11. Individual learner differences 12. Learning strategies PART SIX - CLASSROOM SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Introduction 13. Classroom interaction and second language acquisition 14. Formal instruction and second language acquisition PART SEVEN - CONCLUSION Introduction 15. Data, theory, and applications in second language acquisition research Glossary Bibliography Author index Subject index

The field of second language acquisition (SLA), a relatively new field of academic study, traces its roots only to the second half of the last century. The field of SLA has roots in various disciplines and areas of study, including the fields of child first language (L1) acquisition, linguistics, psychology, and language pedagogy. Thus, SLA has moved well beyond a one-sided focus on learner internal mechanisms, be they linguistic or cognitive. A great deal of SLA research has concentrated on differences between L1 and second language (L2) acquisition in terms of ultimate attainment. Some SLA researchers argue that learning is based on experience of language usage. More recent SLA research conducted within a cognitivist approach has been designed to provide online measures of processing and interpretation of the L2 and has thus shifted somewhat away from the analysis of naturalistic corpora.

This is a response to Sheen's (2002) critique of a review article on the relationship between second language acquisition (SLA) research and classroom second and foreign language teaching (Lightbown 2000). The review article was an update of an earlier one in Applied Linguistics titled ‘Great Expectations: Second Language Acquisition Research and Classroom Teaching’ (Lightbown 1985). The focus of the response is on clarifying points made in both the 1985 and 2000 articles and challenging some of Sheen's interpretation of those points. In particular, a distinction is made between the influence SLA research and theory have had on teaching and the influence of research and theory from other areas, including applied linguistics.

In the last two decades, Audiovisual Translation (AVT) studies have become of interest for Second Language Acquisition (SLA) researchers, particularly regarding the use of subtitles in language learning activities. This paper will present an experiment aimed at investigating the role of subtitled 'input enhancement' in SLA. The study involved a group of Italian native students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) from Milan University. They were exposed to a video with three different subtitling techniques (interlingual subtitles, intralingual subtitles, and enhanced intralingual subtitles), and they were asked to perform a proficiency test immediately after the exposure to the video. The study showed that visual enhancements in the subtitled input improve learners’ noticing process of language features, thus facilitating short-term vocabulary acquisition. The results proved that future SLA and AVT cross-studies should focus on input enhancement in the subtitles to improve learners’ noticing process of language features in the input.

In second language acquisition (SLA) research, some form of measurement is frequently used to produce empirical evidence for hypotheses about the nature and development of communicative competence. For example, SLA researchers test learners to investigate such aspects of interlanguage vocabulary as the acquisition of semantic (Kellerman 1978) and syntactic (Ard & Gass 1987) features of words, the structure of the L2 lexicon (Meara 1984; Singleton & Little 1991), lexicon size (Nation 1993), strategies associated with vocabulary use (Blum-Kulka & Levinson 1983), and automaticity of lexical access (Chitiri, Sun, Willows, and Taylor 1992). Tests are used for investigating vocabulary, as well as for SLA research in general, to elicit learners' performance in a defined context. In other words, taking the complement to Douglas's (Chapter 6, this volume) view of language tests as SLA elicitation devices, I consider SLA elicitation devices from the perspective of two principles that underlie language testing: construct definition and validation. These principles are important in SLA research because learners' performance on elicitation devices – like performance on language tests – is used to make inferences extending beyond the observed performance. For example, inferences are often made concerning the learner's underlying competence, which is a construct. Justification of the inferences made on the basis of performance is validation. On SLA elicitation devices, researchers would seldom rely on a single observation of performance to make inferences. Instead, performances are typically summarized across observations to produce scores or other descriptions of performance consistency.

Introduction . Contemporary research in second or foreign language (L2) acquisition integrates cognitive, affective, and sociocultural factors. However, variability in findings arises from methodological heterogeneity and differences in learner age. Aim . The present study aimed to systematise empirical data on the influence of working memory (WM), executive functions (EF), motivation, emotional intelligence, and anxiety on L2 acquisition success across different age groups, and to identify moderators related to task type and learning context. Methodology and research methods . In accordance with PRISMA guidelines, a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published from 2000 to September 2025 was conducted using the Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar databases. The inclusion criterion was the presence of a quantitative assessment of the relationship between at least one specified psycholinguistic factor and L2 performance. Random-effects models (REML), heterogeneity assessments (Q, τ², I²), Egger’s test for bias detection, and the trim-and-fill method were applied. Age, type of language task, and context (ESL/EFL/language environment) were included in the moderator analysis. Results . Out of 1,246 publications, 38 studies met the criteria. Strong correlations were found between L2 success and WM (r ≈ 0.54) and EF (d ≈ 0.46), as well as positive associations with motivation (r ≈ 0.32) and emotional intelligence (r ≈ 0.29). A negative correlation was observed with anxiety (r ≈ -0.25). These effects were more pronounced for lexical and reading tasks, in English as a Second Language (ESL) and language immersion contexts, and among young adults. For learners over 60, significant but more variable improvements were noted. Scientific novelty . Subject-specific and age-dependent mechanisms linking WM/EF to L2 outcomes have been identified. Methodological moderators related to research design have been quantitatively assessed for the first time. Practical significance . The results underscore the necessity of developing age- and context-specific methodologies that integrate a focus on form with the enhancement of EF/WM and anxiety regulation, utilising adaptive technologies – particularly for teaching older age groups.