Hanieh Shafiee Rad

SLA Course
Reaction Paper 2
14 October 2021
The study of SLA begins in 1900. It is one of the important fields around the world

because lots of individuals (i.e. child and adult) learning a second language and they trust to

the experience of researchers in the process of their learning (Doughty & Long, 2005).

Interestingly, some researchers believe that there are not any differences between second

language acquisition or learning. In other words, both language acquisition and learning

concerns about applied linguistics meaning that they pay attention to the individuals who speak

the language, not the language itself. There are four broad areas in making the sense of SLA:

1) the acquisition of role system and the acquisition of vocabulary; 2) the development of

language skills; 3) the beliefs that teachers and learners hold about SLA; and 4) the practice of

teaching and learning (Macaro, 2010). Each of these parts is explained below.

Certain words are closely associated with acquiring the grammar of the SLA (e.g.,

acquisition order, processibility, bilingual children, working memory limitation, the role of the

L1, and avoidance). These areas of interest are concerned with constraints being placed on the

acquisition of the SLA rule system. There are two overarching theories of rule system

acquisition (Macaro, 2010). The first is the theory of the relationship between language and the

human brain. The second theory compares the human brain to an extremely powerful and

intelligent computer that processes incoming information and develops the patterns of

language.

The acquisition of the SLA lexicon aims to discover how the meaning (semantics) and

the form (phonology and morphology) of words and short phrases are perceived, processed,

stored, and eventually retrieved for use. The study of vocabulary acquisition appears to relate

more directly to research on the development of language skills than researches on the
acquisition of rules (Macaro, 2010). Consequently, those researchers working on grammar

acquisition appear to want to promote explicit grammar teaching (Ellis, 2015). On the other

hand, researchers working with vocabulary acquisition appear to be less concerned with the

teaching method as with what are the options available to the learner for learning vocabulary

and using them in a real-life context.

There are two types of skills (productive and receptive) in SLA. Regarding receptive

skills, there is an overlap between listening and reading. Both areas of research demonstrate an

interest in the role of metacognition (planning, predicting, monitoring, and evaluating) to

further the process of comprehension (Macaro, 2010). In addition, both suggest that top-down

and bottom-up processing provides the means of overcoming SLA comprehension problems

by compensating, complementing, and confirming each other. There are also some differences

between them. For example, in listening authors have been interested in whether repeating

increases comprehension or not. In contrast, in reading the interest is on text structure. In the

case of productive skills, it should be noticed that speaking is not necessarily a mirror image

of writing. Even though may draw on similar theories of language production. In addition, the

areas of interest diverge considerably. Perhaps the most obvious illustration is in the area of

feedback. In contrast, in both skills, the research should concentrate on planning to write or

speak.

Another important factor is teachers' and students' beliefs about SLA (Doughty & Long,

2005). Language teachers' beliefs are linked to what theories they hold about their practice.

Some of the beliefs have been an exploration of how they see themselves as a teacher and what

is their role in the classroom. On the other hand, some of the beliefs concentrated on how

teachers acquire their beliefs about pedagogy. Furthermore, the learner's belief about SLA

learning, teacher, teaching, classmates should be taken into account (Ellis, 2015). Finally,

teachers' behaviors and instructional systems are important factors in the teaching approach. In
this regard, there has been considerable interest in terms of whether teacher behavior changes

as a result of in-service training or teacher development programs, and which program types

are most effective.

Overall, studying SLA is a very complex phenomenon and different factors (e.g.,

grammar and vocabulary system, receptive and productive skills, teacher's and student's beliefs,

and teaching approach) can affect it.

References
Doughty, C. J., & Long, M. H. (Eds.). (2005). The handbook of second language acquisition.

USA: Blackwell Publishing.

Ellis, R. (2015). Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford University Press.

Macaro, M. (Ed.). (2010). Continuum companion to second language acquisition. Great

Britain: Continuum.