Second Language Acquisition

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Second Language Acquisition With the globalization of human activities and societies English has become one of the most widely used languages. Language is used for self expression, problem solving and creative writing, but it is essentially used for communication. As never before people have to learn a second language, not just for pastime, but often as a means of obtaining an education or securing employment. Initial SLA approaches, theories, and hypotheses, that surround how we acquire a second language, have been derived from how we learned our first language. Long suggested in 1993 that there were 40 to 60 current SLA theories (Mangubhai, 2006), and this number has grown since that time. One of the on-going concerns is that no one theory can bring together all of the variables that go into learning a second language. Therefore, the term ‘theory’ is almost a misnomer for ‘part’ or a ‘partial understanding’ of how second languages are learned. The connection between theory, or approach, and belief was made explicit by Edward Anthony in the 1960’s: “approach is the level at which assumptions and beliefs about language learning are specified” (Richards, 2003, p.19). One issue which causes controversy are the unsolved controversies in the field of Applied Linguistics, due to its apparent rejection of Krashen’s main thesis the Monitor Model. Despite its popularity, the Monitor Theory was criticized by theorists and researchers mainly on the grounds of its definitional adequacy. Gregg (1984) rejects the most fundamental of Krashen’s Hypotheses, the acquisition-learning dichotomy. Furthermore, we have the Comprehensible Output thesis developed by Swain, who claims that learning takes place when encountering a gap in the linguistic knowledge of the L2. She also claims that Comprehensible Output facilitates second language learning in ways that differ from and
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