Second Language Acquisition Research

TeachersofEnglishtoSpeakersofOtherLanguages,Inc.(TESOL)SecondLanguageAcquisitionResearch:StakingouttheTerritoryAuthor(s):DianeLarsen-FreemanSource:TESOLQuarterly,Vol.25,No.2(Summer,1991),pp.315-350Publishedby:TeachersofEnglishtoSpeakersofOtherLanguages,Inc.(TESOL)StableURL::24/10/201009:25YouruseoftheJSTORarchiveindicatesyouracceptanceofJSTOR'sTermsandConditionsofUse,availableat://=tesol.EachcopyofanypartofaJSTORtransmissionmustcontainthesamecopyrightnoticethatappearsonthescreenorprintedpageofsuchtransmission.JSTORisanot-for-profitservicethathelpsscholars,researchers,andstudentsdiscover,use,andbuilduponawiderangeofcontentinatrusteddigitalarchive.Weuseinformationtechnologyandtoolstoincreaseproductivityandfacilitatenewformsofscholarship.FormoreinformationaboutJSTOR,[e-mail]ersofOtherLanguages,Inc.(TESOL)iscollaboratingwithJSTORtodigitize,preserveandextendaccesstoTESOLQuarterly.:StakingOuttheTerritoryDIANELARSEN-FREEMANSchoolforInternationalTrainingSinceitsemergencesome20yearsago,thefieldofsecondlanguageacquisitionresearchhasfocusedontwoareas:thenatureofthelanguageacquisitionprocessandthefactorswhichaffectlanguagelearners.Initialresearchwasessentiallydescriptive.Morerecently,researchershavebeenattemptingtoexplainhowacquisitionoccursandhowlearnerfactorsleadtodifferentialsuccessamonglearners.Thefocushasalternatelybroadenedasresearchersbecamemoreawareofthecomplexityoftheissuesandnarrowedasgreaterdepthofanalysiswasrequired.Thepapersuggeststhatthenextphaseofresearchwillbecharacter-izedbyaunionofthesetwofocalareas:learningandthelearner.Italsorecommendsthatmoreresearchattentionbegiventotutoredacquisition.OnecouldarguethatthelaunchingoftheTESOLQuarterly25yearsagopredatedtheemergenceofsecondlanguageacquisition(SLA)researchasanidentifiablefield.Accordingly,mytaskshouldhavebeeneasierthanthatofmycolleagueswritingforthesecommemorativeissuesoftheQuarterly.Thiswassmallcomfort,however,whenfacedwiththedauntingchallengeofdoingjusticetoallthathastranspiredsincetheearly1970s.1Whathasoccurredsincethen,ofcourse,isaveritableexplosionofresearchfocusingfirstupontheacquisition/learningprocessandseconduponthelanguagelearner.2Thisreviewwillbeorganizedaroundthesetwofociandaroundtwosubthemes:thealternatebroadeningand1Certainlysomeimportantstudiesoflanguagelearningwereconductedpriortothis(see,forexample,someoftheearlystudiescompiledinHatch,1978),butthesedidnotconstituteafieldofinvestigationaswastoemergeinthe1970s.2Itisbeyondthescopeofthisarticletotreateitherofthesecomprehensively.InterestedreadersmaywishtoconsultoverviewsbyEllis(1985),andLarsen-FreemanandLong(1991)formoredetail.Ihaveespeciallydrawnuponthelatterinwritingthisreview.Iwillalsobeunabletodealwithmattersconcerningresearchmethodologyinthisarticle.InterestedreadersshouldseeJ.D.Brown(1988),HatchandLazaraton(1991),KasperandGrotjahn(1991),andSeliger&Shohamy(1989).315narrowingofperspectiveonthefocusofinquiryandthemovementfromdescription(orwhatlearnersdo)toexplanation(orhowtheylearntodoit).THELEARNINGPROCESS:DESCRIPTIONABroadeningofPerspective3BeforetheemergenceofSLAasafield,researchersconductedcontrastiveanalysesbetweenthelearners'L1andL2inordertoan-ticipateareasofdivergencewhichwerelikelytocausethelearnersdifficultyandthoseofconvergencewhereonecouldexpectpositivetransfer.Thispracticewasconsistentwiththethenprevailingbehav-ioristviewoflanguageacquisition:learningbyconditioning.ItwasthoughtthatifmaterialscouldbepreparedwhichwouldhelplearnersovercometheconditionedhabitsoftheirL1whiletheywereimitatingthenewpatternsoftheL2,languageacquisitionwouldbefacilitated.ErrorsthatmightresultfrominterferencefromtheL1weretobepreventedoratleastheldtoaminimum.Ironically,itwaslearners'errors,sothreateningtobehaviorists,whichweretoleadtotheshiftinawarenessthatspawnedtheSLAfield.Overgeneralizationerrors(*Ieatedit)typicaloffirstlanguageacquirerswerediscoveredintheoralproductionofL2learners.Sincesucherrorscouldnothaveresultedfromimitationoftargetlanguage(TL)speech,theerrorsweretakenassupportforChomsky'sproposalthattheacquisitionprocesswasessentiallyoneofruleformation,nothabitformation.LearnerswereseentoplayanactiveroleinformingandtestinghypothesesinanefforttoinducetheTLrulesfromtheTLspeechtowhichtheywereexposed.Withtheascribingofanactiveroletothelanguagelearner,theSLAfieldwasborn.(See,forexample,Oiler&Richards,1973;Schumann&Stenson,1974).Learnererrorsbecameamajorfocusofstudy.Certainlyinterferenceerrorswer