Historical Overview of

Second Language Acquisition

By : Aiman Azam Mira Sehah
What is second language acquisition?
• It is a process of learning another language after learning the first
language.
• A person's second language or L2, is a language that is not the native
language of the speaker, but that is used in the locale of that person
Brief History
• SLA started in the late 1960s
• In 1980s and 1990s, SLA was more known as a scope and
methodology
• At the end of the twentieth century, it finally becomes an
autonomous discipline
Stephen Krashen, 1982
• There are two independent system of acquiring a second language.
• First, the acquired system.
• Second, the learned system.
Stephen Krashen, 1982
• The acquisition system is similar like how children learned their first language.

• The acquisition system, which naturally occurs when a person receives plenty of
comprehensible input, has a low affective filter, and the focus of the language
lesson is on communication and meaningful use of the language.

• If these criteria are met, the language enters the learner’s LAD and is acquired
into the mind - a totally unconscious process.

• The advantage to acquiring a language is that the language becomes part of the
linguistic system of the learner and can be automatically used in conversations
and communication with the target culture group.
Stephen Krashen, 1982
• The learned system is through a formal instruction. For example, children
learned in classroom.
• The learning system is activated when the learner is conscious of the
language and is focused on the form and rules of the language.
• Learning a language encourages the student to focus on editing and
planning the language rather than communicating with the language.
• Learning occurs most often in a grammar-based, drill and practice type
instructional setting.
• Although learning is an important aspect of second language acquisition,
Krashen believes that in order to fully use language in a communicative
setting, the second language student must first acquire the language
before learning is introduced.
• Krashen’s Monitor Theory offers numerous linguistic explanations for
the acquisition of a second language, it fails to completely address the
social or psychological aspects of learning a second language.
• These additional factors are important in second language learning.
• Too often teachers are faced with linguistically capable students
whose feelings of alienation, fear or frustration toward the target
culture prevent them from acquiring high proficiency in the second
language.
• The Environmentalist theory of second language acquisition
specifically addresses the affective aspects of second language
learning.