Second Language Acquisition

The intent of this chapter is to provide a selective overview of current second language acquisition (SLA) research. I begin by presenting several approaches to SLA, including formal linguistics, sociolinguistics/sociocultural theory and psycholinguistics. I then consider the roles of input, interaction, feedback and output as they relate to the acquisition of second language knowledge. The goal of this latter part is to show how this view of acquisition (the Input/Interaction/Output (IIO) approach) allows researchers to take into account a number of concepts which are necessary for understanding how second language learning takes place. In particular, I consider the role of attention as it relates to second language (L2) learning, particularly in the context of input, interaction, feedback and output. [See Vihman, Saxton and Peters, this volume for discussions of the role of attention in first language acquisition: SFC.]