Universidad técnica particular de loja la universidad Técnica Particular de Loja

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
By now you might be familiar with the concept of native language 
acquisition and probably u have inferred the meaning of the term 
“foreign language acquisition”. Indeed the term “foreign language” (also 
called second language or “L2”) represents any language other than the 
first language learned (Lightbown & Spada – 1999). 
In order to explain how second language is acquired, many 
theories have been developed which are similar to the ones reviewed 
during the study of the native language acquisition and as those ones, 
they try to explain how does the process of SLA (second language 
acquisition) develops.
Some of these theories give primary importance to the learner’s 
innate characteristics; some emphasise the role of the environment in 
texturing language learning; and others try to integrate both (learner 
characteristics and environmental factors) in order to find out how SLA 
takes place. 
First of all, we have to focus on the general aspects of all the 
theories. These aspects, as mentioned above, are: learner characteristics 
and environmental factors. To sum up this clearly I have conveniently 
constructed the following chart:

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Features
Learner characteristics
Knowledge of another 
language
- May be an advantage 
since it gives learners the 
ability to predict second 
language behaviour.
- It could also be a 
disadvantage when native 
language 
structures 
“interferes” with the SLA.
Cognitive maturity
Metalinguistic
Knowledge of the world
Nervousness about speaking.
Learning conditions
Freedom to be silent
Ample time
Corrective feedback: grammar and pronunciation
Corrective feedback: word choice
Modified input
After reviewing the main characteristics of all the theories behind 
second language acquisition, we can proceed to analyse directly which 
are these theories and what do they consist of.
Basically, there are three main points of view which try to explain 
SLA and they are: Behaviourism, Innatism and interactionism 
(Lightbown &Spada – 1999). 

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As we saw earlier, behaviourism state that the language is 
acquired trough repetition and practise rather than by another way. In 
this theory learners receive linguistic input from speakers in their 
environment and they form ‘associations’ between words and objects or 
events. These associations then become stronger as experiences are 
repeated (Lightbown &Spada – 1999).
This approach also is related to the Contrastive Analysis 
hypothesis (CAH) which states that whenever the second language holds 
similarities towards the native language, the learner would develop the 
process of SLA in a faster and accurate way. 
Similarly when the structures differ a lot the learner would 
experiment difficulty depending on the degree of difference between the 
native and the second language. 
In the other hand, Innatism (the second SLA approach) can not 
fully explain SLA by itself since it depends on the age of the learner. 
That is, innatism is no longer available to guide the acquisition of a 
second language in learners who have passed the critical period for 
language acquisition. 
This implies the usage of another theory to support innatism. This 
is the point where Krashen’s ‘monitor model’ takes the lead.
Stephen Krashen (1982) claims that there are five hypotheses 
which represent the ways a person can acquire a second language. 
These hypotheses can be described this way:

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