Читать книгу The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition - Zoltan Dornyei - Страница 5

Second language acquisition (SLA) research has traditionally been part of the broader field of applied linguistics, and even today, the main international organization sponsoring SLA research is the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL). Hundreds of pages have been written about the fact that the label ‘applied linguistics’ does not do full justice to the field because of what it emphasizes and, more importantly, what it does not. Without going into detail, the curious fact is that many of today’s best-known applied linguists do not seem to be doing research that is particularly ‘applied’ and they would not necessarily call themselves ‘linguists’ either. As already highlighted in the Preface, the study of the acquisition, processing, and mental representation of a second/foreign language (L2) is in a process of transition towards acquiring a new disciplinary identity that is increasingly linked to aspects of relevant psychological research.

A good starting point for understanding the emerging new identity of our field is to map the main theoretical currents and academic areas that are contributing to the ongoing restructuring process. Broadly speaking, psychological influences have affected SLA theory through two main channels: (1) learning lessons from the growing knowledge about the brain in cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience; and (2) drawing on the extensive research on first language (L1) acquisition, which has traditionally been studied by developmental psycholinguists. In this chapter, I will first inspect the various academic disciplines that address aspects of the linguistics–psychology interface, and then I will look at the various forms of language acquisition, from mother-tongue learning to instructed SLA.