Five Periods: Brief History of Second Language
Acquisition
Jia, G. J. (2004). Chapter 8 Theories of second language
acquisition. In Applied linguistics: An advanced course (pp.
145-194). Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education
Press
Selected Topic: Brief History (pp.149-156), including early period
(1920s-1950s), the revolution of SLA theories (1960s), description period
(1970s), explanation period (1980s), diverse period (1990s).
1. Early period (1920s - 1950s) ························· 2
2. The revolution of SLA theories (1960s) ············ 3
3. Description period (1970s) ··························· 4
4. Explanation period (1980s) ··························· 5
5. Diverse period (1990s) ································ 6
Summary ··················································· 7
Insofar as SLA theories change rapidly with the development of SLA
research, when were they first established? Most researchers agree that they
were established in the late 1960s (Jia, 2001). Here a brief history of SLA
theories is presented.
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1. Early period (1920s - 1950s)
Before and in the 1950s, the view of how L1 and L2 were learnt was
derived from behaviourist theories, which emphasize the role of the
learning environment. Learners learn language as a result of responding to
the chain: stimulus — response — reinforcement. Language learning is seen
as habit-formation, the learning environment is very important for learners,
and the learner's external factors are focused on.
Behaviourist theories first emerged in the 1920s in Watson's book
Behaviourism (1924), followed by Thorndike's The Fundamentals of
Learning (1932), Bloomfield's Language (1933), Skinner's Behaviour of
Organisms: An Experimental Analysis (1938) and Verbal Behaviour (1957),
and Lado's Linguistics Across Cultures (1957), which is about Contrastive
Analysis.
Chomsky's book Syntactic Structures (1957) and his article, “Review of
B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behaviour” (1959), which was a serious critique of
Verbal Behaviour, dealt the approach a blow from which it never recovered.
During this long period, SLA research was not established as an
independent field, but the study of language pedagogy in this period
built a good foundation for SLA research.
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2. The revolution of SLA theories (1960s)
Before the 1960s, the study of language was dominated mainly by
behaviourism as applied to language and teaching, even though Chomsky's
publications against behaviourism had appeared by the late 1950s. The
behaviourist view continued to be seriously challenged in the 1960s.
After Chomsky strongly attacked the behaviourist theory, some researchers
initiated some theories of L2 learning that de-emphasized the role of the
environment and paid much more attention to learner-internal factors than
learner-external factors, such as Chomsky's Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
(1965), Newmark's (1966) “How not to Interfere in Language Learning”,
Corder's (1967) “The Significance of Learners' Errors”, etc.
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In the middle of the 1960s, Chomsky’s school dominated the field of
language acquisition. Chomsky coined the famous independent grammars
assumption — the LAD (Language Acquisition Device) model:
primary input (linguistic data)→LAD→generative grammar (linguistic
competence).
This period also saw another shift in psychology from behaviourism to
cognitionism.
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3. Description period (1970s)
In the 1970s, SLA researchers focused on the description of how L2
acquisition takes place. Many studies produced evidence to suggest that
learners with diverse language backgrounds appeared to follow more or less
a standard route in the acquisition of grammatical morphemes and such
areas of syntax as negation and interrogation (Lightbown, 1987, as cited in
Ellis, 1992).
In this period, some publications about SLA appeared, such as Corder's
Describing the Language Learner's language (1971) and Error Analysis
(1974), Nemser's (1971) Approximative Systems of Foreign Language
Learner, Selinker's “Language transfer” (1969), “Interlanguage” (1972), B.
Taylor’s (1975) “The use of overgeneralization and transfer learning
strategies by elementary and intermediate students of ESL”, R. Andersen’s
(1979) “The relationship between first language transfer and second language
overgeneralization”, A. Chamot’s (1979) “Strategies in the acquisition of
English structures by a child bilingual in Spanish and French”, S. P. Corder’s
(1978) “Strategies of communication”, Richards' (1974) Error Analysis:
Perspectives on second language learning, Schumann's (1978) The
Pidginisation Process: A Model for Second Language Acquisition, etc.
"In the 1950s and 1960s the primary objective was pedagogic.
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Researchers were interested in trying to improve the way in which second
languages were taught. Hence, they were interested in discovering how those
languages were learned. From the 1970s on, the focus shifted from the
teacher to the learner and the field of L2 instruction became somewhat
separate." (Archibald, 2000)
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4. Explanation period (1980s)
In the 1980s, the focus on SLA research was greatly changed; it was a
period when the concern for description and theory building gave way to the
concern for explanation and theory-testing.
More publications about SLA could be found, such as Chomsky's (1981)
Lectures on
Government and Binding (Universal Grammar), Krashen's
Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning (1981),
Pienemann's (1986) “Is Language Teachable”, and Lydia White's (1989)
Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition, etc.
Lydia White's book has been very influential in the field of SLA and
many researchers and linguists quoted the main ideas it presented. In this
book, the potential relationship between linguistic universals and SLA are
explored. In particular, we are concerned with a principles-and-parameters
approach to Universal Grammar (UG), as realized in Government and
Binding ( G B ) Theory (Chomsky, 1981, as cited in White, 1989). This book
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discusses the basic elements of UG, which is very useful and helpful for
those who are interested in SLA, especially in UG theory.
Additionally, many SLA theories (models, hypotheses) came out. This
general trend was a movement away from a "research then theory" approach
and towards a "theory then research" approach (Ellis, 1992). During this
period, UG and second language acquisition were largely and widely
developed as disciplines, more and more researchers were interested in SLA
research, including the study of SLA theories, and more and more linguists
and applied linguists did their hard job of researching of SLA.
During this period, some researchers conducted many case studies to
investigate the relationship between SLA and language pedagogy.
5. Diverse period (1990s)
We can easily find, during the 1990s, that many researchers continued
their research to explain the process of how people acquire SLA, and more
different SLA theories (models, hypotheses) appeared. Meanwhile, some
researchers were interested in linguistic theories and SLA, and others in the
relation between SLA theories and language pedagogy and corpus linguistics.
Between 1970s and 1990s, many journals dedicated to SLA theories
appeared, including Studies in Second Language Acquisition (SSLA), Second
Language Research, Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, Natural
Language and Linguistic Theories, and Applied Psycholinguistics.
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Summary
Archibald (2001) summarizes the brief history of SLA in his lecture as
the following: in the 1950s-1960s, pedagogy was emphasized, and
researchers paid attention to "how to teach", focusing on the teacher; but
from the 1970s on, psycholinguistics and linguistics were emphasized, and
researchers paid attention to "how to learn", focusing on the learner.
From the change of "the scope of SSLA (Studies in Second Language
Acquisition)" in Albert Valdman's article "20th Anniversary of SSLA" (1998),
we can find the evolution of SLA research. In the first issue of SSLA (1978),
"Studies in Second Language Acquisition addressed itself to the study of the
process of acquisition of a second language and the relationship between the
development of linguistic competence and communicative competence in a
second language."
In Volume 7 (1985), the mission was described in a different way from
that of 1978. Notably, foreign language learning was included: "Studies in
Second Language Acquisition is devoted to problems and issues in second
language and foreign language learning, defined broadly to include
problems of language contact — interference, transfer, pidginization.
Although preference is given to theoretically oriented papers and reports of
empirical research, discussions of pedagogical issues will be considered if
they refer to major theoretical issues in the field."
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In Volume 20 (1998), the guidelines for submissions read,
"Theoretically based articles reporting research studies are preferred.
However, empirical investigations of the interface between SLA and
language pedagogy, such as classroom interaction or the effects of instruction,
will also be considered."
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