What is Second Language Acquisition (SLA)?

By Davut Nhem, M.A. (TESOL), Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Second Language Acquisition has become the major study by scholars globally as a respond to the need of cultural and economic globalization. It is a new discipline but has gained its popularity rapidly in language education. When it comes to SLA, we seem to address the questions such as what do we know when we know a language, how language competence and proficiency are defined, what theories and factors that support the acquisition of a language. One researcher stated that SLA refers to the study of how a person who has knowledge of one language and acquire another language, and SLA aims to explain that process. It can also be said that SLA is the study of how humans acquire a new language which is not the first language. It is also the study of how a new language system is constructed although there is a limitation of exposure toward that language. SLA covers what is learned and not, and explains what most learners cannot achieve language proficiency as they do in their native language or first language. According to TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC (2018), SLA has two meanings; first it refers to the term which is used to describe a second language learning, and another is the thoery of language acquicition. SLA also can be sated as an inquiry field of study into how human learn langauges but not first lagnauge during childhood and adolesence when the first language has been picked up. To conclusion, SLA is objective to explain what to be considered when we know a language, why some learners are more successful than others when learning a new language, how humans pick up a new language after acquiring the language already, and what factors that help learners learn a new language successfully.

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