THE GENERATIVE APPROACH TO SLA AND ITS PLACE IN MODERN SECOND LANGUAGE STUDIES

• Published in: Studies in second language acquisition Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 417 - 442
• Main Authors: Rothman, Jason, Slabakova, Roumyana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.06.2018
• Subjects: Adults; Audiences; Generative Grammar; Language Acquisition; Language Research; Learning Processes; Linguistic Input; Misconceptions; Paradigms; Periodicals; Research Methodology; Role; Second Language Learning; State of the Scholarship
• ISSN: 0272-2631; 1470-1545
• DOI: 10.1017/S0272263117000134

This article has two main goals. The first is to summarize and comment on the current state of affairs of generative approaches to SLA (GenSLA), 35 years into its history. This discussion brings the readership of SSLA up to date on the questions driving GenSLA agendas and clears up misconceptions about what GenSLA does and does not endeavor to explain. We engage key questions, debates, and shifts within GenSLA such as focusing on the deterministic role of input in language acquisition, as well as expanding the inquiry to new populations and empirical methodologies and technologies used. The second goal is to highlight the place of GenSLA in the broader field of SLA. We argue that various theories of SLA are needed, showing that many existing SLA paradigms are much less mutually exclusive than commonly believed (cf. Rothman & VanPatten, 2013; Slabakova, Leal, & Liskin-Gasparro, 2014, 2015; VanPatten & Rothman, 2014)—especially considering their different foci and research questions.