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In this position paper I will present, in a brief synthesis, the theories about the
acquisition of a second language: Nativist, Environmental, Interactionist and
Interlanguage theories. In this order, there will also be a conceptualization and
description of these theories with their respective hypotheses (in a general way) about
these theories previously mentioned or related to the acquisition of a second language,
and their contributions in the teaching of languages. And finally I will write about the
contributions of these theories and conceptions in my learning process as a teacher,
specifically in the conscious recognition of the processes of learning and acquisition
of a language, in a concrete way in the acquisition of English as a second language.
Likewise, the research on SLA comes from the second half of the XX century
(specifically in 70´s -80´s) which investigates the nature of the learning of languages
and the relationship with human behavior, from where various theories arise from
various fields of knowledge such as psychology and linguistics. At this point the
theories present various hypotheses on the learning of a second language and the
factors that block their learning, hence that the researchers on the learning of a
language expose some factors in which the acquisition of a SL: genetic-biological,
cultural, psychological or linguistic structures and conditions. In this same order of
ideas, some of the theories have elements in common or they are counterposed by
their postures or affirmations around the process of learning, the relation subject-
language or the relation subject-appropriation of the language.
Position paper 1 : SLA Theories
Jahirton Johan Mazo Jiménez
SLA course
The second theory is Environmental theory is a theory that the rate and level
of ultimate success of second language acquisition in naturalistic settings (without
instruction) is a function of the degree to which learners acculturate to the target
language community, also acculturation may involve a large number of social and
psychological variables, but is generally considered to be the process through which
an individual takes on the beliefs, values and culture of a new group. The linguistic
John Schumann includes the pidginization hypothesis in the environmental theory as
a variety of a language in which the sentence structure and the vocabulary of the
original language have been greatly reduced. Generally, elements from another
language have been absorbed, either in the form of vocabulary items or in the way
sentences are structured. In second language learning the development of a
grammatically reduced form of a target language. (Freeman, D., Long. M. 2014)
References