THE THEORIES OF SECOND L ANGUAGE ACQUISITION T HE PRINCIPAL purpose of this book is to offer teachers and future teachers information for developing an integrated understanding of the principle of second language acquisition (SLA) that underlie the pedagogical process. That purpose has necessarily involved theoretical consideration. A theory, as I note in the first chapter, is an extended definition. Is there such an integrated, unified theory of SLA, a standard set of constructs to which large numbers of researchers and teacher predominantly subscribe? The answer is, not exactly. As surely as competing models are typical of all disciplines that attempt to give explanatory power to complex phenomena, so this field has its fair share of claims and hypotheses, each vying for credibility and validity. In this chapter we will critically examine a n...
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