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What's in a name? Why ‘SLA’ is no longer fit for purpose and the emerging, more equitable alternatives
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Anderson, Jason (2022) What's in a name? Why ‘SLA’ is no longer fit for purpose and the emerging, more equitable alternatives. Language Teaching, 55 (4). pp. 427-433. doi:10.1017/s0261444822000192 ISSN 0261-4448.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444822000192
Abstract
This essay argues that, in the face of a number of paradigmatically important shifts in applied linguistics over the past twenty or so years, the term ‘second language acquisition’ (SLA) is no longer fit for purpose, insomuch as it misrepresents or excludes the object of research of many academics in the field today. This essay first offers evidence of the paradigm changes in question before charting the history of the term ‘second language acquisition’ and documenting a number of calls for change that have to date gone largely unheeded. It then presents the emerging alternative terms that constitute the core of many contemporary definitions of SLA: ‘additional language learning’, and ‘additional language development’, briefly discussing the relative merits of both as well as other less likely, but descriptively accurate, alternatives. It concludes by pointing out, firstly, that the changes proposed may be inevitable – we have essentially already redefined the field, we just need to acknowledge it – and secondly, that it is descriptively and ethically appropriate to do so.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics | ||||||||
SWORD Depositor: | Library Publications Router | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Second language acquisition, Language acquisition, Sociolinguistics | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Language Teaching | ||||||||
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0261-4448 | ||||||||
Official Date: | October 2022 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 55 | ||||||||
Number: | 4 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 427-433 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1017/s0261444822000192 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||
Description: | Christopher Brumfit Essay Prize 2021 |
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Date of first compliant deposit: | 8 September 2022 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 12 September 2022 |
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