SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PLATFORM

Abstract

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is a dynamic interdisciplinary field of inquiry that bridges linguistics, psychology, education, neuroscience, and related domains in studying how individuals acquire additional languages. Despite its broad implications, SLA remains relatively unfamiliar to many scholars interested in language, communication, and education. This paper briefly synthesizes key theoretical and empirical advances in SLA, emphasizing its significance within applied linguistics and across a spectrum of scholarly and professional domains. Early models, rooted in structuralism and behaviorism, cast language learning as rote habit formation driven by stimulus and response. Revision of these views eventually led to the cognitive paradigm shift and reframed learners as active agents constructing internal grammar through mental processes. The concept of interlanguage marked a turning point, positing that learners develop intermediate linguistic systems shaped by input, cognition, and individual variation. Current research explores the nuanced interplay between implicit and explicit learning, the role of comprehensible input, as well as the impact of interaction and corrective feedback in language development. Additionally, affective factors such as motivation, anxiety, and self-confidence are now considered integral to acquisition. In this expanded framework, SLA offers practical implications for language education and insights into the architecture of the mind, making it an essential interdisciplinary platform for philologists, educators, cognitive scientists, and policymakers alike.