What does second language acquisition study?

Basic concepts of second language acquisition research

1. mother tongue: usually refers to the language used by the ethnic group to which the learner belongs, so it is also called "mother tongue". Generally speaking, mother tongue is usually the first language that children come into contact with and acquire after birth. Therefore, the mother tongue is usually called the "first language".

2. Target language: also known as "target language", generally refers to the language that learners are learning. It emphasizes that any language a learner is learning has nothing to do with the language acquisition environment of the learner.

3. First language: refers to the language that children first come into contact with and acquire when they are young.

4. Second language: relative to any other language acquired by learners except the first language. It emphasizes the order of language acquisition, which has nothing to do with the environment of language acquisition.

5. Acquisition: refers to "informal" language acquisition. "Acquisition" usually refers to the "subconscious" language acquisition in the natural state. Implicit learning is to acquire language knowledge through unconscious or subconscious means. What is acquired through "acquisition" is "tacit language knowledge".

6. Learning: refers to the "formal" learning of language rules, that is, the acquisition of a second language through classroom teaching. Generally speaking, it refers to the acquisition of "conscious" language knowledge. Explicit learning is to acquire language knowledge through rule learning in a conscious state. What is gained through "learning" is "explicit language knowledge".

7. Second language acquisition: refers to learners learning the target language in the target language country. The target language learned by learners is regarded as a communication tool in the target country, and it is also a communication tool for learners.

8. Foreign language acquisition: The language learned by learners is not used as a communication tool for the whole community in China, and the language learned by learners is mainly learned in the classroom.

9. Second language environment: refers to the language that learners learn as a communicative language in the environment where language acquisition occurs.

10. Natural second language acquisition: refers to the acquisition of a second language through communication, and language acquisition usually takes place in a natural social environment.

1 1. Guided second language acquisition: second language acquisition through teaching guidance usually takes place in classroom teaching environment.

12. Language ability: It is composed of psychological representations of internal grammar rules of both parties. Language competence is a kind of psychological grammar that reflects the language knowledge of both parties in communication. It is this tacit language knowledge that is the basis of native speakers' intuitive judgment of sentence grammaticality. Language competence is knowledge about language.

13. Language expression: the use of internal grammar by both parties in the process of language understanding and generation. Language expression is knowledge about language use.