Rod Ellis

A Short History of SLA: Where Have We Come from and Where Are We Going? The study of how people learn languages has a long history but it became an identifiable sub-area of applied linguistics in the 1960s driven by two seminal papers (Corder, 1967; Selinker, 1970), which motivated intensive empirical enquiry. Early research focused on investigating the order and sequence of L2 acquisition, leading into work on variability in learner language and rethinking the role of the L1. Subsequently, researchers turned to the role of input and interaction, implicit and explicit learning, and the importance of consciousness in language learning. At this stage, SLA was predominantly a cognitive-interactionist enterprise directed at explaining how learners acquire grammar. However, the 1990s saw a social turn in SLA. There was greater emphasis on the social context of learning, on learners’ social identity, and on different aspects of language. Sociocultural SLA became a major influence at this time. More recently, the c