Bilingualism and second language acquisition

Abstract

Bilingualism is an intricate and multidimensional linguistic behavior that can be studied from different perspectives. It is defined as the use of at least two languages either by an individual or by a group of speakers. Bilingualism is the norm in most countries of the world. Bilingualism and Second language acquisition have been investigated from different perspectives and views by several separate groups of researchers whose work has not been integrated into a single point of view. In this study we distinguish and differentiate main lines of research on second language acquisition and review the contribution of each group separately. The main views of second language acquisition which in this study we considered to investigate their notions and their contributions toward second language acquisition include foreign language researchers, child language researchers, linguists’ approaches to second language acquisition, psycholinguists’ approaches to second language processing and finally sociocultural approaches. Obviously, many of the discrepancies and differing conclusions by researchers from these various groups manifest their interests in different aspects of bilingualism and second language acquisition.