Second Language Acquisition and Teaching: How the External and Internal Factors Affect SLA

Abstract

This paper mainly reviews the features of second language acquisition, and the influential factors on second language acquisition, including the influence of first language, metalinguistic awareness, and culture, along with why these factors are important. Analyzing how these factors affect second language acquisition helps to find out what kind of difficulties learners might encounter during the process of second language acquisition. Both external factors and internal factors should be taken into account. Since learners all over the world have different first languages, their first language plays an important role in second language acquisition, which will affect the learners’ speed of accepting the second language. For the individual part, metalinguistic awareness which is usually formed at a young age, and can be recognized as a kind of linguistic talent also impact second language acquisition. Additionally, culture is a kind of surroundings during the process of second language acquisition, which will affect the learners’ psychological conditions. With the awareness of how these three factors influence second language acquisition, acquires can correct their mistakes more easily, and teachers also should place emphasis on the particular aspects to improve their teaching qualities of the second language.