A dynamic program strong in cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research and teaching

Second language acquisition (SLA) is a multidisciplinary field whose goal is to understand the processes that underlie the learning of a non-native language. SLA draws from a variety of academic disciplines, among them linguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics, sociology, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, and education.

All students in the SLA doctoral program take courses in SLA theory, multimedia, research methods, language learning and linguistics (see degree requirements).  In addition, each student defines an area of specialization, in consultation with his or her advisor. The two broad areas of specialization are Language Learning and Post-Secondary Education, and Linguistics and Psycholinguistics. Students working in the first area are interested in issues where SLA and pedagogy converge. Some examples of areas of interest in this specialization include classroom discourse, assessment, and the acquisition of grammatical knowledge in the classroom context. Within this area students may also focus on aspects of technology and how it facilitates second language acquisition. Students in the Linguistics/Psycholinguistics specialization are interested in studying areas of formal linguistics (e.g., syntax, phonology, morphology) and / or applied linguistics issues related to their particular second language focus. Sample student projects and foci within this area of SLA include the acquisition of the syntactic structures and / or phonological features of a second language, and generative and cognitive approaches to explaining acquisition. Students working within psycholinguistics may also focus on the relationship between language processing and language acquisition.