Research into language learning

For many years there has been a serious discrepancy between second language acquisition (SLA) research findings on the way foreign languages (FLs) are learned and the way many universities have continued to teach them to students. This chapter presents findings from SLA research and seeks to relate them to classroom practice. It looks first at universal aspects of learning an FL, the major concern of SLA research, and then considers the crucial role of individual learner differences and their influence on the acquisition process.