ABSTRACT
As with the field of linguistics, the field of psychology has significantly influenced the study of SLA. In this chapter, we outline approaches to SLA with a basis in psycholinguistic processing rather than in linguistic structures. In linguistics, the emphasis is on constraints on grammar formation, whereas, in psychology, the emphasis is on the actual mechanisms involved in SLA, as well as on issues (e.g., working memory capacity) that affect those mechanisms. This is not to say that there is no overlap, only that each approach has its own particular emphasis.
