ABSTRACT
The goal of this chapter is to acquaint the reader with basic principles and models of second language acquisition (SLA) and to review works that directly relate to Arabic. The first section discusses general issues of second language acquisition and the relationship of SLA to language teaching. The second presents some general principles that are central to the field, and the third outlines a variety of approaches to SLA. The final section deals with an important area where there is an interface between skill learning (in this instance, reading) on the one hand and a grammatical domain (the Arabic root system) and lexical knowledge on the other. The chapter deals with an important area where there is an interface between skill learning (in this instance, reading) on the one hand and a grammatical domain (the Arabic root system) and lexical knowledge on the other. The acquisition of Arabic is a field awaiting exploration.
