ABSTRACT
There is a growing recognition of the need to expand the theoretical scope and the database of SLA research, including using the interaction approach, to move beyond a narrowly cognitive orientation to include the impact of social factors on cognition. So, for example, a collection of papers in a special issue of the Modern Language Journal that is dedicated to exploring the topic was published in December 2007. In April 2007, leading researchers gathered in an international conference to discuss the social and cognitive aspects of second language learning and teaching at The University of Auckland, New Zealand, to result in an edited volume on the same topic. Work relating the social and the cognitive in SLA promises both to enlarge a database on learner language which has been too narrowly focused on educated learners in schools and academia (Bigelow & Tarone, 2004; Tarone & Bigelow, 2005), and to expand the theoretical scope of SLA.
