ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the debates, first with respect to a psychology-based perspective and second language acquisition (SLA)-related perspective. Psychological accounts of human learning have also informed theoretical positions seeking to explain how foreign language (L2) knowledge develops. Learning describes a conscious process of acquainting oneself with relevant rules and patterns as a result of explicit instruction as well as various types of practice and corrective feedback. Research in developmental psychology has also yielded evidence that statistical learning, which relies on computations done on the basis of units and patterns, such as syllables or syntactic categories, can also contribute to the mastery of linguistic information without awareness. The measures of L2 knowledge have become more and more advanced, with some researchers incorporating tools employed in psychological experiments, such as eye tracking or electrophysiological measures. SLA research has heavily drawn upon theories proposed to explain diverse phenomena in the field of psychology.
