Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition

Traditionally, the central problem in the study of second language acquisition and use has been the determination of those factors that differentiate cases in which a relatively high degree of proficiency in a second language is attained from those cases in which it is not. Implicit in the pursuit of solutions to this problem is the assumption - fully justified on the basis of systematic as well as anecdotal observation - that the acquisition of a second or third or fourth language is, in the normal case, by no means inevitable as is the acquisition of a first language. The non-inevitability of second language acquisition gives rise to a variety of questions in the study of second language phenomena that do not ordinarily arise in the study of first; questions concerning the personality, motivations, general cognitive style, and (most importantly for the present discussion) the age of the learner, as well as features of the environmental conditions under which acquisition occurs.