The Challenges of Logical Problem in SLA: A Critical Response Paper

Abstract

Second language acquisition (SLA), the process by which people learn a second
language, belongs to the second half of twenty century. Outstandingly, it has been a great boom
since 1960s. Nevertheless, the controversial question of possible similarities between the
processes and problems of first and second language acquisition has left rather in a fuzzy
shadow. Accordingly, the current critical paper is specifically based on the logical problem of
SLA so as to clarify and analyze this challenging problem. To illustrate, Universal Grammar
(UG) is called the so-called logical problem of language acquisition in generative theory. The
nature of the problem becomes apparent when we take into account the end product of the
acquisition process and compare this to the input data, which do not seem sufficiently rich or
precise to allow the learner to work out all the complexities of the adult grammar, unless one
assumes the availability of certain innate principles (UG). All in all, it can vaguely be mentioned
that the term no access to UG in SLA is a misnomer. Thus, it is assumed that second language
learners have partial or indirect access to UG. At the same time, second language acquisition is,
to some extent, like first language acquisition, and the same theoretical constructs can be
invoked to explain both. Developmental L2 errors which rather mirror those committed by the
L1 learners can readily prove this claim as well.