Cognitive and Cultural Styles in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

The goals of second language acquisition research, as of first language acquisi-tion research, are to determine exactlywhatis acquired and preciselyhowit is acquired. The first concern leads to questions such as the following in the case of second language acquisition [SLA]•How comparable are the first and second languages of the learners?•What effect does the perceived closeness or distance of the two languages have on second language acquisition?•Do learners only acquire linguistic categories and structures of the second language, or do they also acquire a different set of cognitive structures and cultural categories? And finally,•Do they acquire only linguistic rules, or do they also acquire the sociocultural conventions of language use relevant to the second language?The second concern leads to the following question:•What role do cognitive styles, learning strategies, and personality factors—either innate or acquired as a result of socialization in a particular community—play in second language acquisition?