A comparison of audio-only versus audio-visual second language instruction in first-year university-level Spanish

During the second half of this century, the study of language acquisition has changed from its original emphasis on language teaching methodologies. Since the late 1960s (Ellis, 1995), a number of studies have focused on second language learning, which "introduced a new research agenda and gave definition to the field that has come to be known as second language acquisition" (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991, p. 5). This new research agenda looks closely at learner styles and the learning process. Researchers have learned much of what we know about language acquisition in the three decades since the introduction of the field of second language acquisition, or SLA (Dulay, Burt & Krashen, 1982; Ellis, 1995). Gass (1989) uses Ellis' (1985) definition of second language acquisition, which is "the study of how learners learn an additional language after they have acquired the mother tongue" ( p. 499). The findings of second language research aid foreign language instructors in the classroom because teachers who use these ideas are better able to meet the needs of their students.

When referring to a language other than the first language, usually a distinction is made between a second language and a foreign language. A second language is a language being acquired in the milieu in which it is the native tongue, such as English being studied by a Korean in England. A foreign language is a language acquired outside of an environment where it is the native tongue, such as a Spaniard's study of French in Spain. Although some researchers choose to differentiate between a second language and a foreign language, "SLA has really come to mean the acquisition of any language(s) other than one's native language" (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991, p. 7).