Theoretical Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, and Language Pedagogy

For three decades theoretical linguistics has had little impact on language teaching, although sociolinguistics has been employed in curriculum design and test construction. Applied linguistics has been eclectic and has seldom applied pure linguistic research. Theoretical linguists, for their part, have not encouraged attempts to apply their results. Theory and practice were separated largely because the theoretical results were so tentative. However, recent theoretical advances suggest important applications for linguistic theory in foreign language teaching and in the testing of proficiency. The acquisition of a nonnative language is probably subject to biological constraints that are closely related to those factors that guide and control first language acquisition. Methodology and test construction must allow for this. Research must determine precisely what the factors are and how they interact. Theoretical linguists interested in such research should be included in interdisciplinary teams working on foreign language learning and testing.