The theoretical controversy that surrounds the acquisition of a second or foreign language is seemingly unending. Though there are dissensions in the literature, past studies had indicated that scholars tended to fall into two groups of schools of thought, the usage-based and the universal grammar-based approaches in second language acquisition. This paper reviews the literature of recently published findings in scholarly papers and contrasted the varied views of how second language can be acquired. Empirical evidence of both views are contrasted and discussed. Included in the discussion are environmental variables such as types of input and the length of input and non-environmental variables that are innate in learners.
Part of the book: Active Learning