The role that social factors play in Second Language Acquisition (SLA): an observation of tertiary level students in Bangladesh

Abstract

Language is certainly one of the most unique human traits that people occupy. Although acquiring native or first language is quite innate and easier, when it comes to learn a whole new language the process becomes difficult at times. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is termed as a parasitic discipline as it encompasses more or less all the factors of other disciplines like, cognitive, social, affective psychologies, sociology etc. Moreover, bearing in mind that acquisition and learning are two different processes of SLA where the former happens subconsciously and the latter occurs with intentional efforts, the role that social factors play in learners’ L2 learning journey in a non-native context like Bangladesh is a matter of grave importance. In fact, even though Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method of L2 teaching and learning has been introduced to the education system long ago, few students of Bangladesh are improving within their podiums whereas few others are lagging behind in terms of successfully acquiring all the four skills of English (reading, writing, speaking and listening). Thus, this piece of paper intends to examine the influences of typical as well as unique social factors on SLA among the tertiary level students from both Bangla and English medium background of Bangladesh.