Skill Acquisition Theory and Its Important Concepts in SLA

Abstract

—Skill Acquisition Theory is not just a theory of the development of language, rather it is a general theory of learning ranging from cognitive to psychomotor skills (Mystkowska-Wiertelak & Pawlak, 2012). This theory, which is based on Adaptive Control of Thought model (ACT), claims that adults commence learning something through mainly explicit processes, and, through subsequent sufficient practice and exposure, proceed to implicit processes (Vanpatten & Benati, 2010). Considering the fact that each one of the SLA theories illuminates one aspect of SLA (VanPatten & Williams, 2007), this paper attempts to investigate this Theory and its basic constructs.