The relation of second language acquisition, instructed second language acquisition, and language teaching from the lens of second language tense-aspect

Abstract

This article examines the relationships between second language acquisition (SLA), instructed second language acquisition (ISLA), and language teaching by examining them from the lens of the research on the acquisition and teaching of second language (L2) tense-aspect in the last 20 years (2000–2021). Review 1 examines 56 instructional effect studies on the acquisition of L2 tense-aspect, and Review 2 examines 38 pedagogical proposals for the teaching of L2 tense-aspect. The reviews investigate to what extent instructional effect studies and pedagogical proposals with tense-aspect as the target of investigation and instruction (a) provide a linguistic description of the instructional target, (b) engage with previous research, (c) implement results from previous research to design assessment or instruction, and (d) include elaborate descriptions of teaching interventions and teaching materials. The results show that there are clear attempts to establish connections between research and practice. However, neither instructional effect studies nor pedagogical proposals always engage with the SLA literature on the acquisition of tense-aspect; nor do they engage fully with language teaching.