Language Acquisition as a Field of Modern Psycholinguistic Studies in France

   The article describes general characteristics of one of the main aspects of French psycholinguistics which is the language acquisition (with a focus on the second language acquisition).

   The relevance of the study is due to the necessity of suggesting a systematic approach to psycholinguistics as well as to the need of increasing the number of available research works in the domain.

   The aim of the article is to characterize the genesis and the evolution of one of the fundamental fields of French psycholinguistics.

   The paper lists a number of central issues explored by modern French psycholinguists; identifies the origins of the field of language acquisition and traces the history of its formation; lists the key concepts of foreign schools that have influenced the formation of the field in France, highlighting the main hypotheses and terms used in this area in Western studies; characterizes the impact of the native and acquired foreign language on the learning of a foreign language; considers the features of communication between native and non-native speakers and touches upon the problem of mutual influence between speech and mental activity. Analysis, description and comparison are the main methods used in the study. The articles of French psycholinguists and some other specialists in the domain which had an impact on the genesis of these problems in French science serve as research material. The article gives an analytical representation of the second language acquisition theory, describes the genesis of the matter and the way modern psycholinguistics and cognitive studies present it, characterizes the main theoretical grounds of modern studies dedicated to language acquisition. The author also draws attention to some controversial issues related to this field of study.

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