The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics

DDifficulty and Complexity of Language Features and Second Language Instruction

ALEX HOUSEN

Introduction

Since the 1990s, applied linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA) research have given increasing attention to how instruction affects the acquisition and mastery of language features (i.e., forms, items, structures, patterns, rules), and whether some features are more effectively instructed than others (Spada, 1997). These issues are of relevance to various stakeholders. For SLA researchers, knowing how the nature of the input stimulus interacts with the human cognitive processing and learning mechanisms is important for constructing a comprehensive theory of language acquisition. For theoretical, typological, and psycholinguists, knowing which types of features of language are hard to learn and teach can inform theories of language and processing complexity (Szmrecsanyi & Kortmann, 2012). For L2 teachers and curriculum and textbook developers, knowing which type of L2 features to select in the typically limited teaching time is important for optimizing L2 teaching and learning effectiveness (Doughty & Williams, 1998).

The Issues

Research on the link between type of L2 feature and instruction has typically considered type of language feature in terms of whether features are somehow complex, hard, or difficult or, rather, simple or easy (Long & Robinson, 1998; de Graaff & Housen, 2009). Accordingly, the debate has centered on two issues: what are the simple and ...