Abstract
Recently, in the area of second language acquisition (SLA), research from the social perspective has begun to attract interest. This research incorporates various frameworks, including conversation analysis, socio-cultural theory, ethnography, and language socialization, and makes certain assumptions including the assumptions that language-mediated activities and interactions are achieved in cooperation, human knowledge is socially distributed, and the formation and development of knowledge require participation in goal-oriented activities within a community. This article first compares the social view of SLA with the cognitive view, which has been regarded as the mainstream view of the SLA research tradition. The issues of communication, L2 acquisition, identities, L2 users, and research methodology are discussed to show the basic standpoint of the social view. The article also reviews recently published studies that examine interactions and second language competencies through detailed analysis of the progress of example interactions, including their organization and repair, identity construction within them, and changes in the way of participation in them over time. Finally, it links the social view with language pedagogy; applications for L2 teaching materials, the establishment of classroom activities, and the assessment of L2 language competencies are introduced as future research directions.
