A Reality Check for SLA Theories

* Writing about psychiatry, Harvard's Kleinman (1988) notes that the non-Western population constitutes so huge a portion of humanity yet so small a presence in the theory. We might ask an analogous question. Why do models of second language acquisition (SLA) developed in the U.S. and western Europe treat the vast majority of L2 learners, those that learn and use an L2 in nonnative contexts, as marginal? The inescapable answer seems to be that current theories are powerfully constrained by Western cultural premises. If we seek a universal, culturally authentic theory of SLA, we must ask, with Gould (1987), What are we missing because we must place all we see into slots of our usual taxonomy? (p. 24). In evaluating SLA theories, the following reality check may be in order.