Change and continuity in second language acquisition research

This paper analyses how two well-established traditions within SLA research illustrate both continuity and change in the discipline. Work undertaken within the Universal Grammar framework, and within the context of the ESF (European Science Foundation) project, are examples of the 'North-American' and 'European' traditions respectively, which have consistently pursued clear lines of inquiry with well-defined research agendas, albeit very different ones. Recently, their respective research agendas have matured and developed in less incompatible ways. Both approaches have as one of their goals, along their different paths, the description and explanation of early L2 acquisition. This has given rise, in the ESF context, to the notion of Basic Variety (BV), and, in the UG context, to the characterisation of the Initial State. Although it would be misleading to equate BV and Initial State, as they remain very different concepts, they nonetheless present some similarities. The BV has been reanalysed recently by its authors using a UG framework. Such dialogue, unthinkable only recently, is a sign of the future, and of the realisation within the maturing field of SLA research that it must be studied as a multifaceted phenomenon, which benefits from attention from a variety of approaches.