From theory to research: Contextual predictors of "estar + adjective" and the study of the SLA of Spanish copula choice - A response to Woolsey

The use of social vs. cognitive approaches to the study of second language acquisition (SLA) has engendered considerable debate in the field. For instance, the recent Modern Language Journal Focus Issue (Lafford, 2007a) reviewed the ongoing debate between scholars espousing socially- and cognitively-grounded approaches to SLA research and explored the extent to which SLA scholars have answered Firth and Wagner's (1997, p. 286) call for a reconceptualization of SLA "as a more theoretically and methodologically balanced enterprise that endeavours to attend to, explicate, and explore, in more equal measures and, where possible, in integrated ways, both the social and cognitive dimensions of S/FL [second/foreign language] use and acquisition". Firth and Wagner (1997, p. 286) specifically called for "(a) a significantly enhanced awareness of the contextual and interactional dimensions of language use, (b) an increased emic (i.e., participant-relevant) sensitivity towards fundamental concepts, and (c) the broadening of the traditional SLA data base".