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In the previous chapter we discussed interlanguage，a unique language system constructed by L2learners in a second or foreign language context.An obvious characteristic of IL is that it is deviant from the normal TL.The study of SLA can be seen，to a certain extent，as the study of IL.Interlanguages，considered to be“natural languages”，consist of“a set of linguistic rules which can generate novel utterances”.Like natural languages，interlanguages can be idealized to make them amendable to linguistic analysis.In this and the following two chapters，we focus on three areas in which the SLA's relationship with other academic disciplines has been most heavily felt：linguistics，psychology，and sociolinguistics.It does not mean that these are the only areas in which SLA has strong ties.Rather，they are selected as representative.
With regard to the influence each field has on SLA，the difference can be found in general emphasis：linguistics focuses on the products of acquisition（a description of the linguistic systems of L2 learners），psychology focuses on the process by which those systems are created（a description of the process of the way in which learners create learner systems），and sociolinguistics focuses on social factors that influence the acquisition of the linguistic system and the use of that system.However，all areas concern one and the same learning problem：how is it that learners acquire the complexities of a second language？
Linguistics has impacted the research in L2 acquisition since the early days of SLA research.Virtually every theory of linguistics has had some relevance to SLA research.In this chapter we present a linguistic approach to the study of second language acquisition.Specifically，we first review the nature of language and the early approaches to the study of SLA，including contrastive analysis，error analysis，and the monitor model.Then we survey the study of SLA from different linguistic approaches including typological universals，universal grammar，and functional approaches.