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In order to have a better understanding of SLA，it is necessary to understand what it is that needs to be learned.A simple answer to this question might be that an L2 learner needs to learn the grammar of the target language.But what is meant by this？What is language？All those who grow up in a normal way can acquire their mother tongue in the first few years of life.The acquired knowledge of language is largely of an unconscious kind.A native Englishspeaking child，for example，learns how to use particular grammatical structures，such as the relative clause.He learns that the relative clause has a modifying function.However，he may not know，in a conscious sense，that it is a relative clause；nor can he tell what a relative clause is used for.For example，a child can utter the following sentence with a relative clause I want that toy that that boy is playing with ，without knowing its function，and without being able to divide the sentence into component parts.It is in this sense that the complex knowledge that man has about his native language is largely unconscious.
It is widely accepted that language is unique to human beings.With language，we convey thoughts and feelings to each other，and transmit our knowledge and beliefs to our children.With language，we are able to change the world.With language，we uniquely possess power and intelligence among all the creatures on earth.Most linguists agree that all languages in the world share the same characteristics.We mainly touch upon the following three：
First，language is symbolic.Meaning is not inherently conveyed by a sequence of sounds or letters.It comes from the unspoken agreement of a group of speakers that certain sounds represent certain persons，things，or activities outside the language system.This symbolic connection is always arbitrary，and there is no logical relationship between the sound that stands for a thing and the actual thing itself.For instance，a dog is called a dog not because the sound suggests the four-legged animal.It is just symbolic.English speakers agree that the animal is called a dog .Chinese call it gou ，and Spanish people call it perro .
Second，language is systematic.A language is made up of recurring elements which appear in regular patterns of relationship.Any one of the world languages has an infinite number of possible sentences，which are created according to rules and principles which speakers are unconscious of.Every one uses language creatively.Although we use the same stock of words again and again，most particular combinations of words making up the sentences may have never been used before.However，we can understand them well，because we understand the rules by which the words are combined to express meaning.To put it in another way，this is so because language is systematic.Even the sounds produced in speaking，and the orders in which they occur are systematically organized in ways that most of us are unaware of.
Third，language is social.A very important function of language is that we use it to communicate，to categorize and catalogue objects， events， and processes of human experience.Although the ability to acquire L1 depends on inherent neurological device，no one can develop that potential without interaction with others in the society they grow up in.Language can be described partially as“the expressive dimension of culture.”
Language consists of multiple layers，much like a layered cake，each layer of it serving an important function．But to get the full experience，you need all these components in order for a language to be a language．When you know a language，you have to know a portion of all of those layers.Linguists have traditionally divided a language into different aspects for systematic description and analysis.Here we briefly deal with phonology，morphology and lexicon，syntax，semantics，and pragmatics.
The study of phonology focuses on a few fundamental questions such as when to combine sounds and when not to，which sounds are possible and which are impossible，and what sounds are found in what parts of words.For example，if a person wants to express the meaning of“writing a letter”，he，especially an American speaker，would say the following in normal speech： I'm gonna wriDa leDer .However，in clearer，more articulated speech，he may say： I am going to write a letter .This can be understood in the following conversation between Tom and Sally：
（T ＝Tom；S＝Sally）
T： What are you gonna do ？
S： I'm gonna wriDa leDer .
T： You're gonna do what ？
S： I'm gonna wriDa leDer .
T： What ？ I can't hear you .
S： I'm going to write a letter .
（Gass and Selinker，2008：9）
Here we can clearly see that speakers know when to combine sounds and when not to.This happens according to a particular conversational context.In addition to knowing sound variation，native speakers also know which sounds are possible and which are impossible.For example，it is known that the English sound/b/can be blended with/r/，as in brain ，but can not with the sound/n/，as in * bnick .In Chinese，a single vowel，or a blend of consonant-vowel combination，can stand alone，as in 啊（ah！）or 拉（la），but there isn't any vowel-consonant combination in the syllable of a single Chinese character.
The study of morphology is the study of word formation，which mainly deal with morphemes，inflections that carry grammatical information，and affixes which may be added to change the meaning of words or their grammatical category.A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning.There are two kinds of morphemes：bound morpheme and free morpheme.A bound morpheme is one that can not be a word itself such as un in unfair .A free morpheme is one that is a word，such as table ，and book .We can create words by adding morphemes.For example，the word unluckiness is a combination of un＋luck＋y（i） ＋ness.Similarly，the word disestablishmentarianism is created by putting morphemes together：dis ＋ establish＋ment＋ari＋an＋ism.Not only do we have knowledge of word formation，but we also know which words can go together with other words.For example，we know we are right in saying that Mt . Everest is a high mountain ，but wrong in saying that The Empire State Building is a high building .Similarly，Chinese native speakers say 国家大 but not * 人口大.They say 一匹马，but not * 一匹牛；一只羊，but not * 一只猪.
Knowledge of syntax of a language refers to the knowledge we have of the order of elements in a sentence.Syntax is a branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words are arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence.A sentence is a sequence of words arranged in a certain order in accordance with grammatical rules.Those sequences of words which conform to the rules are well-formed；those that do not are not acceptable to native speakers.Native speakers have an unconscious knowledge of what strings of words are grammatical and what are ungrammatical.For example，English speakers know the sentence The black bike is under the big tree is acceptable，while The big tree is the black under bike is unacceptable.Chinese speakers know 上海是个大城市 is grammatical，while 大城市是个上海 is not.
Not only do people know which sentences are acceptable in their language，they also know which are approximately the same in terms of meaning.For example，the two sentences Tom broke the window and The window （ it ） was broken by Tom have the same general meaning in that they refer to the same event.But when someone asks，“Who broke the window？”，the most likely answer is“ Tom broke the window ”rather than“ The window was broken by Tom ” .If the question is，“What happened？” or“What's wrong with the window”，the answer is likely to be“ The window was broken by Tom ”instead of“ Tom broke the window ”.Thus，native English speakers know not only what patterns are similar to each other，but also when to use different grammatical patterns.
Another aspect of language is how the meaning of the whole sentence is influenced by moving the elements in it.For example，adverbs can be moved in a sentence without changing the meaning，as in the two sentences： Yesterday Tom met Mary and Tom met Mary yesterday .However，when the nouns move，the meaning will be changed.For example， Yesterday Tom met Mary and Yesterday Mary met Tom do not share a common meaning.Therefore，knowing a language entails knowing a set of rules with which we can produce an infinite set of sentences.
Semantics deals with meaning.This does not only relate to grammatical sentences，since many ungrammatical sentences are meaningful.The sentence That girl beautiful is my sister is not grammatical but meaningful.In contrast， some sentences are grammatical， but meaningless，such as The blind man saw the red light and stopped .
Knowledge of the semantics of a language entails knowledge of the referential meaning of words.For example，if one can distinguish the meaning of the leafofa tree and the leafofa table ，he can understand an advertisement on the television for a table with extra leaves.However，this is not enough.Referential meaning is not the only way of conveying meaning，the way elements in a sentence are combined also affects the meaning of the sentence.For example，the following two sentences differ in meaning：
The man bit the dog.
The dog bit the man.
Pragmatics deals with the way in which language is used in real contexts.This is part of what L2 learners should learn.For example，when we answer a question on the phone Is Mike there ？it would be strange to say Yes，with the person on the other end saying Thank you .Similarly，the following conversation taking place between a stranger and a city dweller also sounds ridiculous：
（S＝Stranger；D＝Dweller）
S： Excuse me ， can you tell me the way to the railway station ？
D： Yes ， I can . /No ， I can't .
The two questions above are not information questions，which call for a yes or no response.Instead，they are requests，to speak to Mike in the first case，and to ask for direction in the second case.Clearly， the speakers have their intentions behind the words.However，if，in the first case，the speaker's intention is a parent checking on the whereabouts of a child，then it would be another case：
（M ＝Mother）
M1： This is Mike's Mum . Is Mike there ？
M2： Yes .
M1： Oh ！ Thanks ， Ijust want to know where he was .
To sum up，learning a language does not only involve the learning of how to express ideas by means of sounds，words，sentences，but it also involves understanding the meaning of utterances and appropriate use of the language in real contexts.
Charles Morris（1938：30）defined pragmatics as“the science of the relation of signs to their interpreters”.In other words，pragmatics is concerned not with language as a system or product，but rather with the interrelationship between language form，messages and language users.It explores the following questions：
—How do people communicate more than what the words or phrases of their utterances might mean by themselves，and how do people make these interpretations？
—Why do people choose to say and/or interpret something in one way rather than another？
—How do people's perceptions of contextual factors（for example，who the interlocutors are，what their relationship is，and what circumstances they are communicating in）influence the process of producing and interpreting language？