In recent years, a number of researchers in the field of second language acquisition
have voiced discontent regarding the tendency of second language acquisition (SLA)
research to be conducted within a framework of cognitive science (Firth and Wagner,
1997; Atkinson, 2002; Johnson, 2004). Watson-Gegeo (2004) expresses this same
discontent, and goes beyond it to call for a new SLA paradigm, the
‘language socialization paradigm’. In this article, I point out
the various ways in which Watson-Gegeo has misunderstood the nature of cognitive
science research in general, and SLA research in particular, and show why her call
should go unheeded.
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