Schumann's Theory about Second Language Acquisition

Another language acquisition theory is Schumann’s theory. According to him: “second language acquisition is just one aspect of acculturation and the degree to which a learner acculturates to the target-language group will control the degree to which he acquires the second language.’’ From the perspective of Schumann second language acquisition is truly affected by the degree of social and psychological distance between the learner and the target-language culture. Another important point is the social distance which depends to the learner as a member of a social group that is in contact with another social group whose members speak a different language. Psychological distance consequences from a number of diverse affective factors that concern the learner as an individual, such as language shock, culture shock, culture stress. If the social and psychological distance is great at that time acculturation is impeded and the learner does not progress beyond the early stages of language acquisition. The students target language will likely an interlanguage which is characterized by simplifications and reductions occurring in the learner’s interlanguage which lead to fossilization when the learner’s interlanguage system does not steps forward in the direction of the target language.