In this chapter an attempt will be made to impose a kind of structure on the complex field of language acquisition and to organize the many different influencing factors along a number of dimensions; from an interplay of the values variously distributed along these dimensions we would expect to derive the different forms of language acquisition. The six basic dimensions of language acquisition will be introduced with the description of an imaginary case of second language acquisition and will then be discussed in greater detail.

A global view

Suppose your airplane makes a crash landing in a remote valley in New Guinea. You are lucky to survive and you manage to reach a human settlement where you find the members of a tribe, let's call them the Eipo, who evidently live in complete seclusion from the rest of the world. The Eipo turn out to be friendly people, they receive you well and are willing to incorporate you (in the more metaphorical sense of the word); so you are somewhat shocked, but not terrified, by the prospect of spending an unforeseeable period of time among them, as there seems to be no chance of crossing the wild mountains which effectively separate the valley from the world. Given the prospect of living among the Eipo for many years, you had better think of mastering their language (which we will call Eipomek) and of acquiring a number of other skills and customs which are part of the tribe's way of life.