Theory Construction in Second Language Acquisition In Favor of the Rationalism

One of the most controversial issues in second language acquisition (SLA) seems to be the issue of theory construction. There are mainly two opposing views considering the SLA theory construction namely the Rationalist view and the Relativist view. The former tries to reasons that there should be a few theories of SLA at work while the latter favors as many theories as possible. However, the present paper tries to take a supportive stance with regard to the rationalism reasoning that the rationalist view seems to be more fruitful, practical, and above all beneficial considering theory construction in SLA.