The Variable Competence Model of Second Language Acquisition, and Why It Isn't

In this paper I examine the work of the two scholars who have made the greatest contribution to the variabilist perspective on second language acquisition (SLA) and, more specifically, discuss the acquisition models each has proposed: Elaine Tarone's ‘Capability Continuum Paradigm’, and Rod Ellis's ‘Variable Competence Model’. I give a brief outline of Tarone's and Ellis's proposals, pointing out certain common features of the two models and indicating the kinds of problems these proposals create for an acquisition theory (and vice-versa). In doing this, I show that these problems are both unnecessary, and inherent in all variabilist models that share Tarone's and Ellis's assumptions.