第二语言习得（SLA）是一个多学科领域，其目标是了解构成非母语学习基础的过程。SLA来自各种学科，包括语言学，心理学，语言学，社会学，社会语言学，话语分析，对话分析和教育。FLARE的学生和他们的教授一样，代表了广泛的研究兴趣。从FLARE毕业的学生是独立的思想家，他们能够批判性地探索和研究与第二语言习得（SLA）的过程有关的各种现象。同样，FLARE的学生也可以通过不同的途径进入爱荷华大学。有些人在这里完成硕士学位后就进入了该计划，而另一些人则在开始其在SLA的博士学位课程时开始在爱荷华城的生活。SLA
Second language acquisition (SLA) is a multidisciplinary field whose goal is to understand the processes that underlie the learning of a non-native language. SLA draws from a variety of academic disciplines, among them linguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics, sociology, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, and education. All students in the SLA doctoral program take courses in SLA theory, multimedia, research methods, language learning and linguistics (see degree requirements). In addition, each student defines an area of specialization, in consultation with his or her advisor. The two broad areas of specialization are Language Learning and Post-Secondary Education, and Linguistics and Psycholinguistics. Students working in the first area are interested in issues where SLA and pedagogy converge. Some examples of areas of interest in this specialization include classroom discourse, assessment, and the acquisition of grammatical knowledge in the classroom context. Within this area students may also focus on aspects of technology and how it facilitates second language acquisition. Students in the Linguistics/Psycholinguistics specialization are interested in studying areas of formal linguistics (e.g., syntax, phonology, morphology) and / or applied linguistics issues related to their particular second language focus. Sample student projects and foci within this area of SLA include the acquisition of the syntactic structures and / or phonological features of a second language, and generative and cognitive approaches to explaining acquisition. Students working within psycholinguistics may also focus on the relationship between language processing and language acquisition.