Use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for characterizing  teacher perspectives towards secondary language acquisition (SLA) education

This paper explores second language acquisition (SLA) from the perspective of teachers, focusing on the factors they believe influence effective SLA instruction. Using a principal component analysis (PCA) in RapidMiner, the study reduces teacher evaluations of SLA-related survey items into four key dimensions: sociocultural factors, communication strategies, pedagogical factors, and student factors. Results suggest incorporating these dimensions into SLA teacher training and curriculum development to enhance instructional effectiveness.