In 1980 the General Assembly of the ESF approved the launching of an additional activity (or programme) on the "Ecology of second language acquisiton" which was since renamed Second Language Acquisition by Adult Immigrants. Intended to last six years, the pilot study was completed in 1982 with the recording of the results in a field manual and the approbation to continue the programme.
The programme was monitored by a Steering Committee and ended in June 1987 with the publication of the final reports.