As Larsen-Freeman (2018) wrote in her own historical account of second language acquisition (SLA) 'it is important to understand ideas at the time they originated' (p. 56). This is certainly true of the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Rod Ellis adds that it is also important to understand how the ideas that motivated a field of enquiry at one time evolved into and were sometimes replaced by ideas later on. This article beings with Ellis' personal history and continues with a brief history of SLA. In so doing, he addresses three questions: (1) what aspects of L2 acquisition has SLA has focused on? (2) how have researchers investigated L2 acquisition? and (3) why have researchers investigated L2 acquisition? There have been developments in all of these areas. Ellis then addresses where he thinks SLA is now at and where it should go by asking whether it constitutes an identifiable academic discipline and, if so, what kind of discipline it is.