What is second language acquisition? Second language acquisition (SLA) is a
research field that focuses on learners and learning rather than teachers and
teaching. In their best-selling text, Gass and Selinker (2008, p. 1) define SLA as “
the ...
Addressing a rapidly growing interest in second language research, this hands-on text provides students and researchers with the means to understand and use current methods in psycholinguistics. With a focus on the actual methods, designs, and techniques used in psycholinguistics research as they are applied to second language learners, this book offers the practical guidance readers need to determine which method is the best for what they wish to investigate as well as the tools that will enhance their research. Each methods chapter is written by a leading expert who describes, discusses, and comments on how a method is used and what its strengths and limitations are for second language research. These chapters follow a specific format to ensure cohesion and a predictable structure across all chapters. The chapters also inform the novice researcher on such key issues as ease of use, costs, potential pitfalls, and other related matters, each of which impact decisions that researchers make about the paths they take. With the most reliable information available from experienced reseachers, Research Methods in Second Language Psycholinguistics is an essential resource for anyone interested in conducting second language reserach using psycholinguistic methods.
Some researchers study the mental lexicon in monolinguals, or individuals who
speak only one language. Other psycholinguists study bilinguals, or individuals
who speak more than one language. Studying bilinguals allows researchers to ...
The second edition of Theories in Second Language Acquisition seeks to build on the strengths of the first edition by surveying the major theories currently used in second language acquisition research. This volume is an ideal introductory text for undergraduate and graduate students in SLA and language teaching. Each chapter focuses on a single theory, written by a leading scholar in the field in an easy-to-follow style – a basic foundational description of the theory, relevant data or research models used with this theory, common misunderstandings, and a sample study from the field to show the theory in practice. This text is designed to provide a consistent and coherent presentation for those new to the field who seek basic understanding of theories that underlie contemporary SLA research. Researchers will also find the book useful as a "quick guide" to theoretical work outside their respective domains.
As a field, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is vibrant. It began in the late
1960s, with key initial developments during the decade of the 1970s. Most
scholars agree that the coming of age as an autonomous discipline happened
some time ...
This book provides an alternative to the "grammar debate" in second language acquisition theory and teaching. Accepting that language acquisition is at least partially input dependent, the author asks how grammatical form is processed in the input by second language learners and is it possible to assist this in ways that help the learner to create richer grammatical intake. He answers these questions and explains why traditional paradigms are not psycholinguistically motivated. Drawing on research from both first and second language acquisition, he outlines a model for input processing in second language acquisition that helps to account for how learners construct grammatical systems. He then uses this model to motivate "processing instruction," a type of grammar instruction in which learners are engaged in making form-meaning connections during particular input activities.
Some might argue that second language acquisition is an independent nonap-
plied discipline (Grass & Schachter, 1989, p. 4), that its goal is to explain how
second languages are learned. More particularly, the goal of second language ...
This volume is the first dedicated to the growing field of theory and research on second language processing and parsing. The fourteen papers in this volume offer cutting-edge research using a number of different languages (e.g., Arabic, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, English) and structures (e.g., relative clauses, wh-gaps, gender, number) to examine various issues in second language processing: first language influence, whether or not non-natives can achieve native-like processing, the roles of context and prosody, the effects of working memory, and others. The researchers include both established scholars and newer voices, all offering important insights into the factors that affect processing and parsing in a second language.
This volume is the first dedicated to the growing field of theory and research on second language processing and parsing. The fourteen papers in this volume offer cutting-edge research using a number of different languages (e.g.
