Bøger i Second Language Acquisition serien

This book presents the current state of knowledge in the vibrant and diverse field of vocabulary studies, summarising the latest empirical studies and providing a firm indication of the future of the field. The chapters cover the key themes of theorizing and measuring vocabulary knowledge, formulaic language, and learning and teaching vocabulary.

This book explores the motivations of adult second language learners in continuing education settings. It focuses on their learning trajectories and related dynamics of identity development and will be useful to language teachers and researchers interested in the role of affective elements in successful adult language learning.

This book provides an up-to-date examination of technology-supported pedagogy and language acquisition in a variety of Japanese as a foreign or second language contexts. It equips readers with practical pedagogical information and ideas for how technology can be applied to achieve a wide range of learning objectives.

This book addresses questions surrounding online second language (L2) communicative activities and formal language learning. It provides empirical evidence and analysis of the scale and nature of L2 English communicative activities online and explores the possibilities for language teaching practices that engage with learners' L2 online activities.

This book examines the evidence relative to the idea that there is an age factor in first and second language acquisition, evidence that has sources ranging from studies of feral children to evaluations of language programmes in primary schools. It goes on to explore the various explanations that have been advanced to account for such evidence. Finally, it looks at the educational ramifications of the age question, with particular regard to formal second language teaching in the early school years and in 'third age' contexts.

Within the complex process of second language acquisition there lies a highly variable component referred to as the silent period, during which some beginning second language learners may not willingly produce the target language. Silence in Second Language Learning claims that the silent period might represent a psychical event, a non-linguistic as well as a linguistic moment in the continuous process of identity formation and re-formation. Colette Granger calls on psychoanalytic concepts of anxiety, ambivalence, conflict and loss, and on language learning narratives, to undertake a theoretical dialogue with the learner as a being engaged in the psychical work of making, and re-making, an identity. Viewed in its entirety, this study takes the form of a kind of triangulation of three elements: the linguistically described phenomenon of the silent period; the psychoanalytically oriented problem of the making of the self; and the real and remembered experiences of individuals who live in the silent space between languages.

This book provides an overview of current research on the age factor in foreign language learning, addressing issues, which are critical for language planning. It presents new research on foreign language learning within bilingual communities in formal instruction settings focussing on syntax, phonology, writing, oral skills and learning strategies.

This book focuses on L2 classroom discourse analysis in the light of Relevance Theory. Input for instructed L2 learners is understood as the language presented by the teacher in order to facilitate the process of L2 learning/acquisition. It will be of interest to L2 teachers, teacher educators, teacher trainees and SLA researchers.

The book contains studies on L2 lexical processes based on empirical findings by authors mostly from Central Europe. Questions of integration, storage, vocabulary acquisition and assessment, word retrieval and lexical access are the focus of the studies, which include reference to language users from Finno-Ugric and Slavic language backgrounds.

The book focuses on one aspect of foreign language acquisition that has not received much attention, that of the effect of bilingualism in the oral production of the English language learners. Two research areas have tackled this issue separately. On the one hand, third language acquisition researchers have analysed bilingualism effects in the acquisition of a third language. On the other hand, studies in interlanguage pragmatics have taken into account variables affecting the use of request acts by second language learners of English. The two research areas are connected in this volume, as it deals with bilingualism effects in the pragmatic production and awareness of third language learners of English.The first part of the book includes a theoretical description of research conducted in the areas of third language acquisition and interlanguage pragmatics, and the second part presents a detailed description of the empirical study carried out in a multilingual speech community.

This volume argues that adults can learn English as a second language if their typical errors are corrected systematically and in line with their preferred style of learning. The remedy designed for this purpose relies on artificial intelligence. The book describes original research which demonstrates the success of this approach.

The book describes how a trilingual child in the Basque Country, where Spanish and Basque are the languages of the community, is able to successfully acquire English at home through interaction with her mother. It focuses on her acquisition of the form and function of English questions.

This book contributes to the growth of interest in task-based language learning and teaching that has been seen in recent years. It brings together research that focuses on various aspects and effects of pedagogic task design and presents work that uses tasks to examine oral interaction, written production, vocabulary and reading, lexical innovation and pragmatics in different formal language learning contexts and in different languages (English as a second/foreign language, French/German/Italian/Spanish as foreign languages). It also provides guidelines for task classification, sequencing and design.The book is addressed to both professionals and students interested in second language acquisition research. It will also be of use to professionals involved in language pedagogy and curriculum design.

This book focuses on L2 classroom discourse analysis in the light of Relevance Theory. Input for instructed L2 learners is understood as the language presented by the teacher in order to facilitate the process of L2 learning/acquisition. It will be of interest to L2 teachers, teacher educators, teacher trainees and SLA researchers.

This book treats second language users in their own right rather than as failed native speakers. It describes a range of psychological and linguistic approaches to diverse topics about L2 users. It thus provides an innovative overview of current second language acquisition theories, results and methods, seen from a common perspective.

Third or Additional Language Acquisition examines research on the acquisition of languages beyond the L2 within four main areas of inquiry: crosslinguistic influence, multilingual speech production models, the multilingual lexicon and the impact of bi/multilingualism on cognitive development.

This book explores topics related to the language learning processes of learners with special needs including students with learning disabilities. The chapters written by authors in a wide variety of educational settings discuss individual learner characteristics and profiles, diagnosis and assessment issues and instructional programs.

With contributions by leading European, North American and Asian scholars, this volume offers a comprehensive anthology of conceptual and empirical papers describing the latest developments in L2 motivation research that involves the reframing of motivation in the context of contemporary notions of self and identity.

The book discusses vocabulary learning strategies as an integral subgroup of language learning strategies. It attempts to integrate the approaches of theories of second language acquisition, the theory and practice of instructed foreign language learning, and the findings of current empirical research.

Drawing on the perspective of language socialization and a theory of indexicality, this book examines dinnertime talk in a homestay context and explores ways in which learners of Japanese as a foreign language and their Japanese host families socialize their identities through speech style.

Modern languages are taught to young learners at an increasingly early age, yet few studies focus on what is available to children in different contexts and classrooms. This book examines current research on young language learners and provides key insights into how young learners progress.

This book explores the importance of cross-linguistic similarity in foreign language learning. While linguists have primarily focussed upon differences between languages, learners strive to make use of any similarities to prior linguistic knowledge they can perceive. The role of positive transfer is emphasized as well as the essential differences between comprehension and production. In comprehension of related languages, cross-linguistic similarities are easily perceived while in comprehension of distant languages they are merely assumed. Production may be based on previous perception of similarities, but frequently similarities are here merely assumed. Initially, effective learning is based on quick establishment of cross-linguistic one-to-one relations between individual items. As learning progresses, the learner learns to modify such oversimplified relations. The book describes the ways in which transfer affects different areas of language, taking account of the differences between learning a language perceived to be similar and a language where few or no cross-linguistic similarities can be established.

This book presents the current state of knowledge in the vibrant and diverse field of vocabulary studies, summarising the latest empirical studies and providing a firm indication of the future of the field. The chapters cover the key themes of theorizing and measuring vocabulary knowledge, formulaic language, and learning and teaching vocabulary.

SLA literature tends to focus predominantly on what motivates language learners, but what demotivates them has not been widely discussed. This book, focusing exclusively on demotivation, will help readers to understand motivational issues from a different perspective. The aims of the work are threefold: to present the current developments of demotivation research in the field of SLA and bridge motivational theory/research and demotivation research; to promote the understanding of possible causes of demotivation; and to expand the focus of demotivation research through a reflection on current motivation theory/research and a discussion of methodological issues. The research presented in this book is situated in Japanese English-teaching contexts and will serve as a foundation for anyone wishing to better understand the causes of demotivation in SLA and to explore the topic in their own contexts.

This book offers a comprehensive investigation into advanced students' knowledge of vocabulary in their L1 and L2. This cross-sectional study examines the qualitative and quantitative aspects of students' vocabulary knowledge in subfields such as suffixation, idioms and proverbs, multi-word verbs, polysemous words and inferencing skills.

This work critically addresses the age debate in second language acquisition studies, presenting an in-depth study of factors that predict foreign accent. Quantitative and qualitative analyses confirm that cognitive, social, and psychological factors contribute to attainment, and that biological influences must therefore be considered alongside these essential aspects of learner experience.