Using Chomsky's minimalist program as a framework, this volume explores the role of formal (or functional) features in current descriptions and accounts of language acquistion. In engaging, up-to-date articles, distinguished experts examine the role of features in current versions of generative grammar and in learnibility theory as it relates to native, non-native, and impaired acquisition.

This edited volume dealing with formal features in Second Language Acquisition is defined within current generative grammatical theory, such as the Principles and Parameters Theory and the Minimalist Program. Formal features are essential to any account of language acquisiton because they are basic components of lexical and functional categories. This is a subject of much current research as evidenced by the number of published articles in journals and in conference proceedings. This is what the editors say: While L2 acquisition is the focus of our volume, the papers address the role of features in the current versions of generative grammar and explore the role of features for learnability theory as it relates to native and non-native acquisition. To our knowledge, the volume represents the first scholarly contribution specifiacally devoted to features in language acquisition. There are many generativists in SLA, including our two series editors, Susan Gass and Jacquelyn Schacther. When asked if the formalist bias will be a big detraction, Jacquelyn said, The formal features book will definitely be formalist in tone

An introduction to the key questions that drive the field of L2 acquisition research, including its historical foundations.

A clear and practical introduction to second language acquisition, written for students encountering the topic for the first time.

This book brings together research that makes use of 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, French, German, Italian and Spanish). It will be of interest to professionals and students working in SLA research and language pedagogy.

The first book-length treatment of its type, Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Acquisition is a case study with a solid theoretical grounding that examines the language of an immigrant learner of English, and thereby presents a much needed understanding of the linguistic competence of second language speakers. Based on longitudinal data collected over a period of 16 years, this clear and accessible presentation is well-grounded in linguistic theory and in second language acquisition research issues. Author Donna Lardiere presents the narrative of Patty, an adult Chinese immigrant learner of English, who achieves native-like proficiency in some areas of her English idiolect, although reaches a plateau in her language acquisition, known as the concept of fossilization. By addressing this concept, a central idea in second language acquisition research, Lardiere fills a void in existing literature. Individual chapters focus on Patty’s end state knowledge of grammatical areas of finiteness, past-tense marking, word order, wh-movement and relativization, passivization, number marking, and use of determiners. Important topics discussed throughout the book include: *learner variability in production; *case study methodology; *the roles of motivation and prior language (L1) knowledge; and *sensitivity to input in circumscribing ultimate attainment in adult second language acquisition. Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Acquisition is intended for anyone whose research is in the areas of second language acquisition, language acquisition, theoretical, applied, or developmental linguistics. It is also appropriate for graduate level students of TESOL and teachers who work with more advanced learners of foreign languages.

What is language and how can we investigate its acquisition by children or adults? What perspectives exist from which to view acquisition? What internal constraints and external factors shape acquisition? What are the properties of interlanguage systems? This comprehensive 31-chapter handbook is an authoritative survey of second language acquisition (SLA). Its multi-perspective synopsis on recent developments in SLA research provides significant contributions by established experts and widely recognized younger talent. It covers cutting edge and emerging areas of enquiry not treated elsewhere in a single handbook, including third language acquisition, electronic communication, incomplete first language acquisition, alphabetic literacy and SLA, affect and the brain, discourse and identity. Written to be accessible to newcomers as well as experienced scholars of SLA, the Handbook is organised into six thematic sections, each with an editor-written introduction.

This new volume of work highlights the distinctiveness of child SLA through a collection of different types of empirical research specific to younger learners. Characteristics of children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development distinguish their experiences from those of adult L2 learners, creating intriguing issues for SLA research, and also raising important practical questions regarding effective pedagogical techniques for learners of different ages. While child SLA is often typically thought of as simple (and often enjoyable and universally effortless), in other words, as “child’s play”, the complex portraits of young second language learners which emerge in the 16 papers collected in this book invite the reader to reconsider the reality for many younger learners. Chapters by internationally renowned authors together with reports by emerging researchers describe second and foreign language learning by children ranging from pre-schoolers to young adolescents, in home and school contexts, with caregivers, peers, and teachers as interlocutors.

divdivHow does a person learn a second language? In this provocative book, Marysia Johnson proposes a new model of second language acquisition (SLA)—a model that shifts the focus from language competence (the ability to pass a language exam) to language performance (using language competently in real-life contexts). Johnson argues that current SLA theory and research is heavily biased in the direction of the cognitive and experimental scientific tradition. She shows that most models of SLA are linear in nature and subscribe to the conduit metaphor of knowledge transfer: the speaker encodes a message, the hearer decodes the sent message. Such models establish a strict demarcation between learners’ mental and social processes. Yet the origin of second language acquisition is located not exclusively in the learner’s mind but also in a dialogical interaction conducted in a variety of sociocultural and institutional settings, says the author. Drawing on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Bakhtin’s literary theory, she constructs an alternative framework for second language theory, research, teaching, and testing. This approach directs attention toward the investigation of dynamic and dialectical relationships between the interpersonal (social) plane and the intrapersonal (individual) plane. Johnson’s model shifts the focus of SLA away from a narrow emphasis on language competence toward a broader view that encompasses the interaction between language competence and performance. Original and controversial, A Philosophy of Second Language Acquisition offers: · an introduction to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Bakhtin’s literary theory, both of which support an alternative framework for second language acquisition; · an examination of the existing cognitive bias in SLA theory and research; · a radically new model of second language acquisition. /DIV/DIV