Whether we grow up with one, two, or several languages during our early years of life, many of us will learn a second, foreign, or heritage language in later years. The field of Second language acquisition (SLA, for short) investigates the human capacity to learn additional languages in late childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, after the first language --in the case of monolinguals-- or languages --in the case of bilinguals-- have already been acquired. Understanding Second Language Acquisition offers a wide-encompassing survey of this burgeoning field, its accumulated findings and proposed theories, its developed research paradigms, and its pending questions for the future. The book zooms in and out of universal, individual, and social forces, in each case evaluating the research findings that have been generated across diverse naturalistic and formal contexts for second language acquisition. It assumes no background in SLA and provides helpful chapter-by-chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading. Ideal as a textbook for students of applied linguistics, foreign language education, TESOL, and education, it is also recommended for students of linguistics, developmental psycholinguistics, psychology, and cognitive science. Supporting resources for tutors are available free at www.routledge.com/ortega.

In the 30 years since Rod Ellis first published the award-winning Understanding Second Language Acquisition, it has become a classic text. This new, fully updated edition continues to provide an authoritative and highly readable introduction to key areas of theory and research in second language acquisition. Ellis presents a comprehensive overview of the different theories in this field and examines critical reactions to them. The book reflects recent trends in looking at cognitive and social aspects of second language acquisition, as well as examining the roles played by implicit and explicit instruction in language learning. “An excellent and much-needed, in-depth review of the research on how children and literate adults learn a second language. Ellis provides a sound knowledge base for language teachers and beginning graduate students in applied linguistics, focusing on relevant findings of research on second-language learning by children and literate adults in both naturalistic and instructed contexts.” Elaine Tarone, Director of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota Additional online resources are available at www.oup.com/elt/teacher/understandingsla Rod Ellis is the Distinguished Professor of Applied Language Studies in the School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics in the University of Auckland. Oxford Applied Linguistics Series Advisers: Anne Burns and Diane Larsen-Freeman.

Second Language Acquisition : introduces the key areas in the field, including: multilingualism, the role of teaching, the mental processing of multiple languages, and patterns of growth and decline explores the key theories and debates and elucidates areas of controversy gathers together influential readings from key names in the discipline, including: Vivian Cook, William E. Dunn and James P. Lantolf, S.P. Corder, and Nina Spada and Patsy Lightbown. Written by experienced teachers and researchers in the field, Second Language Acquisition is an essential resource for students and researchers of applied linguistics.

Now in a fourth edition, this bestselling introductory textbook remains the cornerstone volume for the study of second language acquisition (SLA). Its chapters have been fully updated, and reorganized where appropriate, to provide a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the field and its related disciplines. To reflect current developments, new sections on using learner corpora, semantics and morphosyntax (within formal approaches to SLA), sociocultural approaches, gesture, priming research, and chaos theory have been added. Students will also find expanded discussions of heritage language learning, bilingualism, pragmatics, and much more. The redesigned fourth edition of Second Language Acquisition retains the features that students found useful in the current edition but also provides new pedagogical tools that encourage students to reflect upon the experiences of second language learners. As with previous editions, discussion questions and problems at the end of each chapter help students apply their knowledge, and a glossary defines and reinforces must-know terminology. This clearly-written, comprehensive, and current textbook, by expert Sue Gass, is the ideal textbook for the introductory SLA course in second language studies, applied linguistics, linguistics, TESOL, and language education programs.

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

The studies in this collection address a topic that has recently become the focus of considerable interest in second language acquisition (SLA) research: the acquisition of articles. Languages appear to vary in whether they have articles (English, German, Norwegian do, but Chinese, Japanese, Russian do not). Languages that have articles also appear to divide into those that realise definiteness (e.g. English) and those that realise specificity (e.g. Samoan). When speakers of one type of language learn an L2 of a different type, issues of central concern to SLA research arise: the nature of L1 influence, the time course of development, ultimate attainment, the relationship between performance and competence, and the role of Universal Grammar. These issues are considered in nine studies, written by researchers whose work is at the forefront of enquiry, that offer new data, new perspectives and new insights into the way L2 speakers acquire articles.

"The New Handbook of Second Language Acquisition" is a thoroughly revised, re-organized, and re-worked edition of Ritchie and Bhatia's 1996 handbook. The work is divided into six parts, each devoted to a different aspect of the study of SLA. Part I includes a recent history of methods used in SLA research and an overview of currently used methods. Part II contains chapters on Universal Grammar, emergentism, variationism, information-processing, sociocultural, and cognitive-linguistic. Part III is devoted to overviews of SLA research on lexicon, morphosyntax, phonology, pragmatics, sentence processing, and the distinction between implicit and explicit knowledge. Part IV examines neuropsycholgy of SLA, another on child SLA, and the effects of age on second language acquisition and use. Part V is concerned with the contribution of the linguistic environment to SLA, including work on acquisition in different environments, through the Internet, and by deaf learners. Finally, Part VI treats social factors in SLA, including research on acquisition in contact circumstances, on social identity in SLA, on individual differences in SLA, and on the final state of SLA, bilingualism.

The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition presents an integrated discussion of key, and sometimes controversial, issues in second language acquisition research. Discusses the biological and cognitive underpinnings of SLA, mechanisms, processes, and constraints on SLA, the level of ultimate attainment, research methods, and the status of SLA as a cognitive science. Includes contributions from twenty-seven of the world's leading scholars. Provides an invaluable resource for all students and scholars of human cognition, including those in linguistics, psychology, applied linguistics, ESL, foreign languages, and cognitive science.

This book provides a holistic overview of what leads to success in foreign language learning at an early age and deepens our understanding of early foreign language learning. The studies use an array of methodological approaches to research learners aged between three and ten, as well as their parents and teachers, in instructional, minimal-input settings. They describe various ways of organising and promoting very early foreign language learning, both through language policy and innovative pedagogy, and focus on ways of providing input for second language acquisition, which include oral classroom discourse strategies, as well as learner development of literacy skills. Special attention is given to the necessity to develop critical reading skills, the ability to handle multimodal texts, and attitudes, motivations and behaviours and how these may impact on the teaching and learning process. Chapters emphasise that ultimate outcomes depend on extra linguistic environmental factors, such as parental involvement and teacher competences. These include establishing control in the classroom, as well as using appropriate strategies for Negotiation of Meaning, and helping learners build positive self-concept. This book will be of interest to all professionals involved in the teaching of foreign languages to young learners, as well as to researchers, teacher educators and students working in this area.

The present volume examines the relationship between second language practice and what is known about the process of second language acquisition, summarising the current state of second language acquisition theory, drawing general conclusions about its application to methods and materials and describing what characteristics effective materials should have. The author concludes that a solution to language teaching lies not so much in expensive equipment, exotic new methods, or sophisticated language analysis, but rather in the full utilisation of the most important resources - native speakers of the language - in real communication.