Language acquisition has been the subject of decades of research. Most of the previous research on second language acquisition has centered around adult learners, leaving child learners understudied by comparison. This book focuses on child second language development. The cross-sectional empirical study herein investigates the syntax-semantics interface in English speaking children acquiring German and French as second languages. The author discusses variables such as crosslinguistic influence, the complexity of the learning tasks, cognitive maturity and the learning context. By focusing on child second language acquisition in immersion education, this book not only substantially contributes to the field of second language acquisition but also offers important insights into teaching in an immersion context.

• Offers advanced students, researchers, and university administrators with the state of the art in research and practical, evidence-based insights on heritage language program administration/direction and curriculum development, in order to understand and provide quality education to HL learners through effective HL program direction. • Meets a need for synthesis of the great increase in work on heritage language learners and university-based programs, heretofore covered in articles and individual chapters but not all in one place on the book level. Makes much-needed connections between the research literature and practice in developing programs and curricula. • The first book that discusses this subject, full stop. A few books focus on L2, ESL, or FL language program direction but they lack any attention to heritage language learners.

The volume consists of articles on issues relating to the morphosyntactic development of foreign language learners from different L1 backgrounds, in many cases involving languages which are typologically distant from English, such has Polish, Greek and Turkish. It highlights areas which may be expected to be especially transfer-prone at both the interlingual and intralingual levels. The articles in the first part report empirical studies on word morphology and sentence patterns and also look at the interface of lexis and grammar in the discourse and syntactic processing of foreign language learners. The second part elaborates on pedagogical issues concerning the acquisition of difficult grammatical features such as the English article system or the ‘s’ ending in the third person singular. It also comments more generally on the way pedagogic grammar functions in the learning of the L2.

• This state-of-the-art text reviews, evaluates, and reflects on L2 development across the lifespan as a complex variable that is both socio-cultural as well as maturational in nature – with a chronological chapter lineup from infant bilinguals to L2 learners in adolescence, adulthood, and older age. • Offers in-depth discussion of highly pertinent yet underresearched topics, like L2 learners in older individuals, as well as an innovative chapter on L2 learning in the context of cross-cultural/binational/plurilingual romantic relationships, in both cases with diverse circumstances, motivations, and outcomes. • The first book taking on this area in its fullness and in a way accessible to students and non-specialist – with a concerted, authored text. Previous works are focused on one age cohort, edited volumes rather than unified authored books, and the most closely competing books were published over a decade (and sometimes over three decades) ago.

In recent years, the expansion of screen media, including film, TV, music videos, and computer games, has inspired new tools for both educators and learners. This book illustrates how screen media can be exploited to support foreign language (L2) teaching and learning. Drawing on a range of theories and approaches from second language acquisition, audio-visual translation, multimodality, and new media and film studies, this book provides both best practices and in-depth research on this interdisciplinary field. Areas of screen media-enhanced learning and teaching are covered across 4 sections: film and broadcast media, in-depth case studies, translation and screen media, and interactive media. With a focus on pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning Spanish, French, German, and English as a Foreign Language, Teaching Languages with Screen Media presents innovative insights in this new interdisciplinary field.

• Offers advanced students, researchers, and university administrators with the state of the art in research and practical, evidence-based insights on heritage language program administration/direction and curriculum development, in order to understand and provide quality education to HL learners through effective HL program direction. • Meets a need for synthesis of the great increase in work on heritage language learners and university-based programs, heretofore covered in articles and individual chapters but not all in one place on the book level. Makes much-needed connections between the research literature and practice in developing programs and curricula. • The first book that discusses this subject, full stop. A few books focus on L2, ESL, or FL language program direction but they lack any attention to heritage language learners.

• This state-of-the-art text reviews, evaluates, and reflects on L2 development across the lifespan as a complex variable that is both socio-cultural as well as maturational in nature – with a chronological chapter lineup from infant bilinguals to L2 learners in adolescence, adulthood, and older age. • Offers in-depth discussion of highly pertinent yet underresearched topics, like L2 learners in older individuals, as well as an innovative chapter on L2 learning in the context of cross-cultural/binational/plurilingual romantic relationships, in both cases with diverse circumstances, motivations, and outcomes. • The first book taking on this area in its fullness and in a way accessible to students and non-specialist – with a concerted, authored text. Previous works are focused on one age cohort, edited volumes rather than unified authored books, and the most closely competing books were published over a decade (and sometimes over three decades) ago.

This comprehensive, forward-looking text is the first holistic research overview and practical methods guide for researching the role that affective and conative factors play in second language learners’ task performance and language acquisition. It provides a long overdue update on the role of the learner in task-based language teaching (TBLT). The book brings together theoretical background and major constructs, established and innovative methodological and technological tools, cutting-edge findings, and illuminating suggestions for future work. A group of expert scholars from around the world synthesize the state of the art, detail how to design and conduct empirical studies, and authoritatively set the agenda for future work in this critical, emerging area of language learning and instructional design. With a variety of helpful features like suggested research, discussion questions, and recommended further readings, this will be an invaluable resource to advanced students and researchers of second language acquisition, applied linguistics, psychology, education, and related areas.

Shows how corpora can be used for language learning and teaching Examines the state-of-the-art in DDL research, in light of the available empirical evidence on both etic and emic dimensions, while placing particular emphasis on the methodological gaps Illustrates the main methodological challenges in researching DDL, from corpus resource selection to empirical evaluation of its pedagogical effectiveness, and describes how they can be overcome Demonstrates, by means of an in-depth case study, how the guidelines provided above can be applied when researching DDL effects in a specific second language learning and teaching context while outlining some desirable avenues for future research and pedagogical practice Of interest to those conducting research in corpus linguistics and teaching in the Italian domain, but also to those working with other languages

This book provides an in-depth look at pragmatic development by second language learners of French through their production of French discourse markers. It showcases a holistic production-focused approach designed to provide a broad picture of learner discourse marker use in French. The book begins with a comprehensive description of the major theoretical frameworks in discourse marker research. It provides a detailed analysis of prior second language research on discourse markers in several languages and the dominant avenues of inquiry. Additionally, this book engages in a discussion of methodology that can serve as a guide for future researchers on the topic. The data presented in this book provide a broad picture of both native speaker and learner production of discourse markers with implications for theoretical and formal understandings of pragmatic meaning. This book will be of particular interest to scholars in pragmatics for both second language acquisition and formal or theoretical perspectives.

This edited volume provides an overview of current thinking and directions for further research in applied linguistics by bringing together in a single volume a range of perspectives regarding original research agendas and innovative methodological approaches. It focuses not only on the challenges that applied linguistics researchers have been facing in recent years but also on producing workable and productive research designs and on identifying ways of how alternatives to conventional research methodologies can be used. Discussions featured in the volume include the so-called ‘Bilingual Advantage’ in psycho- and neurolinguistics; the optimal starting age debate in foreign language learning; the growing interest among applied linguists in more nuanced and more complex (statistical) data analysis and the priority given to more descriptive and social approaches to linguistics rather than to theorising. The collection will be a useful reference and stimulus for students, researchers and professionals working in the areas of applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, second language acquisition and second language education.

This comprehensive, forward-looking text is the first holistic research overview and practical methods guide for researching the role that affective and conative factors play in second language learners’ task performance and language acquisition. It provides a long overdue update on the role of the learner in task-based language teaching (TBLT). The book brings together theoretical background and major constructs, established and innovative methodological and technological tools, cutting-edge findings, and illuminating suggestions for future work. A group of expert scholars from around the world synthesize the state of the art, detail how to design and conduct empirical studies, and authoritatively set the agenda for future work in this critical, emerging area of language learning and instructional design. With a variety of helpful features like suggested research, discussion questions, and recommended further readings, this will be an invaluable resource to advanced students and researchers of second language acquisition, applied linguistics, psychology, education, and related areas.

This book represents the most comprehensive account to date of foreign language (FL) writing. Its basic aim is to reflect critically on where the field is now and where it needs need to go next in the exploration of FL writing at the levels of theory, research, and pedagogy, hence the two parts of the book: 'Looking back' and 'Looking ahead'. The chapters in Part I offer accounts of both the inquiry process followed and the main insights gained in various long-term research programs. The chapters in Part 2 contribute a retrospective analysis of the available empirical research and of professional experiences in an attempt to move forward. The book invites the reader to step back and rethink seemingly well established knowledge about L2 writing in light of what is known about writing in FL contexts.

When humans learn languages, are they also learning how to create shared meaning? In The Usage-based Study of Language Learning and Multilingualism, a cadre of international experts say yes and offer cutting-edge research in usage-based linguistics to explore how language acquisition, in particular multilingual language acquisition, works. Each chapter presents an original study that supports the view that language learning is initiated through local and meaningful communication with others. Over an accumulated history of such usage, people gradually create more abstract, interactive schematic representations, or a mental grammar. This process of acquiring language is the same for infants and adults and across varied contexts, such as the family, the classroom, the laboratory, a hospital, or a public encounter. Employing diverse methodologies to study this process, the contributors here work with target languages, including Cantonese, English, French, French Sign Language, German, Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Spanish, and Swedish, and offer a much-needed exploration of this growing area of linguistic research.

Mittels einer echten Längsschnittuntersuchung wird ermittelt, wie sich die Fähigkeit von Kindern in der 2., 3. und 4. Klasse entwickelt, Texte im Rahmen verschiedener kommunikativer Anforderungen zu schreiben: Erzählung, Bericht, Instruktion, Beschreibung, Argumentation. Textstrukturelle, lexikalische, syntaktische und kommunikative Analysen zeigen, dass der Prozess durch ein Vier-Stufen-Modell beschrieben werden kann; und zwar in einer Wechselbeziehung von Textsortenentwicklung und Textentwicklung als Text-Sorten-Entwicklung.

"Raising Multilingual Children: Foreign Language Acquisition and Children" elucidates how children learn foreign languages and when they can do so with the best results. The most recent studies in linguistics, neurology, education, and psychology are evaluated and the findings are presented in a recipe format. Parents and teachers are encouraged to bake their own and evaluate the multilingual children in their lives with the use of tools which include a family language profile and family language goals worksheet. Beginning with the "Ingredients" of Timing, (or the Windows of Opportunity, ) and Aptitude, the book goes on to include the "Baking Instructions" of Motivation, Strategy, and Consistency. This is followed by "Kitchen Design," or the role of the language learning environment which includes the child's Opportunity to use the languages being learned, the Linguistic Relationship between the child's languages, and the possible influence of Siblings.

"Plumbing and Electricity" round out the ten key factors in raising multilingual children by discussing the possible role of Gender and Hand-Use, and our understanding of the multilingual brain at present. "Chef and Chef's Assistants" addresses the vital roles of teachers and schools in a child's foreign language development. "A Mess in the Kitchen" discusses problem situations related to foreign language learning, and offers a variety of resources to address such issues.

Bridging the gap between theoretical linguistics and language teaching, Judith R. Strozer explores what recent theoretical advances suggest about learning a language after childhood and the implications for the design and execution of a foreign language program. Strozer outlines clearly, in nontechnical language, the major concepts of modern language theory, from Chomsky's theory of language through the most recent discoveries about the abstract foundations of language. She explains ideas about the evolution of a cognitive structure for language in the human brain, a "language faculty" or Universal Grammar that gives humans alone the creative ability to generate the infinite expressions of language. This innate universal schema for language endows humankind with a number a very broad principles applicable to all languages.

Turning to current advances in the theory of phrase structure, which has replaced our 2,000-year-old rules of grammar with highly abstract universal principles of language structure, she relates the latest discoveries about the foundations of language to ideas about how children learn languages. A child hearing a specific language can automatically set the parameters for the rules governing that particular language, much like setting a binary switch. But our ability to access this innate language mechanism automatically seems limited to childhood, until physical maturity somehow changes this brain function.

Arguing that adults need to learn consciously the systems and structures of another language that children acquire unconsciously, Strozer applies these latest theories about the nature of language and how we learn it to the design of foreign language programs for adults. She concludes with recommendations for developing a new kind of teaching program that would draw on comparative language research and include new pedagogic approaches.

Presenting state-of-the-art language theory in easily readable terms and illustrative examples, this book will be of interest to everyone interested in the latest understanding of the relationship between the brain and language, as well as to all professionals in linguistics and language education.

This book encourages readers to think about reading not only as an encounter with written language, but as a lifelong habit of engagement with ideas. We look at reading in four different ways: as linguistic process, personal experience, collective experience, and as classroom practice. We think about how reading influences a life, how it changes over time, how we might return at different stages of life to the same reading, how we might respond differently to ideas read in an L1 and L2. There are 44 teaching activities, all founded on research that explores the nature, value and impact of reading as an authentic activity rather than for language or study purposes alone. We consider what this means for schools and classrooms, and for different kinds of learners. The final part of the book provides practical stepping stones for the teacher to become a researcher of their own classes and learners. The four parts of the book offer a virtuous join between reading, teaching and researching. It will be useful for any teacher or reader who wishes to refresh their view of how reading fits in to the development of language and the development of a reading life.

This volume features work on learning by researchers in various disciplines who share an interest in the systematic study of cognition and in the study of the formal and semantic aspects of language acquisition. A recurring theme is that language learning involves the acquisition of certain competencies and the formation of a system of beliefs which are significantly underdetermined by the linguistic and nonlinguistic inputs available to the learner. Theories of language learning must confront the epistemological problem of how it is possible to induce and fixate a belief-system on the basis of exposure to limited data. A typical strategy in dealing with this problem has been to specify various types of formal and empirical constraints on linguistic and conceptual development in terms of specific hypotheses about the character of what is learned and about the kinds of resources and strategies available to the learner. Most of the contributions in this volume are concerned with the specification and evaluation of such constraints.

This book presents a selection of empirical papers dealing with second and multiple language acquisition, in which qualitative research methodology is employed. Each of the studies reported in individual chapters is based on a solid theoretical background and an overview of studies in a given area. Although the main focus is on qualitative methods, some of the papers demonstrate the complementarity of quantitative and qualitative approaches in studying language acquisition.

The monograph is devoted to the notion of strategic intervention and its application in the foreign language classroom, in particular with reference to teaching grammar structures. The first four chapters, which are theoretical in nature, address such concepts as form-focused instruction, language learning strategies and strategies-based instruction. The last chapter provides insight into the results of a study investigating the grammar learning strategies employed by advanced learners of English. Additionally, the chapter presents the views of foreign language teachers on the idea of introducing strategy training in the foreign language classroom. The book closes with the discussion concerning the implementation of strategy training and its value in teaching target language grammar.