This book examines the simultaneous contribution of learner vocabulary size and speed to second language performance differences across learner levels and settings. Harrington considers vocabulary size and speed, as reflected in retrieval speed and consistency, as a three-dimensional measurement construct termed lexical facility. While size and retrieval speed are generally known, this is the first attempt to incorporate consistency, as measured by the coefficient of variation, as an index of vocabulary skill. Part 1 describes the three dimensions and the roles they play on lower level text processing and thus on second language performance more generally. Part 2 reports on seven studies and related research that investigate the sensitivity of the three dimensions, both individually and in combination, to proficiency differences in common domains of academic English performance. Harrington's framework and the theoretical and methodological issues that arise are presented in a manner accessible to a wide readership, including second language acquisition vocabulary researchers, testing and assessment practitioners, and those interested in second language research methodology.

This book presents overwhelming evidence of the positive impact of language training and filial language learning. By surveying and condensing the rich empirical findings that have been established over the last 35 years, Moerk specifies how relatively straightforward the training and learning interactions are. By surveying also the known relationship between less than optimal language training and delayed acquisition of even deficient end-products, the professional, whether in a clinical or educational setting, can also infer what interactional flaws to avoid. An extensive list of references provides detailed support for the arguments presented; support that shows that many of the fashionable denials of "the teachability" or "the learnability" of language have been disproved empirically. Lastly, the tens of thousands of children with language delay or deficiency are, though not a direct audience of the book, intended as the main beneficiaries. As professionals focusing on remedies are lead back from airy speculations of innate knowledge--and therefore pessimistic inferences is this knowledge if not shown in behavior--and are shown how language skills can be transmitted. Their clients can gain not only language skills, but could reap educational and professional success.

The present volume brings together papers devoted to the role of learner and teacher autonomy in the process of second and foreign language learning, which have been contributed by scholars from Poland and abroad. The book has been divided into three parts in accordance with the topics that the individual contributions touch upon. The first part includes papers dealing with different ways in which learner autonomy can be fostered and evaluated. The papers contained in Part Two are connected with the role of language learning strategies in the development of learner independence. Finally, Chapter Three focuses on developing teacher autonomy, which, in the opinion of many specialists, is indispensable if learner autonomy is to be promoted. Thanks to its wide-ranging focus, this edited collection will be of interest not only to second language learning specialists interested in the role of learner autonomy, but also to undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students working on their BA, MA and PhD theses, as well as practitioners wishing to promote learner independence in their classrooms.

This book explores an understudied area of language development in autism - namely, how children with autism learn the meaning of verbs. The key feature is a profile of verb acquisition in autism derived from qualitative analysis of the conversational language of ten children with autism. Douglas examines whether this profile is typical or atypical compared with verb learning in neurotypical children. Verb use is central to linguistic development, and the ability of children with autism to develop and use verb categories is of interest, because verbs also encode information about the number and type of participants and the temporal location of the activity/event. Moreover, the acquisition of verb meanings is often dependent on other cognitive skills, such as the recognition that human beings have beliefs and desires which motivate their actions. All these are areas which are widely considered problematic for children with autism and continue to generate much discussion among researchers and clinicians. This investigation is among the first studies of its type, offering new insights into the process of language acquisition in autism.

This book provides a detailed and comprehensive design of a new second language literacy pedagogy and the results of implementing this pedagogy in different contexts in order to demonstrate that it is possible to address some long-standing second language (L2) curriculum and literacy development challenges. The author clearly explains the theory behind Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory of Mind and Systemic Functional Linguistics and how they can inform literacy pedagogy in the form of Concept-Based Language Instruction and a Division-of-Labor Pedagogy. By presenting detailed qualitative and quantitative analyses and results of multiple forms of data, the author demonstrates the effectiveness of the pedagogy. In conjunction with background on the intricate and interdependent nature of the concepts needed for second language literacy development, and in contrast with a cognitivist approach to reading pedagogy and research, the author provides all the details necessary for teachers and researchers to appreciate both the theory and how it can be applied to their practice.

This comprehensive collection, comprising both theoretical and practical contributions, is unique in its focus on language learning strategy instruction (LLSI). The chapters, written by leading international experts, embrace both sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives. The issues presented include different models of strategy instruction and how they can be tailored according to context and the learners' age and attainment level. The collection will be an important resource for researchers in the field, both for its critical perspectives and its guidance on collaborating with teachers to design interventions to implement strategy instruction. It also identifies key areas for research, including the teaching of less studied groups of strategies such as grammar and affective strategies. The book will prove equally valuable to language teachers through the provision of detailed teaching materials and tasks. Those engaged in professional development, whether pre- or in-service teacher education, will find a wealth of concrete ideas for sessions, courses and assignments.

This comprehensive collection, comprising both theoretical and practical contributions, is unique in its focus on language learning strategy instruction (LLSI). The chapters, written by leading international experts, embrace both sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives. The issues presented include different models of strategy instruction and how they can be tailored according to context and the learners' age and attainment level. The collection will be an important resource for researchers in the field, both for its critical perspectives and its guidance on collaborating with teachers to design interventions to implement strategy instruction. It also identifies key areas for research, including the teaching of less studied groups of strategies such as grammar and affective strategies. The book will prove equally valuable to language teachers through the provision of detailed teaching materials and tasks. Those engaged in professional development, whether pre- or in-service teacher education, will find a wealth of concrete ideas for sessions, courses and assignments.

In recent years research on comparative typology has led to reveal regularities and to formulate new constraints upon variation for a broad range of phenomena. As the amount of typological research increased, a growing interest arose for the implications that findings in the typological field might have on second language acquisition. Written by experts in the field of typology and/or second language acquisition, this volume addresses theoretical and empirical issues on structural domains such as relative clauses and possessive constructions as well as pragmatic considerations on information organization in learners productions.

Globalization, the Internet and an era of mass travel have combined to produce a world with a language mix on a huge scale. Linguanomics explains this multilingualism in a material, economic and cultural sense. What is the effect of this multilingualism on society, organizations and individuals? What are the economic benefits and drawbacks? Should we invest in language skills? Should there be interventionist policies, and if so, at what level? Should there be a global lingua mundi? The debate surrounding multilingualism is often clouded by emotion and misconception. With an analysis devoid of rhetoric, Gabrielle Hogan-Brun takes an objective look at this charged area. The result is Linguanomics: a major step towards a clearer understanding of the market potential of multilingualism, its benefits, costs and points of contention. Asking significant questions of profound concern to the future of global collaboration, Linguanomics is an essential guide to students, teachers, policy makers and politicians and anyone who cares about the role of language in the modern world.

This book collects together the work of experts from a wide range of backgrounds, but who share the desire to understand how the human brain represents words. The focus is on word forms and morphemes, their nature and structure, the processes operating on the speech input to gain access to lexical representations, the modelling and acquisition of these processes, and on the neural underpinnings of lexical representation and process.

This book explores the motivations of adult second language (L2) learners to learn Italian in continuing education settings in Australia. It focuses on their motivational drives, learning trajectories and related dynamics of identity development triggered by the learning process. Central to the study are adult L2 learners, who are still a largely under-researched and growing group of learners, and readers will gain a better understanding of the learning process of this specific group of learners and ideas for sustaining L2 adult learning motivation in continuing education settings. Furthermore, the book discusses the role played by the Italian migrant community in Australia in making Italian a sought-after language to learn. It explores how a migrant community may influence motivation, and highlights and expands on the notion of L2 learning contexts, showing the existence of sociocultural environments where second language learning trajectories are affected by the presence of migrant groups.

This book offers a valuable contribution to the discussion on the complexities of L2 learning processes that pose a challenge to learners. Focusing on the cognitive, affective and socio-cultural perspectives, the papers included provide important insights into the individual's experiences in second language acquisition. This work also addresses social interactions and cultural background, shedding new light on their role in the context in L2 learning processes. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in understanding the challenges of foreign-language (FL) learning and teaching.

Modern linguistic theory has been based on the promise of explaining how language acquisition can occur so rapidly with such subtlety, and with both surprising uniformity and diversity across languages. This handbook provides a summary and assessment of how far that promise has been fulfilled, exploring core concepts in acquisition theory, including notions of the initial state, parameters, triggering theory, the role of competition and frequency, and many others, across a variety of syntactic topics that have formed the central domains of investigation and debate. These topics are treated from the unique perspective of central actors in each domain who have helped shape the research agenda. The authors have presented a summary of the data, the theories under discussion, and their own best assessments of where each domain stands. Providing as well the agenda for future work in the field showing both particular needs and general directions that should be pursued in the coming decades.

Covering both theoretical and practical approaches, Writing the Research Paper guides students studying in English as a second or additional language through the skills necessary for success in university-level writing and research. The book begins with theoretical considerations, such as research, argumentation and critical thinking. It then offers a broad range of practical assistance covering all aspects of the writing process, including topic selection, argument, counter-argument, paragraph structure and cohesion. The book is accompanied by a companion website, writingtheresearchpaper.com. The website hosts many features, including chapter summaries, exercises, quizzes, PowerPoints, additional learning material, and technology assistance. The website also hosts numerous authentic examples of student papers at each of the critical stages of the writing process.

This book applies a psycholinguistic perspective to instructed second language acquisition, seeking to bridge the gap between second language acquisition research and language teaching practices. It challenges the traditional divide between conscious and unconscious processes, or explicit and implicit learning, and re-envisions this as a continuum of the varying levels of consciousness which can be applied by learners to different language behaviors in the second language classroom. It applies this model to learner development and the classroom context, discussing pedagogical applications for instructors at all levels. This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in second language acquisition, psycholinguistics and language pedagogy. The accessible discussion of research findings, pedagogical approaches and classroom tasks and activities make this book particularly relevant for language teachers, providing the tools needed to apply second language acquisition research in their classroom.

This book demonstrates how the underlying principles of the English-based FrameNet project are successfully applied to the description and analysis of typologically diverse languages. The stimulating collection of articles brings together insights from lexical semantics, corpus linguistics, computational lexicography, machine learning, and psychology to address three main questions: To what degree is it possible to apply semantic frames derived from the English lexicon to the description and analysis of other languages? What types of resources are necessary for the creation of FrameNets for French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, and Spanish? How can the creation of multi-lingual FrameNets be automated? The contents exemplifies the liveliness of current research on cross-lingual applications of Frame Semantics to natural language processing.

The acquisition of Mandarin Chinese, one of the most important and widely spoken languages in the world today, is the focus of this innovative study. It describes the rise of Chinese as a global language and the many challenges and opportunities associated with learning it. The collaborative, multiple-case study and cross-case analysis is presented from three distinct but complementary theoretical and analytic perspectives: linguistic, sociocultural, and narrative. The book reveals fascinating dimensions of Chinese language learning based on vivid first-person accounts (with autobiographical narratives included in the book) of adults negotiating not only their own and others' language and literacy learning, but also their identities, communities, and trajectories as users of Chinese.

The Routledge Handbook of Sign Language Pedagogy is the first reference of its kind, presenting contributions from leading experts in the field of sign language pedagogy. The Handbook fills a significant gap in the growing field of sign language pedagogy, compiling all essential aspects of current trends and empirical research in teaching, curricular design, and assessment in one volume. Each chapter includes historical perspectives, core issues, research approaches, key findings, pedagogical implications, future research direction, and additional references. The Routledge Handbook of Sign Language Pedagogy is an essential reference for sign language teachers, practitioners, and researchers in applied sign linguistics and first, second, and additional language learning.

The Acquisition of German: Introducing Organic Grammar brings together work on the acquisition of German from over four decades of child L1 and immigrant L2 learner studies. The book's major feature is new longitudinal data from three secondary school students who began an exchange year in Germany with no German knowledge and attained fluency. Their naturalistic acquisition process - with a succession of stages described for the first time in L2 acquisition - is highly similar to that of younger learners. This has important implications for German teaching and for the theory of Universal Grammar and acquisition. Organic Grammar, a variant of generative syntax, is offered as a practical alternative to Chomsky's Minimalism. The analysis focuses on extensive monthly samples of the three students' German development in an input-rich environment. Similar to previous studies, the teenagers build syntactic structure from the bottom up. Two acquired correct word order by the end of the year, the third, who had greater conscious awareness of German grammar, had a divergent route of development, suggesting that language awareness can alter a natural developmental path. The results are addressed in light of recent debates in child-adult differences.

The workshop Production-Comprehension Asymmetries in Child Language held in Osnabruck in 2009 is the starting point for this book. The workshop developed from the observation that children's production skills appear to precede their comprehension skills in a number of phenomena, e.g. pronouns or negation. The volume provides cross-linguistic evidence for such asymmetric development and investigates grammatical and methodical explanations of the observed asymmetries.

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks, as well as studies that provide new insights by approaching language from an interdisciplinary perspective. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.

In the age of information, an essential priority in the context of international education is the development of language learning and its inconsistencies. The gap between language and education has intermittently grown through time, with mistaken assumptions about how linguistic shortcomings are being solved around the world. Research on comparative educational approaches to teaching verbiage and the foundation of future language development are instrumental in positively impacting the global narrative of dialectal education. International Approaches to Bridging the Language Gap is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of second language teaching as well as social developments regarding intercultural learning. While highlighting topics including curricular approaches, digital competence, and linguistic disparities, this book is ideally designed for language instructors, linguists, teachers, researchers, public administrators, cultural centers, policymakers, government officials, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the latest advancements of multilingual education.

This bibliography is a compilation of 15 short bibliographies published in an issue of the Journal of Second Language Writing from January 1993 to September 1997. The work focuses on theoretically grounded research reports and essays addressing issues in second and foreign language writing and writing instruction, containing 676 entries, each including a 50] word summary intended to be non-evaluative in nature. The editors hope that this work will be a useful tool for developing theory, research, and instruction in second language writing.

This comprehensive account of performance-based assessment of L2 lexical proficiency analyzes and compares two of the primary methods of evaluation used in the field and unpacks the ways in which they tap into different dimensions of one model of lexical competence and proficiency. This book builds on the latest research on performance-based assessment, which has most recently pointed to the application of more quantitative measures to L2 data, to systematically explore the qualitative method of using human raters in assessment exercises and the quantitative method of using automatic computation of statistical measures of lexis and phraseology. Supported by an up-to-date review of the existing literature, both approaches' unique features are highlighted but also compared to one another to provide a holistic overview of performance-based assessment as it stands today at both the theoretical and empirical level. These findings are exemplified in a concluding chapter, which summarizes results from an empirical study looking at a range of lexical and phraseological features and human raters' scores of over 150 essays written by both L2 learners of English and native speakers. Taken together, the volume challenges existing tendencies within the field which attempt to use one method to validate one another by demonstrating their capacity to indicate very different elements of lexical proficiency, thereby offering a means by which to better conceptualize performance-based assessment of L2 vocabulary in the future. This book will be of interest to students and researchers working in second language acquisition and applied linguistics research, particularly those interested in issues around assessment, vocabulary acquisition, and language proficiency.

Research results over the past decades have consistently demonstrated that a key reason why many second language learners fail--while some learners do better with less effort--lies in various learner attributes such as personality traits, motivation, or language aptitude. In psychology, these attributes have traditionally been called "individual differences." The scope of individual learner differences is broad--ranging from creativity to learner styles and anxiety--yet there is no current, comprehensive, and unified volume that provides an overview of the considerable amount of research conducted on various language learner differences, until now.
Each chapter in this new volume focuses on a different individual difference variable. Besides a review of the relevant second language literature, Zoltan Dornyei presents a concise overview of the psychological research involving each topic. A key concern for the author has been to define the various learner factors as measurable constructs and therefore the discussion includes a summary of the most famous tests and questionnaires in each domain.
A wide range of readers will benefit from this book--students in linguistics, applied linguistics, modern languages, and psychology programs; second language teachers participating in in-service training courses; and researchers in second language acquisition and psychology.