This book explores potential new directions in the growing field of language learning psychology. The individual chapters cover theoretical and conceptual developments and innovative methodological designs, while also exploring practical implications. Language learning psychology is a vibrant field of research that typically involves constructs from social and educational psychology, which it considers in terms of their relevance for the domain of language learning. The diverse theoretical and empirical chapters examine a range of familiar and lesser-known constructs, highlighting the importance of taking into account both learner and teacher psychologies, and recognising the complexity, dynamism and situatedness of psychological constructs, as well as the value of employing diverse research methodologies. It is hoped that these 'new directions' concerning populations, constructs and theoretical and methodological frameworks will pave the way for innovative future developments in this vibrant field.

The Language of Early Childhood is the fourth volume in the collected works of Professor M.A.K. Halliday. Eighteen papers looking at the development of early childhood language are presented over three sections: infancy and protolanguage; transition from childhood tongue to mother tongue; early language and learning. The sociolinguistic account of the early development of the mother tongue presented in Professor Halliday's works is based on his intensive study of the language of one particular child, Nigel, for the period from nine to eighteen months. The complete 'Nigel Transcripts' will also be included on CD with this volume.

This book presents a pioneering longitudinal study on English language instruction at the elementary school (ELES) level in the Japanese public school system. It attempts to identify those domains most sensitive to early English instruction by employing a state-of-the-art quantitative research methodology. English education was formally introduced in Japan for fifth and sixth graders in 2011 and is still in its infancy as a program. This study compares two groups (Grade 7 and 8) of students, one with ELES and one without, in order to shed light on their experiences. Comparisons are carried out not only quantitatively, measuring changes in English skills (listening, speaking, reading, and vocabulary / grammar) and the ELES students' affective aspects, but also qualitatively through in-depth interviews. Thus, this study attempts to capture the ELES students' experiences from a multi-dimensional perspective. The comprehensive literature review provided offers a valuable resource not only for researchers looking for a quick digest of the literature in this field before undertaking their own research, but also for policy-makers seeking to assess how to best implement ELES.

Acquisition of the native language proceeds in a stage-wise manner for both typically developing (TD) children and children with developmental language disorder (DLD). As shown in TD children learning Dutch and German, the ability to establish contextual cohesion serves as the driving force to proceed from a simple, lexical system to a more complex, functional system. It is argued that precisely this ability is challenged in children with DLD. The present book offers an account of the functional linguistic features fit to achieve contextual cohesion in language production. It provides a rationale for practitioners to develop linguistically founded tools to be used in speech therapy.

The proceedings cover new perspectives in the field of lexicography, including both theoretical and practical topics, and new aspects of special and bilingual dictionaries. The volume also includes contributions dealing with morphology, word-formation, semantics, neologisms, the history of lexicography, and the techniques of computerized dictionary production.

This book includes six studies on the acquisition of single Mesoamerican indigenous languages, (Huichol, Zapotec, and the Mayan languages Ch'ol, Tzeltal, K'iche', and Yukatek); and a crosslinguistic study of five Mayan languages (K'anjob'al, K'iche', Tzeltal, Tzotzil, and Yukatek). Three topics are theoretically and methodologically discussed and empirically demonstrated: with respect to ergativity, the ergative-absolutive cross-referencing pattern on the morphological level, noun-verb distinction and the acquisition of body-part locatives in the early lexicon, and the role of semantic properties and cultural context in language acquisition and socialization. This book makes important claims regarding the methodology of cross-linguistic studies as well as the results of these studies and the comparative method used in the book (structural and discursive factors in language acquisition, cross-linguistic relationships and variation).

In this book, leading researchers in morphology, syntax, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and computational linguistics address central questions about the form and acquisition of analogy in grammar. What kinds of patterns do speakers select as the basis for analogical extension? What types of items are particularly susceptible or resistant to analogical pressures? At what levels do analogical processes operate and how do processes interact? What formal mechanisms are appropriate for modelling analogy? The novel synthesis of typological, theoretical, computational, and developmental paradigms in this volume brings us closer to answering these questions than ever before.

Online Teaching and Learning shows how learning through the internet depends on complex human interactions for success. The text uses sociocultural theory as its foundational stance to empirically examine the dynamics of these interactions. It seeks to understand meaning making in all of its social, linguistic and cultural complexity. Each chapter examines how it is that culturally and historically situated meanings get negotiated through social mediation in online instructional venues. It extends the ways we think and talk about online teaching and learning.

Young people around the world are increasingly able to access English language media online for leisure purposes and interact with other users of English. This book examines the extent of these phenomena, their effect on language acquisition and their implications for the teaching of English in the 21st century.

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.

Corpus Linguistics is becoming an increasingly important branch of language research and interest has spread noticeably beyond the confines of academia, fuelled by applications like text predicting software. The idea of priming in language goes back to the early 1960s with the concept of a 'Teachable Language Comprehender', which started experiments into language processing and which inspired one of Google's chief engineers. The concept of Lexical Priming (Hoey: 2005) aims to supply answers as to how we can explain word choices and construction forms that are more frequent than laws of probability would allow. This book provides a range of arguments to support the validity of Lexical Priming as a linguistic theory, while it also extends the reach of what Lexical Priming has been used to describe. Beyond the written-text material originally used, this book provides evidence that lexical priming also applies to everyday spoken conversations as its psychological foundations predict that it should.

This book offers a comprehensive and systematic review of multilingual L2 learners' spoken Chinese, focusing on the dual dimensions of speech competence and speech performance. Specifically, by adopting a mixed-methods approach, it explores the cognitive, affective, and socio-cultural differences between intermediate and advanced multilingual learners' L2 Chinese speech competence and speech performance. Drawing on a theoretical framework underpinned by the affective filter hypothesis, L2 willingness to communicate model, L2 motivational self-system, and L2 speech production models, this book not only contributes to our theoretical understanding of the roles of various factors in L2 Chinese speech competence and speech performance, but also offers practical insights into the implications for both teachers and learners in terms of how to minimize the gap between these two dimensions among L2 Chinese learners. It concludes with a discussion on the limitations of L2 Chinese speech and on future directions for the field.

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 new interpretation of the early history of Chinese argues that Old Chinese was typologically a 'mixed' language. It shows that, though its dominant word order was subject-verb-object, this coexisted with subject-object-verb. Professor Xu demonstrates that Old Chinese was not the analytic language it has usually been assumed to be, and that it employed morphological and lexical devices as well as syntactic means. She describes the typological changes that have taken place since the Han period and shows how Chinese evolved into a more analytic language, supporting her exposition with abundant examples. She draws where possible on archaeological findings in order to distinguish between versions of texts transmitted and sometimes modified through the hands of generations of copyists. The author focusses on syntactic issues, including word order, verbs, causative structures, resultative compounds, and negation, but also pays close attention to what she demonstrates are closely related changes in phonology and the writing system. The book will interest scholars and graduate students of Chinese linguistics, philology, classical literature as well as general linguists interested in word-order typology and language universals. It may be also be used as a text for advanced courses in Classical Chinese and Chinese diachronic syntax.

Tense and aspect are means by which language refers to time-how an event takes place in the past, present, or future. They play a key role in understanding the grammar and structure of all languages, and interest in them reaches across linguistics. The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect is a comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible guide to the topics and theories that currently form the front line of research into tense, aspect, and related areas. The volume contains 36 chapters, divided into 6 sections, written by internationally known experts in theoretical linguistics.

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.

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 examines the concept of authentic English in today's world, where cultures are in constant interaction and the English language works as a binding agent for many cross-cultural exchanges. It offers a comprehensive review of decades of debate around authenticity in language teaching and learning and attempts to synthesise the complexities by presenting them as a continuum. This continuum builds on the work of eminent scholars and combines them within a flexible framework that celebrates the process of interaction whilst acknowledging the complexity and individual subjectivity of authenticity. Authenticity is approached as a complex dynamic construct that can only be understood by examining it from social, individual and contextual dimensions, in relation to actual people. Authenticity is a problem not just for language acquisition but one which affects us as individuals belonging to society.

This study presents an overview of the management of language in Singapore. It focuses on the use of language as a resource and as a means of furthering national cohesion. The relative positions of the two major languages, Chinese and English, are traced from colonial times to this century, with reference to education, literature, and the emergence of distinctive local speech varieties. Major government interventions in the form of the Speak Mandarin Campaign and the Speak Good English Movement are discussed against a background of ongoing changes to the education system. A major theme is the influence of Lee Kuan Yew on language policy. Another is the need to strike a balance between the concerns of the different speech communities, and the significance of this balance for the future.

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.

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.

With globalization and the ever-increasing migration of professionals, issues related to learning an additional language and culture in professional contexts are prominent in many contemporary societies. Drawing upon data from an extensive research study of internationally educated professionals, this book examines the affordances and constraints to successful professional acculturation, and the relationships between identity, agency, and the acquisition of professional language and culture. The author provides a succinct review of socially informed theories of second language acquisition, and presents a unique analysis of identity and agency that incorporates the work of Erik Erikson and George Herbert Mead with Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and Lave and Wenger's community of practice framework. Given the pervasive problem of the underemployment of internationally educated professionals in many contemporary immigrant-receiving societies, this book makes a timely contribution that not only advances scholarship but also has important practical and policy implications.

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.

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.