This volume addresses salient theoretical issues concerning the validity of research methods in second-language acquisition, and provides critical analysis of contextualized versus sentence-level production approaches. The contributors present their views of competence versus performance, the nature of language acquisition data, research design, the relevance of contextualized data collection and interpretation, and the desirability of a particularistic nomothetic theoretical paradigm versus more comprehensive consideration of multiple realities and complex influencing factors. This book...

This volume focuses on one important aspect of human sense-making - theory building - and strives to clarify the thesis that theories do not develop in some sort of social, intellectual or cultural vacuum, but are necessarily the products of specific times, insights and mindsets.

Conversation analysis is a methodology that originated over three decades ago as a sociolinguistic approach but has since been adopted by scholars in a variety of other areas, including applied linguistics and communication. It is of great utility in second language acquisition research for its demonstrations of how micro-moments of socially distributed cognition instantiated in conversational behavior contribute to observable changes in the participants' states of knowing and using a new language. This volume describes the methodology in detail, discusses its relevance for current theories...

Conversation analysis is a methodology that originated over three decades ago as a sociolinguistic approach but has since been adopted by scholars in a variety of other areas, including applied linguistics and communication. It is of great utility in second language acquisition research for its demonstrations of how micro-moments of socially distributed cognition instantiated in conversational behavior contribute to observable changes in the participants' states of knowing and using a new language. This volume describes the methodology in detail, discusses its relevance for current theories...

Second language acquisition has an identity problem. It is a young field struggling to emerge from the parent fields of education and applied linguistics. In his new book, Problems in Second Language Acquisition, Mike Long proposes a way to help second language acquisition develop a systematic and coherent focus using the philosophy of science as the lens.

The volume is neatly organized into three parts--theory, research, and practice. This structure allows a focus on areas of SLA of interest to many in the field. These include theory proliferation and comparative theory...

This book is the first study to examine how interactional style develops within the walls of a foreign language classroom in the first two years of language study. Results show learners to be highly sensitive to pragmatic information and that learners can move toward an appropriate interactional style through classroom interactive experience.
The book shows how learners are most often sources who offer assistance and correction, with errors serving most often to stimulate further thinking about what form is correct. Analysis shows learners to be active in seeking corrective information...

Language learners in the classroom are not passive isolated receptacles for grammar and vocabulary but active - and interactive - participants, each internalizing lessons and sharing their insights with others (whether intentionally or not). This book provides a window onto the process of learning a second language through a longitudinal study of seven adult learners of Japanese in a classroom setting. The research is grounded in a socio-cognitive framework based on Vygotsky's theory, which allows for analysis of both the interactions between individuals in the learning situation and the...

This new book, Processing Instruction: Theory, Research, and Commentary, edited by Bill VanPatten--a pioneer in processing instruction (PI)--is a refreshing presentation of 10 related and not widely available articles that illustrate the role of processing instruction in second language acquisition. The articles provide both historical and current context, as well as describe the influence of the input processing model on PI.
The contents include empirical papers presenting new data that demonstrate both the theoretical and pedagogical threads of research. Aside from simply...

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...