This book examines key issues in theories of what language is and what happens in the mind during second language acquisition. Chapters provide cutting-edge insights and new empirical findings spanning formal and cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics and second language development, to understand the role of learner-internal factors in SLA.

This book aims to empower teachers working with adult migrants who have had little or no prior formal schooling, and give them the information and skills that they need to reach the highest possible levels of literacy in their new languages.