Talking About Second Language Acquisition

This book includes interviews with fourteen internationally-acclaimed leading figures in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), who speak on seminal issues in the field as well as their own contributions to SLA scholarship. As well as covering the contributors’ backgrounds and academic achievements, the interviews also delve into their areas of expertise, current theoretical and practical considerations, and contemporary questions, developments and challenges in SLA. The author probes their views on current topics including input and interaction, vocabulary acquisition, teaching pronunciation, writing development, syntactic processing, multilingualism, L1 attrition, complex dynamic systems, processing instruction, instructed second language acquisition, and technology in language teaching. An introduction by the author draws out the key themes and debates in the field today, and highlights areas for future research and further exploration, and a foreword is provided by Rod Ellis. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Applied Linguistics, Teacher Education and Methodology, and Second and Foreign Language Education. Foreword References Acknowledgments Contents List of Photos 1: SLA at 55: What Are the Key Issues? Introduction What Is SLA? The Rise of SLA Key Issues/Concepts in SLA Factors Affecting SLA Talking about Second Language Acquisition Conclusion References 2: Input and Interaction in SLA: An Interview with Susan Gass Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 3: Interaction and Feedback in SLA: An Interview with Alison Mackey Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 4: Classroom Interaction and SLA: An Interview with Masatoshi Sato Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 5: Teaching Pronunciation and SLA: An Interview with Tracey Derwing Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 6: Vocabulary Acquisition and Pedagogy in SLA: An Interview with Norbert Schmitt Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 7: Morphosyntactic Processing in SLA: An Interview with Alison Gabriele Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 8: Emergentist Syntax and SLA: An Interview with William O’Grady Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 9: Writing Development in SLA: An Interview with Rosa Manchón Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 10: First Language Attrition and SLA: An Interview with Monika Schmid Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 11: Bilingualism and SLA: An Interview with Antonella Sorace Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 12: Complex Dynamic Systems and Bi/Multilingualism in SLA: An Interview with Kees de Bot Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 13: Instructed Second Language Acquisition: An Interview with Shawn Loewen Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 14: Processing Instruction and SLA: An Interview with Alessandro Benati Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References 15: Digital Technology and SLA: An Interview with Glenn Stockwell Section I: Your Life Story Section II: Your Contributions to SLA Section III: Current and Future Trends in SLA References Index This book includes interviews with fourteen internationally-acclaimed leading figures in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), who speak on seminal issues in the field as well as their own contributions to SLA scholarship. As well as covering the contributors backgrounds and academic achievements, the interviews also delve into their areas of expertise, current theoretical and practical considerations, and contemporary questions, developments and challenges in SLA. An introduction by the author draws out the key themes and debates in the field today, and highlights areas for future research and further exploration, and a foreword is provided by Rod Ellis. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Applied Linguistics, Teacher Education and Methodology, and Second and Foreign Language Education. Karim Sadeghi is Professor of TESOL at Urmia University, Iran, and is the founding editor-in-chief of the Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, a Scopus Q1 journal