This volume represents the first collection of empirical studies focusing on peer interaction for L2 learning. These studies aim to unveil the impact of mediating variables such as task type, mode of interaction, and social relationships on learners’ interactional behaviors and language development in this unique and pedagogically powerful learning context. To examine these issues, contributors employed quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods designs as well as cognitive, social, and sociocognitive theoretical frameworks. The majority of the studies are classroom based and were conducted in a rich array of settings covering five continents and encompassing a wide range of learner L1s and target languages. These settings include second and foreign language classrooms from primary to university level, content-based programs, online contexts, and after-school programs. To span the divide between research and practice, each study includes a section suggesting pedagogical implications.

Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning synthesizes the existing body of research on the role of peer interaction in second language learning in one comprehensive volume. In spite of the many hours that language learners spend interacting with peers in the classroom, there is a tendency to evaluate the usefulness of this time by comparison to whole class interaction with the teacher. Yet teachers are teachers and peers are peers – as partners in interaction, they are likely to offer very different kinds of learning opportunities. This book encourages researchers and instructors alike to take a new look at the potential of peer interaction to foster second language development. Acknowledging the context of peer interaction as highly dynamic and complex, the book considers the strengths and limitations of peer work from a range of theoretical perspectives. In doing so, Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning clarifies features of effective peer interaction for second language learning across a range of educational contexts, age spans, proficiency levels, and classroom tasks and settings.

Introduction to Instructed Second Language Acquisition is the first book to present a cohesive view of the different theoretical and pedagogical perspectives that comprise instructed second language acquisition (ISLA), defined as any type of learning that occurs as a result of the manipulating the process and conditions of second language acquisition. The book begins by considering the effectiveness of ISLA and the differences between ISLA and naturalistic L2 learning. It then goes on to discuss the theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical aspects of such key issues in ISLA as grammar learning; interaction in the classroom; focus on form, function and meaning; vocabulary learning; pronunciation learning; pragmatics learning; learning contexts; and individual differences. This timely and important volume is ideally suited for the graduate level ISLA course, and provides valuable insights for any SLA scholar interested in the processes involved in second language learning in classroom settings.

This book is a thorough revision of the highly successful text first published in 1994. The authors retain the multidisciplinary approach that presents research from linguistics, sociology, psychology, and education, in a format designed for use in an introductory course for undergraduate or graduate students. The research is updated throughout and there are new sections and chapters in this second edition as well. New chapters cover child language acquisition (first and second), Universal Grammar, and instructed language learning; new sections address issues, such as what data analysis doesn't show, replication of research findings, interlanguage transfer (multilingual acquisition and transfer), the aspect hypothesis, general nativism, connectionist approaches, and implicit/explicit knowledge. Major updates include nonlanguage influences and the lexicon. The workbook, Second Language Learning Data Analysis, Second Edition, makes an ideal accompaniment to the text.

This volume brings together seven empirical studies about aptitude-treatment interactions (ATI), i.e., about how (second language) learners with different aptitudes match or don’t match with different educational treatments; and aptitude-testing interactions, i.e., about how learners with different aptitudes perform better or worse depending on the way their knowledge and skills are tested. The authors are all established researchers or rising stars in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), who believe that little can be said about the effectiveness of teaching and testing methods or techniques without taking individual differences into account. Many of the studies corroborate in SLA what has become a central finding in the psychological and educational research about ATI: the more a method puts the burden of information processing on the student, the bigger the role of the corresponding aptitudes. The kinds of findings documented in this volume contribute to a scientific basis for the art of language teaching that will become increasingly useful as emerging technologies make adaptation to individuals and groups more feasible. Originally published as special issue of Journal of Second Language Studies 2:2 (2019).

This text examines different perspectives on the role that interaction plays in second language acquisition. In addition the effects of language aptitude on input processing are considered, and the contribution that interaction makes to the acquisition of grammatical knowledge is discussed.