We respond here to Pienemann's critique of our study that appeared earlier this year in the Language Learning Special Issue entitled "Orders and Sequences in the Acquisition of L2 Morphosyntax, 40 Years On" and guest edited by Jan Hulstijn, Rod Ellis, and Søren Eskildsen. Pienemann objected to our claim that the Teachability Hypothesis…

The goals of this article are to appraise second language acquisition's (SLA) disciplinary progress over the last 15 years and to reflect on transdisciplinary relevance as the field has completed 40 years of existence and moves forward into the 21st century. I first identify four trends that demonstrate vibrant disciplinary progress in SLA. I then…

Studies about bilingualism and second language acquisition (SLA) have a long tradition within linguistic and psycholinguistic research. The contributions from psycholinguistic research are crucial to the improvement of neurolinguistic models. This importance stems from the fact that psycholinguistic research is posing more specific questions than…

Studies investigating the possible effects of age at immigration (a proxy for age at onset of second language learning) on second language acquisition among immigrants often explicitly take the effect of length of residence in the destination country (a measure of exposure to opportunities to learn the second language) into account. A third…

Reviews literature on language transfer and language universals. Defines language universals as those linguistic elements which are common to all languages. Discusses language transfer and language universals as interacting phenomena. Concludes that language universals serve as an overall guiding principle in second language acquisition,…

Vygotskian psycholinguistics is not only compatible with current second-language acquisition (SLA) theory but also serves as productive example within which to conduct research and theory building. Three sections of the paper support the following claims: an overview of Vygotskian concepts, a summary of selected Vygotsky-based SLA research, and a…

Responds to a previous article on emergentism, connectionism, and language learning. Suggests that connectionist models of emergent language knowledge will continue to be important in the years to come. (Author/JL)

Expands on Ochsner's (1979) call for a "bilingual" attitude toward second language acquisition research. Suggests work be viewed as science and art in order to better understand what we do and how we do it. Argues that theorists use artistic and scientific devices in building theories, and consumers of those theories use aesthetic and…

Presents a research agenda in which the study of interlanguage becomes more central to the study of interlanguage pragmatics, assessing the state of acquisition research in interlanguage pragmatics, surveying work in interlanguage pragmatics that either directly examines or appeals to grammatical competence, showing how acquisition studies in…

Responds to comments made regarding an earlier article written by the author on processing instruction in second language learning. (Author/VWL)

Second-language scholars have suggested that Krashen's construct of "i +1" is similar to Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and that it might therefore be feasible to integrate the two constructs in way that would be productive for second-language acquisition (SLA) research. Article argues that this is futile, not only because…

Responds to a previous article on research in second-language learning, challenging the need for discussion on the promises and problems, and asserting the need to report definitive results. (Author/JL)

Identifies three areas of research relevant to examining literacy acquisition in bilinguals, explains the contributions of each, and associates each with a skill required by monolingual and bilingual children in the development of literacy acquisition skills. (Author/VWL)

Reviews processing (PI) instruction, outlines a model of input processing, describes the nature of PI, and discusses research on it to date. (Author/VWL)

Responds to VanPatten's update of the findings for processing instruction. Questions the explanatory adequacy of the model of input processing that VanPatten proposed and that underpins his pedagogic proposals. Questions the validity of the limited-capacity, single-resource model of attention proposed for second language learning. (Author/VWL)