This article discusses sociolinguistically oriented research on second language acquisition (SLA) in the decade since Firth and Wagner (1997). Over the last 10 years, substantial progress has been made in developing a model of the sociolinguistic processes that inform second language acquisition. This model is supported by empirical evidence on…

Since Selinker's (1972) historic invocation of language learning strategies (LLS) and communication strategies (CS) as two distinct processes involved in the development of interlanguage, it has become customary in SLA literature to distinguish the strategies of learning from the strategies of communication. It has been argued in this article that…

This study documents the sensitivity of English-French interlanguage to the process-result distinction with respect to the licensing of multiple postnominal genitives, despite a lack of direct positive or negative evidence for this distinction in the input. Documentation argues that the Universal Grammar-governed map between syntactic structures…

This paper provides an overview of second language acquisition (SLA) research over the past several decades and highlights the ways in which it has retained its original applied and linguistic interests and enhanced them by addressing questions about acquisition processes. After discussing disciplinary contexts (SLA research and applied…

Reports on an experiment in which 2 groups of 20 Japanese learners of English as a Second Language performed 2 monologic production tasks with and without time for planning. It was found that providing learners with time to plan their utterances results in interlanguage productions that are more complex. (64 references) (Author/VWL)

An attempt is made to describe second language behavior and language transfer in cybernetic terms. This should make it possible to translate language into machine language and to clarify psycholinguistic explanations of second language performance. (PMJ)

Argues for a reconceptualization of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research in order to enlarge the ontological and empirical parameters of the field. Claims that methodologies, theories, and foci within SLA reflect an imbalance between cognitive and mentalistic orientations, and social and contextual orientations to language, the former…

A comparison of three models of language learning: the Creative Construction Hypothesis, the Interlanguage Hypothesis and The Approximate Systems Model. Evidence is provided to support the hypothesis that the third model which incorporates both functional and linguistic analysis describes second language learning and explains why learners progress…

Attempts to demonstrate the strategies used by the second language learner in deciphering unfamiliar linguistic material. (AM)

Limitations of language acquisition research are: the restricted linguistic scope of studies; lack of data in cognitive processes and learning strategies, the role of individual variables, second language acquisition, and the role of social and environmental variables; and undeveloped methodology for data collection and data analysis. (SCC)

This handbook provides an integrated discussion of key issues in second language acquisition (SLA). The 24 chapters include the following: (1) "The Scope of Inquiry and the Goals of SLA" (Catherine J. Doughty and Michael H. Long); (2) "On the Nature of Interlanguage Representation: Universal Grammar in the Second Language"…

The proceedings of the fourth colloquium of the Groupe de recherche en didartique des langues (Language Teaching Research Group) include eleven papers and four synopses. The papers, three in English (E) and the rest in French (F), cover these topics: cognitive presence in language teaching/learning (F); interlanguage and metalanguage (F);…

This paper reports an investigation into the transitional dialect spoken by learners in the process of learning a second language. Theories concerning the psychology of second language learning which have been hypothesized by a small number of people in the field are discussed. These theories were first reported on from Scotland and England and…

This paper is based on a longitudinal study of the development of questions in the spontaneous speech of two anglophone boys learning French by attending French language schools. The development of form-meaning relations in information questions in the children's French L2 speech was examined and comparisons were made with the same form-meaning…

A general model for second language learning is proposed in this paper. First, this model aims to describe different components (input, intake, integration, output) of the learning process in terms of the information (explicit/implicit, linguistic/sociolinguistic) to which the learner is exposed. Secondly, the model serves to identify the stages,…