The Second Language Studies (SLS) Program was established in 2005 with the express purpose of providing "a firm foundation in the field of Second Language Acquisition and its application to current second language research and teaching" (http://sls.msu.edu). Under the leadership of Professor Susan Gass, the program has grown to include 12 core faculty members and 27 Ph.D. students. As an interdisciplinary program, linkages across the university exist with the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages; the Department of French, Classics, and Italian; the Department of Spanish and Portuguese; the Arabic Language Instruction Flagship; the M.A. TESOL Program; the Center for Language Education and Research; the English Language Center; the Center for the Support of Language Teaching; the Department of Psychology; and the College of Education.