Portraits Of The L2 User

"Portraits of the L2 User treats second language users in their own right rather than as failed native speakers. It describes a range of psychological and linguistic approaches to diverse topics about L2 users. It thus provides an overview of current second language acquisition theories, results and methods, seen from a common perspective."--Jacket.

As non-natives are increasingly found teaching languages, particularly English, both in ESL and EFL contexts, the identification of their specific contributions and their main strengths has become more relevant than ever. This volume provides different approaches to the study of non-native teachers: NNS teachers as seen by students, teachers, graduate supervisors, and by themselves. It contributes seldom-explored perspectives, like classroom discourse analysis, and social-psychological framework to discuss conceptions of NNS teachers.

"Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research" provides students and researchers interested in language acquisition with comprehensible and practical information on the most frequently used methods in language acquisition research. It includes contributions on first and child/adult second language learners, language-impaired children, and on the acquisition of both spoken and signed language. Part I discusses specific experimental methods, explaining the rationale behind each one, and providing an overview of potential participants, the procedure and data-analysis, as well as advantages and disadvantages and dos and don ts. Part II focuses on comparisons across groups, addressing the theoretical, applied and methodological issues involved in such comparative work. This book will not only be of use to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, but also to any scholars wishing to learn more about a particular research method. It is suitable as a textbook in postgraduate programs in the fields of linguistics, education and psychology."

The interaction between the global and the local has inspired inquiry into the multifarious manifestations of English nowadays, stimulating scholarly research into its diverse linguistic, cultural, and pedagogical landscapes. Drawing together various strands of the 'Global English' debate, the papers in this book question and expand on the interaction between Global English and local contexts in the Alpine-Adriatic region, and examine the complexities from different, yet complementary, perspectives: the cultural, the methodological (ELT), the translational, and the linguistic. (Series: Linguistik und Sprachvermittlung - Vol. 4)

This book investigates first language (L1) and second language (L2) use in Chinese university classrooms, focusing on the experiences of four Chinese EFL teachers who were teaching non-English major students at four different proficiency levels. It examines these four teachers' actual use of L1 and L2, including the distribution of their L1 and L2 use; the circumstances, functions and grammatical patterns of their language use; and their language use across different frames of classroom discourse. It also explores their attitudes and beliefs regarding this issue in depth, as well as their own perceptions of and reasons for their language use and possible influencing factors. Through its detailed analysis of the teachers' language use, as well as their respective beliefs and decision-making techniques, this book contributes to L2 teachers' professional development and L2 teaching in general, especially with regard to establishing a pedagogically principled approach to L1 and L2 use.

This study examines changes in the first language of people who know a second language. It presents theories and research that investigate the first language of second language users from a variety of perspectives including vocabulary, pragmatics, cognition and syntax.

Using second language (L2) socialization theory as a theoretical framework, this book investigates the ways in which four advanced learners of Japanese on an immersion program in the USA exercise their agency to pursue their language learning goals. The work presents their learner portraits and documents the different ways in which the four learners negotiate the meaning of their participations in the new community of practice, navigate and shape the trajectories of their learning and eventually achieve their goals of learning from their emic perspectives. The book re-examines Norton’s (2000) constructs of investment, investigates its applicability and argues that L2 learners’ desires and drives for learning an L2 are more diverse, unique and contextually situated than Norton’s notion of investment alone can explain. The research will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of applied linguistics, second language acquisition, foreign language education and language and literacy education.