Second Language Acquisition: Concepts, Theories, and Debates
Readings:
Ellis, Rod. (2015). Understanding Second Language Acquisition: Second Edition. Oxford UP.
Atkinson, Dwight. (2011). Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition. Routledge.
Course Description:
What age is best to learn a second/foreign language? Why are some people better at learning languages than others? Is it a matter of aptitude? length of exposure? practice? motivation? Does instruction really make a difference? What is the relationship between language and thought? Language and culture? Language and identity? And why is language education such a highly politicized field? This course is an introduction to the broad and diverse body of research dealing with how children and adults learn a language other than than their mother tongue. It will deal with canonical (psycholinguistic and interactional) theories of second language acquisition as well as more recent sociocultural and ecological/emergentist theories. We will focus on some of the main concepts and issues in SLA research: competence and performance, form and meaning, interlanguage, fossilization, consciousness and awareness, input and interaction, aptitude and motivation, discourse and culture, mediation, the Zone of Proximal Development, identity issues, language socialization, and classroom-based second language acquisition. The class will also consider research methods associated with these various approaches.