Key Terms in Second Language Acquisition

233 Pages·2015·1.09 MB·English

by  Bill VanPatten

Key Terms in
Second Language
Acquisition
KEY TERMS SERIES
The Key Terms series offers students clear, concise, and accessible
introductions to core topics. Each book includes a comprehensive
overview of the key terms, concepts, thinkers, and texts in the area
covered and ends with a guide to further resources.
Other titles available in the series:
Key Terms in Discourse Analysis Paul Baker and Sibonile Ellece
Key Terms in Linguistics Howard Jackson
Key Terms in Pragmatics Nicholas Allott
Key Terms in Semantics M. Lynne Murphy and Anu Koskela
Key Terms in Semiotics Bronwen Martin and Felizitas Ringham
Key Terms in Stylistics Nina Nørgaard, Rocío Montoro and Beatrix
Busse
Key Terms in Syntax and Syntactic Theory Silvia Luraghi and Claudia
Parodi
Key Terms in Systemic Functional Linguistics Christian Matthiessen,
Kazuhiro Teruya and Marvin Lam
Key Terms in Translation Studies Giuseppe Palumbo
Key Terms in
Second Language
Acquisition
SECOND EDITION
BILL VANPATTEN AND
ALESSANDRO G. BENATI
Bloomsbury Academic
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2015
© Bill VanPatten and Alessandro G. Benati, 2015
Bill VanPatten and Alessandro G. Benati have asserted their right under
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the
Authors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
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system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting
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can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-2751-3
PB: 978-1-4742-2750-6
ePDF: 978-1-4742-2753-7
ePub: 978-1-4742-2752-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
VanPatten, Bill, author.
Key terms in Second language acquisiton / Bill VanPatten and
Alessandro G. Benati. – Second Edition.
pages cm. – (Key terms)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4742-2751-3 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-4742-2750-6 (pb) –
ISBN 978-1-4742-2752-0 (epub) 1. Second language acquisition. 2. Interlanguage
(Language learning) 3. Language and languages–Study and teaching. I. Benati,
Alessandro G., author. II. Title.
P118.2.V38 2015
418.0071–dc23
2015014293
Series: Key Terms
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
To Janizona My Name Is Murphy, Too
—BVP
To Orazio Benati and Anna Maria Ferrari
—AB

Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
Key Questions in Second Language Acquisition 11
Key Theories and Frameworks in Second Language
Acquisition 61
Key Terms in Second Language Acquisition 87
Key Readings 205
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the many folks at Bloomsbury for their
help in the preparation of this book. Our special thanks go to
Gurdeep Mattu, Andrew Wardell, and Balaji Kasirajan. In addition, we
would like to thank our colleague Wynne Wong, who read portions of
the first-edition manuscript and offered feedback and suggestions.
To be sure, we do not hold her or anyone else responsible for
any omissions or errors contained in this book. We also thank the
anonymous reviewers who provided ideas during the planning stage
of the second edition. Finally, we would like to thank our families and
friends who put up with our hectic work and writing schedules. In a
world that doesn’t always appreciate academic efforts, it is comforting
to have those around us who understand why we academics do what
we do.
Introduction
What is second language acquisition?
Second language acquisition (SLA) is a research field that focuses on
learners and learning rather than teachers and teaching. In the best-
selling text Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course,
Gass, Behney, and Plonsky (2013, p. 1) define SLA as “the study of
how learners create a new language system.” As a research field, they
add that SLA is the study of what is learned of a second language and
what is not learned.
An examination of any other introductory or overview texts
would reveal similar definitions and discussions of the scope of SLA
research (e.g., Doughty & Long, 2003; VanPatten, 2003; White, 2003;
Lightbown & Spada, 2006; Gass & Mackey, 2012; Ortega, 2015;
VanPatten & Williams, 2015). Moreover, such definitions would include
a concern for both processes and products involved in how languages
are learned, as the field is informed by a variety of disciplines such as
linguistics, psychology, and education. These different influences are
most easily seen in the edited volume by VanPatten and Williams
(2015) on theories in SLA. The mainstream theories represented in
that volume reflect the multifaceted nature of SLA, as well as the
various parent disciplines that have come to inform research on
language learning.
Some make the distinction between foreign language learning and
second language acquisition. The former is used to refer to language
learning in contexts in which the language is not normally spoken
outside the classroom, such as learning French in Newcastle, United
Kingdom, or Greek in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. SLA
is used by some to refer to those contexts in which the language is
used outside the classroom, as in the case of learning English in the