Understanding Second Language Acquisition

Whetherwegrowupwithone，two，orseverallanguagesduringourearlyyearsoflife，manyofuswilllearnasecond，foreign，orheritagelanguageinlateryears.ThefieldofSecondlanguageacquisition(SLA，forshort)investigatesthehumancapacitytolearnadditionallanguagesinlatechildhood，adolescence，oradulthood，afterthefirstlanguage-inthecaseofmonolinguals-orlanguages-inthecaseofbilinguals-havealreadybeenacquired.UnderstandingSecondLanguageAcquisitionoffersawide-encompassingsurveyofthisburgeoningfield，itsaccumulatedfindingsandproposedtheories，itsdevelopedresearchparadigms，anditspendingquestionsforthefuture.Thebookzoomsinandoutofuniversal，individual，andsocialforces，ineachcaseevaluatingtheresearchfindingsthathavebeengeneratedacrossdiversenaturalisticandformalcontextsforsecondlanguageacquisition.ItassumesnobackgroundinSLAandprovideshelpfulchapter-by-chaptersummariesandsuggestionsforfurtherreading.Idealasatextbookforstudentsofappliedlinguistics，foreignlanguageeducation，TESOL，andeducation，itisalsorecommendedforstudentsoflinguistics，developmentalpsycholinguistics，psychology，andcognitivescience.