Agendas for Language Learning Research Currents in Language Learning Series

Currents in Language Learning provides programmatic state-of-the-art overviews of current issues in the language sciences and their applications in first, second, and bi/multilingual language acquisition in naturalistic and tutored contexts.

• Draws on interdisciplinary perspectives from linguistics, psychology, education, anthropology, sociology, cognitive science, and neuroscience
• Brings together a team of leading linguists to explore current issues
• Develops research agendas in areas including: progress and relevance in second language acquisition; usage-based linguistics; age effects in language learning; second language pragmatics; vocabulary knowledge; transfer of learning in second language instruction; language, literacy, and culture; academic language development in schools; practice theory; and evolutionary perspectives on language

Foreword v

Lourdes Ortega
SLA for the 21st Century: Disciplinary Progress, Transdisciplinary Relevance, and the Bi/multilingual Turn 1–24

Nick C. Ellis, Matthew Brook O’Donnell, and Ute Römer
Usage-Based Language: Investigating the Latent Structures That Underpin Acquisition 25– 51

Robert M. DeKeyser
Age Effects in Second Language Learning: Stepping Stones Toward Better Understanding 52– 67

Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig
DevelopingL2Pragmatics 68– 86

Scott Jarvis
Capturing the Diversity in Lexical Diversity 87– 106

Diane Larsen-Freeman
Transfer of Learning Transformed 107– 129

Alister Cumming
Multiple Dimensions of Academic Language and Literacy Development 130– 152

Mary J. Schleppegrell
The Role of Metalanguage in Supporting Academic Language Development 153– 170

Richard F. Young and Alice C. Astarita
Practice Theory in Language Learning 171– 189

John H. Schumann
Societal Responses to Adult Difficulties in L2 Acquisition: Toward an Evolutionary Perspective on Language Acquisition 190– 209

Subject Index 210–215

Lourdes Ortega is Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University. She investigates additional language development in instructed contexts from cognitive-interactionist and usage based perspectives and has long-standing interests in second language writing, foreign language education, and research methods. She serves as Journal Editor of Language Learning.

Alister Cumming is Professor and Head of the Centre for Educational Research on Languages and Literacies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.  His research and teaching focus on writing in second languages, language assessment, language program evaluation and policies, and research methods. He serves as Executive Director of Language Learning.

Nick C. Ellis is Professor of Psychology, Professor of Linguistics, and Research Scientist in the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. His research interests include language acquisition, cognition, emergentism, corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistics, applied linguistics, and psycholinguistics He serves a General Editor of Language Learning.