Mind Matters in SLA

This book examines key issues in theories of what language is and what happens in the mind during second language acquisition (SLA), inspiring readers to think in new and exciting ways about language learning and teaching. Chapters, written by both established and rising star scholars, provide cutting-edge insights and new empirical findings on major topics of formal and cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics and second language development, and offer a coherent, wide-ranging, reader-friendly examination of learner-internal factors in SLA. The first section of the book focuses on issues that are pertinent to our understanding of language acquisition, particularly in relation to syntax. The second section comprises empirical chapters on syntax, the lexicon, phonetics/phonology and language production in English and other languages. These chapters refer to theories and frameworks from within SLA to enable the reader to grasp the key questions and issues that are currently relevant. The final section focuses on research relating to how second language (L2) learners make transitions from one stage of development to the next; it covers state-of-the-art psycholinguistic research concerning how L2 acquisition occurs in real time, and includes discussion of models of L2 development both in and out of the classroom.

Chapter 1. Clare Wright, Thorsten Piske and Martha Young-Scholten: IntroductionSection 1: Language and Mind
Chapter 2. Andrew Caink: What is Grammar? A Universal Grammar Approach
Chapter 3. William O'Grady: Syntax and Acquisition: The Emergentist Story
Chapter 4. Kook-Hee Gil, Heather Marsden and George Tsoulas: Poverty of the Stimulus and Language Acquisition: From Ancient Philosophy to Neuroscience
Chapter 5. Andrew Feeney: Language Evolution and the Nature of the Human Faculty for Language
Section 2: Properties of Interlanguage Grammars
Chapter 6. Walid Kahoul, Anne Vainikka and Martha Young-Scholten: The Mystery of the Missing Inflections
Chapter 7. Vivienne Rogers, David Playfoot and James Milton: The L2 Lexicon
Chapter 8. Joan Carles Mora and Elena Safronova: Foreign Accent in a Second Language: Individual Differences In Perception
Chapter 9. Esther De Leeuw, Aurela Tusha, Hui Zhao, Kyle Helke and Alice Greenfield: A Case Study of Extreme L1 Attrition
Section 3: Transitions in Acquisition
Chapter 10. Theo Marinis and Ian Cunnings: Using Psycholinguistic Techniques in a Second Language Teaching Setting
Chapter 11. Clare Wright: Research in Memory and Processing in SLA
Chapter 12. Jörg-U. Kessler, Anke Lenzing and Anja Plesser: Processability Theory: Architecture and Application