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11 results in Cambridge Elements

Processability Theory

Processability Theory
  • Manfred Pienemann, Anke Lenzing
  • Published online:
    10 March 2025
    Print publication:
    10 April 2025
  • Processability Theory (PT) is a psycholinguistic theory of second language acquisition. The theory builds on the fundamental assumption that learners can acquire only those linguistic forms and functions which they can process. Therefore, PT is based on the architecture of the human language processor. PT is implemented in a theory of grammar that is compatible with the basic design of the language processor. This Element gives a concise introduction to the psycholinguistic core of PT - showing that PT offers an explanation of language development and variation based on processing constraints that are specified for typologically different languages and that apply to first and second language acquisition, albeit in different ways. Processing constraints also delineate transfer from the first language and the effect of formal intervention. This Element also covers the main branches of research in the PT framework and provides an introduction to the methodology used in PT-based research.
Input

Input
  • John Truscott
  • Published online:
    28 May 2024
    Print publication:
    27 June 2024
  • Input is the name of a topic – the way that language 'out there' impacts the development of interlanguage, within the individual. It is perhaps the most important aspect of second language learning. This Element offers an overview of the key concepts related to input and the major lines of research exploring its nature and its role in second language learning. It then puts things together into a coherent, if controversial, picture of input and its role in development, emphasizing the place of consciousness. In this and most other current perspectives, implicit (unconscious) input-based learning is the heart of second language acquisition. This suggests two general options for teaching: (a) trust the natural implicit processes, trying to create optimal conditions for them; (b) direct those processes to selected features of the input, probably using explicit instruction. The conclusion is that (a) appears preferable.
Pragmatics, Grammar and Meaning in SLA

Pragmatics, Grammar and Meaning in SLA
  • Aoife K. Ahern, José Amenós-Pons, Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes
  • Published online:
    29 March 2024
    Print publication:
    18 April 2024
  • This Element explores the role of pragmatics, and its relationship with meaning and grammar, in second language acquisition. Specifically, this Element examines the generative paradigm, with its focus on purely linguistic aspects, in contrast with, and complemented by, the view of language adopted in the wider perspective on communication that Relevance Theory offers. It reviews several theoretical standpoints on how linguistic phenomena that require combining semantic, pragmatic and syntactic information are acquired and developed in second languages, illustrating how these perspectives are brought together in analysing data in different linguistic scenarios. It shows that the notion of procedural meaning casts light on the range of interpretative effects of grammatical features and how they vary across languages, suggesting ways to complete the picture of the interface factors that affect second language development.
Thinking and Speaking in a Second Language

Thinking and Speaking in a Second Language
  • Yi Wang, Li Wei
  • Published online:
    26 May 2022
    Print publication:
    23 June 2022
  • Does the language we speak affect the way we think? This Element provides a synthesis of contemporary research on the interplay between language and cognition in speakers of two or more languages and examines variables deemed to impact bilingual acquisition and conceptualization of language-specific thinking patterns during L2 learning. An overview of different yet interrelated studies is offered across a variety of conceptual domains to illustrate different approaches and key variables. The comparison of monolingual and bilingual data demonstrates the highly integrative nature between L2 learning and the changing of one's entire cognitive outlook in L2 speakers. This Element makes relevant connections between language learning and bilingual cognition, aiming to shed new light on how learners acquire conceptual distinctions of the target language(s). It also raises theoretical and pedagogical issues that encourage teachers to reflect upon how to incorporate recent advances in language-and-cognition research with aspects of L2 teaching.
Explicit and Implicit Learning in Second Language Acquisition

Explicit and Implicit Learning in Second Language Acquisition
  • Bill VanPatten, Megan Smith
  • Published online:
    25 May 2022
    Print publication:
    23 June 2022
  • This Element explores the roles of explicit and implicit learning in second language acquisition. The authors lay out some key issues that they take to underlie the debate on the extent to which second language acquisition involves explicit learning, implicit learning, or both. They also discuss what they take to be an oversight in the field: namely, the lack of clear definitions of key constructs. Taking a generative perspective on the nature of language, while addressing alternative approaches at key points, they refocus the discussion of explicit and implicit learning by first asking what must be learned (i.e., what is this mental representation we call “language” that all functioning humans possess?) The discussion and research reviewed leads to the conclusion that second language acquisition is largely if not exclusively implicit in nature and that explicit learning plays a secondary role in how learners grapple with meaning.
Interaction

Interaction
  • Jennifer Behney, Susan Gass
  • Published online:
    06 September 2021
    Print publication:
    23 September 2021
  • This Element in the Cambridge Elements in Second Language Acquisition series examines the role of interaction in Second Language Acquisition research, with a focus on the cognitive interactionist approach. The Element describes the major branches of the field, considering the importance of conversational interaction in both the cognitive interactionist framework as well as in sociocultural approaches to second language learning. The authors discuss the key concepts of the framework, including input, negotiation for meaning, corrective feedback, and output. The key readings in the field and the emphases of current and future research are explained. Finally, the authors describe the pedagogical implications that the cognitive interactionist approach has had on the teaching of second languages.
Focus on Form

Focus on Form
  • Alessandro Benati
  • Published online:
    27 April 2021
    Print publication:
    06 May 2021
  • This Cambridge Element examines the role and nature of focus on form in second language acquisition. An overall assessment of the role of instruction and the nature of language is provided. Instruction might have a facilitative role in the rate of acquisition. The Element briefly reviews empirical research examining the relative effects of different types of focus on form and presents some of the key implications for second language learning and teaching. An effective focus on form type is one that is input and meaning oriented. Manipulating input to facilitate language processing and form-meaning connections might enhance second language acquisition.
The Acquisition of Aspect in a Second Language

The Acquisition of Aspect in a Second Language
  • Stefano Rastelli
  • Published online:
    09 November 2020
    Print publication:
    03 December 2020
  • The acquisition of the aspect is a central area in Second Language Acquisition research, the subject of hundreds of papers and dozens of edited volumes, monographs and special issues. This introduction provides the reader not only with a concise and plain presentation of the main hypotheses advanced in the past, but also with an overview of contemporary research. Stefano Rastelli shows how comparison of behavioural (production-comprehension), processing and statistical data is improving - and partially changing - our understanding of how learners acquire the aspectual distinctions of the target-language.
Generative Second Language Acquisition

Generative Second Language Acquisition
  • Roumyana Slabakova, Tania Leal, Amber Dudley, Micah Stack
  • Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    24 September 2020
  • Most human beings grow up speaking more than one language; a lot of us also acquire an additional language or languages other than our mother tongue. This Element in the Second Language Acquisition series investigates the human capacity to learn additional languages later in life and introduces the seminal processes involved in this acquisition. The authors discuss how to analyze learner data and what the findings tell us about language learning; critically assessing a leading theory of how adults learn a second language: Generative SLA. This theory describes both universal innate knowledge and individual experiences as crucial for language acquisition. This Element makes the relevant connections between first and second language acquisition and explores whether they are fundamentally similar processes. Slabakova et al. provide fascinating pedagogical questions that encourage students and teachers to reflect upon the experiences of second language learners.
Implicit Language Aptitude

Implicit Language Aptitude
  • Gisela Granena
  • Published online:
    07 August 2020
    Print publication:
    06 August 2020
  • It is a well-known fact that some adult second language learners learn more rapidly and/or to a higher level of proficiency than others. Some of these individual differences have been linked to differences in cognitive and perceptual abilities under the umbrella term of 'language aptitude'. The notion of language aptitude has undergone recent developments, one of which is the proposal that language aptitude includes cognitive abilities that involve implicit processes and that are advantageous in learning a language without awareness. This Element defines implicit language aptitude, examines tasks that can be used to measure implicit language aptitude, and provides an overview of relevant research in this area.
Proficiency Predictors in Sequential Bilinguals

Proficiency Predictors in Sequential Bilinguals
  • The Proficiency Puzzle
  • Lynette Austin, Arturo E. Hernandez, John W. Schwieter
  • Published online:
    01 April 2019
    Print publication:
    28 March 2019
  • This Element provides an overview of research considering variables deemed to impact bilingual language acquisition, and highlights research outcomes from a variety of disciplines. An exploratory study takes into account these variables and examines the language acquisition of adult Spanish-English bilinguals across a range of domains in their two languages. The results demonstrate that the highly interactive nature of bilingual speakers' languages is in line with a holistic view of the dynamic, interdependent nature of bilingualism as described by usage-based theories and dynamic systems theories, and by the conceptualization of bilingual language from a Dynamic Interactive Processing Perspective.