An account of the development of research and thinking in the field of learner language. Draws on wide-ranging research into contrastive analysis, bilingualism, theoretical linguistics and experimental psychology.

The purpose of this workbook is to provide students with practice in analyzing second language data. For the student of second language learning, "hands-on" experience with actual data is essential in understanding the processes involved in learning a second language. Working through exemplars of the kinds of interlanguages that learners do and do not create brings about a clearer understanding of the principles underlying these interlanguages, as well as the universal principles of langua...

Errors in Language Learning and Use is an up-to-date introduction and guide to the study of errors in language, and is also a critical survey of previous work. Error Analysis occupies a central position within Applied Linguistics, and seeks to clarify questions such as `Does correctness matter?', `Is it more important to speak fluently and write imaginatively or to communicate one's message?'Carl James provides a scholarly and well-illustrated theoretical and historical ba...

How do young children learn language? When does this process start? What does language acquisition involve? Children are exposed to language from birth, surrounded by knowledgeable speakers who offer feedback and provide extensive practice every day. Through conversation and joint activities, children master the language being used around them. This fully revised third edition of Eve V. Clark's bestselling textbook offers comprehensive coverage of language acquisition, from a baby's first ...

An introduction to the study of children's language development that provides a uniquely accessible perspective on generative/universal grammar–based approaches.How children acquire language so quickly, easily, and uniformly is one of the great mysteries of the human experience. The theory of Universal Grammar suggests that one reason for the relative ease of early language acquisition is that children are born with a predisposition to create a grammar. This textbo...

First published in 1986. This edition offers a grammatical sketch of French, with occasional comments on how other Romance languages diverge from this picture; a brief account of the sources available on language acquisition by children; and a summary of the overall course of development in children acquiring the major Romance languages. The remainder of the review takes up different facets of the language acquisition process in more detail.

How meaning works—from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music—and how meaning is connected to truth.We communicate through language, connecting what we mean to the words we say. But humans convey meaning in other ways as well, with facial expressions, hand gestures, and other methods. Animals, too, can get their meanings across without words. In What It All Means, linguist Philippe Schlenker explains h...

This module explores the content-driven approach to language teaching, or the teaching of nonlinguistic content such as geography, history, or science using the target language. It lays out effective techniques that help facilitate students’ comprehension of curricular content and also discusses how teacher collaboration and students’ L1s affect this approach to language teaching. With an instructional sequence comprising noticing, awareness, and practice activities as well as examples of ...

During the last 10 years, more and more linguistic and psycholinguistic research has been devoted to the study of discourse and written texts. Much of this research deals with the markers that underline the connections and the breaks between clauses and sentences plus the use of these markers -- by adults and children -- in the production and comprehension of oral and written material. In this volume, major observations and theoretical views from both sides of the Atlantic are brought toge...

This book aims at outlining what the Dialectic of Desire is in Lacan. Starting from the analysis of the concept of desire-for-desire, I dwell on considering the function that “the desire for the Other” has in structuring, both in the Logic of Fantasy (or of Unconscious) and in the way the phenomenic representation of the Real is established. Moreover I examine how the classical aesthetic theory, subjected to the Logic of Fantasy, is taken back to an ethic of intersubjectivity and how, with...

This is a new edition of the best-selling handbook for language teachers. Written by two teachers with long experience, the book marries findings from second language acquisition and cognitive science research to everyday classroom practice. Its 20 chapters cover a wide range of areas including:Language teaching methodsIntercultural understandingListening, speaking, reading and writingTeaching in the target languageGrammar and lexicogra...