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Understanding Second Language Acquisition Paperback – 28 November 2008
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Whether we grow up with one, two, or several languages during our early years of life, many of us will learn a second, foreign, or heritage language in later years. The field of Second language acquisition (SLA, for short) investigates the human capacity to learn additional languages in late childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, after the first language --in the case of monolinguals-- or languages --in the case of bilinguals-- have already been acquired. Understanding Second Language Acquisition offers a wide-encompassing survey of this burgeoning field, its accumulated findings and proposed theories, its developed research paradigms, and its pending questions for the future. The book zooms in and out of universal, individual, and social forces, in each case evaluating the research findings that have been generated across diverse naturalistic and formal contexts for second language acquisition. It assumes no background in SLA and provides helpful chapter-by-chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading.
Ideal as a textbook for students of applied linguistics, foreign language education, TESOL, and education, it is also recommended for students of linguistics, developmental psycholinguistics, psychology, and cognitive science.
Supporting resources for tutors are available free at www.routledge.com/ortega.
- ISBN-10034090559X
- ISBN-13978-0340905593
- Edition1st
- Publication date28 November 2008
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions15.6 x 1.85 x 23.39 cm
- Print length320 pages
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Review
This volume is impressive in many ways, including its state-of-the art coverage of the field, the scope and depth of the material reviewed, and its engaging and accessible style of delivery...the strengths of this book cannot be overstated...This volume is sure to soon become a standard SLA text in the field of applied linguistics.
Nina Spada - OISE University of Toronto
Lourdes Ortega has succeeded admirably in her goal of helping students construct personal understandings of the interdisciplinary field of SLA. She is thorough in presenting the most up-to-date research bearing on the important controversies in SLA and does so with an engaging, personable, reader-friendly style that invites students to stay focused on the broader meanings of the research findings.
Professor Mark Sawyer, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
My students thoroughly enjoyed this text. It provides a thorough and yet accessible overview of major theories and trends in the field. I believe it is destined to become the standard text for survey courses on SLA.
Linda Harklau, University of Georgia, USA
Ortega has ... provided an invaluable source of information and reference for novice and seasoned researchers. This book will be of use to researchers from different corners of the world who share an interest in uncovering SLA.
Ammar Ahlem, McGill University, The Canadian Modern Language Review, Volume 66, Number 3, March 2010, pp.467-469
Understanding Second Language Acquisition is an eminently useful, thorough and elaborate overview of the most important debates in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). [It] is laid out in a well-organised and well structured manner. The language used is engaging and straight forward and the arguments are all cogent, coherent and at the appropriate level for the intended audience. ...all universities with a TESOL, Modern Foreign Languages and/or Applied Linguistics group would find this book extremely valuable.
BAAL News
Parvaneh Tavakoli - London Metropolitan University
About the Author
Lourdes Ortega is Professor of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, where she teaches graduate courses and conducts research on second language acquisition and instruction.
Product details
- Publisher : Routledge
- Publication date : 28 November 2008
- Edition : 1st
- Language : English
- Print length : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 034090559X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0340905593
- Item weight : 535 g
- Dimensions : 15.6 x 1.85 x 23.39 cm
- Part of series : Understanding Language
- Best Sellers Rank: 622,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 615 in Linguistics Textbooks
- 1,781 in Linguistics Reference
- Customer Reviews:
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Customer reviews
Top reviews from Australia
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United States on 12 August 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible and lays down the foundational knowledge... but with a new perspective
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseI love this book. I don't know Ortega personally (except for meeting her for a few minutes at a conference), but I do know she's a professor of linguistics at Georgetown who's very respected in the field of Second Language Acquisition and probably the most well read in a variety of topics, not just sticking to one particular niche of SLA. Here are reasons why I (a PhD student) would use this textbook in an undergraduate or first-semester Masters course on Second Language Acquisition...
1) Ortega's style is accessible, and she writes as if having a conversation with the reader -- even if it is an academic one. She does not assume any prior knowledge in SLA.
2) She lays down the foundational knowledge, which is cognitivist (brain-based) in nature. However, she interprets it from a sociocultural lens, taking into account the social and cultural contexts of language acquisition, which didn't interest researchers in the field until the 1990s. Hence, you get the best of both worlds: the basic knowledge on acquisition of grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax, vocabulary/semantics) everyone should know when entering this field but also the cutting-edge perspective on social and cultural factors. The third main perspective she tackles is individual differences in learning/motivation, so basically the book is divided into thirds: "universal aspects in the way people learn languages", "individual differences", "social and cultural factors". It's a very well balanced treatment.
I was not to happy with the copy I got of the book... it had WAY more markings than its rating would have suggested, but the book itself, I really recommend.
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Nadja BReviewed in Germany on 9 February 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars Großartige Einführung
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseOrtegas Einführung in den Zweitspracherwerb ist leicht zugänglich formuliert und strukturiert und mit einer Fülle an Beispielen sehr anschaulich gestaltet. Zudem ist das Werk wesentlich umfassender als vergleichbare Einführungen anderer Autoren. Die Kapitel bauen nicht immer zwangsweise aufeinander auf, sodass auch das "Querlesen" möglich ist. Ein ausführlicher Index macht die Einführung außerdem zu einem soliden Nachschlagewerk. Definitive Kaufempfehlung!
- BookwormReviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 April 2013
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseAn excellent guide to sedond language acquisition. I would recommend it to anyone doing an MA or a PhD in the area. Ortega is, as alway, clear, lucid and very pedagogically oriented.
- YoyoReviewed in Canada on 20 April 2013
5.0 out of 5 stars Very comprehensive book, brilliantly organized
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase(Please, bear with my English, I am not a native speaker)
Lourdes Ortega wrote a very comprehensive book on SLA and moreover, brilliantly organized. It is a real pleasure to read but enough challenging for graduate students (for undergraduate, Lightbown & Spada's "how language are learned" might be a better choice). Very well written, I was really impressed by the way she organized some chapters and achieve a better intelligibility connecting the dots using famous cases of learners. My description might not be clear, but the book is, definitively. Highly recommended !