Second Language Acquisition and the Younger Learner : Child's Play?

by Philp, Jenefer; Oliver, Rhonda; Mackey, Alison

• ISBN13: 9789027219848
• ISBN10: 9027219842
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-30
• Publisher: John Benjamins Pub Co

Summary

"This new volume of work highlights the distinctiveness of child SLA through a collection of different types of empirical research specific to younger learners. Characteristics of children's cognitive, emotional, and social development distinguish their experiences from those of adult L2 learners, creating intriguing issues for SLA research, and also raising important practical questions regarding effective pedagogical techniques for learners of different ages." "While child SLA is often typically thought of as simple (and often enjoyable and universally effortless), in other words, as "child's play", the complex portraits of young second language learners which emerge in the 16 papers collected in this book invite the reader to reconsider the reality for many younger learners. Chapters by internationally renowned authors together with reports by emerging researchers describe second and foreign language learning by children ranging from pre-schoolers to young adolescents, in home and school contexts, with caregivers, peers, and teachers as interlocutors."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Child's play? Second language acquisition and the younger learner in context	p. 3
Characteristics of child SLA
Defining child second language acquisition, defining roles for L2 instruction	p. 27
Perspectives on second language acquisition at different ages	p. 53
Instructed language learning in the early years of education
When the gate opens: The interaction between social and linguistic goals in child second language development	p. 83
Developing conversational skills in a second language: Language learning affordances in a multiparty classroom setting	p. 105
The impact of teacher input, guidance and feedback on ESL children's task-based interactions	p. 131
Negotiation of meaning in the classroom: Does it enhance reading comprehension?	p. 149
Instructed language learning in the later years of education
Incidental focus on form and learning outcomes with young foreign language classroom learners
Speeding up acquisition of hisand her: Explicit L1/L2 contrasts help	p. 193
Child SLA at home and in the community
Acquiring Japanese as a second language (JSL) in a naturalistic context: A longitudinal study of a young child from a Processability Theory (PT) perspective	p. 231
Learning a second language in the family	p. 255
Home-school connections for international adoptees: Repetition in parent-child interaction	p. 279
Language transfer in child SLA: Alongitudinal case study of a sequential bilingual	p. 303
Index	p. 333
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