1st Edition

Learner Contributions to Language Learning New Directions in Research

By Michael Breen Copyright 2001
    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    Since it was first established in the 1970s the Applied Linguistics and Language Study series has become a major force in the study of practical problems in human communication and language education. Drawing extensively on empirical research and theoretical work in linguistics, sociology, psychology and education, the series explores key issues in language acquisition and language use.

    What the learner contributes is central to the language learning process. Learner Contributions to Language Learning provides a uniquely comprehensive account of learners' personal attributes, their thinking, their feelings, and their actions that have been shown to have an impact upon language learning.
    Containing specific chapters from leading names in the field, this book provides both a review of what has been discovered from previous research and identifies important future directions for research on learner contributions. It is a landmark volume setting the agenda for language learning research in the 21st century and it provides invaluable information for all those engaged in language teaching.
    The contributors to the volume are-
    Michael P. Breen Bonny Norton
    Anna Chamot Rebecca Oxford
    Rod Ellis Anna Pavlenko
    James P. Lantolf Anita Wenden
    Diane Larsen-Freeman

    Introduction: Conceptualisation, affect, and action in context

    1. Individual cognitive/ affective learner contributions and differential success in second langugae acquisition Diana Larsen-Freeman
    2. The role of learning strategies in second language acquisition Anna Uhli Chamot
    3. Metacognitive knowledge in SLA: the neglected variable Anita L. Wenden
    4. The metaphorical constructions of second language learners Rod Ellis
    5. 'The bleached bones of a story': learners' constructions of language teachers Rebecca L. Oxford
    6. Overt participation and covert acquisition in the language classroom Micahel P. Breen
    7. (S)econd (L)anguage (A)ctivity theory: understanding second language learners as people  James P. Lantolf and Aneta Pavlenko
    8. Non-participation, imagined communities and the language classroom Bonny Norton

    Postscript: New directions for reasearch on learner contributions

    Biography

    Michael P. Breen is Professor of Language Education in the Centre for English Language Teaching, University of Stirling.