Second Language

This volume will aim to present the process of learning an additional language apart from one’s native language. This book intends to provide readers with language acquisition, language comprehension, language development, language processing, and psychological and social variables, which have been largely excluded by purely language approaches.

This volume presents a collection of current research on pedagogies, practices and perspectives in the field of second language acquisition. It brings together different aspects of learning, teaching and researching a second language with chapters covering a range of topics from emotional communication, pragmatic competence, transformative pedagogy, inclusion, reflective teaching and innovative research methodologies.

The selected contributions of this volume focus on various issues related to second language pedagogy and second language acquisition in the Japanese context. Part I covers such topics as discourse pragmatics and cross-cultural pragmatics in language teaching; the instruction of conversation through training in story telling skills; task activities as a means for grammarization in grammar teaching; the development of a computerized speaking test and a proficiency scale for EFL learners; and the social aspects of the language teacher expertise. Part II deals with the cognitive transformation involved in the acquisition of syntactic structures; the application of ZPD to adult learners not only in terms of interpersonal interaction but also through interfacing with other media; examination of learners’ narrative data to analyze linguistic and gestural reference and to investigate learners’ use of phrasal verbs; learner’s strategy use in self-instruction that utilizes audiovisual materials; and network computer technology in computer-assisted language learning.

This newly updated fifth edition builds on the comprehensive scope of earlier editions while also addressing more recent developments in the field, particularly multilingual approaches to language teaching.