Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers: How Languages are Learned

Patsy M. Lightbown is Distinguished Professor Emerita at Concordia University in Montreal and Past President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics. Her research focuses on how instruction and feedback affect second-language acquisition in classrooms where the emphasis is on "communicative" or "content-based" language teaching. The contexts for her work have included elementary schools in Canada and, more recently, dual-language bilingual classes in the U.S. Nina Spada is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Modern Language Centre, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her main areas of professional interest are second language acquisition, classroom research in L2 teaching and learning, and English as a Second Language.

Special Features

• A readable introduction to the main theories of first and second language acquisition, relating them to approaches to classroom methodology and practice.
• Provides a link between theories on language acquisition and approaches and methodology in language teaching, and discusses practical implications for the classroom, using activities and projects.
• Helps teachers to assess the merits of different methods and textbooks, and make the most of their time with learners.
• New for this edition: explores recent theories (e.g. skill learning, connectionism, the 'noticing' hypothesis) and research on the teaching and learning of vocabulary, pronunciation and pragmatics.
• Includes more on current theories of first language acquisition and early bilingualism, and factors affecting learning such as motivation, learning styles, etc.
• Includes a greater variety of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds in a fully revised classroom learning section.