The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition. Zoltan Dornyei

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      ZOLTÁN DÖRNYEI

      The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition

The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition

      Published in this series:

      BACHMAN: Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing

      BACHMAN and PALMER: Language Testing in Practice

      BRUMFIT: Individual Freedom and Language Teaching

      BRUMFIT and CARTER (eds.): Literature and Language Teaching

      CANAGARAJAH: Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in Language Teaching

      COHEN and MACARO (eds.): Language Learner Strategies

      COOK: Discourse and Literature

      COOK: Language Play, Language Learning

      COOK and SEIDLHOFER (eds.): Principle and Practice in Applied Linguistics

      DöRNYEI: Research Methods in Applied Linguistics

      ELLIS: SLA Research and Language Teaching

      ELLIS: Task-based Language Learning and Teaching

      ELLIS: The Study of Second Language Acquisition (2nd edn.)

      ELLIS: Understanding Second Language Acquisition

      ELLIS and BARKHUIZEN: Analysing Learner Language

      FOTOS and NASSAJI (eds.): Form-focused Instruction and Teacher Education

      HOLLIDAY: The Struggle to Teach English as an International Language

      HOWATT: A History of English Language Teaching

      JENKINS: English as a Lingua Franca

      JENKINS: The Phonology of English as an International Language

      KERN: Literacy and Language Teaching

      KRAMSCH: Context and Culture in Language Teaching

      LANTOLF (ed.): Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning

      LANTOLF and THORNE: Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development

      LARSEN-FREEMAN and CAMERON: Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics

      MACKEY (ed.): Conversational Interaction in SLA

      MEINHOF: Language Learning in the Age of Satellite Television

      NATTINGER and DECARRICO: Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching

      PHILLIPSON: Linguistic Imperialism

      SEIDLHOFER (ed.): Controversies in Applied Linguistics

      SELIGER and SHOHAMY: Second Language Research Methods

      SKEHAN: A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning

      STERN: Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching

      STERN (eds. P. ALLEN and B. HARLEY): Issues and Options in Language Teaching

      TARONE and YULE: Focus on the Language Learner

      WIDDOWSON: Aspects of Language Teaching

      WIDDOWSON: Defining Issues in English Language Teaching

      WIDDOWSON: Practical Stylistics

      WIDDOWSON: Teaching Language as Communication

      WRAY: Formulaic Language

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      First published 2009

      2012 2011 2010

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      ISBN 978-0-19-442197-3

      Printed and bound in China

      Preface

      The history of acceptance of new theories frequently shows the following steps: at first the new idea is treated as pure nonsense, not worth looking at. Then comes a time when a multitude of contradictory objections are raised, such as: the new theory is too fancy, or merely a new terminology; it is not fruitful, or simply wrong. Finally a state is reached when everyone seems to claim that he had always followed this theory. This usually marks the last state before general acceptance.

(Lewin 1943:292)

      I normally enjoy the process of writing a book, but this volume on the psychology of second language acquisition (SLA) has been an emotional roller-coaster at times. In fact, after I received the contract from Oxford University Press, I put off working on the manuscript for several years – I did have some good excuses, but the bottom line was that I was apprehensive about the enormity of the task: applied linguistics and second language research had clearly been shaken by a paradigmatic earthquake. This has been caused by (1) the rapidly growing influence of relevant brain research in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, neuropsychology, neurobiology, and more generally, in cognitive (neuro)science; and (2) the emergence of new cognitive approaches to the study of language acquisition, such as connectionism, emergentism, dynamic systems theory, complexity theory, and usage/exemplar-based theories. The resulting changes in our field have been so fast and profound that the word ‘blitzkrieg’ seems oddly fitting to describe what we are currently experiencing.

Soldiering on in the ‘psycho-blitzkrieg’

      I have spent most of my professional life at the interface of linguistics and psychology, yet even I was unprepared for the sudden emergence of the multitude of new metaphors, technical terms, measurement procedures, and theoretical orientations that cognitive and neuropsychological research has brought about. My first reaction was to ignore these new developments, saying that they do not apply to my specialization area, individual difference research. However, I had to realize that applied linguists simply do not have the option of ignoring the new psychological approaches because the advances in these areas are leading to a fundamental restructuring of our knowledge base of language acquisition and language processing. Disregarding these developments would lead to the marginalization