Second Language Acquisition and the Younger Learner: Child's play?(23 Language Learning & Language Teaching)

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.

Table of Contents:
1. List of contributors; 2. Introduction; 3. Child's play? Second language acquisition and the younger learner in context (by Philp, Jenefer); 4. Section 1. Characteristics of child SLA; 5. Defining child second language acquisition, defining roles for L2 instruction (by Nicholas, Howard); 6. Perspectives on second language acquisition at different ages (by Dimroth, Christine); 7. Section 2. Instructed language learning in the early years of education; 8. When the gate opens: The interaction between social and linguistic goals in child second language development (by Philp, Jenefer); 9. Developing conversational skills in a second language: Language learning affordances in a multiparty classroom setting (by Cekaite, Asta); 10. The impact of teacher input, guidance and feedback on ESL children's task-based interactions (by Oliver, Rhonda); 11. Negotiation of meaning in the classroom: Does it enhance reading comprehension? (by Van den Branden, Kris); 12. Section 3. Instructed language learning in later years of education; 13. Incidental focus on form and learning outcomes with young foreign language classroom learners (by Alcon-Soler, Eva); 14. Speeding up acquisition of his and her: Explicit L1/L2 contrasts help (by White, Joanna); 15. Section 4. Child SLA at home and in the community; 16. Acquiring Japanese as a second language (JSL) in a naturalistic context: A longitudinal study of a young child from a Processability Theory (PT) perspective (by Iwasaki, Junko); 17. Learning a second language in the family (by Mitchell, Rosamond); 18. Home-school connections for international adoptees: Repetition in parent-child interactions (by Fogle, Lyn Wright); 19. Language transfer in child SLA: A longitudinal case study of a sequential bilingual (by Kwon, Eun-Young); 20. Index

Review :
This is a highly valuable and timely collection of studies examining various aspects of child SLA. It especially directs our attention to the crucial role of the learning context in the acquisition process. This outstanding collection of articles should forever silence those who still cling to the notion, repeated ad nauseam, that child first and second language acquisition are 'child's play', simple, enjoyable and effortless. It's primary aim is, as the editors state, 'to stimulate reflection about the unique nature of child SLA , as well as consideration of differences between younger children, older children and adolescents' (p.4). In this, they and their fellow authors succeed brilliantly. [...] The value of this collection lies in bringing together research, some of it previously published, in a number of areas to provide support for a thesis involving differential second language development in early, middle and older childhood, which has increasing relevance in terms of language learning policy and practice. Not only should this book be read by all those involved in SLA teaching and research, but also by teachers of foreign languages and those who decide on foreign and second language learning in our schools.