The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics)

Now in its second edition, this Handbook is a current overview of Second Language (L2) research, providing state-of-the-art synopses of recent developments in each sub-area of the field, and bringing together contributions by emerging scholars and experts in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Since the first edition, broad socio-political movements, alternative views of bilingualism, emergence of global markets, vast expansion of electronic resources, the development of social media, and the availability of big data have transformed the discipline, and this edition has been thoroughly updated to address these changes. It is divided into six main parts: Part I situates SLA in terms of research and practice; Part II explores individual cognitive, age-related and neurolinguistic similarities and differences; Part III outlines external, sociocultural, and interactive factors; Part IV presents profiles of bilinguals who take differing paths of acquisition; Part V describes interlanguage properties; and Part VI comprises clear models of L2 development.

Julia Herschensohn is Professor Emerita at the Department of Linguistics, University of Washington. Her research interests include child and adult language development, and processing in Spanish, French, Korean and Hebrew by adult, heritage and child learners.

Martha Young-Scholten is Professor Emerita of Second Language Acquisition at Newcastle University and Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington. Her current research focuses on acquisition and reading development by low-literate adult immigrants. She co-founded Literacy Education and Second Language Acquisition by Adults (LESLLA) and co-directs Simply Stories and EU-Speak.

Ana Fernández Dobao is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington. Her areas of expertise include Second Language Acquisition, Heritage Language Learning and Language Pedagogy. She has published on topics such as HL-L2 interaction in mixed classes, collaborative writing and learning, and child language acquisition in immersion contexts.

Alex Ho-Cheong Leung is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics and TESOL at Northumbria University, UK, and an executive member of the British Association for Applied Linguistics. His research interests include second language speech acquisition, identities, and TESOL. He is co-editor of 'Key Concepts' in the ELT Journal.