Foreign Language Input: Initial Processing

Foreign Language Input: Initial Processing presents the most comprehensive study to date of the starting point of second language acquisition. Its focus is on the language input that learners receive and what they actually do with this input. The empirical study detailed in the book follows a methodology in which all of the language input provided to the learners from the moment of first exposure is controlled, recorded and transcribed. This input is then quantitatively compared to the learners’ performance on language tasks administered at various time intervals up to 8 hours after first exposure. This in-depth analysis of the input and the learners’ performance sheds light on questions still unanswered in second language acquisition literature, such as what knowledge is brought to the acquisition process and how learners use this knowledge to process new linguistic information.

Rebekah Rast is Professor of English and Linguistics at the American University of Paris, where she also holds the position of Director of Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development. A member of the French research group Structures Formelles du Langage and a country coordinator of the VILLA project, she is the author of Foreign Language Input: Initial Processing (Multilingual Matters), co-editor with ZhaoHong Han of First Exposure to a Second Language: Learners’ Initial Input Processing (Cambridge University Press), and author of numerous book chapters and articles on the initial stages of second / foreign language acquisition.