Longitudinal Studies of Second Language Learning: Quantitative Methods and Outcomes

Longitudinal Studies of Second Language Learning: Quantitative Methods and Outcomes provides a how-to guide to choosing, using, and understanding quantitative longitudinal research and sampling methods in second and foreign language learning.

This volume will provide readers with exemplary longitudinal studies of language learning outcomes, as well as an overview of widely used methods of data analysis. Readers will understand how long-term data collection processes are organized and archived, and how the data are managed over time prior to analysis. Each of the chapters provide applied researchers with examples of how language learning outcomes gathered over time can be organized into data sets useful for insightful descriptive and inferential analyses of learning outcomes.

As the only edited volume that focuses on longitudinal data analysis specifically for a second language acquisition (SLA)/applied linguistics readership, this will be an invaluable resource for advanced students and researchers of SLA, applied linguistics, assessment, and education.

Steven J. Ross (PhD, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa) is Professor of Second Language Acquisition at the University of Maryland, where he teaches research methods, language assessment, and second language acquisition. He has served on the editorial boards of the TESOL Quarterly, Applied Linguistics, Language Testing, Language Assessment Quarterly, and Language Learning. He is co-author of Research Methods for Applied Language Studies (Keith Richards, Steven Ross, and Paul Seedhouse). His chapter, "Mixed Methods in L2 Pragmatics Research," was previously published in The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Pragmatics. He also has a chapter entitled “Claims, Evidence, and Interference in Performance Assessment”, published in The Routledge Handbook of Language Testing.

Megan C. Masters (PhD, University of Maryland College Park) is Affiliate Faculty with the Second Language Acquisition program and Director of Academic Technology Experience, where she oversees large-scale research programs related to second language learning, program evaluation, learning analytics, teaching, testing, and assessment.