This book is a thorough revision of the highly successful text first published in 1994. The authors retain the multidisciplinary approach that presents research from linguistics, sociology, psychology, and education, in a format designed for use in an introductory course for undergraduate or graduate students. The research is updated throughout and there are new sections and chapters in this second edition as well. New chapters cover child language acquisition (first and second), Universal Grammar, and instructed language learning; new sections address issues, such as what data analysis doesn't show, replication of research findings, interlanguage transfer (multilingual acquisition and transfer), the aspect hypothesis, general nativism, connectionist approaches, and implicit/explicit knowledge. Major updates include nonlanguage influences and the lexicon.
The workbook, Second Language Learning Data Analysis, Second Edition, makes an ideal accompaniment to the text.
The revised edition capitalizes and expands on the strengths of the first edition. As in the first edition, Gass and Selinker offer focused treatments of certain areas of learner language that are typically missing from other introductory SLA textbooks, such as pragmatic competence and the lexicon.
—Second Language Research
Gass and Selinker have produced an updated text with nice coverage of the breadth of information related to second language acquisition. The detail with which interlanguage data is discussed makes this text appropriate for graduate level instruction but its readability also makes this a viable choice for advanced undergraduates....the intellectual connections made between disciplines that contribute to second language acquisition research are commendable.
—LINGUIST List
Praise for the first edition:
...the best textbook available for introductory SLA courses to date....Gass and Selinker describe accurately and in detail all the issues that normally concern students and scholars of SLA....this textbook by two of the most influential linguists working in SLA not only reflects their own extensive contributions but is a broad and fair coverage of the whole field....[they] have done an excellent job of presenting an accessible, accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date picture of SLA research.
—Studies in Second Language Acquisition
Praise for the first edition:
The authors have offered a useful, up-to-date overview of SLA research for either undergraduate or graduate students.
—EFL Gazette
Praise for the first edition:
...a welcome addition to the growing number of introductory texts on second language acquisition....Gass and Selinker are to be congratulated for having produced a stimulating, highly-readable book which should become one of the standard introductory texts in the field of SLA.
—TESL-EJ
Praise for the first edition:
...an attractive and sufficiently complete textbook for introductory purposes, especially due to the practice-to-theory approach, of which the inviting 'points for discussion' are evidence.
—Applied Linguistics
Their description of the field is accurate, fair, and comprehensive, and their second edition comes back toward the world of pedagogy in ways that will help students and newcomers put the entire discussion in better perspective. I strongly recommend the book as a starting point in understanding the field and its various frameworks for understanding second language acquisition.
—TESL-EJ
