Usage Based Dynamics in Second Language Development

This book honours the contribution of Marjolijn Verspoor to the development and implementation of dynamic usage-based (DUB) approaches in second language (L2) research and pedagogy. With chapters written by renowned experts in the field, the book addresses the dynamics of language, language learning and language teaching from a usage-based perspective. The book contains both theory and empirical work: the initial theoretical chapters present cutting-edge thinking in relation to both the scope of DUB theory and its applications, providing conceptual perspectives from cognitive grammar and linguistics, thinking-for-speaking (TFS), and Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) approaches, united by their shared underpinnings of language as a dynamic system of conventionalized routines. The second half of the volume showcases state-of-the-art methodologies to study dynamic trajectories of language learning, empirical investigations into the above-mentioned theoretical concepts, and innovative classroom implementations of DUB language pedagogy.

Wander Lowie is Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Marije Michel is Associate Professor of Second Language Acquisition, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Audrey Rousse-Malpat is Assistant Professor of Language Learning in the European Languages and Cultures program, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Merel Keijzer is Full Professor and Chair of English Linguistics and English as a Second Language, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Rasmus Steinkrauss is an Assistant Professor Applied Linguistics at the University of Groningen where he teaches courses on first and second language development and on research methods. His research interests are L1 and L2 development from a usage-based, Construction Grammar perspective, the role of variability in language development, and the interaction between language development and Working Memory.