Stories from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency
Stories from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency

Author: Katarina Mentzelopoulos

Publisher: Channel View Publications

Published: 2022-10-25

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 180041434X

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It is generally understood that most language learners beyond a certain age are unlikely to ever reach nativelike proficiency in their second language. However, there exists a unique population of gifted adult learners who do triumph against all odds and achieve nativelike proficiency, and their learning experiences have thus far remained a largely untapped gold mine. The companion to Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency, this volume presents the autobiographical learning stories of 30 such exceptional individuals, opening a narrative window into their learning experiences. This rich corpus of success stories reveals the many steps of these language learning journeys and the learners’ pathways to success. A fascinating and readable collection of personal stories, this volume will be of interest to non-specialist language learners as a motivational primer for their own studies as well as researchers working in language learning psychology, who will find the unique database of learner narratives a useful tool for future research.

Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency
Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency

Author: Zoltán Dörnyei

Publisher: Channel View Publications

Published: 2022-10-25

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1800412479

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How do some language learners triumph against all odds, despite not having obvious heritage links or spending extended periods of time in the L2 environment pre-adulthood? This book delves into the autobiographical stories of learners who achieve nativelike proficiency, opening a narrative window into their experiences and offering insights into their pathways to success. The in-depth analysis ties together a wide range of potentially relevant topics, from motivational vision and international posture to issues of identity, endurance and even musical ability, among other themes. The authors explore whether these successes can be repeated by others and the book will be of use to language teachers interested in learner motivation and the antecedents to high-level ultimate attainment. The book will also be of great interest to researchers working in the areas of language learner psychology, especially in topics concerning language learning motivation, identity and narrative inquiry.

Questioning the Native Speaker Construct in Teacher Education
Questioning the Native Speaker Construct in Teacher Education

Author: Julie Waddington

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-09-23

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1040149863

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Questioning the construction of the ‘native speaker’ as an authority and ideal in language education, this book offers a critical and accessible engagement with research problematising notions of ‘nativeness’ while emphasising the interactional and ongoing nature of identity construction. Crossing disciplinary and geographical boundaries, this book interweaves theoretical frameworks from diverse disciplines, examining and challenging language ideologies that underpin and perpetuate systemic inequalities. The author argues that this multidisciplinary approach can help disrupt the fixed identity categories on which the native speaker construct is based, prompting a reconception of how we think about ourselves in relation to others and in relation to our position in the world. Chapters present different teacher models as well as specific strategies and activities to stimulate debate and encourage approaches which prioritise pedagogical competence over the native speaker ideal. Providing an accessible overview of complex issues along with strategic action in teacher education, this book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and postgraduate students in the fields of language education, applied linguistics, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and teacher education. Teacher educators and language teachers should also benefit from this volume.

Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency
Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency

Author: Zoltán Dörnyei

Publisher: Psychology of Language Learnin

Published: 2022-10-31

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9781800412446

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This book opens a narrative window into the experiences of learners who achieve nativelike proficiency and offers insights into their pathways to success. Tying together themes of motivation, cognition and identity, the authors explore how these learners became so successful and whether their success can be repeated by others.

The Psychology of the Language Learner
The Psychology of the Language Learner

Author: Zoltán Dörnyei

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-04

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1135704783

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The scope of individual learner differences is broad, yet there is no current, comprehensive, and unified volume that provides an overview of the considerable amount of research conducted on various language learner differences, until now.

Understanding Second Language Acquisition
Understanding Second Language Acquisition

Author: Lourdes Ortega

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-02-04

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 144411705X

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Whether we grow up with one, two, or several languages during our early years of life, many of us will learn a second, foreign, or heritage language in later years. The field of Second language acquisition (SLA, for short) investigates the human capacity to learn additional languages in late childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, after the first language --in the case of monolinguals-- or languages --in the case of bilinguals-- have already been acquired. Understanding Second Language Acquisition offers a wide-encompassing survey of this burgeoning field, its accumulated findings and proposed theories, its developed research paradigms, and its pending questions for the future. The book zooms in and out of universal, individual, and social forces, in each case evaluating the research findings that have been generated across diverse naturalistic and formal contexts for second language acquisition. It assumes no background in SLA and provides helpful chapter-by-chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading. Ideal as a textbook for students of applied linguistics, foreign language education, TESOL, and education, it is also recommended for students of linguistics, developmental psycholinguistics, psychology, and cognitive science. Supporting resources for tutors are available free at www.routledge.com/ortega.

Age and the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language
Age and the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language

Author: María del Pilar García Mayo

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2003-05-21

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1788920384

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This book provides an overview of current research on the age factor in foreign language learning, addressing issues, which are critical for language planning. It presents new research on foreign language learning within bilingual communities in formal instruction settings focussing on syntax, phonology, writing, oral skills and learning strategies.

First Language Use in Second and Foreign Language Learning
First Language Use in Second and Foreign Language Learning

Author: Miles Turnbull

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2009-08-24

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1847697682

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This volume offers fresh perspectives on a controversial issue in applied linguistics and language teaching by focusing on the use of the first language in communicative or immersion-type classrooms. It includes new work by both new and established scholars in educational scholarship, second language acquisition, and sociolinguistics, as well as in a variety of languages, countries, and educational contexts. Through its focus at the intersection of theory, practice, curriculum and policy, the book demands a reconceptualization of code-switching as something that both proficient and aspiring bilinguals do naturally, and as a practice that is inherently linked with bilingual code-switching.

Introducing Second Language Acquisition
Introducing Second Language Acquisition

Author: Muriel Saville-Troike

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-04-05

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1107010896

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A clear and practical introduction to second language acquisition, written for students encountering the topic for the first time.