Modelling and Assessing Second Language Acquisition (Multilingual Matters, 18)

Kenneth Hyltenstam; Manfred Pienemann

ISBN 10: 0905028422 / ISBN 13: 9780905028422

Published by Multilingual Matters, Clavedon, Avon, England, 1985

About this Item

Hardcover, [vi] + 400 pages, NOT ex-library. Book is gently age-toned, clean, with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Dust jacket shows light creasing, regular shelfwear, yellowing to spine; a touch of faint age-discolourations on inner panels. -- This book forms an invaluable reference work for all teachers of second languages and researchers in the field of L2 acquisition. In the first section of the book, the authors of the various chapters discuss the contribution that modern research into L2 acquisition has to make in the curriculum development process. In particular, the book provides the reader with arguments for and against the various approaches to teaching. In the second part of the book, the contributors concern themselves with the various assessment tests and their validity, discussing them in particular on psycholinguistic grounds. They also discuss the political function of such assessment and how tests are used or abused in many different contexts around the world. -- Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. Learnability and Syllabus Construction / Manfred Pienemann; 3. A Role for Instruction in Second Language Acquisition: Task-Based Language Training / Michael H. Long; 4. Can Language Acquisition be Altered by Instruction? / Patsy M. Lightbrown; 5. L2 Learners' Variable Output and Language Teaching / Kenneth Hyltenstam; 6. Linguistic Simplicity and Learnability: Implications for Language Syllabus Design / Teresa Pica; 7. Learnability and Learner Strategies in Second Language Syntax and Phonology / Björn Hammarberg; 8. Learner Variations and the Teachability Hypothesis / Howard Nicholas; 9. Medium or Object: Different Contexts of (School-Based) Second Language Acquisition / Michael C. Clyne; 10. Assessing Proficiency: An Overview on Some Aspects of Testing / David E. Ingram; 11. Testing Second Language Proficiency with Direct Procedures: A Comment on Ingram / Jan H. Hulstijn; 12. Profiling Second Language Development: A Procedure for Assessing L2 Proficiency / Harald Clahsen; 13. Pedagogical Implications of Direct Second Language Testing: A Canadian Example / Sharon Lapkin; 14. On the Validity of Second Language Tests / Lilian Fried; 15. Second Language Proficiency: An Interactive Approach / Jan H. Hulstijn; 16. Language Assessment as a Social Activity / Wilfred Stölting.

Seller Inventory # 005397

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Modelling and Assessing Second Language Acquisition (Multilingual Matters, 18)
• Publisher: Multilingual Matters, Clavedon, Avon, England
• Publication Date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0905028422
• ISBN 13: 9780905028422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

This book forms an invaluable reference work for all teachers of second languages and researchers in the field of L2 acquisition. In the first section of the book, the authors of the various chapters discuss the contribution that modern research into L2 acquisition has to make in the curriculum development process. In particular, the book provides the reader with arguments for and against the various approaches to teaching. In the second part of the book, the contributors concern themselves with the various assessment tests and their validity, discussing them in particular on psycholinguistic grounds. They also discuss the political function of such assessment and how tests are used or abused in many different contexts around the world. 

About the Author

Kenneth Hyltenstam is Professor Emeritus of Bilingualism at Stockholm University.  He has published extensively in the area of second language acquisition, specifically on topics such as age and ultimate L2 attainment, markedness, developmental sequences and variability, but his research also covers other topics within the area of bilingualism such as polyglotism and bilingualism and dementia. Edited volumes covering these areas are Modelling and Assessing Second Language Acquisition (Multilingual Matters 1985, with Manfred Pienemann); Bilingualism Across the Lifespan (Cambridge University Press 1989, with Loraine K. Obler); Progression and Regression in Language (Cambridge University Press 1993, with Åke Viberg); Advanced Proficiency and Exceptional Ability in Second Languages (Mouton de Gruyter, 2016); High-Level Language Proficiency in Second Language and Multilingual Contexts (Cambridge University Press, 2018, with Inge Bartning and Lars Fant). In addition, he has contributed to multilingualism in the sociolinguistic and educational fields (co-edited volume Entangled Discourses (Routledge, 2017, with Caroline Kerfoot). Issues dealt with here include language policy as well as language maintenance, shift and revitalization with respect to minority languages in Sweden and Norway. He has published widely on language and education issues in the Nordic context as well as in the global South (Bolivia, Mozambique). He served as the Director of the Centre for Research on Bilingualism at Stockholm University 1981–2007 and 2012–2013.