Instructed SLA: A Practical Guide for Teachers

Instructed SLA: A Practical Guide for Teachers

Instructed SLA: A Practical Guide for Teachers

Dr Eun-Sung Park

 

Preface

This book is written for language teachers and student-teachers who want to know more about instructed second language acquisition – a topic concerned with how to maximize the benefits of second language instruction. One may wonder, why should teachers study second language acquisition? The answer is simple. The more teachers know about how students learn a second language, the better they can decide what instructional efforts are worth their time and what techniques and strategies work best for different teaching/learning contexts. In other words, a basic knowledge of how language acquisition occurs is fundamental to one’s education and training as a language teacher.

Second language acquisition (SLA) is a necessary component in all respectable language teacher education programs and Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL) graduate programs worldwide. Unfortunately, however, most textbooks on SLA – even introductory ones – tend to be quite dense and technical, often covering research-related issues that may not always be relevant for teachers. What the majority of language teachers need is a concise and readable text that focuses on those aspects of SLA which are directly concerned with instruction and learning – that is, instructed second language acquisition.

This book provides an introductory course on instructed second language acquisition. I have written this book with the aim of familiarizing teachers with the key concepts of instructed SLA so that they may be equipped with relevant knowledge and practical tips which can be readily applied to their own teaching environments. This book assumes no background knowledge, and is written in an accessible, teacher-friendly manner. Any technical terms used in the field are printed in bold and defined in a glossary provided at the back of the book. I hope teachers find the contents in this book pertinent and useful.

Further reading

Inspirational Stories from the English Language Classrooms

Introducing Task-Based Language Teaching

Teaching L2 Listening: Theory, Research and Practice

ELT Theories: Too Many and Too Theoretical?

 

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