This book presents comprehensive, thorough and updated analyses of key cognitive individual difference factors (e.g., age, intelligence, language aptitude, working memory, metacognition, learning strategies, and anxiety) as they relate to the acquisition, processing, assessment, and pedagogy of second or foreign languages. Critical reviews and in-depth research syntheses of these pivotal cognitive learner factors are put into historical and broader contexts, drawing upon the multiple authors' extensive research experience, penetrating insights and unique perspectives spanning applied linguistics, teacher training, educational psychology, and cognitive science. The carefully crafted chapters provide essential course readings and valuable references for seasoned researchers and aspiring postgraduate students in the broad fields of instructed second language acquisition, foreign language training, teacher education, language pedagogy, educational psychology, and cognitive development.?
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen, (Ph.D., Chinese University of Hong Kong) is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Richard L. Sparks (Ed.D., University of Cincinnati) is a Professor Emeritus of Special Education in the Mount St. Joseph University's Department of Graduate Education, Ohio, USA.?
Adriana Biedro? (Ph.D., University of Adam Mickiewicz, Pozna?, Poland) is Professor of English at the Faculty of Philology, Pomeranian University in S?upsk, Poland.
Mark Feng Teng (Ph.D., Hong Kong Baptist University) is an Associate Professor at the Center for Linguistic Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai China.
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The introductory chapter summarizes the background and rationale for this volume. It illustrates how the current volume expands on previous publications with new and distinctive features. In particular, important individual differences (IDs) of age, intelligence, aptitude, working memory, attention, strategies, meta-cognition, self-regulation, anxiety, reading, and writing as well as L2 learning difficulties are featured as they have not been discussed so systematically. In essence, this volume provides systematically organized (as its subtitle indicates, theories, assessment, research, and pedagogy), comprehensive and in-depth reviews on each of the key IDs believed to play an important role in SLA.
Research into second language acquisition (SLA) has witnessed rapid growth in both ‘quantity and quality’ in the past few decades, resulting in substantial progress in areas of theory construction, research methodology, empirical investigations, and accumulative evidence as well as pedagogical implications and applications (Long 2016). In terms of theoretical paradigms, for example, a multitude of epistemological approaches to SLA is gradually taking shape and becoming well-established. These approaches range from the more conventional mainstream paradigms such as the universal grammar (UG) based generative accounts (e.g.,Rothman and Slabakova 2018;Slabakova et al. 2020), to an increasing interest in the emergentist, connectionist, construction-oriented, usage-based (UB) accounts (Dornyei 2009;Li et al. 2022;Mitchell, Myles and Marsden 2019;MacWhinney et al. 2022;VanPatten and Williams 2014), broadly grouped as alternative accounts (Atkinson 2011).
Most of the time, these approaches have co-existed peacefully and blossomed independently, proceeding within their research camps or teams of advocates and followers, pursuing their own research agendas with specific research methodologies, organizing their own conferences, and publishing in journals focusing on their respective domains. However, there are occasional skirmishes when contrasting approaches exchange views face to face. The recent interchanges between the generative SLA approaches (represented bySlabakova et al. 2014,2015) and the complex, dynamic, systems theory (CDST) approach (represented byde Bot 2015) amply demonstrated the differences and arguments in their epistemological stances regarding three fundamental factors pertaining to language design and acquisition (Chomsky 2005,2011;Hauser et al. 2002;Slabakova et al. 2020): (1) Genetic endowment (UG), which determines the general course of the development of the language
