Introduction

This book is intended for both undergraduates and graduate students majoring in English language and literature.There are three main reasons for me to write this course book.

Firstly,I feel necessary to give a brief introduction to the studies in second language acquisition (SLA) for English majors,especially those who are going to be,and have the potential to be English teachers after graduation.I have learned from my own teaching experience that knowing the basic rationale in SLA is of great help for second/foreign language teaching.SLA is the right course to acquaint us with such fundamental principles so that we can be competent in second language teaching.SLA offers us with different perspectives in the process of learning a second language,and knowing this enables us to have an integrative concept of what it is to be learned,how to learn it and why some learners are more competent than others.

Secondly,while teaching this subject,I have found it hard to cope in one semester with all those wonderful achievements in the field of SLA research.Also,I think it unnecessary to do this,especially for undergraduate students,because it is impossible for them to master everything within such a short period of time.A brief introduction,then,is necessary.The reason is that few undergraduates will be SLA researchers;many of them will be English teachers after graduation.In addition,having a better understanding of SLA may as well pave the way for further in-depth research in the future.Therefore,it is my goal to make the course book more concise so that it is suitable for one-semester classroom teaching.

Thirdly,it is related to the difficulty of the subject.Many books are imported directly from English speaking countries,and most of them are strongly theoretical and are written for researchers in the field of SLA.They are excellent academic works,but not suitable as textbooks for Chinese students,who learn English mainly for communicative purpose.In most cases,students are daunted by the difficulty in comprehending the contents,either because it is too technical or because it gives too detailed an account of the development in SLA research.These books are thick,even containing more than 500 pages,which is a great challenge for readers,who spend endless hours wrestling with special terms and complex syntax in them.This is why I was determined to write this short course book.

When I had the idea of writing a course book on SLA,I realized I needed to touch upon this subject in a way that differs from the academic way of dealing with linguistic issues.Rather than discussing in great detail,I intended to introduce briefly the main findings in SLA research from four major perspectives:linguistics,psychology,sociology,and pedagogy.The goals of this course book can be summarized as follows:it is concise and reader-friendly with little jargon.If there are special terms,they are given clear definitions.

This book can be used as the textbook for one semester.However,the major points in the field can be covered two periods a week,for eighteen weeks or so in a semester all together.

The textbook has seven short chapters.The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the study of SLA,and presents some fundamental terms in SLA.The second chapter discusses the characteristics and the major findings in the study of interlanguage.A brief introduction is also given to interlanguage pragmatics,which has become a major concern in recent years.Chapter Three,Four,and Five are the major parts of the book,discussing SLA from linguistic,psychological and socio-cultural perspectives respectively.The sixth chapter covers the relationship between classroom instruction and SLA.The last chapter is about second language data collection and analysis.This final part is specially designed for those whose jobs are related to SLA research.

The features of the book can be briefly summarized as follows:

(1) Short and concise.The principle I followed throughout the whole course of writing is brevity and conciseness.Each chapter is designed to introduce briefly the major and the most recent findings in the field of SLA,so that the readers may feel easy to have a quick glimpse of the recent contributions made by devoted SLA researchers.It will also be rather comfortable for classroom instruction in one semester.

(2) Easy for comprehension.Another principle I followed while writing this book is that the language is made easy for readers to understand.Without losing,or distorting the theme of each SLA theory,I tried my best to make the language as plain as possible,so readers will not be daunted by linguistic barriers and will have easy access to the content.

(3)Well-designed assignment.In order for readers to have a better understanding of the thoughts and ideas presented in each chapter,I have designed different kinds of exercises at the end of each chapter,including translation (usually of an important quotation from some famous scholars in the relevant field of study,or a short epigram from an authority,either an expert or a book),blank-filling,question-answering,and mini-discussion corner.These exercises are intended to bring readers a refreshing review of the key issues touched upon in the chapter.The open questions in the mini-discussion corner are especially designed for those who are interested in research after reading the text.These questions provide them a chance for further exploration.

Author

October,2016