English linguistics: Second Language Acquisition [ LGERM2725 ]

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Familiarize students with SLA theories and more specifically English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

The course will address two main issues: theories in SLA and learner language analysis.

Oral exam. The active participation in class will also be taken into account in the attribution of the final mark.

Reading of scientific articles, classroom discussions, practical applications, writing of research papers.

Main themes :
- description of learner language.
- data analysis in SLA (e.g. elicitation tests vs learner corpus data).
- internal and external factors in SLA.
- language transfer.
- cognitive accounts of SLA.
- linguistic universals and SLA.
- individual learner differences and strategies.
- classroom SLA (e.g. explicit instruction vs implicit learning).

Ortega, L. (2009) Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Hodder Arnold Publication
(complemented with a few recent research articles)
 

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