Linguistic Relativity in SLA

Thinking for Speaking

Edited by Dr. ZhaoHong Han, Teresa Cadierno

Publication date:

18 June 2010

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781847692771

Crosslinguistic influence is an established area of second language research, and as such, it has been subject to extensive scrutiny. Although the field has come a long way in understanding its general character, many issues still remain a conundrum, for example, why does transfer appear selective, and why does transfer never seem to go away for certain linguistic elements? Unlike most existing studies, which have focused on transfer at the surface form level, the present volume examines the relationship between thought and language, in particular thought as shaped by first language development and use, and its interaction with second language use. The chapters in this collection conceptually explore and empirically investigate the relevance of Slobin’s Thinking-for-Speaking Hypothesis to adult second language acquisition, offering compelling and enlightening evidence of the fundamental nature of crosslinguistic influence in adult second language acquisition.

Chapter 1 Motion in Danish as a Second Language: Does the Learner’s L1 Make a Difference? - Teresa Cadierno

Chapter 2 The Role of Thinking for Speaking in Adult L2 Speech: The Case of (Non)Unidirectionality Encoding by American Learners of Russian - Viktoria Driagina-Hasko

Chapter 3 Can a L2 Speaker’s Patterns of Thinking for Speaking Change? - Gale A. Stam

Chapter 4 Thinking for Speaking and Immediate Memory for Spatial Relations - Kenny R. Coventry, Berenice Valdés & Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes

Chapter 5 The Gloss Trap - David Stringer

Chapter 6 Linguistic Effects on Thinking for Writing: The Case of Articles in L2 English - Monika Ekiert

Chapter 7 Grammatical Morpheme Inadequacy as a Function of Linguistic Relativity: A Longitudinal Case Study - ZhaoHong Han

Chapter 8 Conclusion: On the Interdependence of Conceptual Transfer and Relativity Studies - Terence Odlin

This is a landmark publication - the first to concertedly address the implications for SLA of Slobin's thinking-for-speaking hypothesis. Do processes of conceptualisation that L1s predispose speakers to affect their L2 production, and if so in what ways? Can we 're-think' for L2 speaking, and what cognitive abilities enable this? The research issues this book raises are fundamentally important for SLA theory and pedagogy alike.