Currents in Language Learning, Inaugural Issue Podcasts

Currents in Language Learning was a biennial Supplement published by Language Learning from 2013 until 2021. It provided programmatic state-of-the-art overviews of current issues in the language sciences and their applications in first, second, foreign, heritage, and bi/multilingual language acquisition in naturalistic and tutored contexts. It brought together disciplinary perspectives from linguistics, psychology, education, anthropology, sociology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. A new biennial supplement in Language Learning, it grew from and now replaces The Best of Language Learning series, which was published since the mid-1990s under the leadership of Alister Cumming as series editor.

 

In the first issue of Currents in Language Learning, board members and editors consider their own areas of enquiry. The process was as follows. First they met at an invitational conference which gave rise to dialogue between authors and subsequent rewriting. External reviews then critiqued these papers and, with input from the editors, the fruit of further revisions formed this inaugural volume. The research agendas concern the following areas: progress and relevance in second language acquisition (Ortega); Usage-Based Linguistics (Ellis, O’Donnell, & Römer); age effects in language learning (DeKeyser); second language pragmatics (Bardovi-Harlig); vocabulary knowledge (Jarvis); transfer of learning in second language instruction (Larsen-Freeman); language, literacy, and culture (Cumming); academic language development in schools (Schleppegrell); Practice Theory (Young and Astarita); and evolutionary perspectives on language (Schumann).

 

Endorsements for Currents in Language Learning

The issue authors recorded podcasts with accompanying slides to complement their articles. Read the issue here, and listen to the podcasts below.

 

Transfer of (Language) Learning

Read the article: Transfer of Learning Transformed, Diane Larsen-Freeman

Practice Theory in Language Learning

Read the article: Practice Theory in Language Learning, Richard F. Young and Alice C. Astarita

Where do Language, Literacy, and Culture Intersect?

Read the article: Multiple Dimensions of Academic Language and Literacy Development, Alister Cumming

The Role of Metalanguage in Supporting Academic Development

Read the article: The Role of Metalanguage in Supporting Academic Language Development, Mary J. Schleppegrell

Usage-based Language: Investigating the Latent Structures that Underpin Acquisition

Read the article: Usage-Based Language: Investigating the Latent Structures That Underpin Acquisition, Nick C. Ellis, Matthew Brook O'Donnell and Ute Römer

Evolution and Second Language Acquisition

Read the article: Societal Responses to Adult Difficulties in L2 Acquisition: Toward an Evolutionary Perspective on Language Acquisition, John H. Schumann

Age Effects in Language Learning: Controversial, but Crucial to Understand

Read the article: Age Effects in Second Language Learning: Stepping Stones Toward Better Understanding, Robert M. DeKeyser

Developing L2 Pragmatics

Read the article: Developing L2 Pragmatics, Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig

Capturing the Diversity in Lexical Diversity

Read the article: Capturing the Diversity in Lexical Diversity, Scott Jarvis

The Contribution of SLA to the Language Sciences

Read the article: SLA for the 21st Century: Disciplinary Progress, Transdisciplinary Relevance, and the Bi/multilingual Turn, Lourdes Ortega