The Psycholinguistics of Second Language Learning

Course content

While we all learn and/or teach foreign languages and try to be good at it, we rarely think about the cognitive mechanisms that subserve foreign and second language learning. In this course, we review recent psycholinguistic approaches to second language learning for child and adult L2 learners. With a focus on grammar learning, we discuss and assess the roles of priming, predictions, implicit and explicit learning, practice and automization, interac-tion and different learning contexts on second language development. Each week, we will read and discuss an overview paper on the psycholinguistics or applied linguistics of second language learning and then delve into one current study. By the end of the course, you will have gotten to know the major topics in current L2 psycholinguistics and applied linguistics. You will be able to evaluate the scope of different learning mecha-nisms in L2 acquisition and make links to teaching implications.