Second language acquisition and bi/multilingualism
Learn about our research on second language acquisition.
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is a broad research field dealing with the learning of additional languages. Bi/multilingualism focuses on the practices and needs of people who have learnt or are learning more than one language.
Our focus in the School is on instructed second language acquisition in second and foreign language contexts, as well as on additional language learning, maintenance, and use in more naturalistic contexts.
Apart from L2 English, members of LALS also research L2 Italian, L2 Chinese, heritage Ukrainian, heritage Russian, and the learning of Pasifika languages and te reo Māori as heritage and additional languages.
See Language learning, teaching, and assessment, Languages of the Pacific, Sociolinguistics, Classroom Based Research, Vocabulary, Corpus Linguistics and Psycholinguistics for research areas and projects that overlap with SLA research at the School.
Active research projects in this area
- Contextual word learning and acquisition from reading in the first and second language: the effect learning interventions and individual differences
- Incidental and intentional learning of vocabulary
- Role of captioning, textual enhancement, and glossing in lexical learning and processing
- Longitudinal development of L2 vocabulary
- Role of repetition and exercise format in multi-word expression learning
- Cross-language influences in bilingual lexical processing
- Role of phrase frequency in lexical monolingual and bilingual processing
- Longitudinal bi/multilingual identity development for heritage language speakers
- Translanguaging for additional language acquisition and maintenance, in taught settings as well as inside the home
- Language maintenance for Ukrainian diaspora communities in New Zealand
- The provision of oral/written feedback in different settings and its role in language and skill development
- Acquiring intercultural pragmatic competences through task-based interaction
- The roles of task-based interaction, feedback, and focus on form in language learning
- Socio-cultural perspectives on language learning
- Learner autonomy
- Developing intercultural capabilities in the language classroom