How Languages Are Learned

Citation

Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2021). How Languages Are Learned (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The fifth edition, in the Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers series, has seven chapters in about 230 pages of text, followed by a glossary, references and an index (296 pages in all). Before Chapter 1 come a preface to the fifth edition, an introduction and a short section headed "Before we begin". Every chapter opens with a preview and ends with a summary and suggestions for further reading; the publisher adds that activities and questions for reflection run through the chapters, and that chapter summaries, discussion questions, weblinks and supplementary activities are available on the book's companion website. The previous edition appeared in 2013.

Chapter 1: Language learning in early childhood

First language acquisition as background for everything that follows: milestones and developmental sequences in the first three years, the pre-school and school years, and three explanations of how children acquire language (behaviourist, innatist and interactionist/developmental). Short sections on language disorders and delays and on childhood bilingualism close the chapter.

Chapter 2: Second language learning

How second language learning differs from first language acquisition, in terms of learner characteristics and learning conditions, and how learner language is studied: contrastive analysis, error analysis and interlanguage, developmental sequences, and first language influence. Further sections cover vocabulary, pragmatics and pronunciation, and how to sample learner language.

Chapter 3: Individual differences in second language learning

Research on learner characteristics: aptitude, personality, attitudes and motivation (including motivation in the classroom), identity, ethnic group affiliation and learner agency, and learning styles and beliefs, with a section on how these differences bear on classroom instruction. The second half treats age: the critical period hypothesis beyond pronunciation, grammaticality judgements, rate of learning, and what age means for instruction.

Chapter 4: Explaining second language learning

The theory chapter. It returns to the behaviourist and innatist perspectives of Chapter 1 and follows each with its second language applications (mimicry and memorisation; Krashen's Monitor Model). The cognitive perspective is broken down into information processing, usage-based learning, the competition model, and language and the brain, applied as interacting, noticing, processing and practising. The sociocultural perspective ("learning by talking") and complex dynamic systems theory complete it.

Chapter 5: Observing learning and teaching in the second language classroom

A comparison of natural, structure-based and communicative settings, followed by research using classroom observation schemes: teacher–student and student–student interaction, corrective feedback, questions, and time available for languages in school. A section on ethnography ends the chapter.

Chapter 6: Second language learning in the classroom

The longest chapter (about 50 pages) evaluates six proposals for teaching, each under a slogan: "Get it right from the beginning", "Just listen … and read", "Let's talk", "Get two for one", "Teach what is teachable" and "Get it right in the end". It then assesses the research evidence for each proposal.

Chapter 7: Popular ideas about language learning revisited

A short concluding chapter that reflects on widely held ideas about language learning in the light of the research covered in the book, followed by a conclusion.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–2: First and second language acquisition

• Developmental sequences: the predictable stages through which learners acquire features of a language, found in both first and second language learning.
• Behaviourist, innatist and interactionist perspectives: three explanations of first language acquisition; the first two return in Chapter 4 as accounts of second language learning.
• Interlanguage: the learner's developing second language system, studied through error analysis and comparison with the first language.
• First language influence: the effect of what a learner already knows on the new language.

Chapter 3: Individual differences

• Language learning aptitude: the learner's capacity for learning languages, one of several characteristics researched as predictors of success.
• Motivation and identity: attitudes, group affiliation and learner agency as influences on learning.
• Critical period hypothesis: the claim that age limits ultimate attainment, examined here beyond pronunciation.

Chapter 4: Theories

• Monitor Model: Krashen's innatist-inspired account of second language acquisition.
• Noticing and processing: cognitive ideas about how attention and practice contribute to learning.
• Sociocultural perspective: learning as something that happens through interaction ("learning by talking").
• Complex dynamic systems theory: an approach that treats language development as the outcome of many interacting factors.

Chapters 5–7: The classroom

• Observation schemes: structured instruments for recording what happens in classrooms.
• Corrective feedback: the ways teachers respond to learner errors, one of the main topics of classroom research.
• The six proposals for teaching: the book's framework for weighing teaching approaches against research evidence.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Written for teachers, not researchers. The publisher's description stresses that the book does not assume familiarity with research methods or theories, and that its readable style and avoidance of unnecessary jargon have made it a standard text for trainee teachers. The stated aim is to relate theories of first and second language acquisition to what happens in classrooms.
• Evidence organised around teaching decisions. Chapter 6 turns the research into six concrete proposals and assesses each, so readers end with an evidence-based view of approaches they may meet in practice rather than a list of theories. Lourdes Ortega, quoted by the publisher, credits the book with helping teachers integrate research into their classrooms critically.
• Theory paired with application. In Chapter 4 each theoretical perspective is followed by its "second language applications", which makes the link between theory and practice explicit.
• Classroom examples and activities. The publisher notes evaluations, case studies and examples drawn from real first and second language classrooms, activities for thinking through the research, and end-of-chapter questions for reflection; supporting material is available online.

Limitations

• Short and selective. At about 230 pages of text, the book introduces each topic briefly. Readers who need a fuller account of theories or of research design will need longer surveys.
• Little on research methods. Apart from short sections on sampling learner language, observation schemes and ethnography, the book reports research findings rather than teaching how to carry out studies, in keeping with its aim of not assuming research training.
• Classroom focus. The perspective throughout is that of the language classroom; readers interested in language learning outside formal teaching, or in applied linguistics beyond second language learning, will find these covered only in passing (natural acquisition settings appear as a point of comparison in Chapter 5).

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the natural first reading on second language acquisition in the course. Susan Hunston and David Oakey's Introducing Applied Linguistics is the other entry point, but it surveys applied linguistics more broadly, with chapters on topics such as forensic linguistics and translation and a long section on study skills, and treats acquisition only briefly; the two books complement each other well in a first year. Norbert Schmitt and Michael Rodgers's An Introduction to Applied Linguistics is a fuller edited survey of the field to read alongside or after them.

For more depth on acquisition, H. Douglas Brown and Heekyeong Lee's Principles of Language Learning and Teaching covers similar ground, from behaviourist and cognitive accounts to sociocultural and dynamic views, at greater length and also with teachers in mind. Rod Ellis's The Study of Second Language Acquisition is a comprehensive reference to the research, and VanPatten, Keating and Wulff's Theories in Second Language Acquisition presents each major theory in a chapter by one of its proponents; both are best read after Lightbown and Spada, with Chapter 4 here as the map.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at trainee and practising language teachers and at students on introductory courses in second language acquisition or language teaching. No background in linguistics or research methods is assumed.

A reading plan:

• Read "Before we begin" first and Chapter 7 last. Chapter 7 revisits popular ideas about language learning in the light of the research; noting your own views at the start makes the comparison at the end more useful.
• Chapters 1–4 in order. Chapter 1 introduces the behaviourist and innatist perspectives that Chapter 4 takes up again for second language learning, and Chapters 2–3 supply the evidence about learners that the theories must explain.
• Chapters 5–6 as the core for teachers. Chapter 5 shows how classroom research is done; Chapter 6 is the chapter to study most closely, proposal by proposal. Teachers short of time can read Chapters 4–6 as a unit after skimming Chapter 2.
• Optional sections. Language disorders and childhood bilingualism (Chapter 1) and ethnography (Chapter 5) can be left for later.

Work through the activities and questions for reflection as you read, relating each to a class you have taught or been taught in, and use the online chapter summaries and discussion questions for revision or study groups. Follow the suggestions for further reading for any topic that matters to your own teaching context.