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Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers
How Languages Are Learned 5th Edition
Now in its fifth edition, the award-winning How Languages areLearned has established itself as an indispensable introductionto research in language acquisition and its relationship withclassroom practice. Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada haveworked for over four decades in second language research andeducation. They are highly respected worldwide for makingtheory and research about language learning accessible andrelevant to classroom teaching. This widely acclaimed bookremains essential reading for second language teachers.• Updated content highlights the latest research into secondlanguage learning and its relevance to classroom practice• Activities and questions for reflection personalize content andsupport critical thinking• Chapter summaries, discussion questions, weblinks andsupplementary activities are available online atwww.oup.com/elt/teacher/hlal
Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1993
198 people are currently reading
1678 people want to read
About the author
Patsy M. Lightbown
4 books13 followersPatsy M. Lightbown is Distinguished Professor Emerita at Concordia University in Montreal and Past President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics. Her research focuses on how instruction and feedback affect second-language acquisition in classrooms where the emphasis is on "communicative" or "content-based" language teaching. The contexts for her work have included elementary schools in Canada and, more recently, dual-language bilingual classes in the U.S. She recently contributed to a series of professional development workshops coordinated by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the Boston public television station WGBH.
Her Oxford University Press publication How Languages are Learned (co-authored with Nina Spada) won first prize in the Applied Linguistics area of the English-Speaking Union's 1993 competition, and is now available in a fully-revised Third Edition.
Her Oxford University Press publication How Languages are Learned (co-authored with Nina Spada) won first prize in the Applied Linguistics area of the English-Speaking Union's 1993 competition, and is now available in a fully-revised Third Edition.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
March 30, 2016
If more books were so well-written and well-organized as this one, I think I would be more interested in linguistics. Contrary to most authors from the field, Lightbown is not pretentious. She writes in order to make herself understood and not to sound intellectual. I'll definitely reread it. Looking forward to reading the other books from the Oxford series of handbooks for Language teachers.
November 19, 2007
This book is awesome. It is written in such a way that anyone can read it. Linguistic books often carry many heavy technical terms and can lose the general audience (and the intended audience as well!) quite easily. This book makes linguistics fun and exciting and serves as a great starting point for anyone interested in studying linguistics.
January 19, 2016
I really struggled to finish this. not because the content was difficult, but because the writing lacked enthusiasm. It's the same as a monotoned professor going on and on, and you really end up only catching half of what's said. I do think it had good information and good examples, but it certainly could have been better used. this wasn't the first linguistics book I've read, and it won't be the last, but I hope I never have to read another one this hard to focus on.
November 26, 2024
had to read this for a class but i actually found it so interesting 🤓🤓
November 21, 2022
This book was a great help in understanding of my learning process
February 17, 2017
Looking for better methods for learning languages I decided to dive into How Languages are Learned by Patsy M. Lightbown & Nina Spada.
The book is dedicated to teachers, and as such, offers superfluous information for a person simply interested in learning. Nevertheless, the book is simply packed with information that is also relevant to a student.
The text is divided into 7 chapters and follows a very natural pattern: introducing first language acquisition in the first chapter; the problem of second language (L2) acquisition in the second; individual differences in L2 acquisition; the main psychological and cognitive theories second languages acquisition; how classroom-based studies are performed; and various studies about L2 teaching methodologies. The book concludes with a chapter summarizing the various popular (mis-)conceptions related to language learning.
The authors cite studies for each of their claims, and each chapter ends with suggestions for further reading. I really appreciate the amount of work that must have been put when writing the book, yet despite the scientific rigor the book doesn't have a scholar as its target. Concepts are introduced gradually and there's no problem in following the matter of the book, even if one doesn't have a background in linguistics or theory of education.
One of the theories covered in the book is that language learners develop an intralangue as they progress, their working hypothesis on how a language works. Sometimes, learners may produce more errors then before simply because they unify some rules and generalize previous cases that were learned in whole (chunking) e.g "He went" may change to "He goed" as a student learns that the past form of verb is formed by adding the +ed suffix, instead of pronouncing "He went" as a formula.
The authors propose three stages of language skill - declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and automatic knowledge. Declarative knowledge are the rules about the language a student might posses but doesn't know how to execute in contrast to procedural knowledge. Automatic knowledge is procedural knowledge that is refined to a point that it stops being a conscious effort.
Students use different means of acquiring language. Some exceptional cases can exhibit even near native-level performance no matter the learning methodology but for most cases near native-level performance is only achievable if learning had begun before the age of 15. Diverse teaching methods combining both structure based (grammar rules) and communication based (comprehension and producing speech and writing) methods can also facilitate learning, wheres concentrating only one aspect of the language (comprehensions, speaking etc.) gives mixed results.
Most adult students never achieve near-native pronunciation, although there are exceptions, and according to studies stress and rhythm are more important for understanding than pronunciation itself.
Passive sources of language such as books, television or radio seem to not be sufficient for learning a language, even for native speakers. Though, reading for pleasure seems to be the best way of increasing one's vocabulary. Procuring books adequate for a student might be a difficult task - for a text to be comprehensible at least 90-95% of the words need to be known. And according to studies, a new word needs to be seen at least 16 times to be remembered, although activates that require them to attend carefully to new words and use them in production tasks might speed up the process of learning.
I would recommend How Languages are Learned to anyone interested in the topic of language acquisition. The text is very approachable (though targeted to teachers), and even though some of the information given in the book might not be instantaneously applicable, the amount of useful knowledge is just incredible!
The book is dedicated to teachers, and as such, offers superfluous information for a person simply interested in learning. Nevertheless, the book is simply packed with information that is also relevant to a student.
The text is divided into 7 chapters and follows a very natural pattern: introducing first language acquisition in the first chapter; the problem of second language (L2) acquisition in the second; individual differences in L2 acquisition; the main psychological and cognitive theories second languages acquisition; how classroom-based studies are performed; and various studies about L2 teaching methodologies. The book concludes with a chapter summarizing the various popular (mis-)conceptions related to language learning.
The authors cite studies for each of their claims, and each chapter ends with suggestions for further reading. I really appreciate the amount of work that must have been put when writing the book, yet despite the scientific rigor the book doesn't have a scholar as its target. Concepts are introduced gradually and there's no problem in following the matter of the book, even if one doesn't have a background in linguistics or theory of education.
One of the theories covered in the book is that language learners develop an intralangue as they progress, their working hypothesis on how a language works. Sometimes, learners may produce more errors then before simply because they unify some rules and generalize previous cases that were learned in whole (chunking) e.g "He went" may change to "He goed" as a student learns that the past form of verb is formed by adding the +ed suffix, instead of pronouncing "He went" as a formula.
The authors propose three stages of language skill - declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and automatic knowledge. Declarative knowledge are the rules about the language a student might posses but doesn't know how to execute in contrast to procedural knowledge. Automatic knowledge is procedural knowledge that is refined to a point that it stops being a conscious effort.
Students use different means of acquiring language. Some exceptional cases can exhibit even near native-level performance no matter the learning methodology but for most cases near native-level performance is only achievable if learning had begun before the age of 15. Diverse teaching methods combining both structure based (grammar rules) and communication based (comprehension and producing speech and writing) methods can also facilitate learning, wheres concentrating only one aspect of the language (comprehensions, speaking etc.) gives mixed results.
Most adult students never achieve near-native pronunciation, although there are exceptions, and according to studies stress and rhythm are more important for understanding than pronunciation itself.
Passive sources of language such as books, television or radio seem to not be sufficient for learning a language, even for native speakers. Though, reading for pleasure seems to be the best way of increasing one's vocabulary. Procuring books adequate for a student might be a difficult task - for a text to be comprehensible at least 90-95% of the words need to be known. And according to studies, a new word needs to be seen at least 16 times to be remembered, although activates that require them to attend carefully to new words and use them in production tasks might speed up the process of learning.
I would recommend How Languages are Learned to anyone interested in the topic of language acquisition. The text is very approachable (though targeted to teachers), and even though some of the information given in the book might not be instantaneously applicable, the amount of useful knowledge is just incredible!
January 1, 2016
Great book! It explains everything that you need to know in an easy way with relevant examples.
November 4, 2023
This is a pretty good short textbook that’s an introduction to applied linguistics. I learned a lot, but because it is so short, I think it would have to be supplemented with something for any serious learning to occur. But again, great introduction to the subject matter.
August 19, 2014
It was just what I was looking for in that it gives a good overview of the prevailing theories around language acquisition. It was not what I wanted in that research has not yet definitively answered all my questions! If anything, the book equivocates more than it has to. As they put it: "Knowing more about second language acquisition will not tell you what to do in your classroom tomorrow morning." Bummer. On a positive note, this book made me feel more emboldened to keep learning and keep forging ahead. Sure you could go sideways here and there, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Since I didn't have an opportunity to start learning Spanish until I was already 14 (and a lost cause according to many), my favorite part of this book was where they point out that children actually take years to acquire a language, we are far more patient with them and many older learners acquire language astonishingly quickly!
Note that Chapter 7 is excellent - they look at prevailing ideas around language learning and break it down. You could actually just read this chapter to access all the major points of the book.
Note that Chapter 7 is excellent - they look at prevailing ideas around language learning and break it down. You could actually just read this chapter to access all the major points of the book.
December 25, 2016
how languages are learned is concise book about how we acquire languages,this book explains how a child learn the first landguage in a developmental sequences ,and the main theories underlying this process. starting from behaviourisit to innatist and others ...
it also describes how second language acquisition happend and why some people tend to learn languages better than others and what are the major setbacks in learning a language? providing a real life expirements conducted by some teachers giving a first hand expirience of some students larning a second language ...
this book is accassible and easy to read ,and it's highly recommended .
it also describes how second language acquisition happend and why some people tend to learn languages better than others and what are the major setbacks in learning a language? providing a real life expirements conducted by some teachers giving a first hand expirience of some students larning a second language ...
this book is accassible and easy to read ,and it's highly recommended .
June 10, 2020
As far as textbooks go, this one was really solid! I loved how the writing style was clear and easy to follow, not too dense. I loved the focus of the book's content, from first-language acquisition, to second language acquisition, individual differences in learning, SLA theories-interesting and relevant material! Finally, I enjoyed that the authors cited a lot of older and contemporary studies, including many of which took place in my province! It was interesting to read research about the effects of Quebec's French immersion program. Overall, this was a great choice of textbook for my Language Acquisition course!
May 21, 2016
A bit torn on the number of stars for this one. On the one hand, this was a valuable compendium of information on language acquisition, both first and second language. The summaries of key studies were useful. However, I felt like I came away with less actionable information than I anticipated, and the study summaries, since they're from a certain era, made the book feel dated. So I'm at 3.5 stars, basically, and since it's not like the authors could have anticipated future studies, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and 4 stars.
January 23, 2011
A very good, accessible read. This is the second or third intro-level book I've read on Second Language Acquisition, and it is the one I have liked the most. I found myself taking lots of word-for-word notes because of how good the writing and the content were.
December 6, 2010
An interesting overview of first and second language acquisition theories, but I found several other texts easier to read and more informative during my course.
September 25, 2023
My takeaway from this is that language learning is yet another human phenomenon that SciEnCe cannot really "explain". So many studies, yet so many "the results were inconclusive" & "causality however does not equal causation". This does not take away from this very well written & researched book or language learning - if anything it makes it even cooler. Some facts I noted:
- Imitation cannot fully account for language acquisition ((behaviorism)): "Unlike a parrot who (...) continues to repeat the same things again and again, children appear to imitate selectively. The choice of what to imitate seems to be based on something new that they have just begun to understand and use, and not simply on what is available in the environment."
- Not all language mistakes stem from negative inference. In one study, both French and Chinese students of English, for example, made the same type of subject-verb-agreement errors: "Such errors reflect learners' understanding of the L2 system itself rather than an attempt to transfer characteristics of their L1." What's more, these mistakes "are similar to those made by children acquiring English as their L1".
- "Eric Kellerman (1986) observed that learners often believe that idiomatic or metaphorical uses of words are unique to a particular language. Kellerman found that Dutch learners of English were reluctant to accept that certain idiomatic expressions or unusual uses of words were also possible in English. For example, they rejected 'The wave broke on the shore' but accepted 'He broke the cup' (...)."
- "Marcella Hu and Paul Nation (2000) showed that, in order to understand a text without frequent stops to consult a dictionary, one needs to know more than 95 per cent of the words - a rare case for L2 learners at most stages of acquisition."
- The number of meaningful encounters with a new word before it becomes firmly established in memory could be as high as 16 (Paul Nation, 2001). "Even more encounters may be needed before a learner can retrieve the word in fluent speech or automatically understand the meaning of the word when it occurs in a new context."
- "Learners' ethnic affiliation and their sense of identity are also related to how they pronounce L2 sounds and rhythms. Elizabeth Garbonton, Pavel Trofimovich and Michal Magid (2005) found (...) that learners who has achieved a high degree of accuracy in pronouncing the L2 were sometimes perceived as being less loyal to their ethnic group than those whose L2 speech retained a stronger 'foreign accent'."
- Conclusion of the book: "All school programmes should be based on realistic estimates of how long it takes to learn a language. One or two hours a week - even for seven or eight years - will not produce advanced L2 speakers. This 'drip-feed' approach often leads to frustration, as learners feel that they have been studying 'for years' without making much progress. Sadly, they are often right about this."
- "Some of this research has shown that as an L2 learner's proficiency increases, the brain activity looks more like that which is typical of L1 processing."
- "Research on pronunciation has shown that L2 speakers' ability to make themselves understood depends more on their ability to reproduce the phrasing and stress patterns - the 'melody' of the language - than on their ability to articulate each individual sound."
- Imitation cannot fully account for language acquisition ((behaviorism)): "Unlike a parrot who (...) continues to repeat the same things again and again, children appear to imitate selectively. The choice of what to imitate seems to be based on something new that they have just begun to understand and use, and not simply on what is available in the environment."
- Not all language mistakes stem from negative inference. In one study, both French and Chinese students of English, for example, made the same type of subject-verb-agreement errors: "Such errors reflect learners' understanding of the L2 system itself rather than an attempt to transfer characteristics of their L1." What's more, these mistakes "are similar to those made by children acquiring English as their L1".
- "Eric Kellerman (1986) observed that learners often believe that idiomatic or metaphorical uses of words are unique to a particular language. Kellerman found that Dutch learners of English were reluctant to accept that certain idiomatic expressions or unusual uses of words were also possible in English. For example, they rejected 'The wave broke on the shore' but accepted 'He broke the cup' (...)."
- "Marcella Hu and Paul Nation (2000) showed that, in order to understand a text without frequent stops to consult a dictionary, one needs to know more than 95 per cent of the words - a rare case for L2 learners at most stages of acquisition."
- The number of meaningful encounters with a new word before it becomes firmly established in memory could be as high as 16 (Paul Nation, 2001). "Even more encounters may be needed before a learner can retrieve the word in fluent speech or automatically understand the meaning of the word when it occurs in a new context."
- "Learners' ethnic affiliation and their sense of identity are also related to how they pronounce L2 sounds and rhythms. Elizabeth Garbonton, Pavel Trofimovich and Michal Magid (2005) found (...) that learners who has achieved a high degree of accuracy in pronouncing the L2 were sometimes perceived as being less loyal to their ethnic group than those whose L2 speech retained a stronger 'foreign accent'."
- Conclusion of the book: "All school programmes should be based on realistic estimates of how long it takes to learn a language. One or two hours a week - even for seven or eight years - will not produce advanced L2 speakers. This 'drip-feed' approach often leads to frustration, as learners feel that they have been studying 'for years' without making much progress. Sadly, they are often right about this."
- "Some of this research has shown that as an L2 learner's proficiency increases, the brain activity looks more like that which is typical of L1 processing."
- "Research on pronunciation has shown that L2 speakers' ability to make themselves understood depends more on their ability to reproduce the phrasing and stress patterns - the 'melody' of the language - than on their ability to articulate each individual sound."
October 16, 2020
This is a short, 14-year-old university textbook presenting language education research and implications for teaching practice by two Canadian experts in the field. Since I have a CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) from the University of Cambridge, I taught English as a second language for several years, and I’ve tried to learn a few languages myself, I thought it would be an interesting and informative read. The authors briefly review a range of studies from the language teaching research literature up to the mid-2000s and reflect on how the evidence should influence how languages are taught. Unfortunately, its short length prevents it from being comprehensive, and I didn’t really learn much that was new to me, but the book does verify my own training and experience. The best part is the last chapter, in which they take popular ideas about language learning, such as “languages are learned mostly through imitation” or “grammatical rules should be presented one at a time” and confirm or debunk them based on conclusions they draw in the earlier sections. Although a few cartoons inserted in the text help to illustrate some points, the authors would do well to inject their writing with the same sense of humour, as their style is rather dry and academic. Nevertheless, the content is good, and I recommend this book to people working in the field, especially if there is a revised and updated edition coming out soon. Others are likely to get bored.
January 16, 2021
4 stars. An informative summary
May 21, 2023
comprehensive with activities to complete throughout the chapters
May 3, 2024
Insightful and relevant.
March 4, 2025
tfmeable
December 14, 2020
I read this after having read Brown's Principles of Language Learning and Teaching so I was naturally comparing the two. What I liked about both was that other than the historical and first language acquisition background, the two books differed considerably in their choice of material so they made for good complementary reading. Also, both books include activities but most of Lightbrown and Spada's come with a commentary which makes them more suitable for self-studying.
December 3, 2020
I have the fourth edition in my hands. I've read and taught from the 2nd and 3rd as well. The information provided in this quite compact coverage of two vast fields, FLA and SLA, is very valuable to all who are or who are becoming language teachers.
The size of the bibliography testifies to the authors' synthesis of many subfields of language acquisition. And of course, they are researchers themselves.
An intriguing aspect of their writing style is their short sentences – many more compound sentences than complex. Coherence depends on lexis. And cohere, it certainly does.
The size of the bibliography testifies to the authors' synthesis of many subfields of language acquisition. And of course, they are researchers themselves.
An intriguing aspect of their writing style is their short sentences – many more compound sentences than complex. Coherence depends on lexis. And cohere, it certainly does.
October 15, 2014
This is a must-read for every language teacher. I learned so much and have even read chapters twice or gone back to look up more information. It's especially important for my fellow Latin teachers to read because Latin is in desperate need of revitalization. Just because the language itself has hardly changed in the last century doesn't mean that we shouldn't stay abreast of new methods of teaching language. I had to read this for my UMass class on Methods of Teaching the Latin Language, and am so glad because it was full of great insights. I also learned a lot about how I can learn languages, and applied this information to my experience as a student of Italian and German.
April 11, 2020
I read this book to complement Rod Ellis's SLA introduction book for my SLA class. My review is a bit divided into two perspectives, me as a teacher and me as a researcher. While the book is easy to read and it is short it lacks criticality. As a teacher I appreciate a quick explanation of SLA phenomenon (it saves me time). However having read this while reading Ellis's made me realize this book lacks a wider scope that reflects all the possibilities that SLA has to offer. It seems to present a very simplistic view of years and years of theories and research. This is a good intro but it isn’t by any means an extensive overview of SLA.
May 2, 2013
-OXFORD
-Time;5/2/2013=80minutes,
7words summary importance acquisition innate capacity successful discourse mimicry
-Discussion Question
Which skills(reading, listening, reading and speaking),is it important for us to study English?
I think that reading is more important than other skills. We acquire a lot of knowledge from books by reading, and we use it. Input is done, at first, and then output is done by learners.
I strongly reccomend you to read this book. English learners like us should know how to learn languages.
-Time;5/2/2013=80minutes,
7words summary importance acquisition innate capacity successful discourse mimicry
-Discussion Question
Which skills(reading, listening, reading and speaking),is it important for us to study English?
I think that reading is more important than other skills. We acquire a lot of knowledge from books by reading, and we use it. Input is done, at first, and then output is done by learners.
I strongly reccomend you to read this book. English learners like us should know how to learn languages.
June 21, 2022
A good overview of how a second language is acquired
I have learnt a lot from this book about how a second language is acquired and what teachers can do to assist learners in doing it. I was surprised to learn that the order in which items are learnt is similar to that for people learning their first language. It also set out a lot of research about what works well and what works less well. I think this has helped me become a better teacher, especially in understanding errors students make.
I have learnt a lot from this book about how a second language is acquired and what teachers can do to assist learners in doing it. I was surprised to learn that the order in which items are learnt is similar to that for people learning their first language. It also set out a lot of research about what works well and what works less well. I think this has helped me become a better teacher, especially in understanding errors students make.
August 19, 2020
Clear, concise. It covered how babies & toddlers learn to speak, and the differences between kids and adults learning their second (vs first) language.
It analyzed 6 methods of teaching a second language, using research studies to show effectiveness.
It used examples between a teacher and student. It was easy to read, and informative.
In some cases, it explained that students felt they'd learned more with one technique, but studies show that they did not.
It analyzed 6 methods of teaching a second language, using research studies to show effectiveness.
It used examples between a teacher and student. It was easy to read, and informative.
In some cases, it explained that students felt they'd learned more with one technique, but studies show that they did not.
April 26, 2015
I first read this book in 2005 back when I was taking courses towards an ESL certificate. This book ignited my interest in linguistics and the idea of SLA. As I teach EFL now, I'm re-reading it again and enjoying it as much as I did ten years ago. It's the necessary prequel to any teacher program regarding SLA.
November 2, 2018
Another book for my Masters of Ed for ESL. I liked the clear & succinct explanations in our other text by Ellis better. This book was thorough & pretty clear as well - an excellent reference & source for additional references as well as a guide to terminology, but the case studies were sometimes a bit dense to wade through.
August 10, 2022
This book provides an excellent overview of language acquisition theories and includes a comprehensive review of teaching and learning strategies for additional languages. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in linguistic theory, or for teachers looking for an overview of methods to use in a language learning classroom.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews