Providing a comprehensive survey of cutting-edge work on second language learning, this "Handbook," written by a team of leading experts, surveys the nature of second language learning and its implications for teaching. Prominent theories and methods from linguistics, psycholinguistics, processing-based, and cognitive approaches are…

Drawing on data from eleven preschools in four European countries (Germany, Belgium, Sweden, and the UK), this edited volume explores the progress of preschool children learning English over a period of two years. In the first volume, children's lexical and grammatical comprehension, the quality of L2 input, the effect of immersion on L1…

Drawing on data from eleven preschools in four European countries (Germany, Belgium, Sweden, and the UK), this edited volume explores the progress of preschool children learning English over a period of two years. This edited volume (Volume II) gives details on best practices in bilingual preschools as well as background and training on topics…

For language minority children who have acquired English through another culture, opportunities to learn in U.S. schools are not equal, either at the point of entry or at any time thereafter. Children's ability to participate meaningfully in school learning activities is intimately linked to cognitive and social skills that presuppose specific and…

The nine articles are divided into three general topics: language, cognition, and social development. Eduardo Hernandez-Chavez discusses strategies in early second language acquisition and their implications for bilingual instruction. Eugene E. Garcia, Lento Maez, and Gustavo Gonzales examine the incidence of language switching in Spanish/English…

A collection of essays on first and second language proficiency from the fields of psychology and linguistics includes the following: "Modeling and Assessing Language Proficiency" (John H. A. L. de Jong, Ludo Verhoeven); "The Construct of Grammar in Early Language Development" (Folkert Kuiken); "Dimensions in Grammatical Proficiency" (Wim H. J.…

Three papers on assessment and planning in bilingual education are presented. In "Language Theory Bases," Rosaura Sanchez advocates an approach toward child bilingual education that takes into account the relationship between the parallel domains of language development and cognitive development. An awareness of this relationship is…