Intensive Exposure Experiences in Second Language Learning

Munoz (English linguistics and applied linguistics, U. of Barcelona, Spain) compiles 11 studies dealing with second language learning in contexts that offer intensive exposure to the target language: long and short-term naturalistic immersion in an immigration or study-abroad situation, intensive instruction, and informal intensive environments in foreign language settings. Linguistics and English scholars from Canada and Europe discuss the effect of time distribution on learning; intensive programs in Quebec (their history, the effects of intensive instruction on different aspects of proficiency over time, challenges for francophone students of English in the simple past and the possessive determiners ?his/her,? and the nature of the language promoted in intensive programs); the context of European schools and outcomes of the second language learning process and the impact of curricular and extracurricular factors; learners' perceptions in relation to intensive exposure; learner's language gains in study-abroad experiences and settings at home; linguistic progress in oral and written skills in study-abroad and foreign instruction contexts; and the role of cross-language phonetic similarity perception in child, teen, and adult learners. The volume is aimed at applied linguists, second language researchers, academics, and graduate students in second language studies, psycholinguistics, and bilingualism, and teachers, language teacher educators, and policy makers. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Carmen Munoz received her MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading, UK and her PhD in English Linguistics from the University of Barcelona, Spain, where she is now a Professor of English Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. Her research interests include second and foreign language acquisition, as well as bilingual acquisition. Her recent publications have focused on the role of age and context in foreign language learning, young learners, and individual differences. She was the coordinator of the Barcelona Age Factor (BAF) Project.