Includes Index.

This book of readings has been prepared primarily for language teachers. It should also be useful for linguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and other theoreticians. The focus is on language learners -their capacities, attitudes, learning strategies, and what it is that they learn. As in all books of this kind, there is considerable diversity of viewpoint. For their meeting-points the reader may look through the cross references that occur in the Discussion Questions at the end of each part of the book. Part I is devoted to some theoretical issues concerning theories of language and language learning. Part II deals with language learning processes. It explores relationships between theories and data from studies of first and second language learning. In Part III theories of second language learning are discussed. Part IV takes up some of the psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic considerations relevant to language testing. Part V enters the domain of sociocultural and motivational factors. Part VI concludes with a discussion of some possible alternatives to formal language classes.