SLA Research and Language Teaching by Rod Elis

Abstract

SLA Research and Language Teachingby Rod Ellis Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1997, 280 pp. Reviewed by David Pinto University of California, Los Angeles In SLA Research and Language Teaching Rod Ellis addresses the existing gap between Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research and language teaching in the classroom. After initially demonstrating its how the gap has developed and is noting continuing expansion, he attempts to bridge this gap. The book di- vided into six parts: Background; Making Research Accessible; The Application of Theory; Second Language Acquisition Research in the Classroom; The Teacher as Researcher; Conclusion. It is aimed at language teachers who are interested in what found SLA it research has to say about language learning but who, perhaps, have difficult to apply the findings to the classroom. Ellis examines some of the research findings of the last twenty years along with factors affecting their adoption in classroom teaching practices. explicit He presents the notions of implicit and knowledge and introduces a model is for using the research in this area to build a structural syllabus that as compatible with instructed language acquisition, opposed to naturalistic acquisition. To further bridge the gap, he suggests that teachers carry out research in their the criticisms of own classrooms and defends this practice against SLA academics. In the first part of the book Ellis examines the gap between SLA research and language teaching and also presents some ideas for bridging this gap. It seems that most SLA research in the 1960's focused on language pedagogy. There were two main approaches - research to investigate the relative effectiveness of differ- ent teaching methods and empirical study of how learners acquired an L2. The latter approach involved looking at individual learners and their errors. Teachers could easily relate to these studies which tended to be more rewarding than studies of methods in that they opened the way for further research. (p. 5). As a result, its studies of L2 learning continued and SLA was born As SLA grew, opposed it became more of an academic pursuit in own right as to a support for the practice of language teaching. There are large bodies (e.g. of research that have nothing to do with the classroom research on Universal Grammar). Other role of input fields of SLA have closer ties to the classroom. The study of the in and interaction L2 in acquisition and the study of form-focused in- struction both address issues of extreme relevance to language teachers. the However, methods they have adopted order to satisfy the demands of academia have knowledge, made their findings of questionable relevance to the classroom. As an academic discipline, SLA seeks to contribute to technical Issues in Applied Linguistics ISSN 1050-4273 Vol. 10 1999, Regents of the University of California No.