Patsy M Lightbown
Biographic Data
| ID | 1691806 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Patsy M Lightbown |
| GIVEN NAMES | Patsy M |
| FAMILY NAME | Lightbown |
| SIGNATURE | LIGHTBOWN P M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Concordia University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 28 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Spada, Nina
Nina Spada (1953– ) is internationally known for her classroom‐centered research on second language learning and teaching.
In it Together
In discussions about relationships between research and pedagogy, teachers and researchers are often characterized as facing each other across a “gap” that separates them. Teachers are described as having practical concerns about their own classrooms and little patience for “theoretical” issues. Researchers are described as removed from day‐to‐day classroom concerns and oriented to more abstract factors that, if not “universal,” are at least “gen…
Teaching and learning L2 in the classroom
One of the challenges facing second and foreign language (L2) teachers and learners in primary and secondary school settings is the limited amount of time available. There is disagreement about how to meet this challenge. In this paper we argue against two ‘common sense’ recommendations for increasing instructional time – start as early as possible and use only the L2 (avoiding the use of the first language (L1)) in the classroom. We propose two …
Making the minutes count in L2 teaching
Many educational institutions offer second- or foreign-language (L2) programmes that give students many more hours of contact with the target language than is typical of foreign-language instruction in schools around the world. This article compares some of the instructional approaches developed for both second- and foreign-language learners at the primary and secondary school levels. The approaches are compared in terms of several characteristic…
Are certain types of instruction better for certain learners
Learner Readiness
Readiness is a concept that is relevant to all aspects of learning and development.
Awareness of L1/L2 differences
This study is an investigation of the extent to which francophone learners of English as a second language (ESL) are aware of the differences between French and English question formation and how such awareness relates to their L2 performance. Three tasks were administered to 58 grades 5 and 6 francophone ESL learners. In a grammaticality judgement task, learners were asked to judge the grammaticality of English Wh– and yes/no questions. In a scr…
Form‐Focused Instruction
There is increasing consensus that form‐focused instruction helps learners in communicative or content‐based instruction to learn features of the target language that they may not acquire without guidance. The subject of this article is the role of instruction that is provided in separate (isolated) activities or within the context of communicative activities (integrated). Research suggests that both types of instruction can be beneficial, depend…
The Role of SLA Research in L2 Teaching
This is a response to Sheen's (2002) critique of a review article on the relationship between second language acquisition (SLA) research and classroom second and foreign language teaching (Lightbown 2000). The review article was an update of an earlier one in Applied Linguistics titled ‘Great Expectations: Second Language Acquisition Research and Classroom Teaching’ (Lightbown 1985). The focus of the response is on clarifying points made in both …
L2 Instruction
Recasts as Feedback to Language Learners
Some researchers suggest that recasts are effective in showing learners how their current interlanguage differs from the target (Long & Robinson, 1998). Others have argued that recasts are ambiguous and may be perceived by the learner as confirmation of meaning rather than feedback on form (Lyster, 1998a). We review research on the effectiveness of recasts in first and second language acquisition, paying particular attention to how recasts have b…
Anniversary article. Classroom SLA research and second language teaching
In Lightbown (1985a), I summarized SLA research by stating ten generalizations which were consistent with the research to that date. I concluded that SLA research could not serve as the basis for telling teachers what to teach or how. One of the reasons for that was the limited scope of SLA research at that time. Another reason was that most of the research had not been designed to answer pedagogical questions. However, I suggested that SLA resea…
Do They Know What They're Doing? L2 Learners' Awareness of L1 Influence
In this paper we report on the extent to which learners can make explicit L1 rules which appear to influence their L2 performance. The learners were 11–12-year-old francophone students learning English in intensive communicative ESL classes in Quebec. In previous research we had found that their knowledge and use of English questions and adverbs, while systematic, was not target-like. In question forms, the pattern in their interlanguage reflecte…
Psycholinguistic Approaches to Sla
These are exciting times for research into the psychological processes underlying second language acquisition (SLA). In the 1970s, SLA emerged as a field of inquiry in its own right (Brown 1980), and in the 1980s, a number of different approaches to central questions in the field began to develop in parallel and in relative isolation (McLaughlin and Harrington 1990). In the 1990s, however, these different approaches began to confront one another …
Time and the Distribution of Time in L2 Instruction
LAURA COLLINSUniversity of VictoriaRANDALL H. HALTERConcordia UniversityPATSY M. LIGHTBOWNConcordia UniversityNINA SPADAMcGill UniversityIn the French primary schools of Quebec, increased popularity inexperimental programs that provide young Francophone learners withintensive ESL instruction has been accompanied by increased variationin the way the instructional time is distributed. In a massed program,students complete the regular curriculum in …
How Languages Are Learned
An Innovative Program for Primary ESL Students in Quebec
An innovative intensive ESL program in Quebec is the focus of this article. As a background to the presentation of research carried out within this program, the context and conditions of ESL teaching in Quebec's French-language schools are briefly described. In these schools, where all subject matter instruction is normally provided in French, the program gives some students in Grade 5 or Grade 6 access to intensive instruction in ESL. For 5 mont…
"Comments on Stephen D. Krashen's "Teaching Issues
Input Enhancement and L2 Question Formation
In this study, we investigate the extent to which form-focused instruction and corrective feedback (i.e. ‘input enhancement’), provided within a primarily communicative program, contribute to learners' accuracy in question formation. Over a two-week period, three experimental classes of beginner level francophone ESL learners(aged 10–12 years) were exposed to a variety of input enhancement activities on question formation. Their performance on pa…
Focus-on-Form and Corrective Feedback in Communicative Language Teaching
The developing oral English of approximately 100 second language learners (four intact classes) was examined in this study. The learners were native speakers of French (aged 10–12 years) who had received a 5-month intensive ESL course in either grade 5 or grade 6 in elementary schools in Quebec. A large corpus of classroom observation data was also analyzed. Substantial between-class differences were found in the accuracy with which students used…
The Influence of Linguistic Theories on Language Acquisition Research
There have been many changes in the way in which twentieth-century researchers have perceived the relationship between theories of language and theories of language acquisition. In this review, we examine some of these changes in light of differences in expectations for the role of linguistic theories in describing what language learners acquire and explaining how they acquire it. We conclude that a theory of grammar will be a necessary component…
Learner language and language learning
Great Expectations
Journal Article Great Expectations: Second-Language Acquisition Research and Classroom Teaching Get access PATSY M. LIGHTBOWN PATSY M. LIGHTBOWN Concordia University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Applied Linguistics, Volume 6, Issue 2, 1985, Pages 173–189, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/6.2.173 Published: 01 August 1985
Input and Acquisition for Second-language Learners In and Out of Classrooms
Journal Article Input and Acquisition for Second-language Learners In and Out of Classrooms Get access PATSY M. LIGHTBOWN PATSY M. LIGHTBOWN Concordia UniversityMontreal Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Applied Linguistics, Volume 6, Issue 3, 1985, Pages 263–273, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/6.3.263 Published: 01 December 1985
Introduction to Series on Interlanguage Syntax
Recasts as Feedback to Language Learners
Some researchers suggest that recasts are effective in showing learners how their current interlanguage differs from the target (Long & Robinson, 1998). Others have argued that recasts are ambiguous and may be perceived by the learner as confirmation of meaning rather than feedback on form (Lyster, 1998a). We review research on the effectiveness of recasts in first and second language acquisition, paying particular attention to how recasts have b…
Form‐Focused Instruction
There is increasing consensus that form‐focused instruction helps learners in communicative or content‐based instruction to learn features of the target language that they may not acquire without guidance. The subject of this article is the role of instruction that is provided in separate (isolated) activities or within the context of communicative activities (integrated). Research suggests that both types of instruction can be beneficial, depend…
Time and the Distribution of Time in L2 Instruction
LAURA COLLINSUniversity of VictoriaRANDALL H. HALTERConcordia UniversityPATSY M. LIGHTBOWNConcordia UniversityNINA SPADAMcGill UniversityIn the French primary schools of Quebec, increased popularity inexperimental programs that provide young Francophone learners withintensive ESL instruction has been accompanied by increased variationin the way the instructional time is distributed. In a massed program,students complete the regular curriculum in …
An Innovative Program for Primary ESL Students in Quebec
An innovative intensive ESL program in Quebec is the focus of this article. As a background to the presentation of research carried out within this program, the context and conditions of ESL teaching in Quebec's French-language schools are briefly described. In these schools, where all subject matter instruction is normally provided in French, the program gives some students in Grade 5 or Grade 6 access to intensive instruction in ESL. For 5 mont…
Learner language and language learning
Teaching and learning L2 in the classroom
One of the challenges facing second and foreign language (L2) teachers and learners in primary and secondary school settings is the limited amount of time available. There is disagreement about how to meet this challenge. In this paper we argue against two ‘common sense’ recommendations for increasing instructional time – start as early as possible and use only the L2 (avoiding the use of the first language (L1)) in the classroom. We propose two …
Are certain types of instruction better for certain learners
The Influence of Linguistic Theories on Language Acquisition Research
There have been many changes in the way in which twentieth-century researchers have perceived the relationship between theories of language and theories of language acquisition. In this review, we examine some of these changes in light of differences in expectations for the role of linguistic theories in describing what language learners acquire and explaining how they acquire it. We conclude that a theory of grammar will be a necessary component…
Imitation in language development
Structure and Variation in Child Language
Lois Bloom, Patsy Lightbown, Lois Hood, Melissa Bowerman, Michael Maratsos, Michael P. Maratsos, Structure and Variation in Child Language, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Vol. 40, No. 2, Structure and Variation in Child Language (May, 1975), pp. 1-97
French L2 Learners
The acquisition of French by two six-year old boys, native speakers of English, was observed longitudinally. Form-meaning relations in their spontaneous multi-word utterances were compared to the form-meaning relations observed, in previous research, in the speech of two-year old English L1 and French L1 children, at a similar level of linguistic development. The same fairly limited set of form-meaning relations accounted for the majority of both…
Introduction to Series on Interlanguage Syntax
Great Expectations
Journal Article Great Expectations: Second-Language Acquisition Research and Classroom Teaching Get access PATSY M. LIGHTBOWN PATSY M. LIGHTBOWN Concordia University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Applied Linguistics, Volume 6, Issue 2, 1985, Pages 173–189, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/6.2.173 Published: 01 August 1985
Input and Acquisition for Second-language Learners In and Out of Classrooms
Journal Article Input and Acquisition for Second-language Learners In and Out of Classrooms Get access PATSY M. LIGHTBOWN PATSY M. LIGHTBOWN Concordia UniversityMontreal Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Applied Linguistics, Volume 6, Issue 3, 1985, Pages 263–273, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/6.3.263 Published: 01 December 1985
Learner language and language learning
The Influence of Linguistic Theories on Language Acquisition Research
There have been many changes in the way in which twentieth-century researchers have perceived the relationship between theories of language and theories of language acquisition. In this review, we examine some of these changes in light of differences in expectations for the role of linguistic theories in describing what language learners acquire and explaining how they acquire it. We conclude that a theory of grammar will be a necessary component…
Focus-on-Form and Corrective Feedback in Communicative Language Teaching
The developing oral English of approximately 100 second language learners (four intact classes) was examined in this study. The learners were native speakers of French (aged 10–12 years) who had received a 5-month intensive ESL course in either grade 5 or grade 6 in elementary schools in Quebec. A large corpus of classroom observation data was also analyzed. Substantial between-class differences were found in the accuracy with which students used…
Input Enhancement and L2 Question Formation
In this study, we investigate the extent to which form-focused instruction and corrective feedback (i.e. ‘input enhancement’), provided within a primarily communicative program, contribute to learners' accuracy in question formation. Over a two-week period, three experimental classes of beginner level francophone ESL learners(aged 10–12 years) were exposed to a variety of input enhancement activities on question formation. Their performance on pa…
"Comments on Stephen D. Krashen's "Teaching Issues
An Innovative Program for Primary ESL Students in Quebec
An innovative intensive ESL program in Quebec is the focus of this article. As a background to the presentation of research carried out within this program, the context and conditions of ESL teaching in Quebec's French-language schools are briefly described. In these schools, where all subject matter instruction is normally provided in French, the program gives some students in Grade 5 or Grade 6 access to intensive instruction in ESL. For 5 mont…
How Languages Are Learned
Psycholinguistic Approaches to Sla
These are exciting times for research into the psychological processes underlying second language acquisition (SLA). In the 1970s, SLA emerged as a field of inquiry in its own right (Brown 1980), and in the 1980s, a number of different approaches to central questions in the field began to develop in parallel and in relative isolation (McLaughlin and Harrington 1990). In the 1990s, however, these different approaches began to confront one another …
Time and the Distribution of Time in L2 Instruction
LAURA COLLINSUniversity of VictoriaRANDALL H. HALTERConcordia UniversityPATSY M. LIGHTBOWNConcordia UniversityNINA SPADAMcGill UniversityIn the French primary schools of Quebec, increased popularity inexperimental programs that provide young Francophone learners withintensive ESL instruction has been accompanied by increased variationin the way the instructional time is distributed. In a massed program,students complete the regular curriculum in …
Anniversary article. Classroom SLA research and second language teaching
In Lightbown (1985a), I summarized SLA research by stating ten generalizations which were consistent with the research to that date. I concluded that SLA research could not serve as the basis for telling teachers what to teach or how. One of the reasons for that was the limited scope of SLA research at that time. Another reason was that most of the research had not been designed to answer pedagogical questions. However, I suggested that SLA resea…
Do They Know What They're Doing? L2 Learners' Awareness of L1 Influence
In this paper we report on the extent to which learners can make explicit L1 rules which appear to influence their L2 performance. The learners were 11–12-year-old francophone students learning English in intensive communicative ESL classes in Quebec. In previous research we had found that their knowledge and use of English questions and adverbs, while systematic, was not target-like. In question forms, the pattern in their interlanguage reflecte…
L2 Instruction
Recasts as Feedback to Language Learners
Some researchers suggest that recasts are effective in showing learners how their current interlanguage differs from the target (Long & Robinson, 1998). Others have argued that recasts are ambiguous and may be perceived by the learner as confirmation of meaning rather than feedback on form (Lyster, 1998a). We review research on the effectiveness of recasts in first and second language acquisition, paying particular attention to how recasts have b…
The Role of SLA Research in L2 Teaching
This is a response to Sheen's (2002) critique of a review article on the relationship between second language acquisition (SLA) research and classroom second and foreign language teaching (Lightbown 2000). The review article was an update of an earlier one in Applied Linguistics titled ‘Great Expectations: Second Language Acquisition Research and Classroom Teaching’ (Lightbown 1985). The focus of the response is on clarifying points made in both …
Form‐Focused Instruction
There is increasing consensus that form‐focused instruction helps learners in communicative or content‐based instruction to learn features of the target language that they may not acquire without guidance. The subject of this article is the role of instruction that is provided in separate (isolated) activities or within the context of communicative activities (integrated). Research suggests that both types of instruction can be beneficial, depend…
Awareness of L1/L2 differences
This study is an investigation of the extent to which francophone learners of English as a second language (ESL) are aware of the differences between French and English question formation and how such awareness relates to their L2 performance. Three tasks were administered to 58 grades 5 and 6 francophone ESL learners. In a grammaticality judgement task, learners were asked to judge the grammaticality of English Wh– and yes/no questions. In a scr…
Learner Readiness
Readiness is a concept that is relevant to all aspects of learning and development.
Are certain types of instruction better for certain learners
Making the minutes count in L2 teaching
Many educational institutions offer second- or foreign-language (L2) programmes that give students many more hours of contact with the target language than is typical of foreign-language instruction in schools around the world. This article compares some of the instructional approaches developed for both second- and foreign-language learners at the primary and secondary school levels. The approaches are compared in terms of several characteristic…
Psychology (25 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (23 works) · Linguistics (22 works) · Mathematics education (18 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (16 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Second Language Acquisition and Learning (12 works) · Second-language acquisition (10 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works)