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SLA for the 21st Century

Disciplinary Progress, Transdisciplinary Relevance, and the Bi/multilingual Turn

Bibliographic Data

ID4501922
AuthorsLourdes Ortega (0000-0003-4533-6547, Georgetown University, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume63
Issues1
Pages1-24
Publication date2013-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage Learning (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-8333 • E-ISSN: 1467-9922
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9922.2012.00735.x
OpenAlexW1889709078
LanguageEN
Citations received108
References cited77

The goals of this article are to appraise second language acquisition's (SLA) disciplinary progress over the last 15 years and to reflect on transdisciplinary relevance as the field has completed 40 years of existence and moves forward into the 21st century. I first identify four trends that demonstrate vibrant disciplinary progress in SLA. I then turn to the notion of transdisciplinarity, or the proclivity to pursue and generate SLA knowledge that can be of use outside the confines of the field and contribute to overall knowledge about the human capacity for language. I propose an understanding of transdisciplinary relevance for SLA that results from the ability: (a) to place one's field in a wider landscape of disciplines that share an overarching common goal and (b) to develop critical awareness of one's disciplinary framings of object of inquiry and goals and others' likely reception of them. Finally, I argue that it is by reframing SLA as the study of late bi/multilingualism that the remarkable progress witnessed in the last 15 years will help the field reach new levels of transdisciplinary relevance as a contributor to the study of the ontogeny of human language and a source of knowledge in support of language education in the 21st century

Cognitive reframing · Discipline · Epistemology · Field (mathematics) · Interdisciplinarity · Linguistics · Multilingualism · Pedagogy · Political science · Relevance (law) · Second-language acquisition · Social science · Sociology · Transdisciplinarity · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Psychology · Second Language Learning and Teaching · Social Psychology

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Unique citing works108
Citations per year8,31
Citation span2013 - 2026 (14)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedYes
Citation typesNeutral: 106

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