Learners who cannot decode alphabetic script have been left out of the SLA research enterprise, at considerable cost to our understanding of the human capacity for language learning. This book offers research evidence documenting the significant impact of low literacy skill on adolescents' processing of oral L2 input and acquisition. Together with a large body of closely related research in cognitive psychology, the findings lead to a startling conclusion: language processing skills that have been assumed to be universal human traits appear instead to be a product of learners' experience with alphabetic print literacy.

This innovative workbook and DVD pack provides a hands-on introduction to the study of language used by learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). The DVD features six adult ESL learners and two native speakers of English doing individual and pairwork language tasks. Linked exercises in the book guide the reader through an analysis of the language used by the ESL learners, with full transcripts and an answer discussion section for reference. Through doing learner language analysis at the descriptive case-study level, language teachers can develop skills for exploratory practice that will help them to address their queries about learner language in their own classrooms.