Second Language Acquisition in Multilingual and Mixed Ability Indian Classrooms

Book excerpt: This book discusses current research on learning theories and pedagogical practices in second language acquisition, and tries to bridge the gap between the two. Second language acquisition is perceived as the study of the relationship between input, intake and output in a particular task performance, and Indian classrooms are the context for the research studies in this book. The empirical studies discussed in this book are based on two tasks: seminar speech task (SST) and written test performance task (WTPT). The pedagogical practices discussed cover three specific areas: tasks, skills, and strategies. The study focuses on text input processing for written versus spoken tasks, at various levels of task performance, and for language versus information. The authors discuss, among other issues, various elements of second language speech production, teachers’ evaluation of communicative versus form-focused tasks, and task-based versus proficiency-based performance. As a study located in multilingual and mixed ability classrooms, this work provides immense insights to teacher-educators and researchers working in ESL settings with learners from diverse backgrounds.