Psychology of Language Learning: Where are we and Where are We Going?

Abstract

Psychology and language learning are a natural combination of scholarly topics. With more than half of the world’s population able to speak two or more languages, under a wide range of personal, pedagogical, social, and cultural conditions, the psychology of language learning (PLL) is of practical concern to much of the population. Understanding the psychology of language learning and teaching is relevant to professions including foreign language teachers, material developers, curriculum designers, policy makers, educational psychologists, and foreign language researchers. Research that underlies the psychology of foreign language learning comes from many perspectives, including informal classroom observations, structured action research, projects that form part of pre-service teacher education programmes, large-scale multi-site studies, and meta-analyses. The diversity in scope and magnitude of the scholarly domain leads to flexibility in topics and research questions being investigated, and ultimately a better understanding of the topic. The purpose of this chapter is to open a discussion of PLL, the theme central to the first part of this book, by examining the state of the art as interpreted by the present authors and 10 experts in the field who responded to our call for their perspectives on where the field is now and where it might be going. Following a brief literature review (Section 2), the experts weigh in on the future of this flourishing research field.