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Sie sind hier: FRIAS School of Language & … Fellows Prof. Dr. Lourdes Ortega

Prof. Dr. Lourdes Ortega

Kognitive Linguistik
Universität Hawai
Aug. - Dez. 2010

Vergangene FRIAS-Aufenthalte

  • Aug. - Dez. 2010

 

CV

Lourdes Ortega has taught applied linguistics at the master’s and doctoral levels at Georgetown University, Georgia State University, Northern Arizona University, and presently at the University of Hawaii. Originally from Spain, she spent a year in Germany (1983-1984), as an undergraduate studying Latin and Ancient Greek at the University of Munich. Although rusty now, her German was good enough up until the early 1990s to gain her the Großes Sprachdiplom from the Goethe-Institut. Her second home is Greece, where she was a Spanish-as-a-foreign language teacher from 1986 until 1993 (and where she also was trained as an EFL teacher at the British Council). She has lived in the United States since 1993 and became a dual citizen of Spain and the USA recently. Lourdes‘ main research interests are in second language acquisition, second language writing, systematic research synthesis, and epistemological and ethical dimensions of SLA research. She was a Pre-doctoral Mellon Fellow (1999) and a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow (2003) and was recipient of the Paul Pimsleur award and the TESOL Distinguished Research award for her 2000 meta-analysis with John Norris on the effectiveness of L2 instruction. She is the author of a graduate-level introduction to SLA titled Understanding Second Language Acquisition (Hodder, 2009) which was a finalist in the Book Prize of the British Association for Applied Linguistics. Other publications include a collection of research essays on The Longitudinal Study of Advanced L2 Capacities (co-edited with Heidi Byrnes, Routledge, 2008); the first book on meta-analysis in applied linguistics, titled Synthesizing Research on Language Learning and Teaching (co-edited with John Norris, Benjamins, 2006); and a special issue of the Modern Language Journal devoted to the topic of Methodology, Epistemology, and Ethics in Instructed SLA Research (2005). Lourdes is the new editor of Language Learning for the five-year term of 2010-2015.

 

Publikationen (Auswahl): 

  • Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Hodder Arnold. [Understanding Language Series, Bernard Comrie & Greville Corbett, Series Editors; ISBN-13: 978-0340905593]
  • Ortega, L. (2009). Studying writing across EFL contexts: Looking back and moving forward. In R. M. Manchón (Ed.), Writing in foreign language contexts: Learning, teaching, and research (pp. 232-255). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
  • Ortega, L. (2009). Sequences and processes in language learning. In M. H. Long & C. J. Doughty (Eds.), Handbook of language teaching (pp. 81-105). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Ortega, L. (Ed.). (2005). Methodology, epistemology, and ethics in instructed SLA research. Special Issue of The Modern Language Journal, 89(3). [ISSN: 0026-7902, online ISSN: 1540-4781]
  • Ortega, L. (2003). Syntactic complexity measures and their relationship to L2 proficiency: A research synthesis of college-level L2 writing. Applied Linguistics, 24, 492-518.
  • Ortega, L. (1999). Planning and focus on form in L2 oral performance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 109-148.
  • Ortega, L., & Byrnes, H. (Eds.). (2008). The longitudinal study of advanced L2 capacities. New York: Routledge. [Second Language Acquisition Research Series, Susan M. Gass & Alison Mackey, Series Editors; ISBN-13: 978-0805861730]
  • Norris, J. M., & Ortega, L. (2009). Towards an organic approach to investigating CAF in instructed SLA: The case of complexity. Applied Linguistics, 30, 555-578.
  • Norris, J. M. & Ortega, L. (Eds.). (2006). Synthesizing research on language learning and teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [Language Learning & Language Teaching Series, Jan Hulstijn & Nina Spada, Series Editors; ISBN-13: 978-9027219664].
  • Norris, J. M., & Ortega, L. (2000). Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis. Language Learning, 50, 417-528.
 
 

FRIAS-Projekt

Pathways to Multicompetence: Applying Usage-Based and Constructionist Theories to the Study of Interlanguage Development

This project aims to shed light on the radical consequences of putting usage-based, constructionist theories to the service of describing the second language data produced by adults who are learning to become multicompetent bilinguals (Cook, 2008) after years of experience as unilinguals. The study of interlanguage development has generated important insights about the learning of additional languages by adults (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Ortega, 2009; Tarone & Swierzbin, 2009), and yet it has also undergone surprisingly little change since the foundational years when the construct of interlanguage made its mark in the field of Second Language Acquisition (Selinker, 1972). Exciting potential for renovation and reinvigoration of this area has recently arisen under the impulse of functionalist, dynamic, and usage-based theories of language development that have become heralded in the field of SLA (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008; Robinson & Ellis, 2008). However, researchers have been slow to heed these recommendations and empirical investigations of second language data under these theoretical lenses remain scarce. During my stay at FRIAS I will explore the feasibility of appropriating analytical tools from constructionist (Goldberg, 2006), cognitive (Bowerman & Levinson, 2001), and usage-based (Tomasello, 2009) developmental frameworks for the analysis of a longitudinal corpus of second-language Spanish relative clauses and a crosslinguistic, cross-sectional corpus of English, German, and Spanish interlanguage.

 

References cited:

Bowerman, M., & Levinson, S. C. (Eds.). (2001). Language acquisition and conceptual development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Cook, V. (2008). Multi-competence: Black hole or wormhole for second language acquisition research? In Z. Han (Ed.), Understanding second language process (pp. 16-26).Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Ellis, R., & Barkhuizen, G. (2005). Analyzing learner language. New York: Oxford University Press.