[Review] Rod Ellis (2015) Understanding second language acquisition

Understanding Second Language Acquisition has remained a staple of university courses in Applied Linguistics and second language acquisition since its first appearance thirty years ago. In view of ongoing developments in the discipline, this second edition, which represents a thorough revision of the first rather than the ‘entirely new book’ claimed by Ellis (p. 1), is particularly welcome. Unsurprisingly, in view of his target audience of students and teachers, Ellis devotes most space to second language linguistic development, social and cognitive theories of language learning, and types of instruction; and there is little discussion of universal grammar or the expanding field of neurolinguistics. The main difference is the loss of separate Chapters on linguistic universals and learning strategies, representing two ontological extremes, from the highly abstract to the highly particular, and the expansion of one on formal instruction into two separate Chapters. Like much in linguistics, the new edition is based on a structuralist paradigm.