Abstract
In this presentation, I will first reflect on what the phenomena are for which SLA theories must seek an explanation and place SLA research of the last forty years in this context. I will then examine what current research and current theories have to say on SLA as a process developing over time (developmental sequences). I will contrast these approaches to notions and practices in the domain of language testing, focusing on the construct of 'language proficiency' and the 'proficiency scales' of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001). I will then launch some theoretical speculations with suggestions for future research, linking fundamental questions of SLA with fundamental as well as practical questions of L2 testing. I will illustrate this approach with data from a recently completed three-year longitudinal study on L2 and L1 reading and writing (see http://www.sco-kohnstamminstituut.uva.nl/nelson/), and with the outline of a new project on L2 speaking proficiency at intermediate and advanced levels. Both projects, conducted at the University of Amsterdam, are funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
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Biography
Jan Hulstijn is Professor of second language acquisition at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam (since 1998). After obtaining his doctorate in 1982, he received a grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), to work one year as a research associate at the Modern Language Centre of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto . Between 1983 and 1998 he worked at the University of Leiden and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He was guest professor at the University of Leuven, Belgium (spring 2002), and Stockholm University (spring 2005). In 2002-2003, he chaired a NWO committee producing a research program on Language Acquisition and Multilingualism as well as a report on European collaboration in this area. He received NWO grants for research projects conducted with, among others, Rob Schoonen, Kees de Glopper, Annette de Groot, and Ton Dijkstra. Most of his publications are concerned with incidental and intentional L2 vocabulary learning, implicit and explicit L2 grammar learning, and automatization of L2 lower-order processing skills. His current research aims to develop a theory of second language proficiency.
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