This chapter discusses different ways that grammar has been viewed, and answers questions such as: Is there always just one grammatical form that’s correct? and How do linguists and lay people think about grammar? The chapter reviews different ways of understanding and investigating grammar learning such as pedagogical grammar, systemic functional linguistics, contrastive analysis, CALF (complexity, accuracy, lexical complexity, and fluency), language-related episodes, and languaging. The chapter then explores several issues that are specific to grammar learning, such as rule-learning and developmental stages. In particular, it discusses processability theory, teachability theory, and communicative competence. The chapter continues by examining possible answers to the question What’s the best way to teach grammar? The chapter includes the traditional, explicit approach to grammar instruction, and continues with other approaches that are more communicative. Different approaches include proactive and reactive grammar teaching, isolated and integrated form-focused instruction, focused and unfocused tasks, and concept-based instruction.

This chapter situates plurilingualism (at the individual level) and multilingualism (at the societal level), depending on the researcher’s approach to language contact, as enablers of various consequences of language contact. The relevant phenomena include language endangerment and loss (through language shift), codemixing and codeswitching (or translanguaging), the emergence of creoles, other mixed language varieties (including urban youth “stylects”), colonial varieties of European languages (such as Spanish), super-diversity, as well as structural change, borrowing, and the emergence of lingua francas. Concepts such as foreign workers’ interlanguages are contrasted with creoles and pidgins. Differences in their emergence are grounded in second language learning, degree and type of exposure to the hegemonic language, language shift, and the emergence of communal norms. The presentation in the chapter is generally grounded in population movements and changing population structures, therefore in speakers'/signers’ social history. It is also diachronic, explaining how domains of interest have evolved and expanded in language contact as a research area since the late nineteenth century, focusing on phenomena not elaborated in the chapters of Volume 1.

The work of Jean-Claude Beacco brought him to the Council of Europe. There he became interested in the management of cultural Otherness, shedding new light on questions of legitimacy of certain languages in relation to others. For him, “the stakes are being played at the pedagogical level, [...], but also at the structural level, through the indispensable coming together of at least language coursework and language(s) of schooling coursework.”

Chapter 9 is devoted to aspects of general extender use by second language (L2) learners, with discussion of research and examples from first language (L1) speakers of Dutch, French, German, Persian and Swedish, plus data from English L1 speakers learning other languages. The phenomenon of low-frequency use of discourse/pragmatic features among L2 learners is noted. The more limited repertoire of L2 learners results in the complete absence of some forms and a reliance on, and hence overuse of, only a few expressions. Another aspect of L2 learner usage is the creation of novel expressions, some of which can be analyzed as interlanguage forms. Novel forms, and new uses of old forms, are also exemplified in the use of English as a lingua franca. Proposals for the inclusion of general extenders in L2 teaching are based on the explicit presentation and analysis of examples, with a contrastive approach discussed and exemplified. The chapter concludes with four exercises designed to raise awareness of how different English general extenders are typically used.

Research showed that the interlanguage-speech intelligibility benefit (ISIB) effect progressively disappeared in Chinese speakers of English as their English proficiency increased and their exposure to Chinese-accented English decreased. As a result, ISIB effects were obvious in less proficient speakers. We explore the hypothesis that ISIB is still present in proficient L2 English speakers when tasks go beyond sound transcription and relate intelligibility to more complex sound-meaning mappings. Results showed that, in general, native English speakers outperformed Chinese speakers of English showing no evidence of an overall ISIB effect despite that Chinese speakers of English rated Chinese-accented sentences as more comprehensible. Only in the compound vs noun contrasts (e.g., ‘bluebird’ vs. ‘blue bird’), Chinese speakers of English outperformed native English speakers in the Chinese-accented stimuli, showing a mild ISIB-L effect. This modest evidence in support of ISIB encourages further exploration on aspects of sound perception that could affect ISIB in proficient L2 speakers.

Chapter 13 introduces second language acquisition, the acquisition of non-native grammars, by comparing it to first language acquisition (Chapter 12). The strong interdisciplinary nature of second language acquisition informs this chapter in all areas, including how it links to other branches of linguistics, cognitive psychology, sociolinguistics, education, etc. The chapter introduces readers to key concepts such as interlanguage and transfer from the first language. As in Chapter 12 First language acquisition, this chapter follows the development of the second language sound system, morphology, and syntax. The chapter compares and analyzes different theoretical approaches such as markedness theory, generative approaches (Universal Grammar), the monitor model, sociocultural theory, processability theory, and cognitive models such as the competition model. It examines important factors that may affect the course of second language acquisition such as: the role of age; gender; learning styles such as field dependency or independence; aptitude; motivation; and working memory. It also explores different learning contexts and approaches such as immersion and task-based learning.

Chapter 4 outlines key properties of language development and explores the question whether the acquisition of an additional or foreign language is fundamentally different compared to the acquisition of a primary language in infancy. Drawing on key findings from studies of second language acquisition involving a range of language pairs, it is shown that some properties of an additional language are acquired naturally despite apparent difficulties caused by input and transfer from previous language knowledge. However, some properties of grammar and language use remain persistently difficult, even despite input and teaching of the properties. We conclude with the claim that the knowledge of Virtual Grammar and its grammatical concepts provides a way for teachers to understand the learnability issues faced by their language learners so that they can then make use of appropriate approaches to address these issues.

Historically, language contact has taken place under conditions of trade, imported slave and contract labor, military service, conquest, colonialism, migration, and urbanization. The linguistic outcomes are determined in large part by the social relations among populations — including economic, political, and demographic factors — and by the duration of contact. In some times and places, interactions between linguistically heterogeneous groups have generated (depending on one’s theoretical orientation) new languages or radically different language varieties. This article examines the formation of contact languages — understood here primarily as pidgins, creoles, and bilingual mixed languages — the history of which involves a Germanic language in a significant way.