David Block is a Lecturer in the School of Culture, Language and Communication at the Institute of Education, University of London. He has published numerous articles and chapters on a wide variety of topics in applied linguistics and is co-editor (with Deborah Cameron) of Globalization and Language Teaching.

Makes an outstanding contribution to the field of Second Language Acquisition Research, as it not only provides an informed, critical overview of developments since the early beginnings of this area, but it also lucidly and convincingly argues for the need for SLA researchers to widen the accepted agenda for research in this field by adopting a more multi-disciplinary and socially informed perspective. Baal News This book goes to the very heart of what SLA is ... The value of this book is its contribution to the debate about the objectives of SLA research. If the aim of those working within SLA is to better understand communicative competence it can surely only be a good thing as Block proposes to keep the interdisciplinary barriers down. Language Issues Makes an outstanding contribution to the field of Second Language Acquisition Research, as it not only provides an informed, critical overview of developments since the early beginnings of this area, but it also lucidly and convincingly argues for the need for SLA researchers to widen the accepted agenda for research in this field by adopting a more multi-disciplinary and socially informed perspective. This book goes to the very heart of what SLA is ... The value of this book is its contribution to the debate about the objectives of SLA research. If the aim of those working within SLA is to better understand communicative competence it can surely only be a good thing as Block proposes to keep the interdisciplinary barriers down.

• PrefaceAcknowledgements1. Introduction2. A Short History of Second Language Acquisition3. What does the 'S' in SLA stand for?4. What does the 'L' in SLA stand for?5. What does the 'A' in SLA stand for?6. Some thought about the futureReferencesIndex