Discontinuity in Second Language Acquisition

Stefano Rastelli teaches Second Language Acquisition at the Universities of Pavia and Verona, Italy. He is an associate member of CAROLE (Center for Advanced Research and Outreach in Language Education), University of Greenwich. His research focuses on second language processing and syntactic theory and he has published numerous research articles in international journals.

The first quality distinguishing the Italian psycholinguist Stefano Rastelli’s book Discontinuity in Second Language Acquisition: The Switch between Statistical and Grammatical Learning (henceforth, Discontinuity) is its coherence as a single-author volume focused entirely on SLA, predominantly by adults. The second is the breadth and depth of Rastelli’s knowledge of current theory and research in linguistics, cognitive psychology, neurolinguistics, and SLA, and his ability to synthesize and integrate work from all four. The third is the originality of his perspective.

• 1. Second Language Acquisition facit faltus ('takes a leap')2. Discontinuity as Chunks Feed into Grammar3. Discontinuity in the Maturing and in the Adapting Brain4. Discontinuity and the Neurocognition of Second Language5. Statistical Learning of a Second Language6. Parts of L2 Grammar that Resist Statistical LearningConclusionsReferences