With this year’s theme, we turn our attention to the variety of approaches employed in studying the processes and contexts of SLA. Researchers draw on theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology, cognitive science, psychology, educational science, and other disciplines. They gather and analyze data through laboratory research, classroom observations, case studies, ethnographies, and language corpora. They quantify and they interpret. At times it appears that these researchers are looking at completely different subject areas, but all identify themselves as working within the field of SLA.

SLRF 2009 asks how these varied methodologies and approaches compose a single “field of SLA”. We solicit papers, posters, and colloquia that address this question and that add to our understanding of SLA.