In the spirit of Michigan State University's "world-grant" initiative, MSU's International Business Center in the Eli Broad College of Business is implementing Pro Bono Services for businesses in the Greater Lansing Region (Michigan, USA) which are striving to engage in the global marketplace. The Michigan Export Growth Program was started with a seed grant from the Ford College Community Challenge, which funds projects that meet community leads, create student leaders while building sustainable communities and fostering community partnerships.
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.
