The field of SLA, or Second Language Acquisition, is relatively new, but the language teaching profession is not. In the short history of SLA, however, researchers have sought to conduct solid L2 research and analyze the resultant data to give us teachers classroom applications of this research.Unfortunately, two problems have persisted for TESOL and L2 teachers. The first problem is that, compared to other fields, SLA research has been rather scant. Fortunately, researchers continue to work on this. Some researchers, such as Dana Ferris, have continued to contribute greatly to pedagogy by doing work that has more practical than just theoretical value.
The second problem is that L2 research, even when it does have practical classroom application, is often written in such an unfriendly, unintelligible way that it is of little use to the average classroom teacher, i.e., the person who MOST needs to see the applications of the findings.
Luckily for the thousands of ESL, L2, and Generation 1.5 Writing teachers, Dana Ferris has just released TREATMENT OF ERROR IN SECOND LANGUAGE STUDENT WRITING. What a refreshing work! The author has done a great service to our profession by writing to teachers and not using "researcher-ese." Ferris has managed to present information in readable language for BOTH teachers and researchers. I picked up a copy of this book at a conference, started reading it just prior to boarding my flight home, and managed to read most of the book by the time my plane landed five hours later. It is so rare for a book of facts to be so captivating and informative!
I recommend this book HIGHLY to any teacher of ESL, L2 writing, or even L1 (English) composition.
Sincerely,
Keith Folse
Coordinator, M.A. TESOL Program
University of Central Florida.
