About Exploring Learner Language

Exploring Learner Language was created to provide a hands-on introduction to the study of language used by English learners. It is intended to provide a kind of laboratory to accompany coursework on second-language acquisition (SLA) research or self-study. 

The workbook and videos came about as a direct outcome of work sponsored by CARLA. Elaine Tarone, the first author and former director of CARLA, began to see the need for this book as she co-taught, with Professor Maggie Broner, a CARLA Summer Institute titled “Basics of SLA for Teachers,” using videos she had adapted from Teemant and Pinnegar (2002). After she spoke in 2007 at CARLA’s Language Teacher Education conference about the need to radically rethink the way SLA is taught, she realized the need for materials to guide teachers through the process of examining how students actually learn language. Bonnie Swierzbin, the second author and teacher educator, is fascinated by the puzzles in learner language and has experienced both the joys and the difficulties of bringing language learners and teacher learners together to examine language, which led her to perceive the need for materials like this book.

The Exploring Learner Language workbook (with an accompanying DVD of videos) was originally published by Oxford University Press in 2009. The rights to the original publication and videos were reverted to authors Elaine Tarone and Bonnie Swierzbin in 2024. CARLA is honored to share the updated chapters and original videos through its website. 

This work currently housed on the CARLA website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

How to cite: Tarone, E., & Swierzbin, B. (2025). Exploring Learner Language. https://carla.umn.edu/learnerlanguage/book