Exploring the Interactional Instinct [Hardcover]

The Interactional Instinct(Oxford University Press, 2009) argued that the ubiquitous acquisition of language by all normal children was the result of a biologically-based drive for infants and children to attach, bond, and affiliate with conspecifics in an attempt to become like them. This instinct leads children to seek out verbal interaction with caregivers and allows them to become competent language speakers by about age 8. In Exploring the Interactional Instinct, scholars in applied linguistics expand the theory by examining interaction in second language acquisition; in different cultures and species; in observation without participation; in literacy; in schizophrenia; in relation to human physiological responses; and in relation to correlated perspectives on interaction. This book, like its predecessor, offers a radical view of language acquisition: language is not acquired as a result of a Language Acquisition Device in the brain, but is rather a cultural artifact universally acquired by all normal children.

Introduction

A Unified Perspective of First and Second Language Acquisition
John H. Schumann

Infant Attachment and Language Exposure Across Cultures
Gail Fox Adams

Learning while Eavesdropping on the Social World
Anna Dina L. Joaquin

Resonance in Dialogic Interaction
Anna Dina L. Joaquin

Biological and Psychological Bases for Social Engagement Behaviors in Second Language Acquisition
Bahiyyih Hardacre

Theories of the Interactional Instinct and the Pedagogical Stance: An Integrated View of Cultural Knowledge, Interaction, and Language
Jessica J. Roehrig

Affiliative Behaviors that Increase Language-Learning Opportunities in Infant and Adult Classrooms: An Integrated Perspective
Laura Amador and Gail Fox Adams

Interactional Instinct and its Connection to Instruction in Human Life
Emre Guvendir

Leveraging the Interactional Instinct for Literacy
Andrea W.l£P