This edited volume provides an overview of current thinking and directions for further research in applied linguistics by bringing together in a single volume a range of perspectives regarding original research agendas and innovative methodological approaches. It focuses not only on the challenges that applied linguistics researchers have been facing in recent years but also on producing workable and productive research designs and on identifying ways of how alternatives to conventional research methodologies can be used. Discussions featured in the volume include the so-called ‘Bilingual Advantage' in psycho- and neurolinguistics; the optimal starting age debate in foreign language learning; the growing interest among applied linguists in more nuanced and more complex (statistical) data analysis and the priority given to more descriptive and social approaches to linguistics rather than to theorising. The collection will be a useful reference and stimulus for students, researchers and professionals working in the areas of applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, second language acquisition and second language education.

Simone E. Pfenninger is Assistant Professor of Psycholinguistics and Language Acquisition at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Her research interests include multilingualism, psycholinguistics and the age factor in SLA, especially in regard to quantitative approaches and statistical methods and techniques for language application in education. Judit Navracsics is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary. Her research interests are bi- and multilingual development in early childhood, the bilingual mental lexicon and bilingual processing.

1. Simone E. Pfenninger and Judit Navracsics: Introduction
PART I: FUTURE IMPLICATIONS FOR BILINGUALISM
2. Kees de Bot: The Future of the Bilingual Advantage
3. Valéria Csépe: The Multilingual Brain – Implications for the Future
4. Judit Navracsics and Gyula Sáry: Phonological and Semantic Awareness of Bilinguals and Second Language Learners - Potential Implications for Second Language Instructors
5. Vincent J. van Heuven: Perception of Checked Vowels by Early and Late Dutch/English Bilinguals - Prospects for a Neurolinguistic Approach
PART II: FUTURE IMPLICATIONS FOR SLA AND LANGUAGE POLICY: THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
6. Simone E. Pfenninger and David Singleton: Recent Advances in Quantitative Methods in Age-Related Research
7. István Csernicskó: Language Policy in Ukraine: The Burdens of the Past and the Possibilities of the Future
8. Lars Bülow and Rüdiger Harnisch: The Reanalysis of -End as Marker for Gender-Sensitive Language Use and What This Implies for the Future Expression of Gender Equality
9. Gyöngyi Fábián: Analytic Framework of the Critical Classroom: Language and Beyond
10. Ulrike Jessner and Valentina Török: Strategies in Multilingual Learning: Opening New Research Avenues
PART III: FUTURE IMPLICATIONS FOR INSTRUCTED SLA: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
11. Wouter Penris and Marjolijn Verspoor: Academic Writing Development: A Complex, Dynamic Process
12. Kristina Cergol Kovacevic: Lessons Learned from the Integration of Findings from Bilingual Identical and Semi-Cognate Processing Studies – Implications for Future Studies
13. Szilvia Bátyi: Some Lessons to be Learnt from Attrition Studies
14. Simone E. Pfenninger and Judit Navracsics: Concluding Thoughts: A Road Map for Future Research in Applied Linguistics
Glossary and Index