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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2026

Julia Herschensohn
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Martha Young-Scholten
Affiliation:
Newcastle University
Ana Fernández Dobao
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Alex Ho-Cheong Leung
Affiliation:
Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Summary

Since the publication of the first edition of the Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, broad sociopolitical movements, alternative views of bilingualism, emergence of global markets, vast expansion of electronic resources, the development of social media and the availability of big data have transformed the discipline. Recent research has contributed substantial new evidence to deepen our understanding of the acquisition of a second language (L2) and its relationship to other developmental profiles, necessitating a reconsideration of the topics to be covered in a second edition. The new edition of the handbook updates earlier topics by including the latest research, in order to provide a comprehensive and current overview that represents the state of the field of second language acquisition (SLA).

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