The Neurolinguistic Approach (NLA) for Learning and Teaching Foreign Languages: Theory and Practice

Since its inception in Canada in 1998 as a method for teaching French as a second language in a school setting, the Neurolinguistic Approach to second-language acquisition (NLA) has expanded to several countries and is now also applied to teaching adults. Based on research in the neurosciences, psychology, and sociology, the NLA focuses on providing learners with the conditions necessary to acquire spontaneous communication skills in a classroom setting. By ensuring the independent development of effective communication and implicit competence in the second language, the NLA allows learners to genuinely express themselves in their new language. In this volume, co-developer of the approach Claude Germain outlines the history of the NLA’s development and provides insights into its principles, its teaching and acquisition strategies applied in the classroom, and the results it has achieved. This is an essential book for all second-language teachers, as well as researchers interested in the transmission of second languages.

Claude Germain is Emeritus Professor at both the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and the South China Normal University (SCNU), Guangzhou. He holds PhDs in Linguistics and Philosophy/Epistemology. Over the course of his 50 years of research in the area of second-language education, he has published more than 150 articles and more than a dozen works, including Le Point sur l’approche communicative [The State of the Communicative Approach] (2nd ed., 1993), Évolution de l’enseignement des langues: 5000 ans d’histoire [The Evolution of Language Teaching: 5000 years of history] (1993) and, with H. Séguin, Le Point sur la grammaire [The State of Grammar] (1998). He developed the Neurolinguistic Approach (NLA) together with Dr Joan Netten (Memorial University of Newfoundland), beginning in 1998. It has since been implemented in several countries, including Canada, Japan, China, and Iran, as well as being piloted in Europe, Mexico and South America.

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Author: Claude Germain
Year of publication: 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5275-1581-9