Thinking for Speaking in an L2: From Research Findings to Pedagogical Implications

Since its formulation in the 1990s, Slobin's thinking-for-speaking (TFS) hypothesis has gained increasing attention in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) (e.g. Cadierno, 2008a; Han & Cadierno, 2010; Pavlenko, 2011). Under this perspective, learning a second/foreign language (L2) entails learning alternative ways of thinking for speaking (Cadierno, 2004) or learning to re-think for speaking (Robinson & Ellis, 2008), i.e. learning the particular vebalized orientation to experience encoded in the lexico-grammatical resources of the L2. This chapter is divided into two main parts. The first part discusses the implications of TFS for the process of L2 learning, and outlines some of the main findings in this research area, with particular emphasis on the domain that has received most attention in the literature, i.e. that of motion. L2 studies that examine language-specific effects on linguistic encoding and that deal with both voluntary/spontaneous and caused motion are considered. The second part discusses the pedagogical implications of these findings, and reviews some recent intervention studies that have combined insights from TFS research and different L2 pedagogical approaches.