Cover -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- In a nutshell -- The purpose and its limits -- Some important conceptual distinctions -- The questions -- Chapter 1. Addressing the mystery of language learning and teaching: a retrospective sketch -- Introduction: colonizing the unknown territory -- 1.1. The pre-linguistic stage: grammar as the key to foreign language learning and its alternative -- 1.1.1. Preoccupation with grammar -- 1.1.2. Alternatives to the Grammar-Translation Method -- 1.1.3. Characteristic features of the pre-linguistic stage -- 1.1.4. Contributions of Sweet, Jespersen and Palmer. The impact of phonetics -- 1.2. The linguistic stage: the role of the source disciplines in the mid-twentieth century -- 1.2.1. Approach, method, technique -- 1.2.2. The role of Transformational Generative Grammar -- 1.2.3. Selecting a descriptive linguistic model of language -- 1.2.4. Complicating the relationship of the field with the source disciplines -- 1.3. The present: mapping the territory -- 1.4. Toward autonomy -- 1.5. Concluding remarks -- Chapter 2. Targeting the relevant aspect of language: focus on language use -- Introduction: on the many facets of language -- 2.1. How to reduce the complexity of the problem? -- 2.2. The format of 'normal' academic disciplines as a source of orientation -- 2.2.1. Scientific activities as specialization of human cognitive processes -- 2.2.2. How can scientists communicate with the empirical reality? -- 2.2.3. On the interface between Foreign Language Didactics as an empirical discipline and the empirical reality -- 2.2.4. What informs a 'normal' academic discipline? -- 2.3. On the meaning of the adjective 'interdisciplinary' -- 2.4. Applications in a 'normal' academic discipline -- 2.5. The field of Foreign Language Didactics as a 'normal' academic discipline.

2.5.1. Deriving models of language learning from language use -- 2.5.2. The human locus of foreign language use and learning -- 2.5.3. The learner as human information-processor -- 2.6. Advantages of regarding language use and learning as human information processing -- 2.7. The constructive contribution of the language learner to language use -- 2.8. Concluding remarks -- Chapter 3. Focus on the learner's cognitive equipment: the mechanism of human information processing (HIP) -- Introduction: the cognitive site of foreign language use -- 3.1. Distinctive properties of human cognitive functioning -- 3.2. Human information processing (HIP) -- 3.2.1. Hierarchies (subordinate and superordinate levels) in human cognitive functioning -- 3.2.2. The mechanism of human information processing including foreign language use -- 3.2.3. Perception: the interface between the subject and the environment -- 3.2.4. The role of perception in learning a foreign language -- 3.2.5. Attention -- 3.2.6. Attention versus working memory -- 3.2.7. Working memory and intentional behaviour -- 3.2.8. Memory -- 3.2.9. Memory representations requisite in language use and learning -- 3.3. Information structures and their types: cognitive schemata -- 3.4. Concepts in our mental lexicon -- 3.5. Procedural and declarative representations -- 3.5.1. Multiple coding and filing in language use and learning -- 3.6. Controlled, automatic and hybrid processing -- 3.7. Skill acquisition and expertise -- 3.7.1. Differences between experts and novices in the use of skills -- 3.8. The role of feedback in learning -- 3.9. Implications for understanding foreign language learning and teaching -- Chapter 4. Focus on the phenomenon of language use in verbal communication -- Introduction: the communicative structure of language use.

4.1. Information, signals, signs and symbols in verbal communication -- 4.2. Verbal communication as a human cognitive activity -- 4.2.1. Alignment in verbal communication -- 4.3. Interpersonal communication as a relationship -- 4.4. Verbal communication in the developmental perspective -- 4.5. The centrality of meaning in verbal communication -- 4.6. Ties between verbal communication and culture -- 4.7. Verbal communication as human operations in time and space -- 4.8. The nature of verbal communication -- 4.8.1. Constituents of verbal communication -- 4.8.2. Constructing communicative intention -- 4.8.3. Targeting the message at the addressee -- 4.8.4. Encoding the communicative intention into the verbal message -- 4.8.5. Reconstructing the communicative intention by the addressee -- 4.9. Knowledge, skill and discourse as a cycle in language use -- 4.10. Language as the code of communication -- 4.11. Implications for understanding foreign language learning and teaching -- Chapter 5. Focus on comprehension and production in speech and writing with potential applications in teaching English as a foreign language -- Introduction: Toward a realistic account of language use -- 5.1. Comprehension and production: the status of meaning and form -- 5.1.1. The nature of comprehension -- the nature of production -- 5.2. Properties of comprehension and production in speech and writing -- 5.3. The component of skill in language use and learning -- 5.3.1. Options relevant in developing the skill component in language use -- 5.3.2. Task difficulty in the development of language skills -- 5.4. Reading comprehension as search for meaning -- 5.4.1. The depth of reading comprehension -- 5.4.2. The EFL learner's perspective of reading -- 5.5. Listening comprehension as an integral part of verbal communication.

5.5.1. Functions of auditory input in learning English as a foreign language -- 5.5.2. Sources of difficulty in listening comprehension tasks -- 5.5.3. Feedback on form in listening tasks -- 5.6. The nature of speaking as an integral part of verbal communication -- 5.6.1. Abilities involved in participating in a conversation -- 5.6.2. Long-term investment in the speaking skill -- 5.6.3. Related strategies for developing the speaking skill -- 5.7. Writing as constructing a message -- 5.7.1. Differences between experienced and inexperienced writers -- 5.7.2. Long-term investment in the writing skill -- 5.7.3. Error correction in the written work -- 5.8. Some accuracy enhancement strategies -- 5.9. Concluding remarks -- Chapter 6. Conclusions -- 6.1. Characterizing language use for the purpose of Foreign Language Didactics -- 6.2. Fundamental questions in Foreign Language Didactics -- 6.3. On the notion of foreign language teaching in the educational system -- 6.3.1. Systematizing options for foreign language teaching -- 6.4. Concluding remarks -- Explanation of terms -- References -- Index of Authors -- Index of Subjects.