Patsy M. Lightbown

Patsy M. Lightbown (born 1944 in North Carolina, USA) is an American applied linguist whose research focuses on the teaching and acquisition of second and/or foreign languages in a classroom context. Her theories of second language acquisition earned her the SPEAQ Award for "contributions which have had an impact on the entire English (second language) teaching community in Quebec". She served in the United States Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa from 1965 to 1967. In her more than forty years in the field she has taught at multiple universities across the United States, Australia and Canada. She holds the title of Distinguished Professor Emerita at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. She has written seven published books and has been featured in many book chapters and refereed journals. She currently works as an independent consultant, editor, researcher and writing in second language acquisition and learning.

Early life and education Lightbown was born in 1944 in North Carolina. She received a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in French language in 1965 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She then went on to achieve her Certificate in French at Hamilton College, spending her junior year in France in 1964.

A few years later, Lightbown went on to obtain an M.A.T. in French at Yale University in 1968. She was deployed in Niger, West Africa as a public health worker.

From 1974 to 2001, Lightbown would work at Concordia University in the Applied Linguistics/TESL Centre. She would also work as a visiting professor at Northern Arizona University, Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and McGill University. She currently works as an independent writer and editor. She is frequently consulted by schools, universities, publishers and government agencies in areas related to second language acquisition and foreign language teaching. She frequently collaborates with Nina Spada and over her career has expanded on Second Language Acquisition theories that have influenced the way that second language teachers approach their classrooms in more practical ways that are not simply theory. Learning and teaching approaches developed as a result of this collaboration included "communicative approach" and "audiolingual approach", which were presented in the book, How Languages are Learned.

In 2014, Lightbown published Focus on Content-Based Language Teaching to provide insight into the theoretical background of CBLT, some of its benefits and downfalls, and methods for teachers to apply it to their classrooms. Lightbown's goal is to provide a rewarding language learning experience to students in a CBLT environment.

In Lightbown's latest research with Nina Spada, they expand on some of their previous works on the challenges that face second and foreign language learners. The research is founded on unpacking the ideas behind some older beliefs on both the style of teaching second language learners and their age. It has been thought that once a learner moves closer to the end of their critical period of development that they would lose their ability to become proficient language learners. 2015: British Council Award for ELT Writing runner up for Focus on Content-Based Language Teaching

Selected publications

Books

1975 Structure and variation in child language. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 40(2). (with L. Bloom and L. Hood). 1986 Both sides of the desk: Roles and responsibilities in ESL/EFL teaching and learning. [Special Issue]. TESL Canada Journal. (with Eds. S. Firth). 1991 Input, instruction and feedback in second language acquisition. [Special Issue]. Second Language Research, 7(2). 1993 The role of instruction in second language acquisition. [Thematic issue]. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15(2). (with N. Spada and L. White). 2013 How languages are learned, fourth edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (with . Spada). 2014 Learning a second language in the classroom. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2014 Focus on content-based language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.