Michael Hugh Long (1945 - February 21, 2021) was an American psycholinguist. He was a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Second Language Acquisition Second-language acquisition (SLA), sometimes called second-language learning—otherwise referred to as L2 (language 2) acquisition, is the process of learning a language other than one's native language (L1). SLA research examines how learners ...

at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

. Long introduced the concept of ''

focus on form Focus on form (FonF), also called form-focused instruction, is an approach to language education in which learners are made aware of linguistic forms – such as individual words and conjugations – in the context of a communicative activity. It ...

'', which entails bringing linguistic elements (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical structures,

collocation In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a series of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, a collocation is a type of compositional phraseme, meaning that it can be understood from the words t ...

s) to students’ attention within the larger context of a meaning-based lesson in order to anticipate or correct problems in comprehension or production of the target language. Long contrasted this approach with the older method of '' focus on forms'', which calls for exclusive focus on the linguistic forms when teaching a target language, often consisting of drill-type exercises such as

conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics *Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form *Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics *Complex conjugation, the change o ...

exercises. Long is also usually credited for introducing the

Interaction Hypothesis In psycholinguistics, the interaction hypothesis is a second-language acquisition theories, theory of second-language acquisition which states that the development of language proficiency is promoted by face-to-face interaction and communication. ...

, a theory of second language acquisition which places importance on

face-to-face interaction Human communication, or anthroposemiotics, is a field of study dedicated to understanding how humans communicate. Humans' ability to communicate with one another would not be possible without an understanding of what we are referencing or think ...

Career

He received an LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) degree from the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

and a Post Graduate Certificate from the Department of

English as a foreign language English as a second or foreign language refers to the use of English by individuals whose native language is different, commonly among students learning to speak and write English. Variably known as English as a foreign language (EFL), Engli ...

Education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

from the

Institute of Education The UCL Institute of Education (IOE) is the faculty of education and society of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior t ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. He then received a M.A. in

Applied Linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, Communication stu ...

from the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

and a Ph.D. from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, also in Applied Linguistics. His first academic position was at the University of Pennsylvania. He remained there for three years before leaving for the

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, and he later accepted a position at the

in 2005.

Books written

* Long, M. H. (1977). Face to Face. London: Evans Bros. * Long, M. H., Allen, W., Cyr, A., Lemelin, C., Ricard, E., Spada, N., & Vogel, P (1980). Reading English for Academic Study. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1980. * Larsen-Freeman, D., & Long, M. H. (1991). An introduction to second language acquisition Research. London: Longman. (Spanish translation, 1994; Japanese translation, 1996; Chinese edition, 2000). * Long, M. H., Problems in SLA. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007. * Long, Mike. (2015). Second Language Acquisition and Task-Based Language Teaching. Wiley-Blackwell. * Jordan, G., & Long, M.H. (2022). English Language Teaching Now and How It Could Be. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Books edited

* Krashen, S. Scarcella, R. C., & Long, M. H. (eds.), Child-adult differences in second language acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1982. * Seliger, H. W., & Long, M. H. (eds.), Classroom-oriented research on second language acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1983. * Bailey, K. M., Long, M. H., & Peck, S. (eds.), Second language acquisition studies. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1983. * Long, M. H., & Richards, J. C. (eds.) Methodology in TESOL: A reader. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1987. * Doughty, C. J., & Long, M. H. (eds.). Handbook of second language acquisition. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. (paperback edition, 2005) * Long, M. H. (ed.), Second language needs analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. * Long, M. H. and Doughty, C. J. (eds.), Handbook of language teaching. Oxford: Blackwell, 2009.

Technical reports

* Long, M. H., Brock, C., Crookes, G., Deicke, C., Potter, L., & Zhang, S. (1984). The effect of teachers' questioning patterns and wait‑time on pupil participation in public high school classes in Hawaii for students of limited English proficiency. Technical Report No. 1. Honolulu: Center for Second Language Classroom Research, Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 1984. * Long, M. H. (1985). Bibliography of Research on Second Language Classroom Processes and Classroom Second Language Acquisition. Technical Report No. 2. Honolulu: Center for Second Language Classroom Research, Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai’i at Manoa. * Chaudron, C., Crookes, G., & Long, M. H. (1988). Reliability and validity in second language classroom research. Technical Report No. 8. Honolulu: Center for Second Language Classroom Research, Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

Other publications

He has also written over 40 book chapters and over 25 peer-reviewed articles. One of his articles, Yano, Y., Long, M. H., & Ross, S. (1994). "The effects of simplified and elaborated texts on foreign language reading comprehension." ''Language Learning'' 44, 2, 189-219, was awarded TESOL’s International Research Prize for 1994. He also participated on the podcast LdeLengua with a
interview in Spanish
about his focus on form and second-language acquisition.

References

External links

Interview to Michael H. Long on LdeLengua (in Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Michael Living people Linguists from the United States Applied linguists Bilingualism and second-language acquisition researchers University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Hawaiʻi faculty University of Maryland, College Park faculty Alumni of the University of Birmingham 1945 births