Richard Schmidt

Richard Schmidt

e-mail: schmidt@hawaii.edu

Professor, Department of Second Language Studies,
University of Hawai`i

Director, National Foreign Language Resource Center

Education

  • BA (Social Relations), Harvard, 1963
  • MA (Linguistics), Brown University, 1971 (thesis: The generation of Arabic verb forms from consonantal roots)
  • Ph.D. (Linguistics), Brown University, 1974 (dissertation: Socio-stylistic variation in spoken Egyptian Arabic: A re-examination of the concept of diglossia)

Background

Grew up in Massachusetts and lived in Rhode Island, Lebanon, and Egypt before moving to the University of Hawai`i 25 years ago. Has been teaching, doing research and teacher training in Hawai`i at the MA level (ESL) and PhD level (Second Language Acquisition). Has also done teacher training in Japan, Thailand, Brazil, Spain, Hungary, Scandinavia, etc.

Activities/Interests/Plans

My primary research area is cognitive and affective factors in adult second and foreign language learning --such as the role of attention and the importance of motivation in learning. Other areas include sociolinguistics (macro and micro) and the particular problems of learning and teaching difficult, less commonly-taught languages.

Languages

Arabic (good), Portuguese (fair), French (poor)

Honors and Awards

  • President, American Association for Applied Linguistics (2003)
  • Fulbright Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar (Brazil, 1983)
  • Honorary member, Japan Association of College English Teachers (JACET, 1986)
  • Special Service Award, Center for Asia-Pacific Exchange (CAPE, 1990)

Selected Publications

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. (2002). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (3rd ed.). London: Longman (Pearson Education).

Schmidt, R. (2001). "Attention." In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 3-32). Cambridge University Press.

Dörnyei, Z., & Schmidt, R. (Eds.) (2001). Motivation and second language acquisition (Technical Report No. 23). Honolulu: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Ellis, N., & Schmidt, R. (1998). "Rules or associations in the acquisition of morphology? The frequency by regularity interaction in human and PDP learning of morphosyntax." Language and Cognitive Processes, 13, 307-336.

Ellis, N., & Schmidt, R. (1997). "Morphology and longer distance dependencies: Laboratory research illuminating the A in SLA." Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 145-171.

Kasper, G., & Schmidt, R. (1996). "Developmental issues in interlanguage pragmatics." Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 149-169.

Schmidt, R., Boraie, D., & Kassabgy, O. (1996). "Foreign language motivation: Internal structure and external connections." In R. Oxford (Ed.), Language learning motivation: Pathways to the new century (Technical Report No. 11, pp. 9-70). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai`i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Schmidt, R., Shimura, A., Wang, Z., & Jeong, H-S. (1996). "Suggestions to buy: Television commercials from the U.S., Japan, China, and Korea." In S. M. Gass & J. Neu (Eds.), Speech acts across cultures (pp. 285-316). The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.

Schmidt, R. (Ed.) (1995). Attention and awareness in foreign language learning. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai`i, Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center (Technical Report No. 9).

Hulstijn, J.H., & Schmidt, R. (Eds.) (1994). Consciousness and second language learning: Conceptual, methodological and practical issues in language learning and teaching, Thematic issue of AILA Review - Revue de l'AILA, 11.

Schmidt, R. (1994). "Implicit learning and the cognitive unconscious: Of artificial grammars and SLA." In N. Ellis (Ed.), Implicit and explicit learning of languages (pp. 165-209). London: Academic Press.

Schmidt, R. (1993). "Consciousness, learning and interlanguage pragmatics." In G. Kasper & S. Blum-Kulka (Eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics (pp. 21-42). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Schmidt, R. (1993). "Awareness and second language acquisition." Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, 206-226.

Schmidt, R. (1992). "Psychological mechanisms underlying second language fluency." Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 357-385.

Crookes, G., & Schmidt, R. (1991). "Motivation: Reopening the research agenda." Language Learning, 41, 469-512.

Schmidt, R. (1990). "The role of consciousness in second language learning." Applied Linguistics, 11, 129-158.

Schmidt, R. (1987). "Sociolinguistic variation and language transfer in phonology." In G. Ioup & S. H. Weinberger (Eds.), Interlanguage phonology (pp. 365-377). Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers

Schmidt, R. (1986). "Applied sociolinguistics: The case of Arabic as a second language." Anthropological Linguistics, 28, 55-72.

Schmidt, R., & Frota, S. (1986). "Developing basic conversational ability in a second language: A case study of an adult learner of Portuguese." In R. R. Day (Ed.), Talking to learn: Conversation in second language acquisition (pp. 237-326). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Schmidt, R. (1983). "Interaction, acculturation and the acquisition of communicative competence." In N. Wolfson & E. Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (pp. 137-174). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Richards, J.C., & Schmidt, R. (Eds.) (1983). Language and communication. London: Longman (Applied Linguistics Series).

Schmidt, R., & Richards, J.C. (1980). "Speech acts and second language learning." Applied Linguistics, 1, 129-157

Last updated on May 20, 2002