Diane Larsen-Freeman received her PhD in linguistics from the University of Michigan. Following appointments at UCLA and the Graduate SIT Institute (where she remains affiliated as distinguished senior faculty fellow), she returned to the University of Michigan in January 2002 to direct the English Language Institute for six years. She is currently a research scientist at the English Language Institute, as well as a professor of education, professor of linguistics, and faculty associate of the Center for the Study of Complex Systems at Michigan. Her interests include second language acquisition, language teacher education, English linguistics, language teaching methodology, and complexity theory. Larsen-Freeman has made presentations in sixty-five countries around the world and is the author of eight books. She was the editor of the journal Language Learning for five years.

Larsen-Freeman focuses her research and interests on attempting to understand the process of second language acquisition. She also researches English grammar. She regards English grammar not only as a set of structural patterns, but also as an important resource for making meaning and for adapting language appropriately to the communicative context. In addition, she has found that chaos/complexity theory provides new insights into language, its acquisition, and its use. She sees all three as complex, non-linear, dynamic processes. Such a perspective has contributed to her dynamic view of language, which she has applied to teaching grammar, or “grammaring” as she calls it. The approach also acknowledges the individual paths that students chart to second language success and views teaching as fundamentally a process of managing learning.

Larsen-Freeman teaches courses in the following program(s): Literacy, Language, and Culture .

Selected Publications

Recent Books

Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Forthcoming. Third Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics. With Lynne Cameron. (2008). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring. (2003). Boston, MA: Heinle/Cengage.

Recent Articles

Having and doing: Learning from a complexity theory perspective. (2010). In P. Seedhouse, S. Walsh, and C. Jenks (Eds.), Conceptualising Learning in Applied Linguistics. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

The dynamic co-adaption of cognitive and social views: A chaos/complexity theory perspective. (2010). In R. Batstone (Ed.), Sociocognitive Perspectives on Second Language Use/Learning. Oxford University Press.

Not so fast: A discussion of L2 Morpheme Processing and Acquisition. (2010). Special Issue. Language Learning.

Adjusting Expectations: The Study of Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency in Second Language Acquisition. (2009). Special Issue. Applied Linguistics.

Constructing a second language: Analyses and computational simulations of the emergence of linguistic constructions from usage (with N. Ellis). (2009). Special Issue. Language Learning.

Language is a Complex Adaptive System: Position Paper. (C. Beckner, R. Blythe, J. Bybee, M. Christiansen, W. Croft, N. Ellis, J. Holland, J-Y Ke, D. Larsen-Freeman, T. Schoenemann) (2009). Language Learning 59: Supplement 1, 1-27.

Teaching and testing grammar. (2009). In M. Long and C. Doughty (Eds.), The Handbook of Language Teaching. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Prediction or Retrodiction? The Coming Together of Research and Teaching. (2009). The Selected Proceedings of the 2008 MITESOL Conference. Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

On the changing nature of English as subject and vehicle. (2009). Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Language Teaching and Testing. Taipei: National Taiwan University.

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