Michael H. Long

Michael H. Long (1945–2021) was an American applied linguist and one of the most influential figures in second language acquisition. After more than two decades at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, where he helped build one of the world's leading SLA programmes, he moved in 2005 to the University of Maryland to direct the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and to found a doctoral programme in SLA. He held the title of Professor of SLA at Maryland from 2003 until his death from pancreatic cancer in February 2021.

Long argued that meaning-focused interaction, not comprehensible input alone, drives acquisition. The Interaction Hypothesis recast negotiation, recasts, and feedback as the engine of L2 development. With Yano and Ross he formulated the simplification-versus-elaboration distinction (Language Learning, 1994), showing that elaborated texts comprehend nearly as well as simplified ones while preserving target forms and authenticity. His 1991 chapter "Focus on form: a design feature in language teaching methodology" reoriented methodology debates for a generation.

Career

• University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, more than twenty years
• Professor of SLA, University of Maryland (2005–2021)
• Director, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Maryland

Published Work

• "Focus on form: a design feature in language teaching methodology" (1991)
• "The effects of simplified and elaborated texts on foreign language reading comprehension" (with Y. Yano and S. Ross), Language Learning 44, 1994
• Problems in SLA (Routledge, 2007)
• Second Language Acquisition and Task-Based Language Teaching (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015)

Influence

• The Interaction Hypothesis became one of the three pillars of cognitive SLA
• Needs-driven, task-based methodology owes its modern shape to his programme
• The simplification-elaboration finding underwrites current materials-development practice on input modification