Michael Long (academic)

Michael H Long is Professor of Second Language Acquisition at the University of Maryland, College Park. Long introduced the concept of focus on form, which entails bringing linguistic elements (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical structures, collocations) 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 exercises. Long is also usually credited for introducing the Interaction Hypothesis, a theory of second language acquisition which places importance on face-to-face interaction.

He received an LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) degree from the University of Birmingham and a Post Graduate Certificate from the Department of English as a Foreign Language in Education from the Institute of Education, University of London. He then received a M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Essex and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, 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, and he later accepted a position at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003, where he has remained since.