This book looks at changes in the first language of people who know a second language, thus seeing L2 users as people in their own right differing from the monolingual in both first and second languages. It presents theories and research that investigate the first language of second language users from a variety of perspectives.

Vivian Cook has taught at Ealing Technical College and North-East London Polytechnic; he now works at the University of Essex After writing EFL course-books, he concentrated on linguistics and language learning in books such as Chomsky's Universal Grammar and Second Lang¬uage Learning and Language Teaching. His current interests are partly developing the concept of multi-compet¬ence through books such as Portraits of the L2 User and applying it to the design of language teaching materials, partly exploring the English writing system through books and articles. He was founding President of the European Second Language Association (EUROSLA).