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This book systematically examines various issues in ESL from an applied linguistics perspective.Its main focus is the description of the process of second language development by ten year old ESL pupils from different sociolinguistic backgrounds that have been referred to as acquisition -poor and acquisition -rich.It begins by offering an overview of the language situation in Zimbabwe focusing on the debate pertaining to whether or not English in Zimbabwe can be called a distinct Zimbabwean variety of English and trying to determine who speaks what variety.The book goes on to make a detailed examination of a wide range of issues in ESL e.g.variability,the acquisition of verb morphology,route and rate of development in the acquisition of answers to rising intonation questions and lexical repetition.

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Dr Muzi Mlambo holds a:BA in English ,an MA in English from Eastern Washington University,USA, an MA in English as a second language from The University of Zimbabwe and a PhD in linguistics from The University of Cape Town.Currently he is a lecturer of ESL ,general linguistics ,and language/literature interface at the University of Zimbabwe.

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