362 DOI: 10.4324/9781003082644-30 27.1 Introduction Neurolinguistics is the study of how first (L1) and additional languages are represented and processed in the brain. It is an interdisciplinary field with significant input from neuroscience, linguistics, psychology, speech-language pathology, and biology. Neurolinguistics plays an important role in the field of second language (L2) acquisition, for instance, as our knowledge of language and brain can have critical implications for how languages are taught and, con- sequently, learned. In this chapter, we focus on how neurolinguistics informs applied linguis- tics and in particular, L2 teaching and learning. We will begin by foreshadowing the age-old interest in the brain and whether it (or the heart, for instance) was responsible for language. We then look at how our understanding of brain and language has developed over time, has reached a turning point in the 19th century, and has since sharpened as advanced technologies have been introduced. We then turn to discuss current research topics and their contributions to neuroscientific approaches to applied linguistics, along with the many methods that can be used to study language and brain. The chapter concludes by looking at future directions in this research area and by putting forth practical considerations for teaching L2s in formal settings. 27.2 Historical perspectives Humans have demonstrated an enduring interest about the relationship between language and the brain. In ancient Greece, for instance, Alcmaeon of Croton, thought to have been born around 510 BCE, dissected an eye and predicted that the brain was responsible for vision. He also believed that the brain was the organ that was responsible for senses, memory, and thought (Gross 1987). Other Greek philosophers, such as Hippocrates, Valerius Maximus, and Pliny, associated speech impairments to brain injuries (Maruszewski 1975). In around 30 CE, Valerius Maximus and Pliny, moreover, wrote about an individual from Athens who had lost his memory of letters after suffering a head injury, perhaps being the first written reference to the reading impairment known as alexia. Other great minds of the era, however, had their own views of the brain: while Plato argued that the brain controlled our actions and thoughts, his student Aristotle believed that its main function was to regulate our body temperature by 27 Neurolinguistics in language learning and teaching John W. Schwieter and Stefano Rastelli