Tarone's published research on second-language acquisition began in 1972, and, as of 2018[update], includes 10 books and more than 135 papers in scholarly journals and edited volumes.
A major research interest has been the sociolinguistic factors affecting second-language acquisition,[2] and she is particularly known for her work on interlanguage, interlanguage variation[3][4][5] and the impact of emergent alphabetic print literacy on oral second-language acquisition.
[6] In 1972, she published the first paper on interlanguage phonology,[7] and in 1978, the first research on communication strategies in second-language acquisition.
[9] Her 1989 book with George Yule, Focus on the Language Learner,[10] aims to provide a clear overview of second-language acquisition research issues of importance to language teachers.
[11] Her most recent research publications focus on second-language learners' spontaneous language play in oral discourse, and especially the interlanguage variation revealed in oral narratives when learners enact imagined voices of protagonists who are both more- and less-proficient than they are.