MIND AND CONTEXT IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Extract

MIND AND CONTEXT IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.Cristina Sanz (Ed.). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2005. Pp. xii + 302. $49.95 paper.

This edited collection emanates from a course taught by the editor, Sanz, at Georgetown University. Its chapters are derived from guest lectures given by her colleagues at Georgetown as well as one by VanPatten. The uniting theme of the volume, therefore, seems to be the Georgetown faculty's interests, rather than a specific intellectual focus or theoretical orientation that, broadly speaking, takes a cognitive perspective on second language (L2) learning. Nevertheless, the volume packs in an impressive and wide-ranging amount of information, and most of the chapters stand on their own as extremely valuable tutorials on the topics that they cover—although it is not clear that the intended audience for each of the chapters is the same. One of the most useful features of this volume is the excellent guided critiques at the end of each chapter, which lead those new to the research area through a sample study.