ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY: LECTURES ON APPLIED LINGUISTICS IN THE AGE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY. Carol Chapelle. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2003. Pp. xv + 211. $39.95 paper.

In this volume compiled from several years of recent lectures, Chapelle synthesizes research on technology and language learning to lay bare theoretical questions of SLA and second language (L2) assessment that can be reformulated, pushed forward, and reevaluated through technology. She argues that, in order to do so, it is necessary that the field of applied linguistics “engage more consciously and proactively with the complex language-technology reality in which the profession is working” (p. xii) and that technology must not be viewed simply as a tool of efficiency in L2 research and assessment.

THE HANDBOOK OF BILINGUALISM. Tej K. Bhatia and William C. Ritchie (Eds.). Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. Pp. xv + 884. $139.95 cloth.

This is one of the major works in the field of bilingualism. The volume includes 31 chapters written by 40 scholars, plus an introduction and an index. The volume aims at providing “state of the art treatments of the central issues that arise in consideration of the phenomena of bilingualism…” (inside book cover), a field that is of growing interest in applied linguistics and other disciplines.

AN INTEGRATED VIEW OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: PAPERS IN HONOR OF HENNING WODE. Petra Burmeister, Thorsten Piske, and Andreas Rohde (Eds.). Trier, Germany: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2002. Pp. xxv + 552. 40.00 € paper.

Wode's lifetime of scholarship can be divided loosely into three general research areas, each of which comprises one section of this edited volume: theory-building in first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition, the development of speech production and perception skills in L1 and L2, and immersion education and foreign language teaching. This first area of work, dating from the 1970s and early 1980s, draws in part from Wode's detailed analysis of the language of his four young children. The second, initiated in 1989 with Pieper, stems from a large-scale study of early phonological development. Finally, the third, begun in the wake of European integration, came out of his work to support immersion programs and language learning in preschools and elementary and secondary institutions.

SILENCE IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: A PSYCHOANALYTIC READING. Colette A. Granger. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2004. Pp. x + 142. $29.95 paper.

In this text, Granger provides an intriguing and provocative perspective on the presence of silence during communicative interactions with individuals—particularly children—learning a second language (L2). Considering theoretical and empirical evidence Granger examines, “… the complex interrelationships among self, culture and language …” (p. 38) as first language (L1) learners construct social and linguistic selves, and L2 learners reconstruct these selves in a new language and culture. Silence is given a primary role in the construction and reconstruction processes.

SITUATION-BOUND UTTERANCES IN Ll AND L2. Istvan Kecskes. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2003. Pp. x + 228. $118 cloth.

This volume discusses issues related to situation-bound utterances (SBUs)—a particular type of formulaic expression—from a cognitive-pragmatic perspective. It consists of an introduction, nine chapters, and a conclusion. The introduction defines SBUs, briefly presents the theoretical framework, and points to the key topics to be discussed in the book. These key topics include the distinction between linguistic and conceptual knowledge (chapter 1). This is important to Kecskes' dynamic model of meaning (DMM), which consists of culture-specific conceptual properties (CSCP)—or attributes of a particular concept—at the conceptual level and word-specific semantic properties (WSP) at the lexical level. Uniting these two levels yields the coresense of the SBU, the most salient decontextualized sense of the utterance. This contrasts with the SBUs' consenses, or other senses that the utterance can have depending on the context (chapter 2). The sense that is accessed in a particular situation will depend on the salience of the various meanings to the hearer, which, in turn, depends on the hearer's prior knowledge as well as the contextual cues available, which can bias the interpretation toward a particular consense (chapter 3). It is hypothesized (chapter 4) that the more structurally and culturally similar the first language (L1) and second language (L2), the easier for the learner to interpret the meaning of SBUs in the L2 (chapter 4). This hypothesis is supported by empirical evidence in chapter 9. Interpretation of the meaning of a SBU can be difficult because the meaning is not usually readily transparent from its components (chapter 5). In this way, SBUs are unlike patterned formulas, which have a compositional structure and whose meanings are typically transparent and which, therefore, can play a role in the acquisition of grammar (chapter 7). Ultimately, in order to accurately interpret and appropriately use SBUs in the L2, learners must undergo a process of conceptual socialization. The knowledge base underlying their language use must be transformed from a system that is originally an Ll conceptual system to a dual-language system, thus forming a common underlying conceptual base (CUCB) for the two languages (chapter 8).

AGE AND THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. María del Pilar García Mayo and María Luisa García Lecumberri (Eds.). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2003. Pp. xii + 209. $29.95 paper.

There have been a number of recent books devoted to the effects of age on language acquisition; this volume is different. It is the first book to examine the relationship of age to ultimate attainment in foreign language learning. One might wonder whether there is, in fact, any relationship between the age of onset and ultimate attainment in classroom learning where the language being taught is not spoken within the community. However, if one exists, then what is the optimal age to begin foreign language instruction?

THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS. Robert B. Kaplan (Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. xxvii + 641. $74.00 cloth.

This edited volume is undoubtedly one of Oxford University Press's flagship publications in the broad area of applied linguistics and second language studies. Edited by one of the best known scholars in the field—Robert Kaplan—with help from three equally distinguished colleagues—William Grabe, Merrill Swain, and Richard Tucker—the book contains 39 chapters written by leading international experts in their particular domains. Thus, it is a kind of “all-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-applied-linguistics” venture, and my overall conclusion is that the book successfully delivers what it promises: It is a collection of serious scholarly articles covering all of the key aspects of applied linguistics, with a good mix of classic topics and novel, forward-pointing concepts.

LINGUISTICS: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION. P. H. Matthews. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. xiii + 134. $9.95 paper.

This volume belongs to Oxford's series of Very Short Introductions to topics, events, texts, philosophies, individuals, and places. Unlike many contemporary linguistic texts written for introductory college courses, its chapters do not proceed from one area of structural analysis to another and then conclude with a few chapters on topics such as language acquisition and writing systems. Instead, this book focuses on some of the more philosophical questions associated with the field, which, no doubt, hold greater interest for the public at large. The exploration of structures is left to supporting examples and a chapter on sounds near the end of the book.

THE HANDBOOK OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS. Alan Davies and Catherine Elder (Eds.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Pp. x + 866. $146.95 cloth.

Davies and Elder's volume is the latest in the Blackwell series of Handbooks in Linguistics. In this volume, the editors compile over 30 newly commissioned, well-written, and comprehensive articles that provide an in-depth view of the field of applied linguistics. Unlike Cook's (2003) recent introduction to applied linguistics for nonspecialists, the Davies and Elder volume shares the same intended audience—students and researchers in applied linguistics, language teaching, and SLA—as the works of McCarthy (2001), McDonough (2002), and Seidlhofer (2003). Because of its comprehensive nature, this volume would best serve as a reference tool for SLA scholars and applied linguists rather than as a course text.

LANGUAGE PROCESSING AND ACQUISITION IN LANGUAGES OF SEMITIC, ROOT-BASED, MORPHOLOGY. Joseph Shimron (Ed.). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2003. Pp. vi + 394. $156.00 cloth.

This book addresses a fundamental question in the morphological analysis and representation of Semitic languages—namely, whether Semitic word morphology is root based or word based. As Shimron suggests, “there are reasons to view the templates, not the roots, as the more influential factor in determining Semitic morphology” (p. 5). Yet, as others would argue, there are reasons not to disregard the root-based hypothesis altogether. In the case of Arabic morphology, for example, verbal forms inherently contain three nonlinear levels: the consonantal root, the vowel pattern, and the templatic prosody. This nonlinear feature provided a perfect illustration of what has become termed in the literature as root-and-patterns morphology (McCarthy & Prince, 1986, 1990).

DISCOURSE AND TECHNOLOGY: MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS. Philip Levine and Ron Scollon (Eds.). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004. Pp. vii + 229. $49.95 paper.

This volume is a collection of selected papers from the 2002 Georgetown University Round Table on Languages on Linguistics (GURT). It contains 16 papers that are either loosely related to multimodal discourse analysis or address the relationship between discourse and technology, but not necessarily from the viewpoint of multimodal discourse analysis. The main strength of the volume is that it provides a rich variety of perspectives on discourse; the main weakness is that the perspectives do not seem to shed light on one single phenomenon or even a set of related phenomena, but, rather, the papers discuss various aspects of the multifaceted field of discourse studies.

MODERN LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. Michael Grenfell (Ed.). New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2002. Pp. 222. $39.95 paper.

The European Union has succeeded in breaking down monetary and legal barriers among its members. This volume presents a program for breaking down linguistic barriers by teaching European languages in primary and secondary schools using the approach of Modern Languages Across the Curriculum (MLAC), what is essentially called content-based instruction in the United States.

SECOND LANGUAGE SPEECH PERCEPTION AND PRODUCTION: ACQUISITION OF PHONOLOGICAL CONTRASTS IN JAPANESE. Takako Toda. Landam, MD: University Press of America, 2003. Pp. 213. $63.00 cloth.

This volume is an investigation into second language (L2) phonology. The subject of Toda's study is the development of the syllable timing system of Japanese by learners who are native speakers of English. Toda points out that acquiring a L2 phonology involves more than producing the language without an accent. It is also necessary to develop a system of representations and rules that will govern language use. English and Japanese differ in that while English relies on stress to determine syllable weight, Japanese uses time. This study investigates the extent to which learners of Japanese as a L2 have acquired that aspect of the Japanese syllable and makes use of both perception and production tasks. One of the assumptions of this study—an assumption founded on previous studies in L2 phonology—is that perception and production are interrelated, but that they are not mirror images of one another.

LA CLASE MÁGICA: IMAGINING OPTIMAL POSSIBILITIES IN A BILINGUAL COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS. Olga A. Vásquez. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2003. Pp. vii + 237. $27.50 paper.

In this volume, Vásquez accounts the detailed development of an after-school project specifically designed to assist and prepare Mexican-American students to acquire the “social and cultural capital (knowledge of know how to)” necessary to understand the workings of the dominant culture, which are directly related to the culture of higher education and education in general. To succeed or pursue higher education, the minority individual must have enough social and cultural capital. One purpose of the volume is to assist and provide the disadvantaged individual with this social and cultural capital. Another purpose is to promote intellectual and cognitive development as well as self-esteem among Mexican-Americans living in a predominantly Mexican community. For this reason, participants in this program are free to express themselves in Spanish or English or to mix both languages without any feelings of inferiority; that is, la clase mágica attempts to control for such notions that there is a dominant language and the idea that the teacher teaches and the student listens and learns. In this classroom, teaching and learning is a collaborative effort among equals. It also shows how information technology could be used to assist and educate not only younger individuals but also adults (e.g., undergraduates, graduate students, parents) willing to participate and collaborate in the process of discovery and symbiotic learning.

CORPUS PRESENTER: SOFTWARE FOR LANGUAGE ANALYSIS. Raymond Hickey. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2003. Pp. viii + 285. CD-ROM. $95.00 cloth.

During the last 10 years, there has been an increased interest in access to corpora and the ability to perform corpus analyses from both language researchers and language teachers. The questions of which corpus to use and what tools are available for helping to search a corpus often plague language teachers. This volume helps to address this question by providing a book and an accompanying CD-ROM that contains a corpus and 27 tools.

Publications received.

COGNITIVE GRAMMAR. John R. Taylor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. xii + 621. $29.95 paper.

This volume is not aimed at SLA researchers but is a book that SLA researchers interested in usage- and frequency-based models will find valuable. Taylor provides a lucid, comprehensive account of Langacker's theory of Cognitive Grammar (CG) and along the way also offers a thoughtful introduction to Cognitive Linguistics (CL). Of the many approaches within CL, CG has a notably wide scope and high degree of internal consistency and, thus, is particularly worthy of SLA researchers' attention. CG's central premise is that language is inherently symbolic and that linguistic expressions symbolize—or represent—conceptualization. In the original, Langacker's writing is technical and detailed, with many unfamiliar formal conventions; Taylor provides the uninitiated with a thorough, clear introduction to this significant, innovative work. SLA researchers will find it a valuable resource that provides many access points into CG and CL.

Publications Received.

In addition to members of the Editorial Board and Advisory Board, the following colleagues have kindly consented to review submissions to SSLA in the course of the preparation of Volume 27. It is our policy to have each submission evaluated by at least three consultants. This extensive reviewing process guarantees maintenance of the quality of the journal. A great debt of gratitude is owed to colleagues who have conscientiously, thoroughly, and expediently examined submitted material.

Contents of volume 27.