The conditions (implicit or explicit) under which exposure to L2 input takes place and the level of awareness raised while processing input may be strongly related to the learning process. This study investigates how intake was affected both by awareness and by the conditions under which a problem-solving task was performed. Spanish conditional sentences were presented to learners through five different degrees of explicitness, which were the result of combining the factors [±formal instruction] and [±directions to search for rules]. Intake was measured through a multiple-choice recognition test administered immediately after the experimental task. Level of awareness was assessed by means of think-aloud protocols collected during input processing. Results indicate that (a) the degrees of explicitness had a differential effect on intake, (b) the higher the level of awareness demonstrated, the stronger the effect on intake, and (c) the conditions under which the task was administered influenced the way information was processed.

This study examines the relationship between different types of conversational interaction and SLA. Long's (1996) updated version of the interactionist hypothesis claims that implicit negative feedback, which can be obtained through negotiated interaction, facilitates SLA. Similar claims for the benefits of negotiation have been made by Pica (1994) and Gass (1997). Some support for the interaction hypothesis has been provided by studies that have explored the effects of interaction on production (Gass & Varonis, 1994), on lexical acquisition (Ellis, Tanaka, & Yamazaki, 1994), on the short-term outcomes of pushed output (see Swain, 1995), and for specific interactional features such as recasts (Long, Inagaki, & Ortega, 1998; Mackey & Philp, 1998). However, other studies have not found effects for interaction on grammatical development (Loschky, 1994). The central question addressed by the current study was: Can conversational interaction facilitate second language development? The study employed a pretest-posttest design. Adult ESL learners (N = 34) of varying L1 backgrounds were divided into four experimental groups and one control group. They took part in task-based interaction. Research questions focused on the developmental outcomes of taking part in various types of interaction. Active participation in interaction and the developmental level of the learner were considered. Results of this study support claims concerning a link between interaction and grammatical development and highlight the importance of active participation in the interaction.

Research has been investigating the role of reading, as one source of input, in language learners' vocabulary development. The present study was designed to examine whether intermediate learners incidentally (a) acquire and (b) retain unknown vocabulary as a result of reading. The study further assessed (c) the effect of the text variable of exposure frequency. Learners were exposed to unfamiliar words either two, four, or six times during reading. Vocabulary acquisition and retention measured productive and receptive knowledge gain. Results indicated that only two encounters with unfamiliar words during reading significantly affected learners' vocabulary growth. Moreover, two or four exposure frequencies resulted in fairly similar word gain, but six exposures produced significantly more vocabulary knowledge. Retention measures showed mixed results: On productive vocabulary knowledge only half of the subjects displayed a significant rate of retention. On receptive knowledge all but one experimental group retained vocabulary over 4 weeks.

The field of language acquisition is divided over the question of whether the inborn mechanisms underlying linguistic development include actual grammatical categories and principles or are of a more general character. Recent proposals suggest a possible convergence of views on this matter, with implications for the study of both first language acquisition and second language learning. This paper explores this possibility by examining the evolution of grammatical nativism with particular emphasis on a radical shift in the generality of the inborn principles that have been posited in recent work. The nature and implications of this shift are illustrated with the help of developmental data involving gap-containing structures in first and second language acquisition.

This essay defends the idea that language is a unique, genetically underwritten (informationally encapsulated) “module of the mind” and considers some consequences such a stance holds for the psycholinguistic study of nonnative language (L2) acquisition. As is well known, language as conceived within the tradition of generative grammar (e.g., Chomsky, 1965, 1975, 1980, 1986) is unlike other types of cognition and its basis (viz., Universal Grammar) is innately given; this is the position I support in this paper. Specifically, I begin by summarizing the main arguments for this position, after which I discuss (following Segal, 1996) four different conceptions of what a module is and then devote particular attention to the theory developed by Fodor (1983, 1985) on the architecture of mind (his “modularity thesis”). There follows a comparison between the distinct views held by Chomsky and by Fodor on the conception of “the language module” and on the structure of mind more generally. Arguing that the two views are not inherently incompatible, I offer a speculation on how to begin to reconcile them, which leaves me well positioned to advance three specific implications for the theoretical study of L2 acquisition within the framework of generative grammar, couched within a theory of the modular mind.

I am writing this review approximately three months before voters go to the polls in California to decide the fate of Proposition 227, the English for Children Initiative (otherwise known as the Unz Initiative). Whatever the outcome, the fate of bilingual education in California (and, as a consequence, across the United States) will be profoundly affected. Mr. Unz, who opposes bilingual education, is described in a page one article in the New York Times (March 10, 1988) as a person who has no “background in education,” “has never set foot in a bilingual education class,” and “puts no credence in any of the research on either side of the (bilingual) debate.” Brisk, the author of the book under review here, is a proponent of quality bilingual education and draws upon her personal experiences as an educator as well as an enormous body of research and literature to help define the characteristics of effective bilingual programs. She forcefully argues that: “Our society seems to be unable to differentiate between choice of a national language and choice of a language for education,” (p. 31) and she challenges bilingual education's opponents, who she says “in effect would postpone quality education until students master English” (p. 2).

These two volumes contain a selection of 19 papers presented at the Penn State Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish as a First or Second language held in October 1995.

The last thirty years have witnessed considerable research in the fields of second language acquisition (SLA) and second language teaching (SLT). However, most of this research has been concerned with second languages such as English, Spanish, French, and German. There has been comparatively little research on the less commonly taught second languages such as Hindi and other South Asian languages. As the editor states in the preface, enrollment in courses on South Asian languages has rapidly grown in universities in the United States and there is an urgent need for a careful examination of the issues relevant to the teaching and learning of these languages. The purpose of the book is to fill the existing gap and to generate an interest among both researchers and practitioners in the teaching and learning of South Asian languages.

Communication Strategies: Psycholinguistic and Sociolinguistic Perspectives is not simply an update of the 1983 Strategies in Interlanguage Communication (Færch & Kasper). This volume goes beyond the earlier concerns of definition, identification, and classification of communication strategies to considerations of different theoretical and analytical perspectives, research methodologies, and the role of cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

In this revised dissertation, Robinson tackles two important topics in adult second language learning: (a) the roles of attention and awareness and (b) the mechanisms for storage of second language knowledge.

The 13 essays of the present volume deal with how adults understand and how children develop coherence and textual cohesion. The collection possesses unity because the editors requested that the contributors emphasize the clause-level and linguistic markers, that they present an overview of current research, and that they show how the acquisition of particular cohesive functions manifests general principles.

Using a conversation analytical, social interactionist approach to cognition, Wootton examines the requests made by his daughter between 18 and 36 months of age in interaction with her parents. He analyzes in detail “distressing events” or seemingly irrational temper tantrums to develop a theory of cognitive development based on the sequentiality of conversational interaction. By correlating her use of imperatives and, later, of more polite forms of requests, Wootton is able to show how the child identifies and draws on expectations of shared understanding, established through local interactional sequences of conversation, to develop her sense of cognitive relevance and moral rectitude. The intensity of the child's distress at seeing her expectations flouted leads Wootton to claim that the nature of these understandings is local, public, and moral: The child's cultural awareness is fashioned and critically conditioned precisely by those forms of sequential and interactional organization she begins to come to grips with at about the age of 2.

This book is an introductory text intended for nonspecialists in sociolinguistics or linguistics. It is organized into four sections and designed so that its first section, the “Survey of Sociolinguistics,” may be read alone or along with the accompanying selected readings in the second part. The third and fourth sections are references and a glossary. The readings section also contains study questions that refer to both the survey and the readings, leading the reader to integrate the information in both sections. The topics covered in the survey include the social study of language, the ethnography of speaking and structure of conversation, locating variations in speech, styles, gender, and social class, bilinguals and bilingualism, societal multilingualism, and applied sociolinguistics (which covers language policy and planning).

Inside Language offers a somewhat new organization in the presentation of basic linguistics. Additionally, certain areas receive greater (e.g., writing) or lesser (e.g., pragmatics) emphasis than that which is traditionally found in introductory texts. Intended for both a lay audience and students of linguistics, portions of Inside Language may prove difficult for the novice, but features such as the references for further reading at the end of each chapter make this text a valuable resource for teachers and students.

This book is for teachers who instruct “the culturally and linguistically diverse learner” (p. ix, et passim) in the United States; it reflects American community relations today. The editor's intention is to “assist you [the American teacher] in creating a sociocultural context for literacy learning within your classroom community of learners” (p. xi).