This book is intended as a textbook for students in language teaching training programs and fulfills this goal as a readable and comprehensive introduction to the field of pragmatics with an emphasis on topics that inform second language research and teaching. Respect for this diverse audience is reflected in the examples selected, which come from a variety of languages and social contexts. Although I am not wholly positive about some aspects of the presentation of the material, as will be shown, overall the text is one I would recommend.

Features of this volume that contribute to its value as a textbook are, on the one hand, the discussion questions and tasks at the end of each chapter and, on the other, the texts for analysis. Although discussion questions are rather common in textbooks, these go beyond general comprehension questions and contain questions suitable for both in-class discussions and written assignments. More importantly, each and every chapter contains a final transcribed text with a specific task for the students to complete. These are exactly the kind of assignments that allow students to make connections between theory and practice and between practice and research. These sections make this book a valuable resource for teachers of courses on general linguistics and intercultural communication as well as for teachers of the more obviously related subjects of pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis.

The organization of the book is as follows: Part 1, “Basic Concepts,” contains six chapters; Part 2 contains three chapters that fall under the rubric of “Analytical Perspectives: Theories of Pragmatic Meaning;” and Part 3, entitled “Pragmatics and the Real World,” contains six chapters that move the study of pragmatics into a more applied arena. Although the organization of the text is not flawless—some connections between topics are lost and some topics are covered twice—it builds gradually from basic concepts to more complex theories and integrates all of these aspects of the study of pragmatics in thematic discussions in the last section.

Part 1 includes chapter 1, “What Is Pragmatics?,” chapter 2, “Meaning,” chapter 3, “Indexicality,” chapter 4, “Entailment and Presupposition,” chapter 5, “Information Structures,” and chapter 6, “Face, Politeness, and Indirectness.” Although space does not allow a more in-depth discussion of these chapters, they provide a clear presentation of the basic concepts, as advertised. Highpoints include the application of Cicourel's framework for the three levels of information in chapter 2 and the discussion of deixis in chapter 3.

Part 2 moves on to pragmatic theories: Gricean pragmatics is presented in chapter 7, preference organization, speech acts, and ethnography of speaking are presented in chapter 8, and relevance theory and action theory are presented in chapter 9. Although adequate overall, this section is the one most troubled by organizational problems. Because indirectness has been discussed in a previous chapter, the connection between indirectness and implicature is not as clearly presented as would be desirable in chapter 7, although the discussion of Grice is otherwise very good. The discussion of speech act theory is also quite good, but in my mind, it deserves its own chapter. Indeed, chapter 8 is generally somewhat problematic; although entitled “Sociolinguistic Approaches,” only one of the approaches discussed (ethnography of speaking) falls into what I would call sociolinguistics. (Preference organization and speech act theory, although relevant for sociolinguists, would more appropriately be described as parts of the field of discourse analysis.) Contrary to the preceding chapter, the final chapter in this section, which discusses relevance theory and action theory, is very well done and presents these two complex theories very clearly.

Part 3 of the book, “Pragmatics in the Real World,” seeks to integrate the material already covered while simultaneously looking at issues in pragmatics that are of particular concern to language teachers. Chapter 10 is entitled “Behavior of Listeners” but really covers many issues linked to speaker role in conversation. The chapters on “Cross-cultural Pragmatics” and “Interlanguage Pragmatics”—chapters 11 and 12, respectively—are especially well done, although there is some repetition; a combination of these two chapters might have worked better, even though each one admittedly covers much ground. The chapters on “Politeness Revisited” (chapter 13), “Learner Subjectivity” (chapter 14), and “Pragmatics in the Classroom” (chapter 15) are also successful in integrating previously introduced concepts into the discussion of language teaching-oriented issues.

This book, although versatile enough to be used in any course on pragmatics, is an ideal text for MA students in Teaching English as a Second Language or Teaching English as a Foreign Language programs. In this respect, it is a welcome and unique addition to the field.