The increasing number of volumes introducing different SLA approaches should be unsurprising given SLA’s exponential growth. This edited volume, the title of which is purposefully devoid of terms like theory, model, or framework to eschew an evaluative outlook, constitutes an ambitious attempt to present how different approaches address both prevailing and emerging issues in SLA theory and practice. The volume consists of 11 chapters focusing on different approaches that are flanked by a foreword by Myles and an afterword by Rothman and VanPatten. Rather than design a uniform volume with chapters addressing similar overarching questions, the editors have given the contributors considerable latitude in the presentation, content, and focus of each chapter. The result is a valuable if sometimes overly wide-ranging volume covering both cutting-edge and long-established empirical and epistemological issues. As such, it constitutes a fitting snapshot of current SLA studies.
As befits a volume of such coverage, most of the contributors chose to bypass a chronicled presentation of their respective approaches, focusing instead on aspects such as recent developments, updated views, and future directions. This feature makes the volume an opportune read, one that could potentially foster increased understanding among different perspectives. Slabakova’s chapter, for example, departs from tradition by presenting pedagogical implications from a generative approach that often refrains from such links; these implications have been central to other approaches such as Pica’s comprehensive contribution on learner interaction. In an additional departure from tradition, Slabakova discusses variability in native speaker (NS) intuitions, which are often assumed to be static. Weinert, Basterrecha, and García Mayo also focus on NS research, albeit in spoken language; they problematize the tools used to establish what is nativelike, highlighting the importance of examining context.
Many chapters discuss the range of each approach. Benati’s contribution acknowledges the scope of VanPatten’s input processing theory as limited to the strategies used to derive intake from linguistic input. In contrast, De Bot, Lowie, Thorne, and Verspoor present dynamic systems theory (DST) as a comprehensive theory of second language development that centers on multiple interacting variables. This chapter, among others that focus more on theoretical issues than on the presentation of empirical studies, introduces DST as a viable integrative tool for heightening the relevance of theories such as the sociocultural approach presented in Gánem-Gutiérrez’s chapter. These links are most needed in a field including theories that, although complementary in principle, often remain isolated. Other comparatively new arrivals to the field are surveyed, such as the systemic-functional model outlined in Llinares’s chapter and Sabourin, Brien, and Tremblay’s contribution on the use of event-related potentials in SLA.
In the afterword, Rothman and VanPatten contextualize and explicate the diverse nature of SLA and the necessity of multiple approaches, given that each approach addresses different aspects of the acquisition process. Nevertheless, they suggest that some approaches, including the processability theory presented in Håkansson’s chapter, should be examined in terms of the constructs they use and how each construct changes the acquisition process. Crucially, they argue that although some theories assume mutually exclusive positions on specific aspects of SLA theory, this does not necessarily mean that whole approaches must be considered incompatible. In fact, they propose that certain approaches, such as the still acquisition theory (SAT) presented in Lyster and Sato’s chapter, could be congruent with generative views of language representation. Though Rothman and VanPatten acknowledge that proponents of SAT would not necessarily agree with this logic, their attempt to find points of contact between the approaches is welcome.
Although this volume could be suitable as a companion to a graduate-level introduction to SLA course, its diverse collective focus may not be a fair entrée to some approaches if it were used as the only foundational text. Li and Zhao’s contribution, for example, presents an engaging and germane introduction to computational modeling/connectionist networks and recent models in bilingual language acquisition. However, the reader will not find a comprehensive presentation of other research in SLA traditionally thought of as connectionist. This is not a flaw of the authors’ presentation but the by-product of a rich research tradition in a relatively young discipline. This volume presents a timely and worthwhile glance at the vast breadth of SLA research today. As such, it should be of vital interest to both new and well-established researchers in SLA and other language disciplines.
