The current volume offers a comprehensive look at the latest advances in the study of tense and aspect in the interlanguage of second language (L2) learners. It demonstrates how recent attention has shifted from focus on the aspectual meaning of the verb and its arguments to the contextual factors affecting the semantics of temporality. Additionally, instead of testing discrete hypotheses, the volume illustrates the current trend in the field to use multiple variables and data sources to explain L2 development.

The first part of the volume introduces the discussion of tense, aspect, and mood within the framework of cognitive grammar. In the first chapter, Niemeier explains the semantics of English verbal morphology using theoretical constructs from mental space theory and calls for applying this approach to teaching tense and aspect in L2 English classrooms. In Chapter 2, Doiz focuses on the cognitive semantics of the Spanish preterit and imperfect. Ellis brings together findings from corpus and experimental studies to demonstrate that the development of tense and aspect in L2 English follows the principles of category learning. In the fourth chapter, Ayoun and Rothman explain the theoretical premises of generative linguistics with respect to the L2 knowledge of aspect, tense, and mood. They synthesize findings from a large number of empirical studies conducted within a universal grammar framework, pooling a variety of language combinations and experimental tasks.

The second half of the volume is devoted to methodological issues. In the fifth chapter, González argues against Vendler’s traditional classification in favor of using the single distinction between terminative and durative aspect. The author calls for more attention to contextual information, as native speakers presented with individual sentences are able to mentally construct different contexts to make sentences acceptable with different aspectual markers. Salaberry further develops this line of reasoning by demonstrating how extraneous variables (e.g., different types of adjuncts or broader discourse) can lead to contradicting results, and he urges researchers to carefully consider the so-called “layering of meaning” that is sometimes inadvertently brought about in experimental materials. Chapters 7–10 discuss different practical issues pertaining to experimental design. Bardovi-Harlig focuses on open-ended tasks, discussing the most appropriate types of discourse in conjunction with specific research questions and offering different elicitation techniques and prompts with specific examples and references to previous studies. Shirai details a step-by-step procedure for determining lexical aspect. A similar hands-on approach is offered in Chapter 9, in which Comajoan assembles different definitions of background and foreground and discusses how discourse grounding has been coded in form-oriented studies of tense and aspect. Bayley argues for the importance of simultaneously investigating the impact of multiple independent variables on interlanguage development (e.g., lexical aspect, discourse grounding, saliency, and frequency of morphological markers) and suggests techniques that could make such an analysis possible. Finally, Giacalone-Ramat and Rastelli demonstrate how a speaker’s first language can influence the semantic representations of L2 verbs, encouraging the use of qualitative methods to further explore this initial stage of L2 development.

In the closing chapter Salaberry, Comajoan, and González highlight the three topics covered in the volume: theoretical constructs, methodologies, and results in L2 studies of tense and aspect. Although the first two themes are consistently addressed throughout the chapters, a comprehensive overview of previous findings is not central to most of them. Some chapters are not focused on empirical investigation of L2 acquisition of tense and aspect, and, therefore, they provide limited insight into the global discussion of research design and methodology. For instance, the first and second chapters amply describe the English and Spanish aspectual systems but fail to articulate the specific implications of these descriptions for an empirical study of L2 development. The strength of the volume lies instead in the breadth of theoretical approaches covered by the contributors and the detailed discussion of practical matters related to experimental design and data analysis.

The volume will be of interest to researchers who want to learn about experimental design, data coding, and analysis in L2 studies of tense and aspect as well as to those who want to apply these insights to the study of other areas of L2 development.