Should monolingualism be considered the norm for SLA research in a world in which only a small percentage of speakers are monolingual? When learning a third language (L3), is the first language (L1) or second language (L2) dominant when crosslinguistic influence is concerned? What is the role of typology of the L1 and L2 with respect to transfer to the L3? These are some of the many intriguing questions discussed in this volume, which comprises nine chapters that all deal with the acquisition of a L3 and the various interpretations of Universal Grammar (UG) involved in this acquisition process. The languages involved and the contexts for these languages vary greatly, with speakers of Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Thai studied in the contexts of Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Norway, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Most of the chapters are empirical studies. In chapter 1 Bayona examines Canadian L1 English speakers in their acquisition of the Spanish middle and impersonal passive constructions. The first part of the study focuses on L1 English and L2 Spanish speakers, with a second part of the study focusing on L1 English, L2 French, and L3 Spanish—observing that there is no absolute L1 transfer to the L3 in the case of these participants. In chapter 2 Chin finds that L2 English has a greater amount of transfer to L3 Spanish than does L1 Chinese. In chapter 5 Foote studies both L2 and L3 learners with different L1 and L2 backgrounds and whose L3 is either English or one of various Romance languages. Her results show that the L3 learners consistently outperform the L2 learners in the acquisition of aspect in Romance languages, seemingly because of positive transfer from a previously studied Romance language. Jin examines the results of L1 Mandarin, L2 English, and L3 Norwegian participants’ grammaticality judgment and correction tasks in chapter 7 and finds that, despite the similarities of the L2 and the L3, in which null objects are not allowed, the L1 grammar still has an effect on task performance in the L3. Thus, it can be generalized that the influence of the L1 cannot be overlooked, even when the L2 and L3 contain more similar features.

Cook’s chapter, which focuses on theoretical issues, raises the well-deserved question of why UG theorists focus on a monolingual model. Cook argues that the bilingual or multilingual mind, not the monolingual mind, should be the norm for analysis because monolinguals have been and are still today the minority in the world. He argues that this monolingual minority should not be considered the basis for analysis. He states that the reason for their linguistic condition is the result of having been denied the chance to have comprehensible input during the formative stages of language development. There are many multilinguals, and Cook uses literary theorist Said and linguist Canagarajah as examples of speakers who have no clear L1 or L2 but instead have simultaneously developed the languages in question, similar to much of the world’s population. The idea of bilingualism or multilingualism as the norm for SLA research is a sentiment that has only recently begun to be expressed by researchers in the field. One of the most recent inceptions of the notion was Ortega’s plenary at the 2010 American Association of Applied Linguistics conference in Atlanta, Georgia, with her talk, “The Bilingual Turn in SLA.” Ortega’s lecture, although it did not explicitly discuss UG with regard to bilingualism, made many of the same points as Cook in his chapter—namely, that SLA researchers can no longer ignore the fact that the monolingual model is outdated at best and erroneous at worst.

Although it is impossible to give details about every chapter in this review, it is sufficient to mention that all of the chapters make significant strides toward the understanding of the multilingual learner. Every chapter in the volume makes a clear point that all languages that learners have studied have an effect on subsequent languages learned, depending on factors such as typology and proficiency in the languages involved. Given the high cost of the book, it would be impractical to assign it for a class; however, for scholars interested in L3 acquisition, it offers crucial insights on otherwise seldom-discussed topics. This volume reminds SLA researchers that it is no longer possible to ignore the impending need to alter the status quo of who should be used as native speakers or control groups for empirical research in the field, and it is a point well taken.