As its title indicates, this book should be of interest to researchers in interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) or in the effect of study abroad on SLA. With respect to ILP, Barron investigates which aspects of discourse structure, pragmatic routines, and internal modification are easily and not so easily acquired by Irish English learners of German in three speech acts—requests, offers, and refusals of offers—as well as the role of transfer and the stages of acquisition in each case. More generally, her data advance our theoretical knowledge with respect to cognitive theories of SLA (Bialystok, 1993; Schmidt, 1993). With respect to study abroad, this book is one of the first published studies (and to my knowledge the first book) that deals specifically with the effects of a study abroad experience on the acquisition and development of pragmatic competence.

The book consists of six chapters and 14 appendixes (including data collection instruments, coding categories, additional tables and graphs of findings, and a sample course module for teaching pragmatics). The first three chapters provide the introduction and background for the study. In chapter 1, the introduction, the author states her case, lists her research questions, and outlines the plan of the book. Chapters 2 and 3 define key terms, provide critical reviews of ILP's parent disciplines—pragmatics and SLA—and summarize the relevant studies in tables. Chapter 2 discusses the theories (speech act, politeness, and discourse analysis) relevant to Barron's study and presents an historical overview of the development of ILP. Chapter 3 focuses on relevant SLA issues—transfer, input, developmental stages, the relationship of grammatical to pragmatic competence, individual differences, and appropriate norms—and briefly discusses some of the related research on study abroad. These background chapters provide a well-written synthesis of the issues and research in their respective areas and consequently provide an excellent starting point for researchers who wish to conduct research in interlanguage pragmatics, particularly those working within a more cognitive theoretical framework.

Chapters 4 and 5 present the study itself. In chapter 4, Barron thoroughly describes her research, explains the rationale behind every methodological decision made, and discusses some of the limitations resulting from those decisions. For these reasons, chapter 4 can serve as a tool for graduate students, providing them with insights into the decision-making processes involved in designing a study. In chapter 5, she presents a detailed analysis of the speech act realizations at three points in time compared to native speaker norms and then discusses the processes that influenced changes over time. For example, Barron indicates where learners experience problems due to lack of salience in the input such that they require negative evidence to overcome them. This information is potentially useful for materials developers for German as a second language in particular and for theorists, researchers, and language instructors interested in interlanguage pragmatics in general.

In chapter 6, the conclusion, Barron clearly, succinctly, and skillfully summarizes the results from chapter 5 in terms of her research questions. She then discusses their theoretical implications, stages of development in pragmatic competence, the limitations of her study, its implications for study abroad programs, and directions for future research, providing useful information for ILP and study abroad researchers, curriculum developers, and language instructors.

This interesting and well-written book will be especially appreciated by ILP researchers for its literature reviews, its depth of discussion on method, and its description and explanation of findings within a cognitive perspective. Those interested in study abroad will appreciate its information on the effects of a study abroad experience on the development of pragmatic competence. Unfortunately, as Barron herself points out, the study cannot sort out the extent to which the study abroad context as opposed to additional exposure to German resulted in pragmatic development, as there was no at home control group due to a very high attrition rate in that group. Furthermore, those with a more sociocultural theoretical orientation to SLA will find that the book provides relatively little information about the various social contexts in which the learners actually interacted during their time abroad; rather, much of this must be a matter of conjecture. Nevertheless, when evaluated in terms of its purpose, its theoretical framework, and the methods employed to achieve its goals, the study provides a wealth of information on the acquisition of interlanguage pragmatics on a range of features across three speech acts from a developmental perspective.