This volume consists primarily of papers that were presented at the second language vocabulary acquisition colloquium at Leiden University in March 2002 and represents a broad scope of quantitative studies by leading scholars in the field. It is organized under three different themes: “Selection,” “Acquisition,” and “Testing.” In the introduction, the editors briefly describe the contributions and follow with several pages that illustrate how the papers diverge on the conceptualization of central issues (e.g., the basic unit under investigation; aspects of the learning process, learning conditions, and time course of measurement; definitions of the construct of word knowledge). Finally, they add their own insightful perspectives on such issues, as well as helpful suggestions for further exploration, as a stimulus for future research.

The first section, “Selection,” focuses on the words to be taught, using lexical frequency profiling and text coverage calculation techniques with corpora of written or spoken language to make this determination. In chapter 1, Nation compares the General Service List (West, 1953) combined with the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000) to the British National Corpus 3000 for text coverage and overlap; he then discusses their relevance for syllabus design for primary and secondary level instruction of English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language. In chapter 2, Cobb and Horst first investigate whether an AWL can be identified for French using the powerful lexical frequency profiling program, Vocabprofil, and then they compare the French list to English lists for text coverage performance. In chapter 3, Adolphs and Schmitt explore whether spoken English discourse context influences the percentage of lexical coverage of word forms using the CANCODE corpus and classifications of speaker relationship types.

The next section, “Acquisition,” contains studies on an array of themes that illustrate, variously, computer-assisted language learning, paper and pencil teaching techniques, incidental learning, intentional learning, immediate retention, delayed retention, descriptive statistical techniques, and inferential statistical techniques. In chapter 4, Boers, Demecheleer, and Eyckmans report two experiments that investigate the usefulness of etymological elaboration (a cognitive semantic mnemonic technique) for idiom retention in English using Idiomteacher, a battery of online exercises. In chapter 5, Mondria and Wiersma examine the effectiveness of bidirectional word learning in French (a combined receptive and productive method) versus unidirectional learning (a receptive only or productive only method) as well as level of difficulty in learning. In chapter 6, Jiang investigates semantic transfer and development in ESL using a sentence completion instrument in a carefully controlled study and then offers a model of the process of second language (L2) semantic restructuring and development. In chapter 7, Dewaele presents the results of two studies that examine the nature of the contribution of sociobiographical and psychological factors (proficiency level, frequency of contact with French, extraversion, and gender) to the use of colloquial vocabulary in spoken French. In chapter 8, Qian surveys ESL learners on their self-reported behaviors and inferencing strategies for unfamiliar words during reading and then compares self-reported behavior to the actual strategy used by the learners during a reading experiment.

The last section, “Testing,” concerns issues of lexical richness and the statistical validation of instruments for assessing word knowledge. In chapter 9, Vermeer describes a valuable alternative measurement to the type/token ratio, the measure of lexical richness for Dutch children's speech, based on the degree of difficulty of the words as measured by frequency in the input. In chapter 10, Greidanus, Bogaards, van der Linden, Nienhuis, and de Wolf describe the construction and validation of a deep word knowledge test of word associates for French learners and then compare it to two other tests (IKAF for broad word knowledge and WRT for word relations). In chapter 11, Read first describes three approaches to assessing depth of word knowledge (precision of meaning, comprehensive word knowledge, and network knowledge), then discusses studies comparing breadth and depth and, finally, questions the use of the term depth to describe word knowledge.

The studies in this volume pertain mainly to English and French L2 teaching, learning, and testing at various proficiency levels. They were conducted with participants of various age groups from primarily Dutch, Flemish, Asian, and/or English linguistic backgrounds. This paves the way for future research on L2 vocabulary for different proficiency levels and in other languages with different linguistic backgrounds in addition to the ones investigated. On the whole, this volume contains a rich coverage of carefully selected and illustrated research and insightful pedagogical implications for L2 and foreign language teaching. What is more, the editors present and connect the various running themes with an invaluable index, one that vocabulary researchers are sure to appreciate!