This new title in the McGraw-Hill Second language professional series is a highly readable book written primarily for in-service and would-be teachers of second and foreign languages (L2) who have never studied SLA. The book addresses one of the fundamental concepts of current SLA research—input—in the context of its relationship to grammar instruction. It introduces readers to instructional techniques that help L2 learners pay attention to grammatical form while providing them with the input that they need for successful acquisition of their L2s. These techniques are called input enhancement techniques—specifically, input flood, textual enhancement, structured input, and grammar consciousness-raising tasks, which are explained in chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the book, respectively. This main part of the book is preceded by a historical overview of grammar instruction in chapter 1, a brief discussion of SLA research and its relation to classroom teaching in chapter 2, and a concise explanation focused on the concepts of input and input enhancement as used in the field of SLA in chapter 3. Chapter 8 is a concluding chapter in which the author gives caveats, suggestions, and advice for using the input enhancement techniques introduced in the book.

One of the strengths of this book is objectivity in the sense that the input enhancement techniques are introduced with empirical evidence of their effectiveness. Throughout the book, the author makes a conscious effort to convey the message that “SLA research is indeed an important knowledge source to inform our pedagogical choices” (p. 23). Another laudable feature of the book is the author's skill in explaining theoretical concepts and complex notions in simple words. The author, assuming no prior knowledge of SLA on the part of readers, presents current theory and research in an informal, reader-friendly style.

With its clear organization and concise chapters, this text is ideal for use in a teaching methods course or an introductory seminar on SLA, either on its own or in conjunction with other introductory books. For such use, the Pause to Consider … boxes inserted throughout the text (52 in total) should come in handy. In these boxes, the author poses questions that help readers think further about issues that have just been discussed. For instance, after the paragraphs that raise the issue of saliency of different grammatical features, the author asks “What are some forms in the target language you teach that are not salient? What factors do you think could affect the salience of a form?” (p. 49). Some questions in these boxes are intended to encourage readers to read published studies with a critical eye and conduct (or think about conducting) a research study on their own. Further, in the appendix, 13 sample instructional materials for different techniques with different languages are useful for understanding the explanations of the techniques given in the main text.

Overall, the author has effectively accomplished her goal of familiarizing readers with procedures, theoretical underpinnings, and research findings of the four input enhancement techniques. The only unsettling part of the book has to do with the definitive tone of some statements about SLA, such as the following:

Although the strength of such a tendency might be illustrated in the SLA literature, we are not yet at the stage at which we can make such a definitive statement. There remains much to be learned before we can make predictions that are absolutely confident regarding this and other issues of SLA. This drawback, however, would not deter me from recommending this book or using it for an introductory SLA course.