There have been a number of recent books devoted to the effects of age on language acquisition; this volume is different. It is the first book to examine the relationship of age to ultimate attainment in foreign language learning. One might wonder whether there is, in fact, any relationship between the age of onset and ultimate attainment in classroom learning where the language being taught is not spoken within the community. However, if one exists, then what is the optimal age to begin foreign language instruction?

The book is the outgrowth of a summer program held in Spain in 2000. The research was carried out in Spain with bilinguals who were in the process of learning an instructed third language (English). The subjects come from two distinct regions of Spain and thus do not have the same bilingual backgrounds. One group—drawn from Catalonia—was bilingual in Spanish and Catalan. The other—residing in the Basque autonomous region—was bilingual in Spanish and Basque. The book is divided into two sections. The first, containing three chapters, gives a theoretical overview of age-related research approached from different perspectives. The second, made up of six chapters, is a collection of the studies from the two regions that address the issue of age in the classroom.

The theoretical article by Singleton is a general discussion of age effects in language learning and asks whether there is a critical period for language acquisition or whether age effects are the result of other factors such as general aging, amount of exposure, instruction, and motivation. The other theoretical articles focus on specific skills: phonological acquisition and the acquisition of grammar. Marinova-Todd concludes that noncritical period factors best account for the variance in grammatical acquisition seen among learners of differing ages. Leather, while addressing the age question, focuses mainly on the models used to describe phonological acquisition in both a first and second language.

The empirical studies in the second section all ascertain that early onset of foreign language instruction does not appear to give an advantage to the learner. The first four chapters report on different aspects of a research project carried out by the University of the Basque Country. Subjects for these studies were studying English as their third language and comprise three different onset ages: 4, 8, and 11. Students receive 2–3 hr of instruction per week.

Cenoz evaluated ultimate attainment by examining subjects after 600 hr of instruction. She assessed general proficiency on a range of language skills and found that the oldest learners did best, whereas the youngest did worst. García Mayo focused on grammatical knowledge. She asked whether either length of exposure or starting age influenced grammatical intuitions. Subjects were measured during their fourth and sixth year of study. Once again, onset age was significant, as older learners were more targetlike. Length of exposure also had a positive effect. García Lecumberri and Gallardo examined phonological skills, testing both perception and production in the sixth year of instruction. In both skills, subjects scored higher with increased onset age. Lasagabaster and Doiz evaluated ultimate attainment in written production, both holistically and quantitatively. Again, age gave a clear advantage.

The last two empirical studies were situated in Catalonia. Muñoz assessed oral skills in two age groups after 200 and 400 hr of instruction. The older subjects performed significantly better at both test times. Victori and Tragant asked whether learner strategies differed with age and whether there was a developmental trend in strategy use. They found that older learners used more strategies that became more sophisticated as the learners matured.

Although this volume intends to examine ultimate attainment, I question whether 600 hr spread over 6 years give us a accurate assessment of subjects and ultimate attainment. Continued instruction could certainly be of benefit. However, these studies illustrate that 3 hr of weekly instruction at an early age are not sufficient for young learners to take advantage of their natural language learning abilities. Thus, language planners might question whether such limited early instruction is a good use of classroom time.

This volume is important reading both for those researching the age question and for those in language planning. It would have been helpful if the authors had included a subject index as well as a list of the authors and their affiliations. These omissions, however, do not detract from the value of the book.