As with any subfield in academia today, wading through the vast number of studies about any one topic, such as word knowledge, is a daunting task. In the last three decades, the role of vocabulary in second language (L2) acquisition has not diminished, and, thus, staying abreast of the most current research is necessary given the significant advances that have been made. This edited volume succeeds in documenting the recent developments in L2 lexical acquisition research. Following Nation’s (Reference Nation2001) taxonomy of lexical dimensions, the book is divided into three linguistic concentrations (i.e., form, meaning, and use) and nine aspects of word knowledge.

Second language learners confront several barriers when acquiring vocabulary through speech as opposed to writing. In Part 1 (Chapters 2-4), contributors focus on the recognition and production of spoken and written words. Prosody, dialect variation, and elision produced during casual speech were cited as primary factors influencing L2 vocabulary building. The relationship between a learner’s quantitative word knowledge and productive performance is explored in Miralpeix and Meara’s chapter on writing. They find no consistent relationship between vocabulary size and speed of word recognition. Assessing the importance of morphological information in expanding both receptive and productive vocabulary, Mäntylä and Huhta (Chapter 4) demonstrate how enhancing derivation skills helps both novice and advanced learners alike. Explicit morphological instruction aids beginners with receptive knowledge and assists high-level speakers to build productive vocabulary.

The authors in Part 2 (Chapters 5-7) examine knowledge of word meaning through form-meaning constituents, concepts, referents, and word associations. A common thread connecting all three chapters centers on epistemological developments in lexical acquisition. Form-meaning connections, the traditional stalwart of measuring lexical knowledge, are not always transparent and unambiguous. Llach and Espinosa (Chapter 5) recognize how dimensions of word knowledge tend not to follow predictable developmental sequences that can be conceptualized as linear or moving along a clearly demarcated continuum. They, along with Pajoohesh (Chapter 6), argue that the depth of lexical knowledge cannot be readily observed or perceived in research studies due to the relationship vocabulary maintains with grammar and social variables. Fitzpatrick and Munby (Chapter 7) attempt to improve on the methodology employed in word association studies. They demonstrate how speech acts, task types, norm lists, and contextualization cues significantly influence the results in typical form-meaning based vocabulary tests.

The chapters in Part 3 address the common critique that Nation’s (Reference Nation2001) discrete categories of word knowledge ignore both the larger theories of L2 acquisition and insights from sociolinguistic research. Treffers-Daller and Rogers (Chapter 8) provide evidence from an English-French experiment on motion verbs that vocabulary breadth correlates with the use of more advanced grammatical structures. Their findings support the perspective that lexical augmentation impels syntactic development. Another attempt to link structural patterns with lexical knowledge appears in Brown’s study of collocations (Chapter 9). His work shows that despite the characteristics that make collocations difficult to define and measure, novice language learners are aware of their existence even during the early stages of language acquisition. Wilks (Chapter 10) examines collocational knowledge as an example of language use patterned by social constraints, making word knowledge a more elaborate and intricate phenomenon. Although the intricacy of linguistic registers challenges our ability to establish an unambiguous relationship between social constraints and word knowledge, Wilks still finds value in conceptualizing vocabulary acquisition as a social process, thus foregrounding the role language attitudes play in developing competencies of word knowledge.

Strong in promoting original and innovative methodological approaches for the study of vocabulary, this volume is exemplary in expanding on Richards’s (Reference Richards1976) and Nation’s (Reference Nation2001) framework for vocabulary acquisition research. The overall organization, especially the discussion questions, glossary, and appendices, is commendable. Given the level of detail and range of research designs, the volume is an engaging publication for scholars in the fields of SLA and psycholinguistics. The editors’ and contributors’ willingness to report on and openly discuss the shortcomings in the current state of vocabulary acquisition research sets a communal tone of shared responsibility and inclusivity. The developments in research procedures and methods offer the reader a clear agenda for future investigative endeavors in the field.