Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-c52kr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-09T05:50:22.091Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SELECTED PROCEEDINGS OF THE 7th CONFERENCE ON THE ACQUISITION OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE AS FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2008

Marthe Russell
Marthe Russell
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

SELECTED PROCEEDINGS OF THE 7th CONFERENCE ON THE ACQUISITION OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE AS FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGES. Carol A. Klee and Timothy L. Face (Eds.). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 2006. Pp. vi + 194. $220.00 cloth.

The papers included in this volume were presented at the 7th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages (hosted jointly with the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium) in October 2004. Although the title would imply a mixture of papers on first language (L1) and second language (L2) topics from both Spanish and Portuguese languages, the overwhelming majority pertain to Spanish SLA. None of the 15 papers focus on Portuguese acquisition, and only one study specifically discusses L1 acquisition of Spanish morphology.

Information

Type
BOOK NOTICES
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 122
Copyright
© 2008 Cambridge University Press

The papers included in this volume were presented at the 7th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages (hosted jointly with the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium) in October 2004. Although the title would imply a mixture of papers on first language (L1) and second language (L2) topics from both Spanish and Portuguese languages, the overwhelming majority pertain to Spanish SLA. None of the 15 papers focus on Portuguese acquisition, and only one study specifically discusses L1 acquisition of Spanish morphology.

The 14 papers that represent SLA topics can be broken down into the following themes of investigation: morphosyntax (5), phonology (4), ser and estar (3), writing (1), and study abroad (1). Topics included in the papers on morphosyntax vary from subjunctive mood selection to dative clitics and to alternation to gender acquisition. The phonology papers include two comparisons of study abroad and foreign language (FL) classroom achievement and two studies on the acquisition of specific phonemes. Of the three papers that address the acquisition of ser and estar, two discuss and refine task design, whereas the third compares L2 learners and early bilinguals. Learners' perceptions and the effectiveness of corrective feedback are the focus of the lone study of Spanish writing. The one paper that specifically covers study-abroad experience is based on the plenary paper given at the conference by Lafford. This plenary summarizes the findings of various theoretical and empirical studies on the social, cognitive, and processing factors relevant to SLA in study-abroad versus FL classroom contexts.

Somewhat disappointing is the fact that abstracts are not included with the papers. However, figures, graphs, references, and some appendixes are present and useful to the reader. There is a good balance of papers devoted to specific linguistic features and papers that consider more social, contextual, and classroom-related factors. Overall, this collection of papers addresses a wide variety of research questions relevant to those interested specifically in Spanish SLA and is also applicable to the broader concerns of SLA.