Studies of second language (L2) proficiency have been central to work in SLA, and this volume reveals the variety of recent topics that researchers have investigated and debated. Benati organizes the book into three overarching themes: (a) “Theory and the Dimensions of L2 Proficiency,” (b) “Factors Contributing to Attainment of L2 Proficiency,” and (c) “Attaining L2 Proficiency in the Classroom.”
Readers will be impressed by the range of studies included in each section. For example, chapter 4 by Wright on working memory and chapter 5 by Hawkins on statistical learning are situated within generative explanations of L2 proficiency, whereas chapter 9 by Kennedy on aspects of intelligibility and chapter 10 by Angelovska and Hahn on nativelike accents examine more sociolinguistic constructs involved in L2 proficiency. Experimental and quantitative data analyses are clearly the preferred research tradition in all the chapters, except in the more theoretical or review chapters. Thus, readers not well versed in these methods may have difficulty with particular statistical analyses. Some chapters, however, are engaging overviews and easily accessible to the novice reader in the field (like Marsden’s survey of priming research and Randall’s discussion of word recognition processes and the orthographic knowledge of Arabic and English speakers).
Although the scope of the chapters presented is a strong point of the volume, chapters do not build on each other nor do they reference any common arguments or debates outside of the general themes organizing the book. Perhaps the introduction to the book could have addressed connections between the chapters in more detail. For example, the introduction could have provided readers with more motivations for the studies and even a discussion of the various definitions that researchers draw on when defining language proficiency—a topic that surfaces in many of the chapters.
Despite this limitation, the volume is clearly a valuable contribution that details the most recent topics in L2 proficiency studies and offers readers new research questions and avenues for exploration.
