This edited collection emanates from a course taught by the editor, Sanz, at Georgetown University. Its chapters are derived from guest lectures given by her colleagues at Georgetown as well as one by VanPatten. The uniting theme of the volume, therefore, seems to be the Georgetown faculty's interests, rather than a specific intellectual focus or theoretical orientation that, broadly speaking, takes a cognitive perspective on second language (L2) learning. Nevertheless, the volume packs in an impressive and wide-ranging amount of information, and most of the chapters stand on their own as extremely valuable tutorials on the topics that they cover—although it is not clear that the intended audience for each of the chapters is the same. One of the most useful features of this volume is the excellent guided critiques at the end of each chapter, which lead those new to the research area through a sample study.
The first section contains two remarkably concise introductions to research methodology—a sort of book-squeezed-into-a-chapter treatment of quantitative and qualitative research, respectively. The quantitative chapter (Chen) ranges from the most basic concepts (What is a mean?) to the highly technical (how and when to undertake a multiple regression), making it difficult to pinpoint who the target audience would be. The more accessible nature of the qualitative chapter (Adams, Fujii, and Mackey) makes it a good introduction to new scholars and a useful review for experienced researchers. It covers a variety of research techniques and approaches—from observation to ethnography to verbal protocols—as well as what topics would be suitable for the various qualitative approaches.
The next section, titled “Internal Factors,” is more of a grab bag, focusing on individual differences, one specific cognitive approach, and attention and awareness. The first chapter in this section (Bowden, Sanz, and Stafford) situates individual differences (age, sex, working memory, and prior experience) within the model presented in the subsequent chapter, Ullman's declarative/procedural (D/P) model. Findings will be familiar to many in the field, although some, such as research on sex differences, might be less so. This chapter presents the D/P model in simple and accessible terms, in contrast to Ullman's own detailed, and far more complex, discussion of neurocognition, including aphasia, age effects, first language-L2 differences, and imaging techniques. The final chapter in this section (Leow and Bowles) offers a concise treatment of familiar literature. It presents competing perspectives on the role of attention and awareness and then reviews relevant studies, primarily those conducted by Leow and his colleagues.
The third section, titled “External Factors,” presents two major issues. Mackey and Abbuhl offer a useful review of the interaction hypothesis. Similar treatments are available in many other edited collections and journal articles. The second selection (Sanz and Morgan-Short) presents less familiar material on a central issue in instructed language acquisition: the role of explicit pedagogy. Sanz and Morgan-Short offer a succinct and well-balanced review of about a dozen studies that show positive, negative, and no effects for various explicit pedagogical interventions. Particularly useful are the tables in the appendix that show these findings at a glance.
The final section, on pedagogical implications, offers two quite different perspectives. VanPatten's brief review of processing instruction is similar to material in other writings by the author and falls squarely within the cognitive perspective of the volume. Byrnes' chapter on content-based instruction represents a more dramatic shift, not clearly connected to other chapters. It is essentially a plea for genre-based foreign language instruction as well as a discussion of programs that have implemented such instruction.
This volume offers a wealth of valuable information, mostly concise treatments of central and often familiar topics in the field. Because the different chapters are likely to appeal to different audiences, it seems an unlikely choice for a class text. That said, readers ranging from novices in the field to experienced researchers are sure to find selected chapters valuable as introductions, reviews, or both.
