Three experiments investigated the relationship between memory for input and inductive learning of morphological rules relating to functional categories in a semiartificial form of Italian. A verbatim memory task was used as both the vehicle for presenting sentences and as a continuous measure of memory performance. Experiments 2 and 3 introduced increasingly explicit manipulations of attention to form compared to Experiment 1. In all experiments there were strong relationships between individual differences in memory for input as measured early in the experiment and eventual learning outcomes, and in Experiments 2 and 3 learning form-form (but not form-function) rules was related to vocabulary learning efficiency (taken as a measure of phonological long-term memory ability). These relationships along with the lack of an effect of feedback in Experiment 3 suggest that subjects tended to adopt a data-driven, as opposed to conceptually driven, mode of learning. However, the fact that the introduction of highlighting and vocabulary pretraining in Experiment 2 had a large impact on learning without improving early memory is taken to suggest that knowledge of distributional rules does not simply emerge out of memory encodings of the relevant forms but depends upon the appropriate allocation of attention over relationships between input elements at the time of encoding.

This paper explores the relationship between formulaic language and creative construction in SLA by examining the production of interrogatives in an extensive naturalistic corpus of L2 French produced by early classroom learners. The paper first analyzes the production and breakdown of such formulaic language over time, before exploring the development of more creative structures. The interaction between the two processes “rote learning of formulas and creative construction” is then investigated. This interaction is shown to be a dynamic two-way process, with learners being driven forward in the development of their L2 system by their attempts to resolve the tension between structurally complex but communicatively rich formulas on the one hand, and structurally simple but communicatively inadequate creative structures on the other hand.

Within both first and second language acquisition research, a critical or sensitive period for complete attainment has largely been substantiated in phonological studies, although it is questionable whether age should be examined in isolation from sociopsychological influences and the extent of exposure to the second language. This study sets out to challenge the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) by examining phonological performance among highly motivated subjects who use German daily as graduate student instructors and who have been immersed in the language through in-country residence, augmented by years of instruction in both language- and content-based courses. The methodology developed seeks to expand the realm of factors that are potentially conflated with age, such as instruction, motivation, suprasegmental training, and self-perception of productive accuracy, and other factors that have not been addressed in previous studies on ultimate attainment. Production tasks target sounds difficult for nonnative speakers (NNSs) according to contrastive analysis, and task types range in complexity from isolated words to sentences, paragraphs, and free speech. A mean rating was computed for each speaker, including native speaker controls, according to native speaker judgments. When averaged across all tasks, nonnative speaker performance did not overlap with native performance. However, several variables correlated significantly with outcome, including suprasegmental training, which indicated performance closer to native level.

Previous research on the impact of pretask planning on interlanguage development (e.g., Crookes, 1989; Ellis, 1987; Foster & Skehan, 1996) has focused solely on the linguistic quality of planned output, leaving the cognitive and attentional processes engaged during planning time unexplored. Drawing on recent research on focus on form (Doughty & Williams, 1998a) and on retrospective methodologies used in strategy use research (e.g., O'Malley & Chamot, 1990), the study reported here investigated whether planning opportunity results in an increased focus on form at the level of strategic attention to form during planning time, as well as at the level of production outcomes during task performance. The results provide support for the claim that planning before doing an L2 task can promote an increased focus on form by providing space for the learner to devote conscious attention during pretask planning to formal and systemic aspects of the language needed to accomplish a particular task.

Interaction and grammar is a valuable addition to the Cambridge “Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics” series. The book is a collection of papers that all, in one way or another, and within the frameworks of linguistic anthropology, functional grammar, or conversation analysis, investigate the interface, or rather the essential interrelatedness, of language and real-time social interaction. The value of the book for the L2 researcher or practitioner is perhaps not direct; however, because much of L2 research focuses on interaction and draws its data from naturally occurring discourse, the indirect contribution is notable. In particular, the chapter by Fox, Hayashi, and Jasperson beautifully underscores those typological differences between English and Japanese that lead to different interactional strategies—an issue of direct relevance to L2 studies.

This multifaceted mosaic of vocabulary acquisition should be in every language professional's library, nudging us to look beyond size of vocabulary and toward a better understanding of what Meara (1996) has called its cognitive “organisation.”

This book, which is one of a series of papers from the University of Duisburg, is a justification of the visual elements of a particular computer-assisted language learning program for learning Dutch called EuroLex. About one third of the book is a description of the EuroLex program. Because of this, it suffers from the seemingly unavoidable problem that many accounts of CALL programs face, and that is the need for elaborate step-by-step description of the operation of the program when five minutes working with the actual program would convey more information more effectively.

A fattish edited volume on SLA based on a Dutch summer course held in 1991, the book is divided into eight chapters, each containing between one and three contributions by experts in various specialized areas. These chapters are headed as follows:

This book is a first attempt to bring together a collection of state-of-the-art studies of various lines of research on language processing in Spanish, ranging from speech perception to sentence production.

In this dissertation based on empirical studies conducted by the author and reprinted as a series of articles in the text, Kuure studies the development of different types of bilingualism. The primary purpose of the studies is to determine the significance of age in the acquisition of a second language. Evidence is also provided for describing the acquisition and use of languages in various multicultural and multilingual settings. Data for the studies were obtained from Finnish-Swedish bilingual students between the ages of 13 and 15 for whom Swedish was the second language.

Translating by factors (henceforth TBF) is an attempt at systematizing the multiplicity of factors affecting the translation process, in particular those relevant to the translation of the modals between English and German. TBF is an example of the so-called linguistic approach to translation and an illustration of why such an approach has often been criticized by translation scholars and professionals. Although it is useful to linguistics engaged in descriptive and contrastive studies of modals, the predominantly formal, sentence-based, contrastive-analysis approach embraced by the authors (who adopt, without discussion, formal equivalence as the goal to strive for in translation activity) will not be of as much use to those engaged in the teaching and practice of translation for purposes of communication. This is especially true in light of mounting empirical evidence in the translation competence literature that supports functional considerations as a dominant factor in professional translator processes.

The goals of this volume are: (a) to demonstrate that young children are sensitive to properties of language structure (such as word order), (b) to detail a new method for studying early language comprehension, (c) to provide a novel theoretical framework for understanding early syntactic development, and (d) to provide a clear and accessible account of language acquisition. The authors succeed splendidly on all four counts.

Hickey's volume is a welcome addition to the already important body of literature on the immersion experience. This comprehensive account of preschool immersion education in Ireland provides interesting insights into areas not previously looked at. Although its focus is on Ireland, its relevance is universal and it compares the Irish experience to similar ones in New Zealand, Catalonia, Canada, and Wales.

Methods for assessing children's syntax is an invaluable contribution to the study of child syntax. As the editors note in their preface, the volume has two major aims. First, it is designed in part to function as a how-to manual to aid students and researchers in the selection and use of methods for investigating children's linguistic performance and competence. Second, it is intended to serve as a valuable resource for the evaluation of research in the area of child language acquisition. The volume, which includes contributions by some of the most prominent scholars in the field, succeeds admirably in fulfilling both of the above goals.

There are few in-depth studies that have attempted to explore the complex relationships among second language proficiency, foreign language aptitude, and intelligence. Information on such studies is usually found only in unpublished dissertations or in greatly reduced form in journal articles. This text is a rare example of a full-length report of such a study. Based on data from 160 EFL students in Japan, the researcher employed an extensive array of analytical procedures relating performance on English language proficiency measures with performance on a three-part aptitude battery and an intelligence measure. The proficiency measures included multiple-choice tests of grammar, cohesion, vocabulary, listening, and reading using short and long texts as well as a cloze and a free composition. The foreign language aptitude battery was a Japanese version of a test modeled after the short version of the Modern Language Aptitude Test. The measures of verbal intelligence and reasoning came from an existing Kyoto University test with 12 subtests.

This is an excellent and stimulating book, if like me you have been disturbed at how little material can be found relating the broader psychological processes of learning a second or foreign language to the field of psychology. Narrow cognitive or psycholinguistic treatments of the area are about all that is to be found, and even they are very few in number. (A very distant predecessor of this book would be Steven McDonough's no longer viable Psychology in foreign language teaching.)

In the article “The relationship between prior knowledge and topic interest in second language reading,” by Patricia L. Carrell and Teresa E. Wise (SSLA 20(3), September 1998), the labels “Females” and “Males” should be reversed in Figure 1, page 298.