Incidental focus on form overtly draws learners' attention to linguistic items as they arise spontaneously—without prior planning—in meaning-focused interaction. This study examined the effectiveness of incidental focus on form in promoting second language (L2) learning. Seventeen hours of naturally occurring, meaning-focused L2 lessons were observed in 12 different classes of young adults in a private language school in Auckland, New Zealand. A total of 491 focus-on-form episodes (FFEs) were identified and used as a basis for individualized test items in which participants who participated in specific FFEs were asked to recall the linguistic information provided in them. The results revealed that learners were able to recall the targeted linguistic information correctly or partially correctly nearly 60% of the time 1 day after the FFE, and 50% of the time 2 weeks later. Furthermore, successful uptake in a FFE was found to be a significant predictor of correct test scores. These results suggest that incidental focus on form might be beneficial to learners, particularly if they incorporate the targeted linguistic items into their own production.This research was supported, in part, by a scholarship from the Foundation for Science, Research, and Technology, New Zealand. The author would like to thank the teachers and participants who kindly gave of their time to participate in this study. The author would also like to thank Rod Ellis, Catherine Elder, Helen Basturkmen, Rosemary Erlam, Jenefer Philp, and the anonymous SSLA reviewers for their valuable input and feedback on this study. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics in 2002 (Salt Lake City, UT) and at AILA 2002 (Singapore).

This study examined the effects of acoustic variability on second language vocabulary learning. English native speakers learned new words in Spanish. Exposure frequency to the words was constant. Dependent measures were accuracy and latency of picture-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English recall. Experiment 1 compared presentation formats of neutral (conversational) voice only, three voice types, and six voice types. No significant differences emerged. Experiment 2 compared presentation formats of one speaker, three speakers, and six speakers. Vocabulary learning was superior in the higher-variability conditions. Experiment 3 partially replicated Experiment 1 while rotating voice types across subjects in moderate and no-variability conditions. Vocabulary learning was superior in the higher variability conditions. These results are consistent with an exemplar-based theory of initial lexical learning and representation.Portions of these data were presented at the 143rd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Cancun, Mexico and at the Fourth International Conference on the Mental Lexicon in Windsor, Canada. The authors would like to thank Paola Rijos for help in data collection and scoring and the anonymous SSLA reviewers.

The present study addresses the reactivity of two types of verbal protocols in SLA research. It expands on the work of Leow and Morgan-Short (2004), who found nonmetalinguistic verbalization during a second-language reading task to be nonreactive for beginning learners' text comprehension, intake, and production of the targeted morphological form. The present study investigated the reactivity of both metalinguistic and nonmetalinguistic protocols, using a syntactic structure and advanced language learners of Spanish. Results indicated that neither type of verbalization significantly affected text comprehension or written production of old or new exemplars of the targeted structure when compared to a control group, although metalinguistic verbalization appeared to cause a significant decrease in text comprehension over nonmetalinguistic verbalization. Furthermore, both types of verbalization significantly increased the amount of time on task.

La Créolisation: Théorie, Applications, Implications [Creolization: Theory, Applications, Implications]. Robert Chaudenson. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2003. Pp. 479. 39.5 € paper.

SEMANTICS (2nd ed.). John I. Saeed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. Pp. xx + 413. $68.95 cloth, $32.95 paper.

After a long dry spell in which there were few—if any—satisfactory introductory texts in semantics and pragmatics available, the first edition of Saeed's Semantics appeared in 1997. Since then, a number of other texts have appeared: de Swart's Introduction to natural language semantics (1998), Kearns' Semantics (2000), Allan's Natural language semantics (2001), among others. The primary advantage of the original Saeed text as well as this revised and updated version is its comprehensiveness. It includes descriptive lexical semantics, an introduction to formal semantics, the cognitive approaches of Lakoff and others, and more pragmatics than most of its competitors.

TEACHING AND LEARNING BY DOING CORPUS ANALYSIS. Bernard Ketteman and Georg Marko (Eds.). Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002. Pp. vii + 390. $148.00 cloth.

This substantial volume contains 23 papers selected from the Fourth International Conference on Teaching and Language Corpora (TALC) held in Graz, Austria in the summer of 2000. Like many edited conference proceedings, the chapters in this book vary quite widely in both the quality and quantity of the work presented. Further, the substance of some of the stronger contributions—such as Coxhead on academic vocabulary and Lee on a genre-specific index for the British National Corpus (BNC)—had already appeared in journals at the time of this volume's publication (Coxhead in TESOL Quarterly and Lee in Language Learning and Technology). In his opening remarks, McEnery salutes the widening range of topics in this volume, but I am less sanguine about the value of adding breadth. Certainly, the new emphasis on the role of corpora in translation studies and the teaching of translation in the final section is well motivated, but it is less clear whether Renouf's discussion of short-dimension diachronic change or Flowerdew's use of language learning diaries has much to do with the central issues in TALC.

GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY: A RESOURCE BOOK FOR STUDENTS. Howard Jackson. London: Routledge, 2002. Pp. vii + 202. $25.95 paper.

This volume provides a readable, interactive, and complete introduction to basic areas of English grammar that includes words and sentences, parts of speech and their role in sentences, verb patterns, clauses and phrases, and areas of vocabulary including word class, word formation, and jargon. The text aims “to encourage [students] to analyze the language that [they] hear and read in [their] daily life” (pp. vii–viii). It does so in two ways. First, concepts are presented inductively; that is, readers are asked to work with language samples—many authentic excerpts of written and spoken text—in order to understand the concepts before the author explains key ideas. These interactive tasks encourage readers to play with language, drawing on and extending what they already know about English grammar and vocabulary. Second, it uses grammar terminology consistently and sparingly, a wise decision given that the book's target readers are new to the field.

AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH PHONOLOGY. April McMahon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. x + 148. $24.95 paper.

Unlike many other introductory textbooks that focus specifically on English phonology (Carr, 1999; Giegerich, 1992; Roach, 2000), McMahon's text does not begin with the mechanics of how English vowels and consonants are produced but rather focuses first on the heart of phonology: the phoneme. Although the book is slim, it adequately covers the same topics that comparable books cover, and McMahon's strength comes from apt metaphors and clear explanations that help the reader comprehend difficult concepts.

APPLIED LINGUISTICS. Guy Cook. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. vii + 134. £8.95 paper.

This volume is the latest in the Oxford Introductions to Language study series, edited by H. G. Widdowson, and, as such, it provides a general and gradual introduction to the field through the use of intelligently crafted prose that facilitates the nonspecialist's ability to grasp the general concepts and controversies in this discipline. In this regard, Cook's book is intended for a different audience than other books on applied linguistics meant for specialists in the field (e.g., McCarthy, 2001; McDonough, 2002; Seidlhofer, 2003).

AN INTRODUCTION TO PRAGMATICS: SOCIAL ACTION FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS. Virginia LoCastro. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2003. Pp. xi + 366. $27.50 paper.

This book is intended as a textbook for students in language teaching training programs and fulfills this goal as a readable and comprehensive introduction to the field of pragmatics with an emphasis on topics that inform second language research and teaching. Respect for this diverse audience is reflected in the examples selected, which come from a variety of languages and social contexts. Although I am not wholly positive about some aspects of the presentation of the material, as will be shown, overall the text is one I would recommend.

ASPECTS OF THE SYNTAX, THE PRAGMATICS, AND THE PRODUCTION OF CODE-SWITCHING: CANTONESE AND ENGLISH. Brian Hok-Shing Chan. Bern: Peter Lang, 2003. Pp. ix + 333. $74.95 cloth.

Are there syntactic constraints to code-switching? Based on Chan's University College London dissertation, this book argues that code-switched utterances are constrained by the same set of mechanisms that govern monolingual utterances. Building on the work of Mahootian (1993) and MacSwan (1997), Chan makes two additional claims. First, he argues that functional categories and lexical categories behave differently in code-switching. These differences lead him to distinguish between functional and lexical categories in the production process. Second, he extends his initial argument to claim that code-switching and pure languages are governed by the same set of constraints and principles not only for syntax but also for production and pragmatics.

EXTENDING THE SCOPE OF CORPUS-BASED RESEARCH: NEW APPLICATIONS, NEW CHALLENGES. Sylviane Granger and Stephanie Petch-Tyson (Eds.). Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003. Pp. 261. $81.00 cloth.

The theme of the 2001 International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English conference was “Future Challenges for Corpus Linguistics.” Some of these challenges include the need for improved methodological standardization, for a clearer link between corpus-based research and linguistic theory, and for further research into the application of corpus linguistics in language teaching. The chapters in this edited volume of proceedings from the conference show how corpus-based research has begun to address these challenges.

DISCOURSE INTONATION IN L2: FROM THEORY AND RESEARCH TO PRACTICE. Dorothy M. Chun. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2002. Pp. xvii + 285. CD-ROM. $52.95 paper.

The objectives of this book are to emphasize the importance of intonation within the discourse domain and to draw upon research to suggest ways of teaching discourse-based intonation to second language (L2) learners. This book is organized in three parts. The first provides an overview of linguistic theories on prosodic elements. In this part, the author discusses four major categories of intonation according to function: grammatical (e.g., using intonation to mark prominence or stress), affective (e.g., to express attitudes or emotions), sociolinguistic (e.g., to signal politeness), and, importantly in this book, discourse (e.g., to contribute to cohesion in speech). Part 2 takes a look back at L2 research on pronunciation and intonation and the early teaching focus on individual sounds. This leads to the discussion of the current and future direction for teaching that emphasizes the discourse level of speech with an eye toward developing interactional competence at the macro level of communication. Studies have shown that improvement in the functional use of prosody contributes to higher production ratings for L2 speakers (Wennerstrom, 1998).

NOUN COMBINATION IN INTERLANGUAGE: TYPOLOGY EFFECTS IN COMPLEX DETERMINER PHRASES. Christiane Bongartz. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2002. Pp. xv + 161. 48.00 € paper.

Bongartz's monograph uses a crosslinguistic typological approach to examine the impact of first language (L1) noun combination strategies on the development of analogic interlanguage forms. A three-language comparison of the typologically distinct languages Czech, Chinese, and English shows two basic noun combination patterns: phrasal combinations and the use of incorporation strategies for the creation of compounds. Czech prefers phrasal combinations, English allows for both phrasal combinations and compounds, whereas Chinese is at the opposite end of the typological continuum insofar as it demonstrates a preference for compounds. Empirical data from Czech and Chinese learners of English as a second language reveal that L1 combination preferences indeed affect which English strategy is chosen: Czech learners use phrasal combinations more often and Chinese learners prefer compounds.

ACCENTS AND SPEECH IN TEACHING ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY. Ewa Waniek-Klimczak and Patrick James Melia (Eds). Bern: Peter Lang, 2002. Pp. 358. $62.95 paper.

This volume is a potpourri of articles written mostly by Polish scholars (all but four authors are from Polish universities; the others are from universities in Croatia, Slovenia, and England). Because of the shear number of articles (24), space limitations preclude my providing more than a brief summary and comments.

AN INTRODUCTION TO APPLIED LINGUISTICS. Norbert Schmitt (Ed.). London: Arnold, 2002. Pp. viii + 344. $72.00 cloth, $25.00 paper.

Applied linguistics is currently undergoing interesting developments connected with new research areas and tools. At the same time, there exist numerous introductory textbooks to various subbranches and general overviews of the discipline. The present volume is yet another addition to the field, covering both traditional areas and approaches as well as more recent tendencies. In his preface, Schmitt describes the book as a “broad overview of applied linguistics” written at “the ‘sophisticated introduction’ level” (p. vii). The book is indeed broad in scope and sophisticatedly simple. It opens with a concise overview of applied linguistics, followed by three major parts devoted to the description of language and language use, major areas of inquiry, and language skills and assessment, respectively. Part 1 covers grammar, vocabulary, discourse analysis, pragmatics, and corpus linguistics. Part 2 investigates SLA, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and the language learner. Finally, Part 3 covers listening, speaking and pronunciation, reading, writing, and assessment. The book concludes with suggested solutions to the activities, references for individual chapters, and an index. The chapters, authored by 31 leading experts, are all organized in similar fashion, with introductory discussion and appropriate definitions, further analyses, notes on possible implementations and implications for language teaching and research, numerous quotations from source literature, annotated further readings, and stimulating hands-on activities.

THE HANDBOOK OF HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS. Brian D. Joseph and Richard D. Janda (Eds.). Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. Pp. xviii + 882. $146.95 cloth.

This is the latest of some 15 volumes in Blackwell's series Handbooks in Linguistics. The volume reviewed here—although not without interest to specialists in SLA—is probably of less interest to readers of this journal than others of the series (e.g., The handbook of second language acquisition edited by Doughty & Long, 2003). All volumes included in the series are handbooks only in the sense of including presentations of basic knowledge; in reality, they are lengthy books that go well beyond such basics. Closely related to this title is The handbook of language variation and change (Chambers, Trudgill, & Schilling-Estes, 2003), which is concerned with the interface of historical and sociolinguistics.

AN INTRODUCTION TO CONTACT LINGUISTICS. Donald Winford. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. Pp. xvii + 416. $77.95 cloth, $38.95 paper.

Winford begins with a thorough review of the literature on language contact and an outline of the areas of dispute—for instance, challenges to the family tree view of language change and the resistance of many to accept explanations for change that are not internally motivated. He believes that more debate is necessary concerning the degree of language mixing in all languages and laments the continued belief held by some historical linguists that contact-induced change plays little—if any—role in change.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY: LECTURES ON APPLIED LINGUISTICS IN THE AGE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY. Carol Chapelle. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2003. Pp. xv + 211. $39.95 paper.

In this volume compiled from several years of recent lectures, Chapelle synthesizes research on technology and language learning to lay bare theoretical questions of SLA and second language (L2) assessment that can be reformulated, pushed forward, and reevaluated through technology. She argues that, in order to do so, it is necessary that the field of applied linguistics “engage more consciously and proactively with the complex language-technology reality in which the profession is working” (p. xii) and that technology must not be viewed simply as a tool of efficiency in L2 research and assessment.

AN INTEGRATED VIEW OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: PAPERS IN HONOR OF HENNING WODE. Petra Burmeister, Thorsten Piske, and Andreas Rohde (Eds.). Trier, Germany: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2002. Pp. xxv + 552. 40.00 € paper.

Wode's lifetime of scholarship can be divided loosely into three general research areas, each of which comprises one section of this edited volume: theory-building in first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition, the development of speech production and perception skills in L1 and L2, and immersion education and foreign language teaching. This first area of work, dating from the 1970s and early 1980s, draws in part from Wode's detailed analysis of the language of his four young children. The second, initiated in 1989 with Pieper, stems from a large-scale study of early phonological development. Finally, the third, begun in the wake of European integration, came out of his work to support immersion programs and language learning in preschools and elementary and secondary institutions.