Book Reviews

150

steadily, appears to have remained trapped in the comparative fallacy—an
approach to learner language that relies almost exclusively on notions of transfer
and underuse or overuse and on contrastive models such as CIA and ICM. This
volume will be of interest mostly to researchers interested in advanced learner
writing; more sifting and interpretation of the fi ndings seems necessary before
the implications of the research in these chapters can be fruitfully accessed by
language teachers.

REFERENCE

Granger , S . ( 1996 ). From CA to CIA and back: An integrated approach to computerized

bilingual and learner corpora . In K. Aijmer , B. Altenberg , & M. Johansson (Eds.),
Languages in contrast: Papers from a symposium on text-based cross-linguistic studies.
Lund 4–5 March 1994 (pp. 37 – 51 ). Lund, Sweden : Lund University Press .

( Received 10 May 2009 )

Federica Barbieri

Monterey Institute of International Studies

doi:10.1017/S0272263109990349

GRAMMAR ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING INSTRUCTION:
SECONDARY AND CUMULATIVE EFFECTS . Alessandro G. Benati and
James F. Lee . Clevedon, UK : Multilingual Matters , 2008 . Pp. xvi + 211.

Although extensive research on the topic of input processing has produced
many published works, this volume adds to this body of research by examining
secondary and cumulative effects of instruction, an area yet to be investigated.
Secondary effects result from transfer-of-training to a processing problem that
is similar to the primary target of instruction, whereas cumulative effects are
found when instruction affects a processing problem that differs from the
primary target of instruction: If the primary target is the French imperfect tense,
secondary effects may be observed in the French subjunctive and cumulative
effects may be observed in French causative constructions with faire “to do”
(chapter 5). After providing an overview of processing instruction as well as an
introduction to secondary and cumulative effects of instruction, Benati and Lee
report the results of three studies that have tested such effects in three dif-
ferent second languages. The authors also provide an appendix, which is a
useful tool not only to illustrate the materials used in the different studies but
also to enable readers to compare and contrast processing instruction with
traditional instruction—even if the materials for traditional instruction activ-
ities are not provided for all studies.

Graduate students who are not yet familiar with processing instruction will fi nd

chapter 1 quite accessible and informative, even if the key studies of processing
instruction are not presented in much detail and readers would need to consult
the original articles to fi nd exact results. The presentation of the studies is user-
friendly—short summaries, fi gures, and tables enable a quick glance at the content
of the chapters—in spite of quite a few unfortunate typos. There are some repeti-
tive passages, especially in the introduction of processing instruction and of the

Book Reviews

151

activities used during treatment; however, this repetition allows each empirical
chapter to be read as a stand-alone chapter and thus to be used independently.

In chapters 3–5, Benati and Lee review three studies they conducted with the

goal of investigating secondary or cumulative effects of instruction. Note that
the cumulative effects of instruction are only examined in one study (chapter 5).
Despite the small number of participants in each study, the results are quite striking:
Processing instruction was found to have an effect not only on the focus of
treatment (i.e., primary effects) but also on similar or different processing prob-
lems that were not the focus of treatment (i.e., secondary and cumulative effects).
Nonetheless, given that the number of participants in each study is rather small,
a more fi ne-grained analysis of individual results would have strengthened the
fi ndings, and the reader is left to wonder whether all participants showed sec-
ondary or cumulative effects in all studies. This question is revived in the fi nal
chapter, in which relevant principles and hypotheses are summarized, including
the individual difference hypothesis, which states that “some learners benefi t
more from PI [processing instruction] than do others” (p. 172). A discussion of
the individual difference hypothesis would have been warranted earlier in the
text with or even before the presentation of the studies, and it is a bit surprising
that Benati and Lee did not address this hypothesis.

The main limitation of this volume seems to lie in its lack of detail, which at

the same time contributes to its nontechnical appeal. As a consequence, there
are a few minor shortcomings. Taking the French study (chapter 5) as an ex-
ample, the researchers’ motivation for the inclusion of irregular forms in addi-
tion to regular forms in the test of secondary effects (i.e., the subjunctive in
French) is never made apparent to the reader. Because participants in the
processing instruction group are found to acquire aspects of the subjunctive
despite the mix of regular and irregular forms, it is quite puzzling that Benati
and Lee did not discuss this point, as it would strengthen the argument for pos-
itive effects of processing instruction.

All in all, graduate students will fi nd this volume a gold mine of ideas for research

topics because Benati and Lee not only encourage follow-up studies but also
provide an array of new areas of investigation. Researchers in the fi eld will certainly
be interested in discovering the additional effects of processing instruction
discussed by the authors and will no doubt, as a result of reading this volume,
be motivated to conduct research of their own.

( Received 6 May 2009 )

Claire Renaud

Indiana University

doi:10.1017/S0272263109990350

SECOND LANGUAGE IDENTITIES . David Block . New York : Continuum ,
2007 . Pp. vii + 230.

This highly readable volume covers the past, present, and future directions of
the study of identity in second language learning contexts. The reader is engaged
by Block’s accessible prose and examples throughout and emerges with a fairly