Book Reviews

155

doi:10.1017/S0272263109990374

SELECTED PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2007 SECOND LANGUAGE
RESEARCH FORUM . Melissa Bowles , Rebecca Foote , Silvia Perpiñán ,
and Rakesh Bhatt (Eds.). Somerville, MA : Cascadilla Press , 2008 .
Pp. v + 262.

Individual papers presented at the 2007 Second Language Research Forum
(SLRF), held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were selected
based on peer reviews for publication in this volume. Each of the selected papers,
in one way or another, makes a solid contribution to the fi eld of second language
(L2) studies and, together in this volume, are representative of the range of
theoretical and empirical issues encountered in SLA. In the foreword, the editors
state that the papers refl ect the “diverse areas of interest encompassed by SLRF
itself” (p. v); however, the volume seems to be somewhat more devoted to the
theoretical study of SLA, as 13 out of the 19 papers are infl uenced by linguistic
theory in the areas of either L2 morphosyntax or phonology. Note that none
of the papers in this volume pertains solely to language pedagogy, which may
be due to the fact that SLRF tends to be more theoretically oriented than other
conferences in the fi eld (e.g., Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages,
American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages); on the other hand,
the nature of these articles may also refl ect the editors’ interests, or a combination
of the two.

This volume is divided into six sections, each representing a different the-

matic area. Whereas the fi rst section includes two papers on L2 morphosyntax
in a nominal domain, the second section contains fi ve papers on L2 morphosyn-
tax with a focus that extends to the sentential domain. The issues addressed in
these papers on L2 morphosyntax vary from an investigation of adult accessi-
bility to L2 representational features (specifi cally, the Spanish determiner
phrase) to an investigation of how early and late Korean English bilinguals inter-
pret the exempt binding of Korean local anaphors. The third section includes
four papers that investigate the acquisition of L2 pragmatics, such as the use of
conventional expressions of thanking, apologizing, and refusing. The fourth
section consists of three papers on L2 phonology, each with very different foci.
One paper, for instance, reports on the prosodic constraints in the acquisition
of English primary stress, and another paper discusses social, experiential,
and psychological factors affecting L2 dialect acquisition. The fi fth section is
composed of two papers on awareness in SLA. A paper on the use of gesture in
the foreign language classroom stands by itself in section 6, which is entitled
“Conversation Analysis and SLA” because this was the research method used in
that study. The fi nal section of the volume includes two papers on the acquisition
of morphosyntax by heritage language learners. The fi rst article deals with the
usage and interpretation of plural markers in Korean, and the second article
investigates differential object marking by heritage learners.

All of the papers are well written and data in tables are frequently supplemented

with diagrams and charts, which help to illustrate and summarize important infor-
mation. Unfortunately, the editors chose not to include the selected papers’ ab-
stracts. Consequently, the reader is unable to quickly survey the contents of the

Book Reviews

156

articles to decide whether a certain paper is of interest. On the positive side, how-
ever, most papers’ introductions provide suffi cient theoretical background to make
the research design and results accessible to the reader. It is also helpful that
most of the selected papers include an appendix with the materials of the study,
which will aid in future replication research.

Although the broad range of thematic areas typical for conference proceedings

can be considered an asset, it can also be viewed as a potential drawback, as
most scholars in L2 studies do not have expertise in the variety of fi elds included
in this volume. Therefore, the proceedings, in its entirety, may not be of interest
to scholars with specifi c areas of expertise. Relevant papers could be down-
loaded at http :// www . lingref . com / cpp / slrf / 2007 / index . html . There are areas of
current SLA research that are not included; for example, the areas of sociocul-
tural theory relating to SLA, L2 assessment, and neuropsychology of SLA are
not addressed. It is unclear whether this was due to the selections made by the
editors or to the lack of submissions to this volume. The lack of comprehensive
coverage, however, is inevitable, given the breadth of research currently being
conducted in this quickly expanding fi eld.

As the majority of the selected papers are linguistically rather than pedagog-

ically oriented, the volume could very well serve as suggested reading in a graduate
course on formal approaches to the study of SLA. Additionally, even though this
volume is not perfectly balanced in terms of cognitive or linguistic and sociolin-
guistic approaches to the study of SLA, it succeeds in providing good examples
of a variety of areas investigated and approaches employed in L2 research.

( Received 5 June 2009 )

Maren Schierloh

Michigan State University