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145

the main differences between SLA and the acquisition of additional languages.
The chapters on crosslinguistic infl uence are the strongest, providing a state-of-
the-art account of research on the topic, with the exception of studies on the
pragmatic and discourse levels. One of the limitations of this volume is that it
focuses on the psycholinguistic aspects of language acquisition and gives little
attention to social and emotional aspects. This shortcoming is justifi ed to a
certain extent because the author’s aim is to focus on “multilinguals’ acquisition
and production processes” (p. 1). Within this more psycholinguistic focus, an
overview of studies that use neuroimaging would have been welcome to see if
these studies also confi rm the trends reported in this volume. In conclusion,
this volume is an important contribution not only for those interested in the
acquisition of additional languages but also for scholars working on different
aspects of SLA.

REFERENCES

Cenoz , J . ( 2009 ). Towards multilingual education: Basque educational research in interna-

tional perspective . Clevedon, UK : Multilingual Matters .

Jessner , U . ( 2006 ). Linguistic awareness in multilinguals . Edinburgh, UK : Edinburgh

University Press .

Safont , M. P . ( 2005 ). Third language learners: Pragmatic production and awareness . Clevedon,

UK : Multilingual Matters .

( Received 10 March 2009 )

Jasone Cenoz

University of the Basque Country

doi:10.1017/S0272263109990313

LANGUAGE LEARNER STRATEGIES: THIRTY YEARS OF RESEARCH
AND PRACTICE . Andrew D. Cohen and Ernesto Macaro (Eds.).
Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2007 . Pp. viii + 336.

Cohen and Macaro have crafted a well-conceived and comprehensive treatment
of second-language (L2) strategies research spanning the last three decades.
Consistently strong throughout, this volume has clearly benefi ted from a re-
freshingly transparent editorial process. Cohen and Macaro describe this
process explicitly in the introduction, enumerating several unique contributions
presented by the collection of chapters (e.g., extensive shaping of the volume’s
scope and contour by all contributing authors). Indeed, the editors’ aspirations
of producing a “landmark publication” (p. 1) may very well be realized with respect
to the volume’s contents as well as its design.

Cohen and Macaro divide the volume into two sections, which together

account for and are evidence of the vast breadth and depth of L2 strategies
research, past and present. The fi rst seven chapters focus on a wide variety of
theoretical, methodological, and practical issues. Authored by recognized
experts in this area, the chapters in Part 1 approach these topics from many
different angles, which range from historical to defi nitional, critical to intro-
spective. Oxford and Schramm (chapter 3), for example, echo recent voices

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146

(e.g., Larsen-Freeman, 2007 ) in a sincere call to move beyond the dominantly
psychological perspective taken in L2 strategies research by integrating socio-
cultural approaches or, ideally, adopting a novel theoretical and methodolog-
ical framework that can account for all phenomena of interest. White, Schramm,
and Chamot (chapter 5) provide a similarly progressive and in-depth discus-
sion of data collection techniques and instruments, which, despite possessing a
central role in all veins of empirical research, are left out of many specialized
tomes. Overall, the contributors to this fi rst part manage to not only summarize
but take principled and, at times, even brave steps toward advancing theory in
an area noted as being fundamentally challenged by “defi nitional fuzziness”
(Tseng, Dörnyei, & Schmitt, 2006, p. 79).

Following previous landmark reviews of L2 strategies (e.g., Chamot, 2005 ;

McDonough, 1995 ), part 2 is divided according to different skills areas. The strength
of this part lies in the use of systematic reviewing in each chapter. By employing
exhaustive search techniques to locate and synthesize the entire body of re-
search on a given topic (as opposed to the more subjective procedures of tradi-
tional literature reviews), the systematic reviews conducted in part 2 contribute
significantly to the comprehensibility, reliability, and objectivity of all five
synthetic accounts of the L2 strategies literature. By distilling the last three
decades of empirical research, these chapters make an ideal complement to the
strong theoretical and methodological foci in the fi rst half of the volume.
For example, all fi ve draw on and provide skill-specifi c discussions of strategy
instruction, the broader issues of which are covered extensively in Rubin, Chamot,
Harris, and Anderson’s chapter in part 1. Additionally, by systematically review-
ing the research to date, each chapter in part 2 exposes and integrates seam-
lessly into the discussion a number of areas where further inquiry is needed.

Although potentially of interest and surely accessible to most L2 researchers,

the intended audience of this volume is somewhat narrow. However, with a
wide range of topics covered, researchers in areas tangentially related to L2
strategies (e.g., psychometrics, reading, classroom pedagogy) will fi nd certain
chapters highly relevant to their work.

Finally, although this volume is exemplary in accomplishing the task of re-

viewing and, at times, advancing our current understanding of L2 strategies,
deviations from well-trodden paths are few. In other words, for an area of inquiry
that shoulders the formidable and inherently interdisciplinary task of “identifying
how learners learn” by uncovering “the interrelationship between teaching and
learning” (p. 28), the contributors appear to have consulted with surprisingly
little research outside the domain of what is traditionally considered applied
linguistics.

There is no doubt that this unifi ed collection of chapters has succeeded in

summarizing the last 30 years of strategies research. Perhaps more importantly,
however, the editors have also produced what will be regarded as a seminal
volume by revealing much of what will become the research agenda in L2 strategies
over the next 30 years.

REFERENCES

Chamot , A. U . ( 2005 ). Language learning strategy instruction: Current issues and research .

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , 25 , 112 – 130 .

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147

Larsen-Freeman , D . ( 2007 ). Refl ecting on the cognitive-social debate in second language

acquisition . Modern Language Journal , 91 , 773 – 787 .

McDonough , S. H . ( 1995 ). Strategy and skill in learning a foreign language . London : Arnold .
Tseng , W.-T. , Dörnyei , Z. , & Schmitt , N . ( 2006 ). A new approach to assessing strategic

learning: The case of self-regulation in vocabulary acquisition . Applied Linguistics ,
27 , 78 – 102 .

( Received 12 April 2009 )

Luke Plonsky

Michigan State University

doi:10.1017/S0272263109990325

BILINGUALISM AND IDENTITY: SPANISH AT THE CROSSROADS
WITH OTHER LANGUAGES . Mercedes Niño-Murcia and Jason
Rothman (Eds.). Amsterdam : Benjamins , 2008 . Pp. vii + 365.

In recent years, learner identity has emerged as a central concern in SLA research
conducted from sociocultural and poststructural perspectives (e.g., Norton,
2000 ; Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000 ). This volume, although not expressly concerned
with SLA, has much to offer those interested in exploring the complex interrela-
tionship between language and identity and its impact on acquisition, mainte-
nance, or loss of second and heritage languages. Taking a social approach to the
phenomenon of bilingualism, the studies collected here illuminate the processes
through which associations between language use and ethnolinguistic identity
are constructed in multilingual societies.

The thread that unifi es an otherwise eclectic collection is the focus on Spanish

in contact with other languages in Spain (where it exists alongside Basque, Galician,
and Catalan), Latin America (where it is the dominant language), and the United
States (where it is subordinate to English). Utilizing a variety of methodologies
(e.g., surveys, interviews, elicitation of oral and written data, life-history narra-
tives, and recordings of naturally occurring talk), these studies explore topics
ranging from shifting attitudes toward language and citizenship in the Basque
Country (Azurmendi, Larrañaga, and Apalategi) and Catalonia (Boix-Fuster and
Sanz) to the Spanish spoken by so-called MexiRicans (individuals with a Mexican
mother and a Puerto Rican father) in Chicago. Among the contributions, several
stand out as relevant for SLA scholars. Two studies that draw on interviews
with high school students in Galicia (Loureiro-Rodriguez) and Spanish heritage
university students in the United States (Urciuoli) explore how tensions
between standard language varieties promoted in schools and the varieties
spoken by students at home impact evaluations of language use, with potential
implications for language maintenance. The effect of nonnative varieties on
identity is taken up in Sánchez’s study of the written Spanish of Quechua-speaking
children and Boix-Fuster and Sanz’s analysis of the Catalan of Spanish-speaking
immigrants to Catalonia, both of which consider how nonnative features may
mark users as outsiders. Shenk’s study of Spanish heritage children in a dual-
immersion program in Iowa reveals the children’s tendency to speak English even
during Spanish activities and identifi es family language ideologies that promote
Spanish cultural and linguistic identity as a factor in increasing children’s Spanish