Innovative Research and Practices in Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism ed. by J. W. Schwieter (review)

Although the challenges of translating research into classroom practice have been widely acknowledged (e.g., Spada, 2005), efforts in this direction are much needed and appreciated. This volume edited by John W. Schwieter aims to present cutting-edge theory and research in SLA and bilingualism and to discuss their implications for language pedagogy. It consists of 13 chapters divided into two main parts and a final chapter with a summative commentary. The nine chapters in Part I are mostly devoted to innovative linguistic (i.e., generative) perspectives, while the four chapters that constitute Part II offer more insights from cognitive research.

In chapter 1, VanPatten articulates the importance of differentiating between two broad domains of language: mental representation and skills. He claims that grammar, as part of mental representation, cannot develop through explicit instruction and practice, but only through input processing. Skill, on the other hand, is acquired by engaging in the very behaviours that learners wish to develop. Chapter 2, by Wong, offers useful ideas for putting these principles into practice in the second language (L2) classroom. In chapter 3, Behney and Gass describe a well-designed experiment that used syntactic priming to investigate the effects of input on L2 production. The findings point to the value of priming for learning complex structures and lend support to the Accessibility Hierarchy for relative clauses (RCs).

Long and Rothman address an intriguing yet underexplored issue in chapter 4: Why do tutored and naturalistic L2 users differ in their performances? Drawing on the Competing Systems Hypothesis, they attribute this problem to pedagogical simplifications and advocate that instructors should teach more linguistically precise grammar rules. Bruhn de Gravito, in chapter 5, also takes issue with the way grammar is traditionally taught. She uses the example of mood choice in Spanish RCs to illustrate the complexity of the interfaces between different linguistic modules (e.g., pragmatics and morphology), something that language teachers and textbooks often ignore. Chapter 6, by Barcroft, was my favourite for its excellent balance of theory, empirical findings, and practical recommendations on vocabulary teaching. The author explains how key research findings are reflected in his approach called input-based incremental (IBI) vocabulary instruction, provides guidelines for designing IBI lessons, and discusses a sample lesson in detail.

In chapter 7, Presson, Davy, and MacWhinney inform the reader about the increasing potential of experimental computer-assisted language learning (eCALL) to aid L2 learning and research. Essentially, eCALL can complement and facilitate the work of the teacher while collecting large amounts of data. The study reported by Perpiñán in chapter 8 indicates that task modality and linguistic structure should be taken together to account for variability in the production of Spanish RCs. Lower accuracy in an oral task rather than a written one was explained by the fact that RCs, especially more complex ones, may be part of declarative (explicit) knowledge, which is typically activated in written tasks. Chapter 9 explores the production of tense and aspect morphology by heritage speakers of Spanish in the United States. Based on data from children and adults, Cuza, Pérez-Tattam, Barajas, Miller, and Sadowski conclude that both L1 attrition and incomplete acquisition are at the source of the difficulties experienced by heritage speakers. Teaching strategies that can help learners overcome these challenges are recommended.

The chapters in Part II review state-of-the-art research and theoretical perspectives on the cognitive processes used by speakers of more than one language. In chapter 10, Friesen and Bialystok focus on executive control and language representation. They make a case that understanding how these processes interact can provide important insights for language teaching and assessment. Schwieter and Ferreira, in chapter 11, discuss the processes that underlie bilingual and multilingual speakers’ target language selection and their control of non-target language interference. At the end of their chapter, they argue for the benefits of L2 immersion, which gives learners extensive practice in inhibiting...