Input for Instructed L2 Learners: The Relevance of Relevance (review)

Input for Instructed L2 Learners is an interesting contribution in which Anna Nizegorodcew addresses second language teaching from the perspective of relevance theory (Sperber & Wilson, 1986/1995), a cognitive theory of communication based on the general premise that the human cognitive system is geared to maximize relevance (i.e., our whole cognitive system - perception, memory and inference - is designed to select information that is potentially relevant to us) and aims to identify 'underlying mechanisms, rooted in human psychology, which explain how humans communicate with one another' (Sperber & Wilson, p. 32).

According to this theory, human cognition evaluates the potential relevance of input by using a general principle: an input is relevant if the number of cognitive effects (in plain words, its potential interest) is high and the mental effort involved in processing it is low. It surprises me, however, that Nizegorodcew repeatedly discusses 'cognitive effect' (in the singular) in exchange for processing effort. Although relevance theory claims that relevance is a quantitative notion (in the sense that our mind is able, perhaps through subtle neurochemical steps, to test the number of effects producing interesting outcomes), the practical impossibility of measuring these steps empirically has led to a more qualitative approach to relevance, in which the mind is pictured as weighing competing inputs for the best effects/effort balance.

This general cognitive principle is now applied to L2 learning. There are few such examples, and Nizegorodcew's book is probably the first exhaustive application of this theory to L2 since the 2004 special issue of Second Language Research dealing with the same topic. Therefore, Input for Instructed L2 Learners deserves close attention not only from researchers within relevance theory but also from specialists in L2 who are willing to broaden their theoretical horizons with a new approach to this field. Readers interested in pursuing this line of research should also consult section 22 of the online bibliographical resource Relevance Theory Online Bibliographic Service (Yus, 2000-2007).

Intentionality also plays a central role in relevance theory (communication under this theory involves the fulfilment of two types of intention: communicative and informative), and Nizegorodcew also emphasizes the role of classroom input, understood as the language intentionally presented to the learners by the teacher, or by other learners, in order to facilitate the process of L2 learning or acquisition. She also provides an overview of L2 classroom input from two closely related perspectives: an L2 teaching perspective and an interactional discourse analysis view. After focusing on input in the light of second language acquisition (SLA) theory and a communicative approach, she elaborates on the analysis of teachers' (and peers') input within L2 classroom discourse in the light of relevance theory.

Having explored L2 classroom discourse as a source of knowledge about language use and language learning, Nizegorodcew argues that the teachers' language can facilitate learning by shifting learners' attention from meaning to form (and vice versa). Therefore, L2 classroom discourse can help to introduce changes in the expected optimal relevance of classroom communication. Her theoretical stance is backed up by the discourse from seven different research projects that explore qualitative and quantitative aspects of L2 English classroom interaction and teacher-talk input in Polish secondary school settings. In this sense, her use of numerous discourse transcriptions of real classroom situations makes this book a highly valuable resource for determining what really goes on in classroom communication.

By the end of Nizegorodcew's analysis of discourse from the perspectives of both SLA and relevance theory, we end up convinced of the pedagogical implications of her study:

1. 1. The L2 teacher should be a mediator between meaning and form in classroom communication.

2. 2. L2 teachers should communicate with their students in the target language, unless the affective or instructional circumstances make them momentarily code-switch to L1.

3. 3. Teacher-centred classroom communication can develop communicative competence if the teacher's main focus is on real communication and not only on practising accuracy.

4. 4. Group-work activities should be...