Learning strategies in second language acquisition By J. Michael O'Malley and Anna Uhl Chamot (review)

416 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 67, NUMBER 2 (1991) room discourse' (169-88), consider West German pupils of English and their classroom discourse, following the transcript-analytic model of John Sinclair & Malcolm Coulthard 1975 (Towards an analysis ofdiscourse, Oxford University Press). Hüllen & Lorscher demonstrate that there is a hierarchy of illocutions, the levels of which are shown to shift, in teacherpupil interaction, from questions about topic to questions about correctness of form. Gabriele Kasper ('Interactive procedures in interlanguage discourse", 189-230) distinguishes between 'procedural' and 'declarative' knowledge of discourse rules. She builds on the work of Goffman, Schegloff. and House to contrast systematically openings, closings, and the functions of discourse regulation in two distinct environments —educational and noneducational discourse. Philip Riley, in 'Well, don't blame me: On the interpretation of pragmatic errors' (231-50), builds very effectively on the notions of 'pragmalinguistic' and 'sociopragmatic ' failures described by Jenny Thomas ('Cross-cultural pragmatic failure". Applied linguistics 4, 1983). Finally, Mary WildnerBassett examines 'Coexisting discourse worlds and the study of pragmatic aspects of learners' interlanguage' (251-75). Extending Kasper's 1982 analysis of the classroom-constructed 'pidgin' of language learners ('Teaching-induced aspects ofinterlanguage discourse'. Studies in second language acquisition 4), WildnerBassett describes 'discourse world-switching'. There are a few proofing errors, in addition to the delightful claim that America has a 'demoncracy '. A central problem in the book is the lack of a uniform notation for pragmatic transcription (e.g. for indicating sarcastic prosody )—a lack which, lamentably, is an index of the state ofcontrastive pragmatic studies in general . [David W. Murray, Brandéis University.) Learning strategies in second language acquisition. By J. Michael O'Malley and Anna Uhl Chamot. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. 260. Cloth $34.50, paper $12.95. Despite so many shared areas of interest, linguistics and cognitive psychology have to a large extent developed independently of each other. Thus, studies of language learning have often been conducted without reference to what we know about other kinds of human learning. This has been particularly so in the past few years. For instance, a notion such as Chomsky's 'Language Acquisition Device' is notoriously not amenable to analysis. More recently, the 'Natural Approach', so influential in foreignlanguage teaching, sees language acquisition as proceeding unconsciously, given the appropriate environment and input. The somewhat vague terminology—'comprehensible input', 'affective filter'—employed in this perspective throws little light on how learning (acquisition?) actually occurs. Far from accounting for individual differences among language learners, it seems that theorists are often unaware that these differences exist. O'Malley & Chamot reject the tendency exemplified in the Natural Approach and other current models. The authors argue that secondlanguage learning parallels the acquisition of other cognitive skills, and can be accelerated and made more efficient by appropriate teaching and learning strategies. Reviewing the literature of the past fifteen years or so in this area, they find a wide but disparate set of theoretical formulations to account for 'the good language learner'. These include theories of communicative competence and ideas derived from computation and information processing. Their own views are to a large extent based on J. R. Anderson 's information processing theory. Anderson , like so many others, has distinguished between declarative and procedural knowledge, a particularly fruitful distinction when one is thinking about language learning, since language involves knowing how and knowing that. The latter can benefit from explicit instruction, while the former can be built up through practice. O'M&C's goals are to determine what cognitive processes are involved in acquiring these kinds of knowledge, and if possible to design teaching procedures that favor such acquisition. This book might well be added to reading lists for graduate courses in second-language acquisition or applied linguistics. The authors are to be commended for trying to bring to bear a unified theory in a field that has fostered so many disparate and isolated ideas which, though interesting in themselves, have little relationship to each other. O'M&C show a comprehensive grasp of the relevant literature, and are at their strongest when expounding the theoretical background. Their review ofempirical evidence is a little weaker—some of the research reported here is quite slight in terms of numbers BOOK...