FIGURATIVE THINKING AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING.Jeannette Littlemore and Graham Low. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Pp. xvii + 239. $80.00 cloth.

This volume contributes to SLA research by exploring how language teachers and textbook writers might systematize the acquisition of figurative thinking (i.e., the ability to use and critically reflect on the use of such figures of speech and thought as metaphors, metonymies, similes, and proverbs). The work builds on the momentum gained by research on play and creativity in SLA as well as on the renewed interest in linguistic relativity and insights from cognitive linguistics regarding the relationship of language, mind, and culture. Despite its title, the volume deals exclusively with the teaching of English.