Linguistic analyses suggest that the nongeneric use of the English definite article the falls into four major categories: cultural, situation, structural, and textual. This study aims to determine whether these uses present different levels of difficulty for ESL students and whether they are acquired at the same time. The instrument consisted of 91 sentences containing 60 deleted obligatory uses of the (15 per category) and, as control items, 40 zero articles (10 per category) where the is not allowed. The participants (41 low-, 49 intermediate-, and 38 advanced-level students) were instructed to read the sentences and insert the wherever they deemed necessary. Statistical analyses of the participants' performance indicate the following: (a) The four nongeneric uses pose different levels of difficulty, which suggests that ESL acquisition of the is use dependent and follows a natural order; (b) The participants' performance on the suppliance of the in obligatory contexts for all four uses improved significantly with proficiency level, whereas the overuse of the followed a different pattern: an initial worsening followed by an improvement as the subjects' proficiency level increased. Pedagogical implications, including instructional sequence and strategies for the various uses of the, are discussed.

This study explores the developmental pattern observed when Japanese adult learners acquire the locality condition on English reflexives. Experimental tasks were designed specifically to deal with the methodological problems of earlier research and then administered to Japanese learners of English at five proficiency levels (n = 411) as well as English and Japanese control groups (n = 40). Results from the learner groups indicate that the locality condition is acquired significantly better with sentences containing embedded that-clauses (type E-1) than with sentences containing embedded infinitival clauses (type E-2). This asymmetry exists even at beginning stages of learning and persists through later stages. For type E-2 clauses, there is an appreciable percentage of advanced learners (about 35% in this study) who failed to acquire the locality condition, which, I argue, is extremely difficult to account for within the UG models proposed thus far.

The present study examines the processing of Spanish future tense morphology incidentally while reading in a second language. Previous L1 and L2 reading research has demonstrated that readers can acquire new vocabulary as a result of reading, but can they also acquire formal properties of the second language grammatical system? The participants in the present study had no previous knowledge of future tense morphology such that, as they read the passage used in the study, they encountered the target form for the first time, which is an accented á on the end of an infinitive—for example, dependerá “he, she, or it will depend.” Several variables were manipulated: (a) the frequency with which the target form appeared in the input passages (6, 10, or 16 exposures); (b) the learner-readers' orientation to the task (neutral, meaning oriented, or form oriented); and (c) cues to meaning (the presence or absence of future-oriented adverbials). The effects of these variables were measured on both comprehension and input processing immediately after reading, 2 weeks later, and 1 month later. Comprehension was measured with a free-written recall and a multiple-choice comprehension test. Input processing was measured with a multiple-choice form recognition test and a modified cloze-form production test. The results indicate that all three variables have some effect on comprehension and input processing.

This experimental study investigates the differential effects of three conditions (nonnegotiated premodified input, negotiation without “pushed output” [Swain, 1985], and negotiation plus pushed output) on L2 learners' vocabulary comprehension and acquisition (receptive and productive). Analyses of variance performed on the data indicated that: (a) negotiated interaction had a positive effect on the comprehension of L2 words; (b) only negotiated interaction that incorporated pushed output appeared to have promoted both receptive and productive acquisition of words as well as an increase in productive word retention; and (c) negotiated interaction plus output did not promote receptive acquisition more than negotiation without output, but it was more effective in promoting productive acquisition. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence for the important role of negotiation in facilitating the comprehension and acquisition of L2 vocabulary, which suggests that output plays a key role within the negotiation process for productive lexical acquisition.

Simard and Wong (2001) raise serious concerns about the theoretical and empirical (Leow, 1998b) aspects of Tomlin and Villa's (1994) model, which postulates a fine-grained analysis of attention for SLA and the prediction that awareness at the level of detection is not crucial for further processing of second or foreign language (L2) data. According to Simard and Wong, Tomlin and Villa's frequently cited model has provided the “theoretical motivation for recent studies of input enhancement and especially of textual enhancement in SLA” (p. 104), an impact that needs to be viewed with caution (p. 105). To motivate their critique of Tomlin and Villa's model, the authors repeatedly question the validity of basing their model on “findings from the research contexts of psychology and neuroscience” (p. 105) and, in turn, put forward suggestions for a model of attention that they claim would better reflect the complex nature of SLA as well as suggestions for “new” research orientations relating to attention and awareness in SLA.

Foreign language and mother tongue presents Kecskes and Papp's cognitive-pragmatic theory of language acquisition in bilinguals and multilinguals. The unique aspects of this theory are that it examines the positive effects of learning a second language on the first language and that it uses multicompetence rather than monocompetence as its starting point. The authors argue that “people who know more than one language have different knowledge of their first language L1 than do monolingual people, and this difference can be due to the effect of subsequent languages on the development and use of L1 skills” (p. ix). This is essentially their first hypothesis. Their second is that the more conscious, analytic, bottom-up approach to L2 learning can have a positive effect on the L1, which was learned using a more subconscious, synthetic, and top-down approach. Their third hypothesis is that because of a so-called common underlying conceptual base, new knowledge and behaviors obtained through the L2 can enhance the real-world knowledge and linguistic skills of learners in their L1 as well as in their L2.

Language policy and pedagogy, as its subtitle suggests, is dedicated to A. Ronald Walton, who died quite young in 1996. Walton had served as the deputy director of the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) in Washington, D.C., since its founding in 1986, and the contributors to this volume all have had direct or indirect connections to the NFLC. Further, the essays in this volume are all related to issues and areas that were of concern to Walton during the course of his career. All of that having been said, this work is considerably more than a typical Festschrift; it is in fact a timely and important contribution to the growing literature dealing with both language policy and planning studies and contemporary issues in U.S. foreign language education policy and practice.

Editor Michel DeGraff provides us with a thought-provoking collection of studies that address topics involving language acquisition, creole formation, language change, and the connections between the three phenomena. One of the main goals of the volume is to arrive at a better understanding of the interaction between the “extraordinary external factors” surrounding the formation of pidgins and creoles and the “ordinary internal factors” involving U(niversal) G(rammar)–constrained language invention (p. 11), a UG-type repackaging of Thomason's ordinary-processes–extraordinary-results take on language mixture. The underlying theme DeGraff uses to connect the varied contributions is, in fact, UG: “This volume is seeking the right ‘version of universalist influence interpreted as constraints on the formal structure of creoles, in fact of natural language'” (p. 17). In characterizing the processes of pidginization and creolization, DeGraff chooses a narrow definition, that of the plantation situation (p. 2), thus disregarding interethnic pidgins and creoles (e.g., Hiri Motu and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea) and fort creoles (e.g., many of the Portuguese-based creoles). Although DeGraff does not point this out, he does mention other biases of the book: (a) it focuses only on morphosyntax from a generative UG-like focus; (b) it largely neglects variationist and quantitative approaches; (c) it does not explore the connection between UG and all-purpose cognitive structures (except Newport; see below); and (d) it considers only a subset of creoles that emerged from contact with European colonizers.

This edited volume was inspired by Rosenthal's belief that it is becoming increasingly more important for American students to know more than one language and that greater collaboration among educators at colleges and universities will not only be beneficial for the programs and their students but will also “promote a more language-competent society” (p. ix). Unfortunately, because of institutional or disciplinary boundaries, many educators involved in a particular type of second language program may be unaware of colleagues with similar concerns. This book attempts to bridge this gap by showcasing a wide variety of undergraduate programs that share the aim of promoting bilingualism among their students.

The need to recognize the presence and significance of language diversity in educational settings in the United States has become increasingly apparent to educators and educational policy makers in recent years. Among the more contentious debates about public education that we have witnessed have been those concerned directly with language and linguistic matters, not the least of which have been those dealing with the education of minority-language students in general and bilingual education programs in particular. Also, frequent touchstones for educational debate have been efforts to “recognize” African American Vernacular English as many children's first and dominant language variety—a matter of no linguistic controversy at all but one of immense political and educational controversy, as events in Oakland, California, made quite clear. Although of increasing significance and relevance, it is interesting that relatively few works have sought to target one of the more important audiences concerned with such debates: future classroom teachers. Issues of language and language diversity are largely absent from the teacher education literature, and preservice teachers are relatively unlikely to be exposed in any significant or in-depth way to such matters in their formal preparation (see Reagan, 1997). As David Corson notes in Language diversity and education, “A major challenge for beginning teachers is to understand how language differences construct and reflect ideologies and power relations, especially through the work that teachers do themselves” (p. 96). Fortunately, the two books under review here provide an excellent start for helping new and future teachers to develop the type of critical language awareness necessary if they are to meet the needs of their students more adequately.

This book, which appears in a series called Langues en Péril“languages in peril,” is an accessible and well-written panoramic view of the French-based creoles spoken in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. In her introductory remarks, author Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux addresses the confusions regarding the notions of language and dialect, presenting clearly and concisely how a linguistic system can be a language without being written or prestigious or belonging to any given geographical region. She touches on why some of the French-based creoles, such as Louisiana Creole French, may be endangered and extends the definition of an endangered language to include cases in which a creole can lose its “creoleness” through decreolization. This allows her also to discuss the question of diversity among French-based creoles, although, as she points out, this rich diversity is often overlooked for ideological or other reasons.

This collection originated from a conference held in Braunschweig, Germany, in June 1998 at which participants were invited to analyze the role of English as a global language and to develop research perspectives for its teaching and learning. Written by nonnative as well as native speakers of English (working in English-speaking countries where English is not a native language), the articles provide a basis for consideration of whether “the concept of English as a global language is assessed differently by experts depending upon whether they are native or non-native speakers of English and if so, to what extent” (Introduction).

This book is a ten-chapter ethnolinguistic study of the language and social behavior of a group of 3-year-old third-generation British children schooled in the northeast of England. Their families are settled migrants who speak languages other than English at home and in their community. The study uses audiotaped recordings of the children's language, together with thick contextual description, to provide insights into ways in which young children learn to be communicatively competent in their new environment.

Charlene Sato, a noted scholar in SLA and creole studies, is honored by this text. Many chapters analyze Hawai‘ian Creole English (HCE), which Sato promoted as a living language, and it is in that spirit that the editors have included short stories in HCE.