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reader might turn to some other recent other monographs (e.g. Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001; Baldry and Thibault,2006) and collections (e.g. O’Halloran, 2004; Ventola and Moya Guijarro, 2009). It is safe to predict, however, that itwill be some time before this area settles down.

References

Baldry, A., Thibault, P.J., 2006. Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis: a Multimedia Toolkit and Coursebook. Equinox, London.

Halliday, M.A.K., Matthiessen, C.M.I.M., 2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar, third ed.). Arnold, London. Revised by C.M.I.M.

Matthiessen.

Kress, G., van Leeuwen, T., 2001. Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. Arnold, London.

O’Halloran, K.L., 2004. Multimodal Discourse Analysis: Systemic Functional Perspectives. Continuum, London.

Ventola, E., Moya Guijarro, A.J., 2009. The World Shown and the World Told. Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK.

Yang, X.Z., Xin, Z.Y., 2009. Duo motai yanjiu zongshu. (Multimodal studies: an overview). In: Huang, G.W., Chang, C.G. (Eds.). Annual Review

of Functional Linguistics, Gongneng yuyanxue niandu pinglun, vol. 1. Higher Education Press, Beijing, pp. 23e34.

Zhiying XinSchool of Foreign Languages, Sun Yat-sen University, 135 Xingang Western Road,

Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of ChinaE-mail address: xinzy5921@yahoo.com.cn

doi:10.1016/j.system.2011.10.007

Insights into Non-native Vocabulary Teaching and Learning, R. Chacon-Beltran, C. Abello-Contesse,M. del Mar Torreblanca-Lopez (Eds.). Multilingual Matters, Bristol (2010). x þ 230 pp.

One doesn’t have to read very widely in the vocabulary acquisition literature to find references to the fact thatwhereas 30 years ago Paul Meara labeled vocabulary studies “a neglected aspect of language learning” (1980), today,in Paul Nation’s words, “Research on vocabulary teaching and learning has increased so much that it is now difficultfor one person to keep on top of this field” (2008: xi). In such a situation, researchers and others interested invocabulary are forced to prioritize and specialize and one cannot help asking when encountering yet another volumeon vocabulary, “What does it offer that I can’t get elsewhere?” While this edited volume may not be of particular helpto L2 teachers, it does contain papers potentially of importance to vocabulary researchers and L2 materials developers.

The book begins with a chapter by the editors bemoaning the lack of theoretical modeling in vocabulary acquisitionresearch and pointing out the current disconnect between vocabulary research findings and L2 materials development.There are three parts, the first addressing the “Development of a model for vocabulary teaching and learning,” thesecond containing “Empirical studies on lexical processing in English and Spanish,” and the third dealing with“Materials design and strategies for vocabulary teaching and learning.”

The first two chapters of Part 1 (Chapters 2 and 3) lay the groundwork for the rest of the book. In Chapter 2, BatiaLaufer marshals evidence against implicit/incidental learning as the primary means of L2 vocabulary acquisition andthen demonstrates the value of form-focused vocabulary instruction via both second language acquisition theory andempirical evidence. In Chapter 3, Norbert Schmitt outlines key findings from the last two decades of vocabularyresearch and their implications for pedagogy. He convincingly defends the claim that both explicit/intentional andimplicit/incidental vocabulary learning are necessary since they offset each other’s weaknesses. The fourth chapter, byTal Caspi and Wander Lowie, makes a significant contribution to L2 acquisition research by demonstrating thatDynamic Systems Theory (DST) offers considerable explanatory power as regards L2 learning in general andvocabulary learning in particular. DST insists learner performance data cannot be explained without reference toearlier learner states and that inevitable variation in performance is not “noise” to be discarded via regression analysisbut rather the inevitable companion of growth. Since, as the editors point out in the initial chapter, there exists a “lack

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of a general theory explaining the processes involved in lexical acquisition” (p. 2), this chapter in particular makesa valuable contribution to the vocabulary acquisition literature.

Part 2 consists of several empirical studies dealing with lexical processing in either English or Spanish. Chapter 5,by T. Sima Paribakht, describes a replication study providing some corroboration for her earlier findings that learnerswhose L1 lacks a word or compound word equivalent to an L2 lexical item will have greater difficulty inferring themeaning of the L2 item than learners whose L1 does offer an equivalent word or compound. The chapter also containsa stimulating discussion of additional apparent L1 effects on L2 lexical inferencing. Chapter 6, by James Milton, JoWade, and Nicola Hopkins, explores the possibility that aural word recognition knowledge (tested via AuralLex)might predict aural/oral communicative competence as tested by the IELTS test in the same way that orthographicword knowledge (tested via X_Lex) has been demonstrated to predict reading and writing competence. Interestingly,however, their study found this only partially true, perhaps because AuralLex fails to reflect the fact that after a fewthousand words, vocabulary common to both speaking and writing tends to give way to vocabulary used almost solelyin writing. Chapter 7 is problematic, for in it Teresa Lopez-Soto attributes learners’ superior ability to produce a targetword when shown its picture in conjunction with phonologically similar distractors compared to semantically relateddistractors to the facilitative effects of phonological similarity. However, interference caused by semantically relateddistractors, an effect well-documented in the literature (Folse, 2004; Nation, 2000), seems a more likely explanation ofher findings. Chapter 8, by Rachel Allan, is also weak in that it minimally surveys relevant vocabulary acquisitionliterature (e.g. Nation, 2001) and perhaps as a result, addresses a research question (regarding the relative effectivenessof concordance vs. dictionary learning tasks) which robust theory and repeated empirical investigation would suggesthas long been answered. Chapter 9, by Diana Frantzen, describes a study clearly demonstrating incrementalvocabulary acquisition by advanced learners of Spanish and finding that advanced learners are able to acceptcontextual pressure for altering their semantic understanding of polysemous words.

Part 3 of the book deals with “Materials design and strategies for vocabulary teaching and learning.” Chapter 10describes two important studies by Jim Lawley demonstrating that two groups of Spanish students preparing foruniversity entrance examinations, most of whom had studied English for eight years, could provide a Spanishtranslation for only 27% of a random 20 words from the most frequent 660 words of English, probably because thesewords were inadequately addressed in their EFL textbooks. This is damning, for these most frequent words are vitalfor the learning of additional vocabulary from context. While Lawley’s proposed solution is bilingual list learning,which can produce unwanted ordering effects (Schmitt, 1995), he presents a well-reasoned, research-groundedargument which, although it swims against the tide of the communicative language teaching paradigm dominanttoday, aligns well with repeated calls from leading vocabulary acquisition researchers for direct learning of vocabulary(Laufer, 2010; Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2010).

Chapter 11, by Marıa Dolores Lopez-Jımenez, should be required reading for every L2/FL textbook author andpublisher as, in a mere 10 pages, it provides an outstanding summary of L2 vocabulary acquisition research findingsthus far and their logical implications for materials development. It also includes a careful study of the treatment ofvocabulary in twenty-four L2 English and L2 Spanish general-purposes textbooks, clearly identifying their strengthsand weaknesses in relation to the vocabulary acquisition literature. Chapter 12, by Carmen Perez Basanta, is somewhatdisjointed (largely because of poor editing) but does provide preliminary argumentation for how psycholinguisticstheory, constructivism and the characteristics of a Web-based learning environment can fit hand-in-glove with oneanother and therefore that psycholinguistics and constructivism should strongly influence the shape of Web-basedvocabulary-learning applications. Chapter 13, by Zorana Vasiljevic, describes a careful study demonstrating thatwhile vocabulary learning by means of L2 definition-matching and word associations (both paradigmatic andsyntagmatic) produce nearly equivalent vocabulary acquisition results, inferencing produces much less learning(as other research would predict for short periods of time like that of the study period - see Beck et al., 1983; Folse,2004; Schmitt, 2000).

Unfortunately, Chapter 12 is not the only chapter to suffer from poor editing/proofreading. Such errors are rife andlikely to produce some irritation for readers. For example, in the editors’ own introductory chapter, an in-text referenceis made to a quote by Paul Nation, but the citation following the quotation itself is to Norbert Schmitt (p. 2). The samechapter also contains two typographical errors: “have perfectfull [sic] knowledge” (p. 3) and “World [sic] Learning”instead of “Word Learning” (p. 9).

While, as mentioned earlier, Insights into non-native vocabulary learning and teaching contains a few paperswhich, due to their failure to take into account the relevant research, are very weak, it does also contain very strong

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papers (i.e. those by Lopez-Jımenez and Lawley) which do an outstanding job of overviewing the vocabularyacquisition literature to date and of outlining specific materials development implications. In addition, Caspi andLowie’s paper introducing Dynamic Systems Theory as a possible answer to the longstanding gap in modeling L2vocabulary acquisition is extremely valuable, since DST promises to tie together many disparate threads fromvocabulary acquisition research thus far. Therefore, in spite of its weaknesses, Insights into non-native vocabularylearning and teaching is a valuable addition to the library of any vocabulary researcher or L2 materials developer.

References

Beck, I., McKeown, M., McCaslin, E., 1983. All contexts are not created equal. Elementary School Journal 83, 177e181.Folse, K., 2004. Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.

Laufer, B., 2010. Form-focused instruction in second language vocabulary learning. In: Chacon-Beltran, R., Abello-Contesse, C., del Mar Tor-

reblanca-Lopez, M. (Eds.), Insights into Non-native Vocabulary Teaching and Learning. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, UK, pp. 15e27.

Meara, P., 1980. Vocabulary acquisition: a neglected aspect of language learning. Language Teaching and Linguistics: Abstracts 13, 221e246.

Nation, I.S.P., 2000. Learning vocabulary in lexical sets: dangers and guidelines. TESOL Journal 9 (2), 6e10.

Nation, I.S.P., 2001. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Nation, I.S.P., 2008. Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies and Techniques. Heinle Cengage Learning, Boston.

Schmitt, N., 1995. The word on words: an interview with Paul Nation. Language Teacher 19 (2), 5e7.

Schmitt, N., 2000. Vocabulary in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Schmitt, N., 2010. Key Issues in Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. In: Chacon-Beltran, R., Abello-Contesse, C., del Mar Torreblanca-Lopez, M.

(Eds.), Insights into Non-native Vocabulary Teaching and Learning. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, UK, pp. 28e40.

Monica RichardsDepartment of English, Iowa State University, 203 Ross Hall, Ames, IA 50011,

United StatesE-mail address: monicagr@iastate.edu

doi:10.1016/j.system.2011.10.008