Phonological evidence supports the frequency-based model proposed in the article by Nick Ellis. Phonological reduction occurs earlier and to a greater extent in high-frequency words and phrases than in low-frequency ones. A model that accounts for this effect needs both an exemplar representation to show phonetic variation and the ability to represent multiword combinations. The maintenance of alternations conditioned by word boundaries, such as French liaison, also provides evidence that multiword sequences are stored and can accrue representational strength. The reorganization of phonetic exemplars in favor of the more frequent types provides evidence for some abstraction in categories beyond the simple registration of tokens of experience.

Introduction to Linguistics 2.0 (henceforth IL2.0) is an attempt to provide an introduction to linguistics in the form of an interactive CD-ROM. According to the CD booklet, it can be used as “an autonomous learning environment,” offering “a valuable alternative to conventional methods when it comes to presenting linguistic phenomena in a lively and exciting way” (p. 2). Although I am very sympathetic to the authors' intentions, I did not find that the goals were attained in an optimal way. At most, IL2.0 can be used for introducing a unit in a class or for users who want to know whether they should take a linguistics course. In a sense, it is like a demo tape. Its content is extremely weak, especially when we compare it with recent introductory linguistics textbooks (e.g., Fromkin, 2000; Radford, Atkinson, Britain, Clahsen, & Spencer, 1999).

This is the seventh volume in the highly acclaimed “Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities” series published by Gallaudet University Press. This volume is the first major attempt to document and analyze linguistic variation in American Sign Language (ASL). Based on seven years of research spread across the United States, including data collected from seven sites (Staunton, VA; Frederick, MD; Boston, MA; New Orleans, LA; Fremont, CA; Olathe, KS, and Kansas City, MO, together; and Bellingham, WA), Sociolinguistic variation in American Sign Language is a major contribution to the growing literature on the linguistics and sociolinguistics of ASL. It seeks to “provide a comprehensive description of the variables and constraints at work in sign language variation” (p. xv), building on the existing linguistic literature dealing with ASL. It succeeds admirably, if not in providing the final word on these complex issues, then by offering not only fascinating insights into sign language variation but also an empirical database that is unmatched in its depth and breadth in the field.

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.

McNamara's book on language testing is part of a series that introduces various areas of language study to readers with little or no formal training in linguistics. Like the other books in the series, it provides a broad overview of trends and issues in the field rather than going into technical depth in any one narrow area. The intent of this approach is to make the material accessible to a wide audience and to provide a “bigger picture” perspective that would render deeper consideration of particular language testing issues more meaningful. McNamara succeeds in making his contribution to the series comprehensible, while at the same time making it challenging and provocative on both intellectual and social levels.

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.

The extent to which form-focused instruction contributes to the acquisition of second language implicit knowledge is controversial. Whereas Krashen (1993) has argued that the effects of FFI on acquisition are peripheral, N. Ellis (this issue) sees FFI as facilitative and even necessary for developing implicit L2 knowledge. This article examines the role of FFI in developing implicit knowledge by reviewing 11 studies that have examined the effect of FFI on learners' free production. The review suggests that FFI can contribute to the acquisition of implicit knowledge and points to two variables that appear to influence its success—the choice of the target structure and the extent of the instruction. FFI involving extensive instruction directed at “simple” structures was more likely to succeed. However, limited instruction directed at complex structures also proved effective, provided that the target structures are readily available in noninstructional input.

Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning, edited by James Lantolf, contains nine research reports and two theoretical papers that introduce the sociocultural tradition to the wider field of second language acquisition (SLA) and provide specific examples of questions and methodologies that emerge from the sociocultural framework. Sociocultural theory expands the types of inquiry addressed by the field of SLA research by suggesting a participation metaphor of language learning as an alternative to, or an expansion of, the more widespread input-output or computational metaphor. Although the book is designed primarily for researchers, most chapters also explore ways that sociocultural theory and research can inform language pedagogy.

Ellis refers to a wide range of data supporting the uncontroversial claim that there are frequency effects in linguistic and other behavior. He further resurrects the long-discredited claim that language acquisition consists of frequency-based abstraction of regularities from input. What he fails to do is to show how the former claim leads to the latter, or indeed to show any evidence for this claim. Ellis ignores fundamental and well-known problems—the poverty of the stimulus, cases of instantaneous acquisition, evidence for innate knowledge, evidence that even children regularly ignore perceptual input, the compositionality of concepts, and the systematicity of language—that make his frequency-based account of acquisition a nonstarter.

This volume consists of a collection of 18 chapters of previously published articles, mostly classic works on bilingualism (all but five were published before 1990). The majority of the authors are very well known and well respected scholars in the field: Auer, Blom, Ching, Clyne, de Bot, Ferguson, Fishman, Galloway, Genesee, Green, Grosjean, Gumperz, Jake, Mackey, Meisel, Milroy, Myers-Scotten, Obler, Paradis, Poplack, Vaid, Wei, and Zatorre. Wei's motivation for this reader is that it serve the dual purpose of compiling many of the important articles on bilingualism, which in many parts of the world are unavailable because of inadequate library facilities, and encourage researchers to read the original works rather than commentaries on them. As Wei put it, “I am nevertheless concerned that a new generation of ‘scholars' might be emerging out of a ‘hear-say' tradition” (p. ix).

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.

In the introduction to The power of tests: A critical perspective on the uses of language tests, Elana Shohamy raises the following questions: What is the meaning of a test for test takers, parents, teachers, and school administrators? What are the short- and long-term consequences of tests on the lives of individuals? What are the motivating factors behind the administration of language tests? What are the politics of the tests? These kinds of questions logically arise when the examination of testing includes a concern with the use of tests by educational institutions, policy makers, and society at large. Focusing primarily on the misuse of tests, this volume chronicles both intended and unintended test consequences.

In this response to Ellis's target article on frequency in language processing, language use, and language acquisition, we argue in favor of a role for frequency in several areas of second language acquisition, including interactional input and output and speech processing. We also discuss areas where second language acquisition appears to proceed along its own route and at its own pace regardless of the frequency of the input, as well as areas where input is infrequent but acquisition appears to be unimpeded. Our response is intended to highlight the complexity of the task of deciphering the role and importance of frequency.

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.

Lexical borrowing among languages is a commonplace in the study of linguistics. Still, the recognition of the bona fides of the various sign languages of the world is relatively recent. In this volume, Brentari offers a fascinating series of case studies of borrowing in five different sign languages.

This book is intended as an introduction both to the principles and parameters framework (Chomsky, 1981) and to the second language (L2) acquisition of syntactic representations. Hawkins's basic aim is to present evidence for the view that L2 learners progressively build subconscious mental grammars (i.e., a syntactic system) guided by Universal Grammar—an innate, language-specific system. However, this volume is not just an introductory textbook presenting and summarizing the work of other researchers in this particular field. Indeed, the book has another major aim: Within the context of the most current debates on the L2 acquisition of syntactic knowledge, Hawkins introduces his own theory of L2 development, which he terms Modulated Structure Building.

In its 20 chapters, this edited book opens new paths for theory and research in the area of foreign and second language (L2) motivation. It will be particularly useful to researchers, graduate students, and others who want to see an array of approaches to the topic. Both qualitative and quantitative investigations are included along with a number of themes that have not yet received much research attention: learning strategies and motivation, teacher motivation and its effect on learner motivation, personal identity, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and beyond, unsuccessful learners' motivation, demotivation, and learning as “foraging.”

Input-driven models provide an explicit and readily testable account of language learning. Although we share Ellis's view that the statistical structure of the linguistic environment is a crucial and, until recently, relatively neglected variable in language learning, we also recognize that the approach makes three assumptions about cognition and language learning that are not universally shared. The three assumptions concern (a) the language learner as an intuitive statistician, (b) the constraints on what constitute relevant surface cues, and (c) the redescription problem faced by any system that seeks to derive abstract grammatical relations from the frequency of co-occurring surface forms and functions. These are significant assumptions that must be established if input-driven models are to gain wider acceptance. We comment on these issues and briefly describe a distributed, instance-based approach that retains the key features of the input-driven account advocated by Ellis but that also addresses shortcomings of the current approaches.

Language Ideologies is a two-volume anthology, published in conjunction with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and “designed for educators, administrators, ESL experts, scholars, and all those who are concerned about language as a source and product of discrimination in our schools and society” (Vol. 1, p. xliii)—not that a reader will learn very much about language ideologies, a topic that has surfaced in the 1990s (see Woolard & Schieffelin, 1994; Schieffelin, Woolard, & Kroskrity, 1998). The ideology here refers solely to the ideas and beliefs used by the Official English Movement and English Only to legitimate their interests, “specifically by distortion and dissimulation” (see Eagleton, 1990, p. 30). This ideology is mostly not analyzed but rather labeled with assertions of “hegemony of the dominant culture” and the like, whereas the ideology that motivates this publication is never problematized and barely acknowledged (but see James Cummins's intelligent Foreword to Vol. 1). The result is a curious sense of English Only bashing at the same level as H. L. Mencken's “If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for you.”

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.