Betsy J Kerr

FOCUS ON FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES

FOCUS ON FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES. Jean-Marc Dewaele (Ed.) . Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2005. Pp. x + 242.

NEW INSIGHTS INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING

79.96 cloth,

Grammatical description and classroom application. Theory and practice in data-driven learning

39.96 paper. This volume is a collection of 10 chapters that report on various research projects in SLA, all relating to the learning of French or the nature of French second language (L2) interlanguage (IL). Although the use of the descriptor “multidisciplinary” seems a bit of a stretch, a range of specific research questions is addressed, in varying contexts, including the acquisition of French as a L2 or foreign language, in naturalistic or instructional contexts, by speakers of various first languages (L1s) and at beginning or, often, advanced stages of acquisition. Whereas the volume naturally takes its place in what the editor refers to as “the Anglo-Saxon SLA world” (p. viii) with strong representation of the Universal Grammar perspective, there are also contributors working in variationist sociolinguistics and a traditional psycholinguistic framework.

An Empirical Study of the Syntax and Pragmatics of Left Dislocations in Spoken French

NEW INSIGHTS INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING. Kees van Esch and Oliver St. John (Eds.) . Berlin: Peter Lang, 2004. Pp. 239.

Variant Word-Order Constructions: To Teach or Not to Teach? Evidence from Learner Narratives

47.95 paper. Although this work constitutes Volume 9 of the series Foreign language teaching in Europe , the reader should take literally neither the latter geographical indication nor the titles claim to novelty. Whereas the first half of the dozen authors are American and the second half European, the topics largely cut across the oceanic divide. As for the topics, they correspond to major themes in the field of second and foreign language education over the span of the last two decades.