Alternative approaches to second language acquisition Dwight Atkinson (Ed.). London: Routledge, 2011. 196 pp.

Abstract

Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition, edited by Dwight Atkinson and published by Routledge in 2011, reviews six theories in SLA, presented by renowned experts, that provide an alternative to and complement the long-dominant cognitivist perspective and show how they interact with each other, as well as with cognitivism. The book, whose target audience is SLA teachers, SLA researchers, and graduate students, goes beyond cognitivism, connectionism, and other, more recent, theories that tend to focus on the purely linguistic evidence. Its key strengths are that it presents which areas of SLA are covered by one theory but not by another, its quick presentation of theories, frequent comparisons, and an excellent and updated bibliography for each theory. The book is recommended for those who want to improve their understanding of classroom teaching. Practical teaching strategies are not abundant in this book, though some of the strategies reported in it can be adapted to the classroom.