Input and Interaction in Language Acquisition edited by Clare Gallaway and Brian J. Richards. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xv+319.

Abstract

Input and Interaction in Language Acquisition edited by Clare Gallaway and Brian J. Richards. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xv+319. Reviewed by Hirohide Mori University of California, Los Angeles In the field of first language acquisition, a number of researchers have in- vestigated the role of input in interaction and for the last quarter of the century, the book Talking to Children: Language Input and Acquisition (Snow & Ferguson, this 1977) has served as a foundation for such work. As a follow-up to Input volume, and Interaction in Language Acquisition offers a theoretically coherent collection of research in this broad and diverse field, drawing together the up-to- date results and discussions of current controversies in the research of normal, as well as atypical language learners, in a variety of social contexts and cultures. After an introduction by Catherine Snow which I: provides an overview of research on input and interaction over the past twenty years, Gallaway and Richards organize the text into three main parts: Part II: General issues (four articles), Part III: Specific aspects of input and interaction (three articles), and Part articles). Types of language learner (three Part I begins with an article by Julian Pine entitled The language of pri- mary caregivers, which discusses child-directed speech (CDS), centering around the main question: What can it [CDS] tell us about the language acquisition process? (p 15). This discussion illustrates that there is a shift in research focus to the interactive from the facilitating effects of CDS on language acquisition processes through which children make sense of input. This change in focus has lead to a shift from quantitative to qualitative methodology. Pine especially pays attention to stylistic differences of In the article, CDS as a promising area of study. The changing role of negative evidence in theories of lan- guage development, Jeffrey Sokolov and Catherine Snow review studies on the relationship between negative evidence and learnability. The authors propose a multiple factors framework of learnability. This framework illustrates the per- spective that language learning involves not only innate but also social factors, and it provides a more complete account of language acquisition processes. How- ever, Sokolov and Snow do not specify the extent of the role of innate constraints, input. in contrast to the roles of learning mechanisms and parental In Crosslinguistic and crosscultural aspects of language learning, Elena Lieven discusses a wide range of language acquisition environments which flect different ideologies re- and sets of child-rearing practices in different cultures. She concludes that regardless of cultural background, children in any Issues in Applied Linguistics ISSN 1050-4273 Vol. 7 No. 2 1996 ©Regents of the University of California