David Hirsh (ed): Current Perspectives in Second Language Vocabulary Research

I'm not sure how I feel about including this much academic literature in a blog that has heretofore been a bit recreational, but I am a completist by nature.  I have written without fail about every book I have read for nigh on eight years now, and can't think of a good reason to exclude this volume, even though it will be of little interest to most people.  If, by the way, you have an interest in linguistics and literature, leave a comment and we can become pen pals :D

Which is not to say that I have a lot to offer about this book.  I had high hopes for it, simply based on the title, but the connection to my desired topic was rather tangential.  This is a good thing, though!  In developing my thesis, I have become a bit paranoid that my (in my opinion) rather insightful and potentially significant findings have already been documented elsewhere, and are therefore old hat.  What a relief that this book came nowhere near my topic, instead focusing on such things as whether frequency or manner of instruction has a bigger influence on retention, or the distinctions between productive and receptive vocabulary acquisition.  Both significant, to be sure, and I don't consider the reading a waste of time, but I have found that much more helpful material comes from the psycholinguistic perspective, rather than such a pragmatic viewpoint as this volume represents.