English 526: Computer Assisted Language Learning

English 526: Second Language Acquisition Chapelle

Book Report

The purpose of the book report is to give you an opportunity to look at the range of issues and type of work that is done in second language acquisition. To accomplish this you need to look at the library for books on second language acquisition, select one of these books, and do a written and oral report on the book. I will schedule a date for your oral presentation when the topic fits into the material we are covering on the syllabus.

Your book report should be about five pages, double-spaced in APA format. You should be sure to include the following in the book report:

1. An introduction explaining why you chose this book, and why it is of interest to you. The introduction should also contain the title of the book and the names of the author(s) or editor(s), as well as the publisher, location, and year of publication.

2. An overview of the major issues covered in the book and the audience for whom the book is intended.

3. A summary of each of the chapters of the book. (You may want to look at some book reviews in journals to see how reviewers do this without including every detail of the chapters). For example, the online journal Language Learning & Technology has reviews that might be useful as examples. Some journals have reviews that are very short, and these would not make good models.

4. A paragraph in which you provide your assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the book.

5. A paragraph in which you describe how the book fits in relation to our textbook by Gass & Selinker. Is the topic of you book covered in our text? How is your book different from or similar to the perspective that is given in the textbook? Do you think that the next edition of the textbook should be revised in order to reflect the findings and perspectives that appear in the book?

You should use these five questions as a way of checking your review for completeness. I will evaluate your review on the basis of these five areas, awarding 20 points for each of the five (5x20=100).