In the past two decades, research about learning and teaching second-language (L2) vocabulary has increased greatly, so both teachers and researchers will enjoy reading an engaging and accessible work in this area, Researching and Analyzing Vocabulary. The authors have succeeded in presenting noteworthy studies in important categories of L2 vocabulary research, including step-by-step analyses that help readers to become better consumers of research. More important, the information is presented

more »

... n accessible language, allowing the book's 14 chapters to serve as a dynamic addition to the libraries of anyone with an interest in lexical research. Both Nation and Webb have numerous publications on lexical issues. In this most recent work, however, they have written a more comprehensive book in which they explain how to research various aspects of vocabulary, offer expert analyses of existing studies, and enhance the likelihood that readers might conduct lexical research. In addition, this text was written to serve several types of readers including students engaged in research who seek to further their understanding of issues in L2 vocabulary learning and research and L2 instructors who wish to incorporate more evidence-based practices into their vocabulary classrooms. Because the content of the book is quite topic-specific, it is not intended for use as an introductory text on research design, but rather for informing readers with an interest in L2 vocabulary. The organization of Nation and Webb's book facilitates its navigation. Readers with a pedagogical focus will be drawn to the first two sections, that is, the first seven chapters, which discuss both deliberate and incidental vocabularylearning and present several possible techniques that vocabulary teachers can implement in their classrooms and, more important, the research that has been conducted on these particular practices. The third section presents information related to corpus-based research such as making and using word lists. Finally, the fourth section presents information on assessing vocabulary knowledge. Readers with an interest in developing research knowledge will benefit from the presentation of multiple studies in all sections of the book as the authors discuss and critique notable studies related to the topic covered in each chapter. Also, researchers will benefit from the authors' guidelines for conducting inquiries, discussion of potential research studies, and suggestions for designing studies to bridge gaps in knowledge in specific areas of vocabulary acquisition. A closer examination of any chapter of the book illustrates this consistent organization; in this review, I focus on Chapter 11. Chapter 11 is dedicated to measuring vocabulary size. Nation and Webb introduce this important topic by discussing its general value, noting that vocabulary size "is clearly a major determinant of successful language use"