Acquisition in Interlanguage Pragmatics provides readers with a much-needed insight into the development of pragmatic competence, an area of research long neglected in interlanguage pragmatics. The longitudinal investigation which provides the basic material for this book consists of a corpus of requests, offers and refusals of offers elicited from Irish learners of German over a ten-month study abroad period using production questionnaires and a variety of metapragmatic instruments. The analysis focuses on developments in these learners’ knowledge of discourse structure, pragmatic routines and internal modification. Findings present valuable information pertaining to the process of acquisition of pragmatic competence. They also point to the favourable but imperfect nature of the study abroad context for the development of pragmatic competence. A comprehensive discussion of theoretical and methodological issues, an in-depth analysis and an extensive bibliography make this book of interest to both researchers and students in interlanguage pragmatics, cross-cultural pragmatics, German as a foreign language and study abroad research.

Margaret A. DuFon, California State University, Chico, in Studies in Second Langauge Acquisition, Vol. 26:4 (Dec. 2004):
This interesting and well-written book will be especially appreciated by ILP researchers for its literature reviews, its depth of discussion on method, and its description and explanation of findings within a cognitive perspective. Those interested in study abroad will appreciate its information on the effects of a study abroad experience on the development of pragmatic competence.