Chapter 3, "Factors affecting second language acquisition," is a particularly good chapter. It begins with a task that asks the reader to rate a set of characteristics according to their degree of importance for a "good language learner." For example, it asks how important the characteristic "is a willing and accurate guesser" is, on a scale of 1-5. This is a good introduction to the topic for those who have not thought about learner characteristics. It is especially appropriate for classroom teachers who may have opinions about learner characteristics but are not familiar with the research on this topic. The rest of the chapter discusses specific learner characteristics such as intelligence, learning styles, and age of acquisition with reference to specific research findings. The discussion includes clear and useful comments about the problems presented by different research methodologies.