This book uses a feminist, poststructuralist perspective to examine the relationships among gender, second language acquisition and multilingualism. It is a welcome addition to the study of these topics, which are usually examined separately. Gender is rarely considered in research on second language acquisition, and most studies of language and gender are conducted in monolingual contexts. This volume proposes a new interdisciplinary approach to these issues which “strives to theorize and to investigate the role of language in the production of gender relations, and role of gender dynamics in language learning and use” (p. 22).

The first section, “Gender, society and ideology in multilingual settings,” focuses on the “gatekeeping and discrimination which take place in various communities of practice” (4). In their introductory chapter, Aneta Pavlenko & Ingrid Piller argue that, although traditional theories of second language acquisition present learners as passive receptacles of input and output, learners are in fact active agents in their learning. Gender ideologies are one of the factors affecting learners' language choices. Gender is indexed covertly in most bilingual and multilingual communities; it is “mediated by ideologies of language, gender, and power, so that particular languages or ways of using them are positioned as predominantly feminine or masculine” (34). But, since languages acquire different meanings across contexts and cultures, the indexicality between languages and gender is continually renegotiated, and this is manifested in different ways through language practices.

These ideas are nicely illustrated in the three empirical chapters that follow. Adrian Blackledge, focusing on literacy events in British society, argues that teachers' perceptions of Bangladeshi women deny them access to “the rules and values of the dominant group” (72). Teachers dismissed the efforts Bangladeshi women made to foster their children's literacy because those efforts took place in a language other than English. In so doing, the teachers exacerbated the unequal power relationships of British society more generally.

In her study of Portuguese women immigrants in Canada, Tara Goldstein shows how gender ideologies can limit the access minority women have to a dominant language. Because of the cultural proscription against taking classes with men, most of the women did not avail themselves of the English classes offered them. Those who did learn English rarely used it at work; workers with friends on the factory line could expect help in times of trouble, and the language of friendship was Portuguese.

Similarly, in her examination of students in overseas language programs, Susan Ehrlich finds that gender ideologies often restricted women's access to a second language, while they enhanced that of men. Women were often discouraged from speaking the second language, for example, because they were ridiculed or harassed by local men when they did so. Men, in contrast, had greater access to the informal networks conducive to second language acquisition – and often found local women eager to engage them in conversation, which further increased their opportunities for second language learning.

The second section, “Negotiation and performance of gender in multilingual contexts,” looks at how language is used to perform gender identities in private settings. In her examination of autobiographies and oral narratives, Pavlenko contends that women are often eager to learn a second language when they perceive it to be more gender-neutral than their first language. Many men, however, are less enthusiastic when they find that speech acts key to performing masculinity in their first language – bawdy jokes, flowery compliments – are inappropriate in the second language. But women, too, can find it difficult to negotiate their gender identity in a second language. Yumiko Ohara found that English/Japanese bilingual women, aware of the association between femininity and high pitch, purposely manipulated Japanese to perform the kind of identity they wanted to project. Some changed their pitch to hasten their acceptance as “feminine” Japanese women; others maintained the lower pitch they used in English to project a more assertive, independent persona.

The two remaining chapters in this section point out how gender and second language acquisition can play out in romantic relationships. Marya Teutsch-Dwyer focuses on a Polish man's attempts to learn English in America. She contends that the positive response he receives from his female – -in contrast to his male – interlocutors actually impedes his acquisition of English: “He did not have to use ‘correct’ English because his stories were well received [by women] and his jokes laughed at” (185). Piller, in her examination of German-American couples, argues that bilingualism can disadvantage women in ways it does not men. Wives were more likely than husbands to find themselves in a “doubly weak” position – living in a foreign country, and using a second language as the main language within the marriage. Women were also more likely to feel a loss of national identity; all of the women, but none of the men, reported that they no longer considered themselves natives of their country of origin.

The final section, “Gender in multilingual educational settings,” while focusing on bilingual case studies, has implications for multilingual settings as well. Monica Heller, in her investigation of a French-English school in Ontario, shows how boys benefited from the school culture more than did girls. It was mainstream boys who constructed the school's discursive space, while girls were relegated to secondary roles. And it was boys from the margins who were more successful in challenging prevailing norms. Somali boys were able to use hip-hop music as a bridge between them and white boys; Quebecois boys were able to use the audiovisual club as a site for constructing a masculine persona. While one group of academically oriented girls, the “Nerds,” also challenged hegemonic gender roles, they remained on the margins of school life, their perspectives and achievements largely ignored.

However, Cheiron McMahill, in her investigation of Japanese women learning English, points out that women can successfully use a second language to challenge reigning gender ideologies. Even though English is associated with hegemonic Western culture, these women were able to transform the language into a tool for personal empowerment. Feeling constrained by language-specific Japanese notions of femininity, they used English to construct more assertive, independent identities. Ultimately, McMahill's work demonstrates how learners can imbue a second language with new meanings that liberate them. This suggests that they can also transcend the andro- and ethnocentricism of the textbooks used to teach them, a topic discussed by Claire Kramsch & Linda von Hoene, who examine three college-level German textbooks used in American classrooms. The explicit curriculum of all three texts seems closely aligned with feminist theories of difference that would advocate that students “accept the impossibility and, indeed, the undesirability of identifying seamlessly with the other and … understand the value of identities constructed by inhabiting multiple cultures” (288). However, none of these books fulfills this promise in that they proffer an understanding of culture as “univocal” and homogenous, and of the prototypical German speaker as male.

Taken together, this research clearly demonstrates that, unlike the idealized, abstract learner posited in much research on second language acquisition, learners' social identities have real consequences for second language experiences and outcomes. Indeed, this research shows that learning a second language is “not always a boon,” to the extent that it can threaten a person's gender or ethnic identity. To scholars interested in second language acquisition, this research suggests that much theoretical insight can be gained by paying more attention to the experiences of adults, especially as they negotiate the workplace. To scholars of language and gender, it offers second language learners as a rich source for inquiry. In its attention to these issues, this volume makes a valuable contribution to linguistic anthropology, education, and linguistics.