implicit and explicit knowledge in second language learning

MLJ ReviewsEdited by JUDITH E. LISKIN–GASPARROUniversity of Iowa

MLJ Review Policy

The MLJ reviews books, monographs, com-puter software, and materials that (a) present re-sults of research in—and methods of—foreignand second language teaching and learning;(b) are devoted to matters of general interest tomembers of the profession; (c) are intended pri-marily for use as textbooks or instructional aids inclassrooms where foreign and second languages,literatures, and cultures are taught; and (d) con-vey information from other disciplines that relatesdirectly to foreign and second language teachingand learning. Reviews not solicited by the MLJ canneither be accepted nor returned. Books and ma-terials that are not reviewed in the MLJ cannotbe returned to the publisher. Responses shouldbe typed with double spacing and submitted elec-tronically online at our ScholarOne Manuscriptsaddress: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mlj.

THEORY AND PRACTICE

BIGELOW, MARTHA H. Mogadishu on the Mis-sissippi: Language, Racialized Identity, and Educa-tion in a New Land. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell,2010. Pp. xii, 189. $39.95, paper. ISBN 978–1–4443–3874–4.

In this volume Bigelow recounts her 5-year re-search engagement with the Somali diaspora com-munity in Minnesota, with a focus on Somaliyouth’s abysses of experience of hybrid and multi-ple identity construction. As the title suggests, it isinterdisciplinary research that crosses the fields ofapplied linguistics, second language acquisition,sociology, anthropology, and education. This in-terdisciplinarity enables the researcher not onlyto explore the complex object of her inquiry butalso to influence the direction of future research.

This book consists of six chapters. Chapter 1provides an overview by introducing the Somalidiaspora and other key constructs discussed inthe book, including issues regarding advocacy-

integral research on identity and immigrant edu-cation. Chapter 2 discusses research in the area oforality and literacy among adolescents and adultsin the diaspora community and addresses the lackof research in language education on multilingualindividuals without formal education. Chapters 3through 5 present three studies chronologicallycarried out with Somali adolescents to addressthe central theme of the book: how the Somali“youth are hybridizing and negotiating new iden-tities that have very much to do with who theywere, who their families are, and who they arehoping to become” (p. 10). Chapter 6 concludesthe book with implications for educating Somaliadolescent refugees, and the author calls for inter-disciplinary research on language education foryouth with limited formal education and print lit-eracy, as well as engaged scholarship on the inter-twined relationships of language, race, religionand gender in youth’s identity construction in thethird spaces.

The merits of this book lie in its focus on the im-migrant adolescents that represent the most chal-lenging school population in the United States.Given her involvement with the Somali commu-nity, Bigelow presents her understanding of theseteens as a researcher and as their advocate. Sheleads readers to see that U.S. institutions are notprepared to effectively educate these adolescentrefugees who are not only new to the English lan-guage, but also new to print literacy. But in turn,the institutions blame these teens for their “in-educationability” rather than acknowledging orexamining their own problematic education sys-tem and practice. The interdisciplinary naturealso makes this research stand out, which enablesthe researcher to analyze the complex experiencethese teens are tangled in from different perspec-tives. They are caught as other: between theirhome and community and their school, betweenoral and print literacy, between Somali Americanand African American. Through three separatestudies, the author leads readers to understandthe struggles these teens are going through intheir adaptation to a world where English printis dominant and where they experience hostil-ity towards their religion and disrespect of their

666 The Modern Language Journal 95 (2011)

culture. Also, these teens are fighting not onlyagainst the mainstream oppression and stereo-types, but also against other minoritized groups.By integrating her research with advocacy, theauthor helps to “dismantle structural barriers inschooling, document the struggles and strengthsof youth and their families and help educators bemore effective both within and beyond the wallsof academia” (p. 2).

However, there were three major questions per-taining to the research that I wish the author haddiscussed further. First, I question the word Mo-gadishu used in the book title. The word is men-tioned only once (p. 113), and it is used as a slurby the police when addressing Somali childrenand youth. Though it is the capital of Somalia,once used as a slur, the word loses its originalmeaning. Second, in regard to the issue of be-ing mistaken as other, the Somali youth do notlike to be misidentified as African Americans. Itis understandable that they dislike being misiden-tified as people they are not and do not want tobe, but I am concerned that by not wanting toassociate with African Americans because of theirnegative media image, they unintentionally allythemselves with the mainstream society in its dis-crimination of African Americans. I wish the au-thor had addressed this issue and had assumed therole of advocate for all minoritized groups, as theresearch indicates that stereotypes and discrimi-nations within minority groups are just as severeand damaging as those whites and people of colorin U.S. society.

In addition, while reading the three case stud-ies, I could hear the researcher’s voice, her cri-tique and discontent with the education theseteens are receiving, but I wish she had supportedher claims better with data, particularly more con-text for how these teens are undereducated in U.S.schools. For instance, what was the learning con-text or curriculum for these teens? How much En-glish language assistance did they receive? Whatsubjects did they study at the high school level?What did their school experience look like? Inshort, I was looking for data that would showthe inappropriateness of the education offeredto these students.

These concerns notwithstanding, this bookpresents a powerful study. It pushes researchersand educators to think beyond their territories,examine their practices, and try to help the youthwho need our support and assistance in their tran-sition to our country.

DANLING FUUniversity of Florida

BOWLES, MELISSA A. The Think-Aloud Contro-versy in Second Language Research. New York: Rout-ledge, 2010. Pp. 168. $120.00, cloth; $39.95, pa-per. ISBN 978–0–415–99483–5, cloth; 978–0–415–99484–2, paper.

Bowles has produced a meta-analysis of the useof think-aloud protocols in second language ac-quisition (SLA) research. It will be useful to SLAresearchers working in conversation analysis, aswell as sociocultural and cognitive paradigms, allof which have an interest in verbalizations or inner(egocentric) speech. The book guides the readerthrough the historical use and challenges to thevalidity of think-aloud protocols, reviews a modelfrom cognitive psychology, summarizes researchfindings from cognitive psychology and SLA, pro-vides guidelines for data collection and analysis,and outlines directions for future research. Thebook’s organization and lucid prose are decidedlyreader friendly.

Chapter 1 guides the reader through the historyand controversy of think-aloud protocols fromexperimenter-provided verbalizations during theheyday of behaviorism through the shift to a fo-cus on the cognition of the participants. The au-thor notes that both retrospective and concur-rent think-aloud protocols are generally acceptednot only in SLA but also in medicine, anthropol-ogy, and other fields. In first language (L1) re-search, think-aloud protocols are used in studiesof reading, writing, and language testing. In sec-ond language (L2) research, the think-aloud con-troversy emerged as differences over whether lan-guage production was the proper object of studyor whether introspection might provide a com-plementary perspective on cognition. As the au-thor points out, inference from production aloneis risky. Think-aloud protocols are one way thatresearchers have found to corroborate produc-tion data. In L2 research, think-aloud protocolshave been used in studies on reading, writing,translation, interlanguage pragmatics, conversa-tional interaction, attention and awareness, andimplicit and explicit knowledge. Retrospectivethink-aloud protocols, such as stimulated recall,are particularly useful in research on conversa-tional interaction. Studies of attention and aware-ness have more typically made use of concurrentthink-aloud protocols.

Chapter 2 introduces the challenges to the va-lidity of think-aloud protocols. These challengesare defined in terms of reactivity. A think-aloudprotocol is said to be reactive if it has an effect

Reviews 667

on accuracy (veridicality) or on processing or so-lution time (latency). The main challenge to ret-rospective think-aloud protocols is their poten-tial reactivity for veridicality. Stimulated recalls,a retrospective think-aloud protocol, attempt toaddress the veridicality issue by providing astimulus, such as a replay of an interaction, toattenuate the effects of memory decay. The mainchallenge to concurrent think-aloud protocols, es-pecially metacognitive tasks, is their potential re-activity for latency.

The predictive model used by Bowles isa typology proposed by Ericsson and Simon(1964, 1993). This model predicts that non-metacognitive verbalizations will be largely non-reactive, slowing processing only slightly. It pre-dicts that metacognitive verbalizations may bemore reactive, potentially slowing processing aswell as altering cognitive processing. Bowles re-views a handful of studies of the reactivity of think-aloud protocols, among them the seminal workby Ericsson and Simon (1964, 1993), all of whichtended to support the model. The meta-analysisrevealed some effect for task type, suggesting thatsome tasks may be more compatible than otherswith think-aloud protocols. Most of the studies arefrom the field of cognitive psychology. They are,as Bowles points out, of limited relevance to SLAbecause they employed nonverbal or problem-solving tasks. Nevertheless, this analysis serves toacquaint the reader with the reactivity challengesto think-aloud protocols and raises the issue ofthe compatibility of certain tasks with think-aloudprotocols.

Chapter 3 summarizes reactivity studies withverbal tasks from the field of SLA. Due to a lackof homogeneity it was impossible to provide a yesor no answer to the question of reactivity withthink-aloud protocols, but a number of notewor-thy trends emerged across studies. Think-aloudprotocols were associated with facilitative effectson comprehension and receptive form learning,and a detrimental effect on productive form learn-ing. There were small latency effects for gram-mar learning, reading, and metacognitive tasks.Bowles points to the need for further study to ad-dress the possible effects of learner proficiency,language of the task, and task type.

Chapter 4 presents recommendations for datacollection in think-aloud protocols. Here thereader finds helpful advice on obtaining informedconsent, pilot testing, instructions to research par-ticipants, warm-ups, online reminders, and checkson compatible task types.

Chapter 5 provides useful advice on transcrib-ing and coding think-aloud data, accompanied by

examples. She urges review of transcriptions toensure representativeness and insists on the im-portance of reporting inter-coder reliability.

Chapter 6 concludes the book with some of themore salient findings. Bowles notes that reactivityis not unidimensional, as it may either enhance orhinder performance. For example, non metacog-nitive tasks were reactive for receptive form learn-ing, but the effect was to enhance performance.This finding suggests that think-aloud protocolscan be a source of learning. Reactivity with pro-ductive form learning, on the other hand, wasdetrimental to performance. Posttest differencestended to be insignificant, suggesting that think-aloud protocols can be used reliably. Bowles re-peats her call for more research on factors suchas type of report, learner proficiency, explicitnessof instruction, and language of verbalization. Shefurther notes that think-aloud protocols are betterrepresented in reading than in writing research.

Bowles’s advice is indispensable to researcherswhose research may benefit from think-aloud pro-tocols, and her recommendations are consistentwith the data. For example, she urges caution inthe use of think-aloud protocols given their re-activity with reading tasks. She also offers invalu-able advice on the tasks and studies that are mostcompatible with the various types of think-aloudprotocols. As a researcher who has never used athink-aloud protocol, I have gained a new appre-ciation of their utility.

TONY HOUSTONBryant University

DORNYEI, ZOLTAN, with TATSUYA TAGUCHI.Questionnaires in Second Language Research: Con-struction, Administration, and Processing. 2nd ed.New York: Routledge, 2010. Pp. xiv, 185. $39.95,paper. ISBN 978–0–415–99820–8.

Those who make use of questionnaires in secondlanguage (L2) research will find an invaluable re-source in Dornyei and Taguchi’s work. As the au-thors point out, “in spite of the wide applicationof questionnaires in L2 research, there does notseem to be sufficient awareness in the professionabout the theory of questionnaire design and pro-cessing” (p. xiii). This book goes a long way towardfilling that gap.

The book opens with an introductory chapterpointing out what questionnaires are and arenot, along with a thoughtful discussion of their


advantages and disadvantages. Next comes anextended chapter on questionnaire construction,attending to factors such as length, organiza-tion, and sampling of questionnaire contentusing multi-item scales. Particularly helpful arethe sections on various types of closed-endedquestionnaire items (including Likert scales, se-mantic differential scales, rank-order items, andmultiple-choice items) and open-ended items(specific open questions, clarification questions,sentence completion items, and short-answerquestions). Multiple examples of each of theseitem types are provided.

A unique feature of this chapter is the attentiongiven to translating questionnaires into other lan-guages, an issue that is routinely neglected. Theauthors point out the irony in the common prac-tice of devoting significant time and resources toa questionnaire’s construction but paying littleattention to its translation into the language inwhich it will be administered. They suggest utiliz-ing a committee comprised of individuals repre-senting three separate roles—translators, review-ers, and adjudicators—to ensure that the trans-lated questionnaire accurately communicates theintent of the original version.

Chapter 3 deals with questionnaire administra-tion, including a discussion on methods of sam-pling and sample size, an up-to-date treatmentof the advantages and disadvantages of paper-and-pencil, email, and online questionnaires, andhelpful recommendations for increasing the qual-ity and quantity of participant response in each ofthese types of questionnaires.

Chapter 4, which addresses the processing ofquestionnaire data, ironically contains both thegreatest strengths and weaknesses of the book. Astrong point is the detailed treatment of the anal-ysis of quantitative data, including instructions oncoding, keying in, and cleaning up the data, whichI have not seen addressed in similar works. In-cluded are discussions of the treatment of missingdata, the correction of impossible or contradic-tory data, and the recoding of values from nega-tively worded questionnaire items. In contrast, thetreatment of qualitative data is surprisingly short,with only one page devoted to the content anal-ysis of open-ended questions and a conspicuouslack of examples. Researchers who plan to makeextensive use of open-ended questions will wantto supplement this book with other resources.

The final chapter of the book offers an exampleof the construction and piloting of a specific mo-tivational questionnaire (which is the most signif-icant change from the first edition of the book),intended to “provide a detailed, illustrative analy-sis of how an actual scientific research instrument

was developed from scratch following the theoret-ical guidelines” (p. xi). Especially useful is the in-formation on the calculation of the internal con-sistency of the questionnaire items and their sub-sequent modification. The book concludes witha useful checklist for questionnaire constructionthat succinctly summarizes the important pointsfrom each chapter.

The book is written in straightforward, accessi-ble language, with frequent comments by Dornyeithat illustrate the insights gained through years ofexperience in using questionnaires. The work isalso punctuated with witty and informative quotesfrom other authors that help focus the readeron big-picture issues related to questionnaireconstruction.

Overall, this may be the best and most informa-tive work to date on the construction, administra-tion, and processing of questionnaires in secondlanguage research. I will definitely consider usingthis book in my graduate classes on second lan-guage research.

BLAIR BATEMANBrigham Young University

ELLIS, ROD, SHAWN LOEWEN, CATHERINEELDER, ROSEMARY ERLAM, JENEFER PHILP,& HAYO REINDERS. (Eds.). Implicit and Ex-plicit Knowledge in Second Language Learning, Test-ing and Teaching. Clevedon, England: Multilin-gual Matters, 2009. Pp. xi, 408. $49.95, paper.ISBN 978–1–84769–174–3.

Over the past two to three decades, consensushas begun to emerge across diverse disciplinesin support of the notions that implicit and ex-plicit knowledge in language are manifested bymechanisms in distinct areas of the brain, entaildistinct types of representation, and overall arequite dissociated. The current volume is a wide-ranging compilation based on three years’ of com-prehensive inquiry on differentiated roles of im-plicit and explicit knowledge as applied to secondlanguage (L2) acquisition. The authors fully em-brace the dichotomy, asserting that such a parti-tion is essential for teasing apart the functions ofthe two types of knowledge within L2 proficiencyand for understanding the effects of instructionalapproaches on L2 acquisition. They also main-tain that at a basic level, this distinction shapesour grasp of the very nature of the acquisitionprocess. These premises form the basis for severalabsorbing discussions and solid experimental ac-counts throughout this volume.

Reviews 669

The book is logically organized into five inter-connected sections, reflecting the scope and se-quence of the three overarching objectives driv-ing the research project. Specifically, these goalsentail (a) devising tests to measure L2 implicitand explicit grammatical knowledge; (b) iden-tifying the respective relationships between L2implicit/explicit knowledge and general lan-guage proficiency; and (c) exploring the con-tributions of form-focused instruction to the ac-quisition of implicit and explicit L2 grammaticalknowledge. Although each of these objectives re-ceives adequate treatment, it is fair to say that thetwo primary foci of the book are the investigationof aspects of L2 knowledge and L2 instruction,whereas the examination of L2 learning does notreceive equal scrutiny.

Of the book’s five sections, section 1 consistsof a chapter in which Rod Ellis presents an ac-cessible overview of second language acquisition(SLA) research and relates the primary SLA is-sues to L2 implicit and explicit knowledge, learn-ing, and instruction. Additionally, Ellis weighs into conclude the volume in section 5 with an exec-utive summary that does not shy away from assess-ing the previous chapters’ experimental resultsand, when required, acknowledging the limita-tions of the study as a whole. He considers theteam’s initial research plan, noting that it squarelymeets the study’s first objective, while also recog-nizing that the second and third objectives havenot been fully met. For the most part, Ellis framesthe entire study as a work in progress, and thus thereader comes to appreciate that scientific endeav-ors can be successful in the absence of definitiveoutcomes.

Sandwiched between Ellis’s contextualizing in-troductory and closing remarks, the remainingsections of the book lay out an array of method-ologically sound experiments, even though someyield less than conclusive empirical findings. Suchis the case in the foundational second section ofthe volume, which focuses on the developmentof tests as a means of obtaining reliable and validmeasurements of implicit and explicit (grammat-ical) knowledge. The four chapters in this sectionadvance theoretically based testing instruments ofL2 implicit and explicit knowledge that fill a voidin current SLA literature, including the elicitedoral imitation test (ch. 3), response time mea-sures of grammaticality judgments (ch. 4), andthe metalinguistic knowledge test (ch. 5). Thetest batteries clearly demonstrate why experimen-tal results are not always clear-cut even given awell-developed base.

The measures of knowledge are applied tofour rather diverse contexts in section 3: ob-

stacles in the learning of certain grammaticalstructures, the nature of language proficiency,individual variation in language proficiencies,and metalinguistic knowledge of teacher trainees.Chapter 7 presents a helpful evaluation of theInternational English Language Testing System(IELTS) tests and the Test of English as a ForeignLanguage (TOEFL), concluding that to a largedegree both the IELTS and TOEFL draw uponexplicit knowledge. Chapter 8 touches on learnervariability, showing positive correlations betweenimplicit/explicit knowledge and the learner vari-able. Chapter 9 explores the metalinguistic knowl-edge of two distinct trainee teacher profiles, nativespeakers and nonnative speakers, and examinesthe impact of these differences on form-focusedinstruction. The study’s primary finding is thatboth groups of teacher trainees have relatively lowmetalinguistic knowledge, with the native speakergroup being the lower of the two.

The four chapters in section 4 investigatewhether form-focused instruction plays a rolein the acquisition of L2 implicit and explicitknowledge. Form-focused instructional optionsinclude those based on input to students, explicitgrammatical information, production, and cor-rective feedback. The results of input-based versusoutput-based teaching of the indefinite article a asan expression of generic meaning are examinedin chapter 10, with each approach demonstrat-ing merit. Chapter 11 reports on learners whoreceived instruction on the third person –s un-der the condition of intensive exposure in theabsence of explanation. The outcomes show nosignificant effect on implicit/explicit knowledge.Chapter 12 looks at the role of enhanced inputon the intake and acquisition of English nega-tive adverbs. Grammaticality judgment tests wereused to arrive at the conclusion that enhanced in-put positively affects intake and acquisition. Chap-ter 13 inquires whether different outcomes obtainwhen implicit versus explicit corrective feedbackis employed in the target structure, past tense–ed . The researchers’ findings suggest that explicitfeedback effects are greater than those of implicitfeedback.

In terms of content and layout, the combina-tion of detailed information pertaining to studyparticipants, an appendix with test batteries, andcoherent analyses allow for seamless replication ofa number of the studies presented, with the excit-ing possibility of extending or varying the exper-iment for further study. Test results are displayedwith statistical analyses, enhancing the reader’sability to determine the significance of individualfactors in the acquisition of L2 implicit/explicitknowledge. There are some extremely trivial


annoyances such as the lack of an author indexand an unfortunate error on page 24 where chap-ter 10 is referenced when Ellis is referring tochapter 11. In sum, this valuable and timely re-source will complete the reference library of SLAresearchers, teachers, and students.

TERESA SATTERFIELDUniversity of Michigan

KING, NIGEL, & CHRISTINE HORROCKS. In-terviews in Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage Publications, 2010. Pp. viii, 248. $43.95,paper. ISBN 978–1–4129–1257–0.

There has been a recent profusion of manualsdesigned to help novice qualitative researchers.Their how-to approach is undoubtedly a goodthing because these books provide social scien-tists, especially graduate students, with guidelinesfor making their research more systematic and rig-orous. King and Horrocks’s contribution gives usan accessible but sophisticated look at interview-ing as a research method. The authors point outin the introduction that interviewing is a famil-iar activity—we constantly see public figures, ex-perts, and witnesses to an event being interviewedon television—but that as a method, the researchinterview has particular challenges. I agree withtheir premise that conducting a successful inter-view is far more difficult than it may seem, andthere are many subtle complexities that a skillfulinterviewer should be aware of. The book doesoverlap somewhat with other books on the sub-ject, such as Seidman’s Interviewing as QualitativeResearch (Teachers College Press, 2006), but bycontrast it does not focus on a particular type ofinterview, but rather takes a broad approach andcovers a range of interview types.

The book’s eleven chapters are comprehensivein their coverage of the various aspects of inter-viewing, from conducting group interviews (ch. 5)and using recent technologies like Skype (ch. 6)to consideration of ethics in interviewing (ch. 7).The authors present a poststructural view of theinterview as a co-constructed social practice. How-ever, I was surprised that concepts such as inter-subjectivity, which seemed directly related, werenot discussed. The absence of some concepts maybe due to the authors’ applied social psychologybackground, which I found refreshing because itis different from that of researchers trained in theanthropological tradition. For instance, in chap-

ter 2 (“Philosophical Assumptions”) the authorslocate a range of assumptions about knowledgeconstruction that are implicit in the methods ofepistemological traditions in philosophy and so-cial sciences research. They “question notions ofobjectivity and the epistemological integrity ofsearching for one universal truth, suggesting thatwith qualitative interviewing there is the poten-tial for multiple realities” (p. 104). They also takean explicitly critical view, arguing that interviewsmust be “entangled in the politics and practicesof the social world” (p. 126).

Chapters 3 through 6 tend to be didactic, pre-senting solid and practical advice on interviewing.The authors provide excellent concrete examplesdrawn from different disciplines; for example,they illustrate the relative merits of using differenttypes of interview guides (pp. 38–40) or avoidingpitfalls in phrasing questions (pp. 50–51). Therecould have been more examples that used tran-scripts or protocols to demonstrate their point.Chapters 7 through 11 present aspects of qualita-tive interviewing such as ethics (ch. 7), reflexivity(ch. 8), data analysis (ch. 9), and phenomeno-logical and narrative research (chs. 10 & 11).The authors do well to balance their discussionof practical concerns and epistemological consid-erations. For example, the chapter on reflexiv-ity approaches the topic as a philosophical con-cern for locating oneself in one’s work and recog-nizing how one’s personal motivations influencethe research. The authors give several fine exam-ples from excerpts of research projects. Chapter9 gives a brief introduction to analyzing interviewdata, which is useful for novice researchers, es-pecially the section on deciding on conventionsand level of detail needed for transcriptions. It isworth noting that other works, such as Kvale andBrinkman’s InterViews: Learning the craft of qualita-tive research interviewing (Sage, 2008) have a morethorough discussion of interview analysis.

One shortcoming of the book was the omis-sion of several topics that are relevant to in-terviewing in language education and appliedlinguistics. Because it is a book written for qual-itative researchers across social science disci-plines, the authors make the common assumptionthat interviews are monolingual interactions be-tween monolingual (fully competent adult native)speakers sharing the same first language (L1). Inour field this is often not the case, and so ques-tions of what language to use, appropriateness ofcodeswitching, and translating transcriptions inthe second language (L2) become paramount.Likewise, although they include a nice discus-sion of building rapport and dealing with unequal

Reviews 671

status and difficult interviews (ch. 4), they do notmention how cross-cultural differences could af-fect the interview process. Neither do they con-sider interviewing other age groups (e.g., youngchildren, teenagers) or L2 speakers who may havean incomplete mastery of the language in whichthey are being interviewed. One final qualm wasthat they approach an interview study (chs. 3, 4and ch. 9 on analysis) as a self-contained method.In educational research, interview data are oftentriangulated with other sorts of data. In educa-tional ethnography, for example, interviews aregenerally used in conjunction with classroom ob-servation and other sources, and good interviewsquestions should flow from what the observer isseeing in the lessons.

Interviews in Qualitative Research is recom-mended for graduate students doing a disserta-tion that relies on qualitative interviews. It will alsobe of interest to those teaching a graduate sem-inar on qualitative research, as certain sectionscan be used for supplemental reading and severalexamples would generate discussion.

PETER SAYERThe University of Texas at San Antonio

KOSHY, VALSA. Action Research for Improving Ed-ucational Practice: A Step-by-Step Guide. 2nd ed.Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2010.Pp. xv, 160. $44.95, paper. ISBN 0 978–1–84860–160–4.

Action research, traditionally defined as researchcarried out by practitioners with the aim of in-stituting change, has long had a place withinthe field of language learning and teaching asa means of generating local knowledge that caninform teaching practice. This volume provides aconcise and accessible introduction to action re-search for novice researchers. Aimed primarily atK–12 teachers, it offers a step-by-step guide to con-ducting an action research project, taking readersfrom the initial planning stages through collect-ing and analyzing data and writing up and dis-seminating the findings. Although not specificallyaddressing the field of language learning, it never-theless could serve as a useful guide for languageteachers interested in engaging in action researchas part of their professional development.

The book’s eight chapters comprise three ma-jor sections. The first four chapters serve as anintroduction to action research, beginning with

a definition of what it is and what it is used for(ch. 1), and then moving on to the preliminarystages of research such as selecting a topic (ch. 2),conducting a literature review (ch. 3), and plan-ning (ch. 4). Chapters 5 and 6 provide brief out-lines of methods for data collection (ch. 5) andanalysis (ch. 6). These methods are primarily qual-itative, with coverage on designing surveys, con-ducting classroom observations and interviews,collecting relevant documents, video recording,and coding qualitative data (including use of com-puter software for this purpose). These chaptersalso include lists detailing the advantages and dis-advantages of each of these methods as well as adiscussion of research ethics and strategies to en-hance validity and reliability. The final two chap-ters offer practical advice on writing (ch. 7) andpublishing (ch. 8) action research. Case studiessummarizing action research projects (usually ina British context) are incorporated throughoutto illustrate the concepts being discussed. Eachchapter also includes a short list of references torelevant texts and Web sites on research methods,action research, and educational policy.

Overall, the book has much to offer to teacherpractitioners with no prior research experience. Itprovides a thoughtful discussion of the purpose,goals, and limitations of action research, and itschapters on planning, reviewing the literature,and writing up research could be read produc-tively by any novice (or experienced) researcher.The discussion of research ethics is most welcome,although it does not go much beyond the basics ofobtaining consent and maintaining confidential-ity. Given the sensitivity of conducting researchin classrooms (especially on one’s own studentsor colleagues, as is commonly done in action re-search), more could have been said regarding thespecific ethical issues that can arise in situatedresearch.

Given the range of data collection methods pre-sented, discussion of each is necessarily sketchy,and anyone taking up one of these methods aspart of a research project would be well advisedto consult some of the texts included in the list ofreferences. More seriously, there is no discussionof discourse analysis as a potential alternative tocontent analysis for the study of classroom interac-tion, and information on using statistics is limitedto frequency counts. Although an extensive dis-cussion of these analytical methods would not beexpected in a book of this type, some mention ofwhat one can and cannot legitimately claim basedon frequency counts or content analyses wouldhave added to the book’s otherwise solid discus-sion on generating evidence to support claims.


Similarly, the issue of how one might define ormeasure vague constructs such as motivation orattitudes (the focus of several of the case stud-ies) or what would count as evidence of changein these areas is never raised. Although these ab-sences reflect the need to balance comprehensive-ness and readability for a nonspecialist audience,they make the book best suited for teacher prac-titioners who want to explore their own practicerather than for graduate student researchers whoare more likely to be held to stricter standards.

Despite these shortcomings, the book succeedsin its stated goal of demystifying the researchprocess for nonacademics and empoweringteachers to engage in action research as a meansof improving practice and expanding their ownknowledge of the field. Although the absence ofexercises or activities that would help readers todevelop their research skills somewhat limits thebook’s usefulness as a classroom text, it couldserve as a general guidebook to action researchor as a supplemental text within a comprehensivecourse on research methods.

DEBRA A. FRIEDMANMichigan State University

PAVLENKO, ANETA. (Ed.). The Bilingual Men-tal Lexicon: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Clevedon,England: Bilingual Matters, 2009. Pp. xv, 250.$39.95, paper. ISBN 978–1–84769–124–8.

The book consists of a four-page preface and ninechapters. The shortest is 20 pages, the longest36, but the other seven all range between 24 and29 pages. Because the topics are so diverse, eachchapter has its own list of references. There is nocomposite bibliography, but there is a list of au-thors before the three-page subject index.

Several chapters contain tables and diagrams,all in black and white. They are organized intu-itively and are not needlessly complex. However,one diagram (p. 63) is fuzzy, though still legible.

Excellent proofreading has produced a text re-markably free of typos and semantic lapses. Forthe latter, I am reduced to mentioning a handfulof instances. Unless it is intended as humor, “toconclude, let me begin” (p. 151) could use somepolishing. It is not hard to imagine a euphoniousalternative to “refer to references” (p. 239). “Ges-tures’ spoken lexical affiliates” (p. 167) smacks ofan imported construction, albeit completely com-prehensible.

I found only occasional, generally peripheralmechanical issues. One trivial example involvescapitalization (“Van de Poel,” p. 73, versus “VanDe Poel,” p. 247). Here a slash is missing from“and/or” (p. 187), there a superfluous commafollows “thus” (p. 194). The use of double paren-theses is arguably awkward (p. 7). I suspect a miss-ing umlaut on “Uber” (p. 231), and there is nodoubt in the case of “Dusseldorf” (p. ix).

More noticeable is the matter of accent markson Iberian surnames ending –ez. It appears froma quick Internet search that several of the au-thors cited have themselves dispensed with theaccent mark, and that is their business. Even so,the occurrence of “A. E. Hernandez” and “M.Hernandez” in successive entries (p. 22) is a bitdisconcerting. “Garcıa” comes with (p. 241) orwithout the accent mark (pp. 213, 236), as does“Sebastian-Galles” (pp. 22, 246 with; p. 77 with-out).

The preface fittingly touts the inclusion ofscholarship from a number of disciplines as thebook’s main contribution to research on the bilin-gual lexicon (p. xiii). To provide a degree of co-herence, the authors address four points fromtheir disciplinary perspectives: questions, meth-ods, summary of research, and future directions(p. xii). The emphasis naturally varies from chap-ter to chapter. For example, the first is primarilya summary and consequently has a vast bibliogra-phy, whereas the second has a rather short list ofreferences and focuses on pointing out promisingnew directions.

Even given all these differences of approach,the editor achieves the goal of offering more thanjust a collection of loosely related pieces of schol-arship. As a way of highlighting the connections,on numerous occasions a summary of researchincludes references to other chapters in this vol-ume.

The preface identifies the primary targetedreadership as researchers on the bilingual lexi-con (p. xii). I agree wholeheartedly that this bookwould be most useful to said group, but I trust thatby this point they require little convincing.

No doubt others will find the specifics of at leastcertain chapters to be of interest, and perhapsthe general thrust of some of the other contribu-tions. The first three pieces could be noteworthyfor neurocognitive studies, the last two for neu-rolinguistics. The following contributions (chs. 4–7) would be particularly apt for anyone teachinga second language (L2) or additional languages(L3).

I offer as a particularly useful example for L2a portion lifted from the paradigmatic discussion

Reviews 673

of linguistic categories (p. 137). Although ‘chair’and silla more or less line up, as do ‘bench’ andbanco, ‘stool’ may come across as either silla orbanco, though in those cases the two are not gener-ally interchangeable for the Spanish speaker. Thepoint that needs to be explicit for language teach-ers is that although learning words is easy, iden-tifying and assimilating categories is not. Further-more, in this case the problem is relevant whetherthe L2 is English or Spanish.

The exposition proceeds with concrete thingsthat may exist in one country but not another,such as certain kinds of windows (p. 138). Onecan, however, see a picture of such a thing andgrasp the meaning. What does the L2 teacher do,though, if the concept of privacy does not existin the first language (L1) (e.g., Russian) but iscentral to many L2 (e.g., English) speakers?

The authors build on the strengths of previ-ous models while seeking ways to eliminate, orat least minimize, weak points. They enumerateareas that have not been adequately investigated.They repeatedly advocate taking more variablesinto consideration in studying bilingualism andmultilingualism, with an eye to a more complexand nuanced set of models.

The book leaves us with some exciting andchallenging notions. The cognitive processes of amonolingual and those of a bilingual operate dif-ferently (p. 1). Bilingualism is a spectrum, not amatter of either/or. Each bilingual mind is uniqueand constantly in flux (p. 72). Some features ofthe spoken L2 do not apply to the written L2, andvice versa (p. 14). Each language added to themix makes bilingualism and multilingualism evenmore complicated.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not celebratean unexpected moment of humor. After thankingcertain parties, one author amends the time-wornmea culpa clause to read, “All remaining nonsenseis mine” (p. 179).

ROBERT O. GOEBELJames Madison University

PISKE, THORSTEN, & MARTHA YOUNG–SCHOLTEN. (Eds.). Input Matters in SLA. Cleve-don, England: Multilingual Matters, 2009. Pp. v,312. $169.95, cloth; $52.06, paper. ISBN 978–1–84769–110–1, cloth; 978–1–84769–109–5, paper.

This edited volume explains the place of inputin current second language acquisition (SLA) re-

search and its implications for second language(L2) instruction. It puts together the work of bothwell established and young scholars who explainwhy input matters not only in L2 acquisition ingeneral but also in L2 phonological acquisitionin particular. The book is a much-needed contri-bution to both the field of language instructionwhose methods are still production focused, andto the field of SLA, which usually overlooks adultL2 phonology acquisition and development.

In the introduction, one of the strongest fea-tures of the book, the editors provide a generalpicture of the state of the research regardinginput in L2 development and the implicationsfor teaching. With the assumption that language-specific mechanisms enable acquisition, the edi-tors address our current understanding of prop-erty and transitional theories and give an informa-tive overview of input and phonology. The partic-ular aim that drives the volume is to shed light onthe role of input in the rate, route, and end state inL2 acquisition. Because of its uncommon focus onphonology, the editors include four compellingreasons to justify the book. The introductory chap-ter provides a strong background on both inputin SLA, and research in L2 phonology in a clearand accessible way.

The first part deals with matters of input inseven chapters. In chapter 1, Andreas Rhode re-ports the results of a study on the learning de-velopment of the English progressive within theframe of the aspect hypothesis and the distri-butional bias hypothesis. The results shed lighton the role of input in the route of acquisition.In chapter 2, Bill VanPatten addresses O’Grady’s(2003) and Carroll’s (2001) accounts about thenature of input processing by comparing and con-trasting theirs with his account. VanPatten’s usualclear and accessible style is present in this chapter,and the reader will find his accounts on negativeevidence particularly useful to better understandinstructed SLA studies. In chapter 3, MarjolijnVerspoor, Wander Lowie, and Kees de Bot pro-vide a clear account of dynamic systems theoryto explain L2 development. They provide the ra-tionale for a comprehension-based instructionalapproach and offer a personal account of theirlearning of Indonesian which, although may notbe realistic for certain learners’ personalities, in-forms L2 learning from a student perspective.In chapter 4, Stephen Krashen provides an up-date on his influential comprehension hypothesis(CH) and briefly addresses the limitations of theskill building hypothesis and the comprehensibleoutput hypothesis. He explains how findings fromanimal language communication support the CH


and leaves open the question of whether hishypothesis would also be supported by alien lan-guage learning.

Chapters 5 and 6 address the role of outputin SLA. Nel De Jong reports the findings froma study with L1 Dutch speakers trying to learnSpanish adjective–noun agreement rules from askill-based L2 learning perspective. The findingssuggest a role for production within the study’sconditions, however and, as expressed by the au-thor, the training tasks may not be appropriate forclassroom contexts. In chapter 6, John Stephen-son reports the findings of a study that comparedlearners’ attitudes towards The Learnables mate-rials (Winitz, 2002) and the communicative ap-proach. Because of the study’s focus on learners’attitudes, it did not give any actual support forthe participants’ perspectives. However, the studyprovides information about the value put on lan-guage production by L2 learners. The first partof the book closes with chapter 7, where WernerBleyhl presents a compelling argument based ondevelopmental psychology findings for the essen-tial role of input in L2 acquisition processes, andit connects theory with practice in an effective,readable way.

The second part of the book begins with chap-ter 8, where Alene Moyer claims that traditionalmeasures for phonological development overlookfactors such as sources of input and learners’ in-tentions. The reader will benefit from the pre-sentation of recent research on opportunities forinput, time on task, and context, as well as howthey affect L2 phonological attainment. In chap-ter 9, James Flege reviews the literature in anattempt to evaluate DeKeyser’s (2000) claim onthe minor role of input in native-like pronuncia-tion after the critical period. A recurring themeof the second part of the book is the critical pe-riod hypothesis (CPH) and how it has hinderedthe search for other potential sources of variationin L2, especially phonological variation. Throughhis experience sampling method, Flege proposesnew ways of quantifying input to observe factorsbesides age that explain L2 phonological varia-tion. Perhaps one of the most practical chaptersfor L2 instructors is Benedetta Bassetti’s (ch. 10),which focuses on the effects of orthographic rep-resentations on L2 learners’ pronunciation. Sheaddresses research on a variety of writing sys-tems, and its implications for classroom teachingwill enlighten instructors who teach L2 writingsystems.

Chapter 11 addresses whether phonologicallyvaried L2 English input from L1 Danish teachersinfluences learners’ L2 vowel pronunciation. Al-

though the study is based on a small sample ofonly male participants, Ocke-Schwen Bohn andRikki Bundgaard-Nielsen address the topic of in-put heterogeneity. In chapter 12, Anja Steinlenargues that pronunciation guides are too generalto accurately describe acoustic properties that areactually produced by native speakers, and she re-ports the results of a study that supports her argu-ment. The volume concludes with chapter 13, inwhich Henning Wode presents data on phonolog-ical development in immersion settings. The dataseem to support his claim that there are no age-related phonological differences but rather pro-ficiency differences, thus providing an alternativeperspective to the CPH.

A limitation of the volume is the seemingly ac-cepted view of the native speaker as the idealphonological model, which may lead to contro-versy in some applied linguistics circles. But insum, this needed volume not only offers a range ofperspectives on input matters, but its vast glossaryand implications for teaching sections will appealto SLA researchers and L2 instructors alike.

CLAUDIA FERNANDEZKnox College

ARABIC

ALOSH, MAHDI. Ahlan wa Sahlan: FunctionalModern Standard Arabic for Beginners. 2nd ed.New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Pp. 668.$69.95, cloth. ISBN 978–0–300–12272–5. CD andDVD, free to adopters.

ALOSH, MAHDI. Ahlan wa Sahlan: FunctionalModern Standard Arabic for Beginners, Letters andSounds of the Arabic Language . Workbook. 2nd ed.New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. Pp. 172.$34.00, paper, ISBN 978–0–300–14048–4. CD andDVD, free to adopters.

This instructional package consists of a textbook,a workbook, one audio CD, and one DVD avail-able for download as MP3 and MP4 files, in addi-tion to an online interactive Web site. The work-book consists of six units in which letters of thealphabet are introduced with groupings depend-ing on the shape of the shell. The presentationsare structured logically, and the abundant exer-cises include activities aimed at helping studentsrecognize the letters and practice writing them.Each letter is presented in its different forms. The

Reviews 675

DVD and CD provide good practice exercises formost units and introduce cultural aspects suchas greetings, people’s introductions, nationalities,and leave-taking. The amount of detail, variety ofexercises, modes of material presentation, audioand video material, and the interactive Web sitemake a good deal of valuable material availableto students and instructors. Overall, the materialis rich and variable, and serves the goals listed inthe introduction.

There are, however, other areas for improve-ment. Although the DVD material is visually help-ful, the pictures and illustrations are sometimesconfusing. Matching the picture to the vocabu-lary item leaves room for occasional ambiguity.This is due to one or more of the following rea-sons: (a) The writer uses certain vocabulary itemsthat are influenced by the Syrian dialect; for ex-ample, musajjileh ‘tape recorder’ and balah ‘dates’instead of musajjil and tamr (p. 50); (b) somewords are used in the plural form but the illustra-tion denotes a singular object, and vice versa; forexample, the words for ‘chicken’ and ‘Bedouins’(p. 11); and (c) the writer uses some illustrationsthat can be associated with more than one word;for example, illustrations and words for Lebanon,‘athletic’ and ‘strong’ (p. 30), ‘smile’ and ‘nest’(p. 45), and ‘farmer’ and ‘snow’ (p. 50). The pho-netic material warrants revision (pp. 53, 54, 57,77). Because the material is not intended for lin-guistics students, it may reinforce the stereotyp-ical complexity of Arabic. The material on pho-netics could, however, guide instructors in effec-tive ways of teaching differences in Arabic andEnglish sounds. Similarly, Appendix B (pp. 144–145) needs careful revision. Explaining emphaticconsonants of Arabic requires more than simplydescribing the consonant and mapping it to anEnglish equivalent. Research on emphasis andpharyngealization suggests that attention shouldbe focused on the syllable, not on only the conso-nant. Exemplifying the emphatic voiceless alveo-lar fricative (the emphatic variant of /s/) and theemphatic voiceless alveolar plosive (the emphaticvariant of /t/) by s in sod and t in tar, respec-tively, can do little, if anything, to help studentsunderstand the differences. For native speakers ofAmerican English, these are allophonic variantswhose differences are the province of specializedlinguists. Current research in the phonetics of em-phasis in Arabic can help in teaching emphaticsounds, but this knowledge and training shouldbe directed to Arabic instructors, who can use itto enhance their work with students.

The Ahlan wa Sahlan textbook comprises24 units, a list of appendices pertaining mainly to

the Arabic alphabet and verb conjugation, and ananswer key for exercises in both books. Each unitfollows a somewhat unified format: it begins with alist of objectives and is followed by vocabulary pre-sentation, reading passages, and comprehensionactivities. After every reading passage or grammartarget, exercises in increasing complexity are pre-sented to internalize the material. The textbookfocuses on the communicative value of almost allexercises and activities. On several occasions, theauthor conveniently provides summaries of thegrammar targets that serve both the student andthe instructor.

In the introduction, the author asserts the goalof the instructional package to be the achieve-ment of “a proficiency level within the Intermedi-ate range as established by the American Councilon the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)”(p. xxviii). This goal is well served by the coursematerial. The appealing presentation and the va-riety of approaches to learning are commend-able. The author has opted for Modern Stan-dard Arabic (MSA) as the variety for the text-book, while also acknowledging the diglossic situ-ation in the Arab world, especially the fact that inall Arabic-speaking countries, oral skills (listeningand speaking) are acquired in the local dialect(p. xxvi). Although the justification for MSA isbased on educational and pedagogical principles,there are equally strong arguments for incorporat-ing dialects beginning at the Novice level. Thereis little evidence to support the idea that teach-ing only MSA at the early stages provides a suf-ficient foundation for learning the dialects later.Indeed, introducing any dialect of Arabic earlyon makes learning the language considerably eas-ier and more rewarding. The decision to adoptMSA for all audio and video material results inless natural interactions that sometimes lack the-matic unity. Examples of this problem appear inthe dialogues of units 4 and 21, and the contenton page 42.

I also take issue with the inclusion in the textof low-frequency vocabulary and structural items.The use of dual demonstratives, for example ishighly marked, even for native speakers.

The use of word-final case endings is one of themost problematic issues in the book. It is com-mon knowledge that Arabic is highly inflectional.Vocalizing word endings complicates early learn-ing and drives students to ask for rules for nom-inative, accusative, and genitive cases when thefocus should be directed to basic material. Be-sides, it is unusual to use case endings in speech,even beyond the intermediate level, because theyare infrequent in native speech. The book’s


numerous examples include unit 16, where thevendor at the Juice Cafe speaks Levantine,whereas the students speak MSA with markedcase endings.

Ultimately, I found this course package to beboth rich and enriching. The materials can helpNovice-level students advance to the Intermediatelevel. I believe, however, that the materials need tobe complemented by solid instruction and train-ing in an Arabic dialect from the beginning. Task-based instruction can support the use of authenticmaterial that enhances learning.

MOHAMMAD AL–MASRIThe University of Oklahoma

LAHLALI, EL MUSTAPHA. How to Write in Ara-bic. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh UniversityPress, 2009. Pp. 185. $37.50, paper. ISBN 978–0–7486–3588–7.

This English–Arabic self-help text is organizedinto an introduction, five units, an answer key,and two appendices. Each of the five units (“Con-nectors,” “Letters,” “Stylistic Expressions and Vo-cabulary,” “Writing Articles,” and “Creative Writ-ing”) includes notes followed by exercises. Theauthor’s aims are to help learners to develop andrefine writing skills, achieve competency with anefficient style, learn necessary style-related linguis-tic features, adopt Arabic stylistics, become famil-iar with different written genres, and acquire writ-ing expressions. These broad goals are attemptedwithin the confines of a short book that incor-porates helpful and original features to assist thewriting learner and practitioner.

With this volume Lahlali offers the learner awelcome updated writing guide for Arabic. Thiswork is preceded by two other well-known pub-lications dedicated to writing development. Al-Warraki and Hassanein’s (1994) text on Ara-bic connectors remains an authoritative self-help guide that treats comprehensively four cat-egories of connectors with accompanying exer-cises. Lahlali offers one unit on these connec-tors and adds four others that address importantareas of writing not known by this reviewer tohave been previously considered. Although Samy(1999) is perhaps the classic textbook on writ-ing, Lahlali’s contribution offers a new presen-tation and a range of activities that will match theexpectations of current learners. Although thistext offers improvements over the two existing re-

sources, it may not satisfy those accustomed totheir well-known approach. This inviting text canbe successfully used to autonomously review andexpand writing skills in areas described and ex-emplified by the author.

In “Connectors” the author presents connec-tors in Arabic in a straightforward fashion accord-ing to their functions, and each one is accompa-nied by examples. These include numerous con-nectors and connecting expressions that occur asindividual words or particles (e.g., conjunctions,ordinals, conditional and necessity words), rela-tional phrases (e.g., comparative, resultative, in-troductory, conclusive, summative), or subjectivephrases (e.g., those expressing argument, similar-ity, probability.) Sentence examples clarify the useof each term. Brief explanatory notes and exam-ples are followed by exercises that IntermediateHigh and Advanced learners should find accessi-ble and useful.

The second unit, “Letters,” offers brief guide-lines in English for producing culturally and lin-guistically appropriate written correspondence.These include guidelines and examples for lettersof congratulations, condolence, apology, com-plaint, application, and resignation, as well as loveletters, email messages, memoranda, and adver-tisements. After learners read model texts and an-swer comprehension questions, they proceed towrite a letter in line with the text. A colleaguenoted that many native speakers would find thiscorrespondence guide helpful.

Unit 3, “Stylistic Expressions and Vocabulary,”provides lists of expressions common to Arabicwriting with an English gloss, each set groupedaccording to stylistic use. As an example, one ofover 80 such entries is alaa wajh al-tafSiil ‘in de-tail, at great length.’ The expression is modeledin a sentence with a structure and context in-tended to clarify the expression’s meaning andfunction. This effort usually succeeds. Expressionsare thematically grouped according to expressiveuses (e.g., hard work and efforts, emotion, failureand disappointment, time and age, economy andtrade, elections, force and violence). This effort tomake vocabulary available for writing accordingto domain and purpose is original and valuablegiven the small number of such listings for Arabicidioms. Moreover, Lahlali’s effort aligns with re-cent corpus-based efforts to identify and assembleidioms and lexical items.

The fourth unit, “Writing Articles,” offers guid-ance for writing a variety of texts: a precis, intro-ductions and conclusions, a news report, an Ara-bic essay or article, and an introduction to a TVshow. Perhaps surprisingly, punctuation in writing

Reviews 677

an Arabic essay is highlighted. The author alsodirects readers to writing guidelines on the In-ternet (p. 116). After suitable texts are presentedfor basic discourse analysis, learners are asked toprepare articles using the models and guidanceprovided.

In Unit 5, “Creative Writing,” Lahlali outlinessteps for writing a short story. Rhetoric (al -balaagha) and its features are a central aspect ofwriting in Arabic, so Lahlali presents Arabic exam-ples of simile (al -tashbiih), assonance (al -janaas),and metonymy (al -kinaaya), all within the genre’sfour parts. The learner can analyze each of twosamples and identify the key features of thewriting.

Two appendices add valuable content to thiswriting guide. Appendix 1 highlights examples oftypical learner writing errors and provides exer-cises to address them. The treatment of errorsand the presentation of grammatical structuresare not as thorough as in mainstream Arabictextbooks. Common learner errors are summa-rized and offered as exercises, and answers formany exercises are included in a separate index.Appendix 2 consists of 19 pages of useful idiomsthat can be used in learner writing projects. Somemay prefer different English translations for theseexpressions.

On balance this book contains more Arabicthan English. Its claims about results may bebroader than the actual results achieved, depend-ing upon the level of the learner. This new guideis concise and inclusive. The reader should not beconfused by the title, How to Write in Arabic. Thisself-help text is not about how to write the Arabicalphabet. It offers concrete, authentic, and func-tional guidelines for learners who wish to developand improve their writing skills.

TERRENCE M. POTTERGeorgetown University

FRENCH

BROWN, BECKY. A Table!: The Gourmet Culture ofFrance . Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2010.Pp. 205. $35.95, paper. ISBN 978–1–5810–297–6.Instructor’s Manual.

According to neuroscientific research, learning isa multisensory and multimodal process. The more

input and interconnections, the deeper learn-ing is likely to be. At birth, our primary sensesare taste and smell. Thus, everything goes in themouth to be “learned,” often to the consterna-tion of doting adults. In most American educa-tion, however, taste and smell get relegated tothe 20-minute lunch break, an occasional scienceclass, and the world language classroom. The lat-ter, when done well, touches all aspects of theforeign tongue. For French, taste holds a partic-ularly relished position, for France is renownedfor its bon gout . A Table!: The Gourmet Cultureof France brings taste and smell back to centerstage in content-based instruction (CBI) integrat-ing history, culture, civilization, and literature.The table of contents, appropriately labeled “LeMenu,” lists chapters as the nine courses for areal French meal: Aperitif , Amuse-bouche , Entree ,Plat principal , Salade , Assiette de fromage , Dessert ,Cafe et friandises, and Digestif . Each contains anintroduction that explains some facet of Frenchgastronomie , from its origins in chapter 1 to anall-inclusive sweep of today’s cultural expressionsin chapter 9. Each part of the chapter is fol-lowed by its own cuilleree de reflexion, or discus-sion questions, that go well beyond basic compre-hension, urging learners to mull over what theyare learning with one another. The zestes d’activitelet teachers and students engage the material inan interesting, interactive fashion. Small literarybits, called gout litteraire , appear throughout thebook; these include short readings like Valery’sLe vin perdu, a poem like the somewhat overdoneDejeuner du matin by Prevert, and, of course, theunavoidable Proustian madeleines. There are slicesof realia, ranging from Un menu pour enfant byAuguste Escoffier (p. 53) to L’art de decouper lefromage (p. 94). Pincees de grammaire (the parti-tive, the polite conditional, etc.) are interspersedthroughout: delectable metaphores mangeables andjuicy grains de conversation; brins de parole made offirst-person culinary musings; degustations to fos-ter sampling of the “real thing” and to teach thefine art of critical tasting (via supplied rubrics); avous, chez vous recipes (made with Amero-friendlymeasures) to savor at home; and, the au-dela ofpour en savoir plus. The instructor’s manual of-fers teachers sufficient background informationto compensate for gaps in gourmet/gourmandknowledge. A Table integrates easily into an upper-intermediate- to-advanced curriculum in its en-tirety, or may serve to supplement a more stan-dard conversation, writing, culture, or literaturecourse. When it is used as the plat principalof a course, the author suggests pairing it with


Peter Mayle’s Aventure dans la France Gourmande :avec ma fourchette, mon couteau et mon tire-bouchon(Seuil, 2003, translated into French by Jean Rosen-thal), and/or Calixthe Beyala’s Comment cuisinerson mari a l’africaine (Albin Michel, 2000). Boththe textbook (pp. 173–182) and the instructor’smanual (pp. 43–50) provide chapter-by-chapterdiscussion questions for these suggested works.A number of films are likewise suggested at theend of each textbook chapter and in the instruc-tor’s manual (p. 50). I was very pleased to see Lagrande bouffe listed, despite its somewhat unsavoryfinale and 3-hour length. La grande bouffe and Del-icatessen do not offer “comfort food” for thought,however artistically and culturally authentic theymay be. Both the textbook and the manual rec-ommend further readings, yet they provide apaucity of Web site URLs (only eight!). I did notsee the stellar MERLOT/Alliance Francaise gas-tronomie link of the Missions virtuelles listed, forexample. Nor did I see mention of podcasts ongastronomical subjects, or the mobile apps (avail-able on iTunes) like Cuisiner , Liste d’epicerie mobile ,Marmiton, Saveurs, iDelices, La liste des achats, En-cyclopedie de fromages, or Vins de France . Perhapsthe uthor assumed that we all know how to searchonline.

The only off-putting—and this ever so slight—aspect of the text, for me, arises in the first chap-ter, Aperitif . The degustation is le chocolat noir . Itsimply jarred my sensibilities by its placement inthe apero section along with a text on the gouter .It is followed by a brin de parole entitled La viese croque au Nutella, and by the chapter recette ,mousse au chocolat . The preface states, nonethe-less, that “Decisions regarding chapter contentand topic order were guided first and foremostby pedagogical soundness rather than necessarilyby topical coherence. This occasional disjunctionis, in fact, incidental for a CBI course whose goalis language mastery through content, as opposedto courses in culinary schools in which this partic-ular content would be key” (p. xi). I would imag-ine, too, that the author and editors opted forchocolate and Nutella in part as tasteful “open-ers” to tantalize students into staying the course.Starting a class with chocolate tasting undoubt-edly “makes the medicine go down in the mostdelightful way,” thus accomplishing the ultimategoal of the aperitif .

In all, then, A Table!:The Gourmet Culture ofFrance provides a lively, intriguing, well-designedand pedagogically sound set of learning materi-als that bring taste back into the curriculum andput content-based learning on the table. After all,France is a country where l’education au gout has a

central place in public education, so this approachis most fitting.

KATHRYN MURPHY–JUDYVirginia Commonwealth University

HUBBELL, AMY L. A la recherche d’un emploi.Business French in a Communicative Context. New-buryport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2010. Pp. xviii,254. $59.95, paper. ISBN 978–1–58510–372–0. In-structor’s Resource Manual. ISBN 978–1–58510–411–6.

A la recherche d’un emploi is a business Frenchtextbook that targets third-year college studentsand includes an instructor’s manual directed atFrench professors who are not specialists in busi-ness French. It includes seven chapters, and in theinstructor’s manual Dr. Hubbell proposes samplesyllabi for semester courses that meet either two orthree days a week. Videos on a publisher Web site,YouTube and other publicly available videos, andmaterials found through Web links are integratedinto textbook activities.

Although the author tells us in the instructor’smanual that she kept in mind the international ex-ams of the Paris Chamber of Commerce (CCIP),the contents include significant information onCanada and on comparisons with the UnitedStates that are practical for Americans in ways notcovered in exams of the CCIP. For example, inher presentation of types of companies (corpora-tions, partnerships, small and medium-sized com-panies) she includes well-known American com-panies where students may seek employment, andshe presents 40 French companies listed on theCAC 40, as well as the top 25 Canadian compa-nies. Students thus have real-life-appropriate ex-amples.

Students planning to work for nonprofits,government agencies, or businesses will appre-ciate Hubbell’s content on French governmentorganization, French ministries and their roles,and Web sites on how to learn more. Thisinformation is current and includes changes toFrench overseas departments and territories thattook place in April 2011. She integrates into ped-agogical exercises videos that are equally current,like the one on sustainable development thatcomes from L’Oreal’s 2011 corporate Web siteprovided at http://www.loreal-paris.fr/videos/le-developpement-durable-chez-l-oreal-paris.aspx#It is noteworthy that all the videos and links work,and pedagogical exercises are effective.

Reviews 679

Although it targets third-year French, the In-structor’s Resource Manual aims high, preparingfor Paris Chamber of Commerce (CCIP) examsthrough the B2 level. Hubbell does not explainthe ratings of the Common European Frameworkof Reference for Languages. The B2 level cor-responds roughly to the American ACTFL Ad-vanced Low level, although some B2 requirementsfall into the Intermediate High category or intothe Advanced Mid category. Few third-year stu-dents have achieved a B2 level at the beginningof their first third-year course, but Hubbell’s bookcontains far more vocabulary, explanations, andpedagogical exercises to get them there than doother books that target the B2-level exams. Forstudents at the Intermediate Mid or IntermediateHigh level, communicative activities in the book,and suggestions to the teacher in the instructor’smanual, will help them work toward the next levelof competence in reading, writing, interpersonalspeaking, presentational speaking, and listening.If they are not ready, students can take a lowerlevel CCIP exam at the A2 or B1 level. Althoughthe instructor’s manual does not mention thefive Cs of language learning, the author clearlyhad those in mind in preparing the content andexercises.

This book does not purport to cover all areas ofthe CCIP exams at the B2 level. For example, thecontent does not include insurance, transporta-tion, and certain bank documents that one findsin other textbooks. There is no mention of ProduitNational Brut in defining Gross National Product,and abbreviations for long term labor contractsCDD and CDI are resolved using “de” instead of“a,” but these minor oversights are rare. They arefar outweighed by the availability of resources andorganization of communicative activities to pro-vide preparation students will need to take examsat the B2 level. The book may even compete at thefourth-year level, where one can replace certaincultural content (like the first chapter’s video onFrench regional prejudices) and substitute addedbusiness content on labor unions or other topics.

This book is also appropriate for courses notleading to CCIP exams. In a composition and con-versation course or a course focused on French forspecial purposes in related fields (internationalrelations, European studies, Francophone stud-ies), instructors have ample materials to help stu-dents with double majors or interdisciplinary ma-jors find internships or jobs in their fields. Thetopics apply to many settings.

Seeking a job is something that every graduatewill do, and chapters on writing a resume, prepar-ing a cover letter, going through a job interview,

all with advice on how to put one’s best foot for-ward, are useful for students seeking employmentin any language. The etiquette of job seekinghas cultural variations between the United States,Canada, and France, and those differences areexplored in depth. Explanation of different aca-demic degrees is somewhat sketchy without a bet-ter explanation from the instructor. Thus, instruc-tors must become familiar with Europe’s BolognaProcess for higher education reform to explainhow the French went from their former system tojust three degrees (Licence, Master, Doctorat) in thepast decade. Although new degrees are identified(pp. 76–77) by name and linked to a Web site,the referenced old degrees (pp. 15,105) thus stillneed explanation.

This book’s content will be appealing to stu-dents and faculty. Pedagogical exercises are soundand helpful. The instructor’s manual gives an an-swer key and good pedagogical suggestions. Insummary, it is a welcome addition for teachers ofbusiness French and related fields.

PATRICIA W. CUMMINSVirginia Commonwealth University

ITALIAN

CAPEK–HABEKOVIC, ROMANA, & SANDRAPALAICH. Parola a te! Instructor’s Edition.Boston: Heinle Cengage Learning, 2009. Pp. xiii,384. $87.95, paper. ISBN 978–1–4130–2188–2.Italian Cafe Music CD, $ 15.98. ISBN 1–4130–2319–3. Book Companion Web Site , free to adopters.

Parola a te is a textbook for the teaching of Ital-ian at the intermediate level and for conversa-tion courses. Its emphasis is on the geographical,historical, economic, and sociological aspects ofItalian culture, which it illustrates as a tension be-tween tradition and modernity. This textbook fea-tures a companion Web site as well as an audio CDwith songs ranging from classic Fred Buscaglioneto contemporary Daniele Silvestri. The Web siteprovides the audio clips for the Ascoltiamo! sec-tions, the links for the Sul web expansion activities,and the video clips of the program Sulla strada.It also contains teacher resources such as samplesyllabi, lesson plans, and pop quizzes.

Parola a te comprises twelve chapters, eachrevolving around a specific Italian region. Thisframework lays the foundations for the book to


build on several cultural aspects. Historical time-lines, recipes, proverbs from regional dialects,highlights on local economies and customs, anec-dotes, biographies of notable Italians from thepresent and the past, all contribute to give a mul-tilayered, complex, and overall enjoyable repre-sentation of the country, its character, its heritage,and its people. Appunti grammaticali, an appendixof approximately fifty pages, provides a syntheticgrammar overview with some application exer-cises, while the Vocabolario features some essentiallexicon presented across the textbook.

From a pedagogical viewpoint, Parola a te is avery well balanced tool. First and foremost, it of-fers a wealth of new vocabulary along with the op-portunity for students to practice it in meaningfulcontexts, through a variety of exercise formats,and at different stages in each chapter. Second, itfosters reading and writing at the intermediatelevel through manageable paragraphs and cre-ative assignments, complemented by online re-search materials retrievable thanks to the excel-lent links of Sul web. Third, it promotes listeningthrough the Ascoltiamo! sections, which includetwo aural comprehension exercises and a set ofpersonal questions in each chapter, and the videosegments of Sulla strada, available with related ac-tivities on the companion Web site. The audio CDItalian Cafe , featuring songs from the 40s, 50s,60s, and today, is more of a musical treat thana teaching tool, since there are no related work-sheets available. Speaking is fostered through avariety of communicative, pair work activities the-matically linked to each chapter. The streamlinedgrammar and limited exercises at the end of thebook are consistent with the goals of Parola a te ,which is essentially a cultural reader in line withthe five Cs (Communication, Culture, Connec-tions, Comparison, and Communities) of the Na-tional Standards for foreign language learning.

However, as sound as its pedagogical founda-tions and overall structure may be, an exami-nation of this textbook reveals serious cracks indifferent areas, so to speak. Let us start by con-sidering the title itself. “Parola a te!” is not anItalian expression, or rather, it is not a correctone. In a television or radio debate, a journalistor a moderator would invite another interlocutorto speak by using the idiomatic phrase “a te laparola!,” less frequently “la parola a te!,” roughly‘your turn to speak’ or ‘over to you’ (see also thethread on www.wordreference.com from Decem-ber 5, 2008). It appears as if such a title was cho-sen to suggest the communicative nature of thistextbook. Alas the lack of a seemingly harmlessdefinite article makes it fatally flawed.

At any rate, minor lexical, idiomatic and even ty-pographical mistakes are present throughout thebook. Here are some examples drawn from thefirst chapter alone: “i proiettori anteriori” instead of“i fari anteriori” (car headlights, p. 13); “rispondisia in voce che in scritto” instead of “rispondi sia avoce che per iscritto” (‘answer both orally and in writ-ing,’ p. 23); “l’associazione finisce col disciogliersi”instead of “la societa finisce con lo sciogliersi” (‘thejoint venture ended up being dissolved,’ p. 21).A typical example of typos are some words thathave been accidentally hyphenated: “al-leanza,”“se-condo,” “pubblicazio-ne” (p. 19).

Another serious weakness of Parola a te is thetotal absence of authentic texts by renowned Ital-ian authors or journalists. In fact, all the read-ing passages are by Capek-Habekovic and Palaichthemselves. The result is a homogeneous, un-original, at times contrived and dull language,from the first chapter to the last. In addition,there is no grammatical progression and no in-crease in the difficulty level of the language pre-sented. Rather, the reading passages are all char-acterized by a monotonous and pervasive “presentestorico,” or historic present tense, featuring occa-sional past tenses of the indicative and even moresporadic tenses of the subjunctive. From the con-tent viewpoint, sometimes too much informationis jammed in a single paragraph with the result ofconfusing the student who is not acquainted withthe subject matter. As an example, let us considerthe opening paragraph of Societa in the Piedmontregion (p. 6). In the span of eleven lines, it men-tions the Italian emigration to North and SouthAmerica, the domestic emigration from southernto northern Italy, and today’s foreign immigrationtowards Italy with its consequence of racial ten-sions. These are actually three distinct and highlyproblematic events in Italian social history thatwould require a deeper and more elaborate dis-cussion.

Let us conclude by looking into the audio andvideo components. At least one of the listeningcomprehension exercises in every chapter is afill-in-the-blank portion of a reading passage thatimmediately follows. Although valuable for thesake of intonation and pronunciation, this activ-ity clearly defeats the purpose of practicing andfine-tuning listening skills. The video programconsists of edited video clips from Heinle’s Sullastrada DVD, whose cover is labeled “Video forIntroductory Italian Programs,” and which is al-ready an integral part of Heinle’s three textbooksof elementary Italian, namely Adesso! 3rd edition,Ciao! 6th edition, and Salve! Needless to say, a dif-ferent product appropriately geared towards the

Reviews 681

intermediate and advanced levels would havebeen more beneficial.

Overall Parola a te’s sound pedagogy and cul-tural content makes it a suitable reader for inter-mediate and conversation courses, in conjunctionwith a formal grammar text (Habekovic is also au-thor of Insieme and A Vicenda, Lingua). However,on account of its inherent linguistic weaknesses,this textbook’s adoption is not recommended atan advanced level of instruction. And now, dearcolleagues, “la parola a voi!”

CRISTINA PAUSINITufts University

MULTILINGUALISM

BLACKLEDGE, ADRIAN, & ANGELA CREESE.Multilingualism. London: Continuum, 2010. Pp.255. $49.95, paper. ISBN 978–0–8264–9209–8.

Multilingualism is an important contribution tothe study of bilingual education in the UnitedKingdom, with significant implications for thedrafting of educational and legal language policyin other countries of the world having large immi-grant or autochthonous language minorities. Theauthors adopt a carefully thought out theoreti-cal perspective, and a well designed ethnographicresearch methodology, to study the use of fourmajor heritage languages from the United King-dom (Gujarati, Bengali, Chinese, Turkish) taughtto children born to immigrant parents and grand-parents in what the authors call “complementary”schools (i.e., nonstatutory schools which teachlanguages to children with familial and/or ances-tral ties). In the United States these schools areknown as heritage schools, for example, Chinese,Greek, Jewish, and so on. The project design isof four ethnographically informed case studies inwhich data was collected simultaneously by a teamof nine researchers with extensive training in theethnography of speaking. For each case study theresearchers identified two schools (two Bengalischools in Birmingham, two Chinese schools inManchester, two Gujarati schools in Leicester andtwo Turkish schools in London) where they ob-served, recorded, and interviewed participants, in-cluding observation of classrooms and assemblies,staff meetings, parents’ evenings, prize giving andextramural school events. Some of the childrenwere also visited at home. In all, the authors andtheir assistants collected an impressive array of

data derived from a variety of sources: 192 hoursof audio-recorded interactional data, 168 sets offield notes, 16 hours of video recordings, and in-terviews with 66 key participants in the project.

The authors adopt a so-called postmodern “crit-ical” perspective towards the study of bilingual-ism and multilingualism, based on the ideas ofBakhtin and his collaborators and disciples, ad-dressed not only to researchers and scholars butalso to language teachers, especially those argu-ing that the target language should be used in theclassroom at all times. Focal to this approach is thenotion that ethnicity, race, class, and, more impor-tantly, language, are social constructions playingan important role in the creation of social dif-ference. The book directly addresses theoretical,political, and pedagogical problems of bilingualand multilingual education in novel ways. For ex-ample, it attempts to dispel the belief that theuse and visibility of minority languages in class-rooms and other public spaces is problematic andcauses educational failure and social segregation.Also, this book rejects the accepted notion thatbilingualism is the same as the coexistence ofparallel linguistic systems, what Heller and oth-ers call “double monolingualism” or bilingualismwith diglossia. Instead, the authors of this bookpropose adopting the concept of “flexible bilin-gualism,” that is, the simultaneous use of differentlanguages, which is, in turn, based on the well-known concepts of “translanguaging” and “het-eroglossia” proposed by Garcıa and Bailey, respec-tively.

This book will be of great interest to re-searchers, scholars and students of language pol-icy (including pedagogical policy) and languagerights, since it demonstrates convincingly thatbilingual immigrants and their descendants pos-sess multiple identifications and oftentimes theyalso have more than one transnational identityor sense of belonging. One cannot underesti-mate the important role such insights can play inteacher’s classroom attitudes towards non-targetlanguages as well as in determining language ed-ucational policy in countries where the choice oflanguage of instruction is being disputed (e.g.,Papiamentu Creole vs. Dutch in Aruba). Simi-larly, the insights about multiple identificationsand transnational identities in this book can beof much value in court decisions dealing withofficial English and English-only legislation inthe United States, where judging the validity offeelings, attitudes, and behaviors displayed bybilingual speakers and the linguistic naturalness(and hence the legality) of codeswitching in theworkplace is at stake. Last but not least, high


school and college teachers and lecturers, whouncritically adopt the so-called communicativemethod for teaching foreign languages in schoolsand universities, where only the use of the target lan-guage (and the so-called standard variety to boot)is allowed in the classroom, should pay attentionto this book, since, as the authors convincinglydemonstrate, the language classroom is as mucha medium of social and linguistic construction asit is an input–output language acquisition device.The authors offer important theoretical insightsregarding language attitudes, identity, heritage,nationalism, ideology, power and the construc-tion of self in the heritage language classroom.However, psycholinguists looking for significantinsights concerning bilingual language develop-ment will be somewhat disappointed, since thisbook does not measure language developmentor proficiency in complementary schools (a topicthat remains to be discovered). These commentsshould not be construed as negative criticism,since the authors did not aim to produce a psy-cholinguistics work. I strongly recommend Multi-lingualism to scholars and students of bilingualismand multilingualism, government officials, per-sonnel and teachers involved in curriculum de-sign and teaching methodology, and advocates oflanguage rights in public forums and the legalsystem, since this book is not only well designedand thoroughly researched but also offers impor-tant theoretical insights and detailed descriptionsof language attitudes by immigrants and theirdescendants in the classroom and outside of it.These insights should be heeded not only in theUnited Kingdom but also in other countries of theworld where large numbers of immigrants and au-tochthonous language minorities reside.

EDUARDO D. FAINGOLDThe University of Tulsa

LYTRA, VALLY, & PETER MARTIN. (Eds.). Sites ofMultilingualism: Complementary Schools in BritainToday. Stoke-on-Trent, England: Trentham Books,2010. Pp. xx, 175. £22.99, paper. ISBN 978–1–85856–454–8.

One area of research in the field of second lan-guage learning that has recently begun to receiveincreased attention is how heritage languages areacquired. This volume, although not directly re-lated to the mechanisms of heritage language ac-quisition, presents a variety of descriptions of is-

sues and practices in British community schoolswhere heritage languages are taught. These com-plementary schools are defined by the editors asnon-mandatory schools that are established byspecific ethnic minority communities, often forthe promotion and maintenance of the commu-nity’s language, religion, and/or culture. The vol-ume’s twelve chapters are organized along thelines of three main foci: language and literacypractices, processes of identity formation, and pol-icy and practice.

The section on language and literacy practicesbegins with a contribution from Blackledge andCreese that examines the use of standard versusregional heritage language varieties in Bengalicomplementary schools in Birmingham. Based onobservations and interviews, the researchers de-termine that while there is a concern, particularlyon the part of the school, that the standard formof Bengali be kept separate from other varieties,both teachers and students make use of all of thelinguistic resources they have at their disposal.In chapter 2, Lytra, Martin, Barac, and Bhatt fo-cus not just on the linguistic resources utilizedin Turkish and Gujarati complementary schoolclassrooms, but also on other modes of commu-nication, such as images, writing, and gesture. Bydoing so, they gain a deeper understanding ofclassroom interactions. In the following chapter,Wei and Wu explore how teachers in Chinese com-plementary schools associate the teaching of liter-acy and specific linguistic structures to traditionalChinese social and cultural beliefs, even thoughstudents may prefer a more modern view of China.Sneddon’s chapter 4 describes the partnership be-tween an Albanian complementary school and amainstream elementary school, and how this de-veloping partnership allows children who attendboth schools to feel that their language and cul-ture are valued. In the last chapter of this section,Ruby, Gregory, Kenner, and Al-Azami go outsideof the complementary school context to investi-gate how a grandmother from Bangladesh teachesBengali to her grandchildren along with otherneighborhood children.

The next section of the book, which con-centrates on processes of identity forma-tion among children attending complementaryschools, opens with a chapter by Prokopiou andCline that explores how these schools affectthe development of students’ cultural and aca-demic identities. Based on their research in twocomplementary schools, one Greek and one Pak-istani, they conclude that while the schools dif-fer from each other in terms of the sociocul-tural context and specific goals, they both help

Reviews 683

students gain a better understanding of their cul-tural identities. In chapter 7, Francis, Archer, andMau find that students in a Chinese complemen-tary school closely associate knowing Chinese withtheir ethnic identity, while in the next chapter,Souza focuses on the link between identity andlanguage choice in her observations of how threechildren that attend a Brazilian Portuguese com-plementary school maintain their image of goodPortuguese learners.

The theme of the final section of the book ispolicy and practice. In the first chapter of this sec-tion, Pantazi describes how a group of Greek com-plementary school teachers modify their ideas ofappropriate pedagogy in order to better meet theneeds of their students. In chapter 10, HelavaaraRobertson focuses on the benefits of the develop-ment of links between complementary and main-stream schools by examining how teacher train-ing students’ perspectives on ethnic minority stu-dents in the mainstream classroom change posi-tively after visiting a complementary school. Bar-radas’s chapter discusses both opportunities andchallenges for collaboration between Portuguesecomplementary schools and mainstream schools,based on recent policy initiatives in Britain. Thebook closes with a chapter by Conteh, in which sheargues for a focus in the mainstream classroom onhow each learner can develop his or her linguisticresources, whatever they may be, in a way that heor she can fully benefit from them.

This volume will primarily be of interest tothose involved in teaching and administration inheritage language programs, both in mainstreamand complementary schools. Its description of thepolicies and practices of complementary schoolsalong with how these policies and practices af-fect teachers and students can contribute to adeeper understanding of the goals and outcomesof such programs, whether they are in Britain orelsewhere. The book may also be of interest to re-searchers in the area of heritage language acqui-sition, in that it draws attention to the social andcultural aspects of heritage language learning andemphasizes the relationship between learners’home language and their identity. The wide vari-ety of complementary school contexts describedin the volume allows the reader to see commonal-ities across these contexts, despite differences inthe communities served by the schools. One com-mon theme that recurs in the book is the tensionbetween what parents and teachers desire for stu-dents in terms of cultural and linguistic learning,and what the children value. Another is the strongrelationship between heritage language and iden-tity, and how complementary schools help stu-

dents develop both. All of the chapters employa heavily qualitative research methodology, withobservations and interviews serving as the primarydata sources. Because of this, readers looking togeneralize to other contexts, or those who prefer amore quantitative approach may be disappointed.One negative aspect of the book regardless ofpreferred research methodology is the frequentuse of acronyms and terminology specific to theBritish context. Many chapters incorporate refer-ences to government or educational agencies thatwill not be meaningful to a foreign reader withoutfurther explanation.

In summary, this volume makes a valuable con-tribution to our knowledge of the social and cul-tural aspects of heritage language learning incomplementary schools, and while the researchpresented in the book is not necessarily general-izable to contexts beyond those described, it doesmotivate the investigation of similar issues in otherheritage learning contexts while at the same timeshowing the need for policy makers and educatorsto take into consideration its findings.

REBECCA FOOTEUniversity of Illinois

SPANISH

DE PRADA, MARISA, & PILAR MARCE. Comu-nicacion eficaz para los negocios: Curso de conver-sacion, recursos y vocabulario. Madrid, Spain: EdelsaGrupo Didascalia, 2010. Pp. 112. $20.99, paper.ISBN 978–84–7711–700–1.

De Prada and Marce’s Comunicacion eficaz paralos negocios (CEN) provides resources for facilitat-ing the acquisition of effective second language(L2) communication skills in a Spanish-speakingbusiness environment. The volume focuses on thepresentation and use of key lexical items associ-ated with various aspects of the business worldand also provides pragmatically appropriate gam-bits to carry out conversations in business settings.

CEN is geared for students of Spanish at theCEFR level B (Independent Speaker, equivalent toIntermediate High/Advanced Low on the ACTFLscale) from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Thebook consists of ten chapters that treat businessthemes: Montamos una empresa, Lıderes y jefes, Par-ticipamos en una feria comercial, Lanzamos un pro-ducto, Logıstica y distribucion, Exportamos, En elbanco, Invertimos en Bolsa, expatriados profesionales,


and Responsabilidad social empresarial. These chap-ters are followed by transcriptions of the listeningpassages on the audio CD and the answers to allthe book’s discrete-point exercises. These last twofeatures allow learners to check their aural com-prehension and get feedback on their answers tomany of the book’s exercises.

Each chapter contains the following sections:vocabulary, activating prior knowledge (brain-storming), entering into the theme, deepening(lexical) knowledge, paying attention, and effec-tive conversation. The Vocabulario (‘vocabulary’)section contains two columns of decontextual-ized Spanish lexical items related to the themeof the chapter, which the student is told to trans-late into his/her native language in order to un-derstand the meaning of these words throughoutthe chapter. The Activa tus conocimientos (‘acti-vate your knowledge’) ask students leading ques-tions to stimulate prior knowledge, for example,¿Que caracterısticas consideras que ha de tener un em-prendedor? ‘What characteristics do you believe anentrepreneur should have?’

The next two sections, Entra en el tema (‘en-ter into the theme,’) and Profundiza (‘deepen[lexical] knowledge’) both provide activities tohelp facilitate the mapping (binding) of form tomeaning in intrasign relations and the deepen-ing of the depth of knowledge dimension that rec-ognizes the relatedness of words (intersign rela-tions) as synonyms, antonyms, and semanticallyand derivationally related lexical items (Henrick-sen, B. [1999]. Three dimensions of vocabularydevelopment. Studies in Second Language Acquisi-tion, 21[2], 303–18). The first of these sections(Entra en el tema) focuses on basic definitions ofterms to be used throughout the chapter and of-ten requires learners to work with synonyms ofthose terms or group words semantically (e.g.,semantic mapping), notice derivational relation-ships (e.g., feria ‘fair’ [noun] vs. ferial adj. form),match words with their descriptive definitions, in-sert new items appropriately into lengthy defini-tions of new terms or into authentic texts thathave been modified for pedagogical purposes bythe authors, and summarize passages.

The next section (Profundiza) helps learnerssolidify their knowledge of new words by process-ing these items more deeply, e.g., recycling newvocabulary in different contexts, putting actionsin chronological order, categorizing, titling para-graphs, and choosing the appropriate word froma selection of possibilities at various points in atext. In addition, students engage in activities thatwill facilitate their attainment of Advanced levelproficiency, such as using extended prose, mak-

ing inferences beyond the facts given (e.g., stu-dents are asked to characterize the type of in-vestor [conservative, moderate, aggressive] thatwould be more comfortable with specific types ofinvestments), expressing their own ideas and jus-tifying their opinions, comparing and contrastingideas, and solving problems. Moreover, studentsare asked to think about the big picture, for ex-ample, the social consequences on the family unitwhen employees are sent abroad). This sectionalso fosters communication among learners, whoare encouraged to compare their opinions withthose of other students.

In the Presta atencion (‘pay attention’) sectionlearners are often asked to insert appropriate vo-cabulary from a list into a modified authentic text(usually taken from the Internet) or choose themost appropriate term from various options givento fill certain blanks in the text. They then lis-ten to the same passage read by a native speakerof Peninsular Spanish on the CD to check theiranswers and internalize the positive or negativefeedback provided by that process.

The Conversacion eficaz (‘effective conversa-tion’) section found at the end of each chap-ter provides learners with gambits (e.g., func-tional phrases for opening and closing conver-sations, asking/giving advice, expressing agree-ment/disagreement) and opportunities to puttheir new lexical and pragmatic knowledge intopractice in role-plays simulating workplace inter-changes (e.g., a banker counseling someone whohas been the victim of credit card fraud, a finan-cial advisor counseling someone how to invest anew inheritance).

The pedagogical approach of this text meantfor a second language audience is somewhat dif-ferent from that of Exito commercial (EC ; Doyle,M., Fryer, T. B., & Cere, R. [2010]. Exito comer-cial. 5th ed. Boston: Cengage) or En activo: Prac-tical Business Spanish (EA; Santamarıa Iglesias, E.& Jones, H. [2008]. En activo: Practical BusinessSpanish. New York: Routledge), which were cre-ated for English-speaking foreign language learn-ers of Spanish who may lack cultural knowledgeabout the Spanish-speaking world (Spain andLatin America) and still need grammatical helpto carry out the pragmatic functions required ina workplace environment. The focus on Penin-sular Spanish, the lack of grammatically focusedpresentations and activities, and the dearth ofcultural content in CEN indicate that it may begeared to a well-educated European audience thatis already familiar with Spanish culture and who isassumed to possess a level of proficiency that doesnot require specific grammatical practice in order

Reviews 685

to express carry out the communicative functionspresented in this book. In addition, CEN assumesthat learners already possess quite a bit of knowl-edge about business, which is necessary for stu-dents to carry out successfully many of the book’sactivities.

Some shortcomings of CEN include its lack ofresources to help with the understanding of newwords in context (e.g., graphics and pictures frombusiness contexts, cultural information), an ab-sence of models of appropriate ways to carry outconversations in business settings (e.g., workplacedialogues in DVD video format), and the lack ofadditional practice of new material (e.g., Internet-based activities). These features contrast with thecontextualized presentation of vocabulary andthe use of audio and video conversational modelsfrom various parts of the Spanish-speaking worldand Internet-based ancillary activities providedby other Spanish business texts (e.g., EC andCA).

In sum, this book on Business Spanish exem-plifies some of the best practices for facilitatingthe acquisition of L2 vocabulary, as outlined inLafford, B., Lafford, P., & Sykes, J. (2005). En-tre dicho y hecho . . .: An assessment of the ap-plication of second language acquisition and re-lated research to the creation of Spanish CALLmaterials for lexical acquisition. CALICO Jour-nal, 24(3) 497–529. However, due to its lack ofcultural information, model conversational dia-logues from Spanish-speaking business environ-ments, and grammatical practice, in the UnitedStates CEN would best used as an ancillary textto a more comprehensive textbook package in acourse geared toward advanced-level Spanish stu-dents, who also have some basic understanding ofthe field of business.

BARBARA A. LAFFORDArizona State University

TACELOSKY, KATHLEEN, RUTH A. KAUFF-MAN, & DENISE M. OVERFIELD. Dialogos: Haciauna Comunidad Global . Upper Saddle River, NJ:Prentice Hall, 2010. Pp. xv, 165. $66.67, paper.ISBN 978–0205–64394–3.

This book, designed to be completed in one aca-demic semester, is an intermediate Spanish lan-guage text for college students. As emphasized inthe preface, the authors’ goal is to “encouragethe growth of an awareness of global issues, high-

lighting our interconnectedness to each other inspite of distance and cultural differences” (p. xi),which shows the integration of the National Stan-dards for Foreign Language Education, especiallythe connections and communities standards. Thetext’s emphasis is on communicative languagelearning through meaningful interactions amongstudents, who have multiple opportunities to en-gage in the three modes of communication. Inthis sense, the book includes tasks focused on in-terpersonal communication, through which stu-dents can interact orally in a variety of contexts;presentational communication through writing;and interpretive communication through read-ing and listening comprehension of a variety ofauthentic texts.

The textbook contains 5 chapters: (a) Nos pre-sentamos, (b) La ninez: Una etapa fundamental, (c)La importancia de la salud, (d) Entre la vida y lamuerte, and (e) El dinero y las finanzas. Each chap-ter is divided into various sections: conexion per-sonal, expresion cultural, contexto global, reflexion,ampliando el conocimiento con experiencia, and expli-caciones gramaticales. These chapters are focusedon themes relevant to college students interestedin global and cultural issues. At the end of thetext there are three appendices designed to helpstudents when engaging in the writing process:one with general instructions and guidelines forthe compositions in each chapter, one with asample outline to be used as a model when stu-dents plan their compositions, and one with asample composition written based on the sampleoutline. In addition, a companion Web site pro-vides additional instructional materials, includ-ing downloadable grammar exercises, Web re-sources, and streaming audio for each chapter.There is also a downloadable Instructor ResourceManual, accessible with a login name and pass-word, which can be requested from the publishingcompany.

In the first section of each chapter, conexion per-sonal , the authors provide a meaningful way to ac-tivate students’ background knowledge by draw-ing on their personal experiences and connec-tions to the topic. One of the major strengthsof this text is that the tasks are designed tobe completed individually, in pairs, or in smallgroups, and are focused around students’ per-sonal lives and experiences, which guides stu-dents through their thinking process and providesthem with multiple opportunities to think aboutthe theme before reading and listening aboutit.

The second section, expresion cultural , providesan opportunity for students to read authentic


texts that tackle the topic discussed. Althoughthe texts are written by various authors from theSpanish-speaking world, it would have been in-teresting to see authors from more countries andbackgrounds represented so that students couldbe further exposed to different perspectives. Inaddition, it might have helped focus students’learning about these authors’ perspectives hadthere been tasks prompting students to researchthe authors’ backgrounds and the contexts inwhich they wrote their texts to further enhancestudents’ understanding and reflection upon thetopics.

The third section, contexto global , includes oralaccounts by native speakers, who discuss someaspect of the topics presented and relate themto their personal experience. These audios area valuable way to expose students to various ac-cents as well as real-life experiences of people ofdifferent backgrounds. Another highlight of thebook is the design of the listening tasks. These al-ways include pre-listening activities, which help fo-cus students’ attention, listening activities, whichvary between listening for gist and listening forspecific information, and post-listening activities,which provide opportunities for students to con-nect what they heard to their own personalexperiences.

The fourth section, reflexion, provides furtheropportunities for students to reflect upon thetopic and express their thoughts through writ-ing. The writing tasks are designed followinga process approach and include a pre-writingsection, where students are prompted to brain-storm ideas for their composition and write anoutline, a writing section, which includes revi-sion instances with peer and teacher feedback,and a post-writing section, where students areencouraged to engage in self-feedback and fi-nal revision of their compositions. This empha-sis on the writing process is extremely valuableand well designed, although it would have helpedto see an appendix with guidelines for peerfeedback.

The fifth section, ampliando el conocimiento conexperiencia, focuses on students’ active involve-ment in their communities through suggestedservice learning projects. Although these types oftasks provide valuable opportunities for studentsto become engaged with their communities, someof the suggested projects might be difficult or evenimpossible to carry out due to lack of resourcesand/or variations in the settings where studentsare studying. Instead of including one or two pos-sible service projects in the textbook itself, it mighthave been more valuable to include a wider vari-

ety of suggested service projects in the Instructor’sManual so that instructors could select the onesrelevant to their instructional contexts and thenassign them to their classes.

Finally, the sixth section, explicaciones gramat-icales, provides explanations of the grammarpoints students need to use and apply in thechapter. Although there are no exercises specif-ically designed to foster practice and applicationof these grammar topics, they are successfully in-tegrated into the chapters, as students will mostlikely use them when engaging in the three modesof communication through the suggested tasks.Further, more explicit grammar practice exercisesare provided in the companion Web site for thoseinstructors that want to include them in their in-structional planning.

Overall, this book provides a viable alternativefor intermediate-level Spanish classes that have astrong emphasis on service and community en-gagement. Instructors will benefit from the vari-ety of well-designed communicative tasks and themultiple opportunities to foster student discus-sion and reflection upon relevant, contemporarycultural topics that will probably spark students’interest and engagement.

LAURA LEVI ALTSTAEDTEREast Carolina University

TESTING

FULCHER, GLENN. Practical Language Testing .London: Hodder Education, An Hachette UKCompany, 2010. Pp. xvi, 352. £19.99 paper. ISBN978–0–340–98448–2.

Written by Glenn Fulcher, reader in education(TESOL, University of Leicester, UK), past presi-dent of the International Language Testing Asso-ciation (2006), co-editor of Language Testing , andauthor of numerous articles and books on testing,this volume is a noteworthy analytical and criticalcompendium of the extant research on the prac-tical aspects of standardized language testing.

Practical Language Testing contains ten chap-ters in which the author provides a comprehen-sive and comprehensible account of all of thefacets involved in what may seem to be the arcaneprocess of standardized testing. In fact, the goodlanguage teacher and the good language learnershould have a clear notion of the purposes,functions, and formats of testing so that they

Reviews 687

understand them better. Large scale standardizedtests are what Fulcher labels “high stakes” tests,that is, tests with a significant impact on the testtaker, the institution, and society (pp. 3, 321).

In the first chapter, the author points out thatlanguage assessment serves multiple functions inareas such as education, employment, interna-tional mobility, language planning, and economicpolicy making (p. 1). Testing may be formative,that is, it informs language instruction and acqui-sition. Likewise, it may also be summative, that is,it provides a way of determining achievement andproficiency, frequently for certification (pp. 2–3).

Fulcher then poses the most significant ques-tion of the entire book: “Why do such tests ex-ist?” (p. 4). First and foremost, testing is part ofa decision-making process. More precisely, it is ameans for implementing social and political val-ues. Ideally, testing should contribute to equalityof opportunity in a meritocratic society to ensurethat people are judged only on performance andability in a fair and equitable manner and notfor other reasons (birthright, economic privilege,randomness).

The second chapter addresses standardizedtesting, which has become ubiquitous in this eraof accountability. Since the public now demandsprecise measurement of scholastic progress andachievement, various organizations produce stan-dardized tests intended to measure these re-sults scientifically. Two paradigms exist: (a) norm-referenced testing, or the measurement of per-formance based on comparison of one personto others taking the same test; and (b) criterion-referenced testing, or the interpretation of scoresaccording to predetermined standards of absoluteperformance. This chapter contains some techni-cal material on standardized testing, but it is notbeyond the grasp of the typical reader.

In the third chapter on classroom assessment,the author talks about various aspects includingassessment for learning, peer-assessment, self-assessment, dynamic assessment, dependability,and the need for an underlying theory ofassessment.

In the remaining seven chapters, Fulcherdiscusses the multiple dimensions of second-language testing. Chapter 4 thus introduces theessential notion of the test design cycle (p. 94)with its eight sequenced stages: (a) test pur-pose; (b) test criterion; (c) construct definition;(d) task/item design: specification writing;(e) evaluating, prototyping and piloting; (f) fieldtesting and assembly into the final format; (g) in-ferences; and (h) decisions, though it focuses onlyon the first three.

Chapter 5 addresses actual test specificationsincluding those for the item or task, evidence,test assembly, presentation, and delivery.

The sixth chapter is concerned with the evalu-ating, prototyping, and piloting of test items. Ofspecial interest in this chapter is the selective tran-scription of an actual sample of four participantsengaged in a collaborative discussion of a singletest item (pp. 162–172) together with Fulcher’senlightening annotation.

Chapter 7 details the scoring of tests. Becausemachine scoring of multiple-choice items is me-chanical and inexpensive, it facilitates scoring.The scoring of constructed response tasks may in-volve holistic, primary-trait scales, or multiple-traitscoring, which is more time consuming and mayraise issues of reliability. Noteworthy is Fulcher’sdiscussion of automated scoring for written andspeaking tasks since many teachers remain skep-tical about its value and meaning (pp. 216–218).

Chapter 8 deals with the alignment of tests tostandards. The fact that the notion “standard”has multiple meanings represents one significantproblem (pp. 225–226). Among the issues dis-cussed in this chapter are the use of standards forharmonization and identity, performance leveldescriptors, standard-setting methodologies, eval-uation of standard setting, and training.

The penultimate chapter addresses test admin-istration, which includes the control of extra-neous variables, the use of rituals, standardiza-tion of conditions and training, planned varia-tion (people who require specific accommoda-tions because of special needs or disabilities),unplanned variation (cheating), scoring proce-dures and their moderation, data handling andpolicy, and the reporting of the outcomes to thestakeholders.

The last chapter on testing and teaching dis-cusses the effects of standardized tests on teachingand learning (“washback”), which may be nega-tive or positive. In the latter case, a standardizedtest has constructive outcomes, that is, it may en-hance the curriculum, improve teaching method-ology, encourage greater coverage of skills andcontent. In the former case, however, an individ-ual instructor may “teach to the test” without con-sidering its overall negative ramifications.

Finally, Fulcher reminds the reader that the se-lection and use of standardized tests requires aconsideration of the following elements: (a) testpurpose, (b) test taker characteristics, (c) domainof interest, (d) constructs of interest, (e) validity,(f) parallel or equated forms, (g) test administra-tion and practicality, and (h) impact (pp. 292–294).


Each of the ten chapters has an “Activities” sec-tion to offer the reader extensive practical ap-plication of the previously elaborated principles.These exercises are not rote because they re-quire thoughtful and deliberate contemplation.Fulcher’s lucid writing style makes the purposes,processes, and procedures involved in testingcomprehensible, while, simultaneously, makingthe reader aware of its intricacy and complexity.Furthermore, his deft use of metaphor (architec-ture, engines, and so forth) makes his points clearand precise.

The appendices are quite useful: (a) Tableof z-scores; (b) Gaokao (National College En-trance Test, China) conversion table; (c) Theindividual linguality test; (d) Service encoun-ters in the C[ommon] E[uropean] F[ramework]of R[eference]; (e) Fluency rating scale; and

(f) Suggested answers for selected activities inthe text proper. A useful glossary, an extensivereference section, and a valuable index comple-ment this excellent reference tool. Fulcher alsorefers the reader (p. xv) to his informative Website: http://languagetesting.info, which containsa rich variety of invaluable resources related totesting (videos, features, articles, links, podcasts,scenarios, statistics, and so forth).

Most second-language instructors recommendthat prospective language teachers acquire anddevelop a personal professional library (dictio-naries, grammars, textbooks, CDs) during theirundergraduate and graduate education. Fulcher’sbook should be one of those volumes.

FRANK NUESSELUniversity of Louisville

implicit and explicit knowledge in second language learning

Documents