Bilingual Education in China: practices, policies and concepts

MLJ Reviews Edited by JUDITH E. LISKIN–GASPARRO University of Iowa MLJ Review Policy The MLJ reviews books, monographs, computer software, and materials that (a) present results of research in—and methods of—foreign and second language teaching and learning; (b) are devoted to matters of general interest to members of the profession; (c) are intended primarily for use as textbooks or instructional aids in classrooms where foreign and second languages, literatures, and cultures are taught; (d) convey information from other disciplines that relates directly to foreign and second language teaching and learning. Reviews not solicited by the MLJ can neither be accepted nor returned. Books and materials that are not reviewed in the MLJ cannot be returned to the publisher. Responses should be typed with double spacing and submitted electronically online at our new Manuscript Central address: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mlj. THEORY AND PRACTICE BLOCK, DAVID. Second Language Identities. London: Continuum, 2007. Pp. vii, 230. $160.00, cloth. ISBN 0–8264–7406–3. Individual learners have long been the focal point of second language learning (SLL) research. Researchers have examined the influence of biological factors, such as age, and psychological and environmental influences, such as the first language of the learner, on SLL. This focus on relatively fixed factors changed in the 1990s when Bonny Norton and others began to examine SLL from a social constructivist perspective, incorporating learner identity—that is, how individuals position themselves and are positioned by others—in response to the context of their learning. This movement is the focus of Second Language Identities. In it, Block examines second language (L2) identities of three groups: adult migrants, foreign language learners, and study-abroad students. He describes how identity work varies across these contexts, how this research has been shaped by poststructuralists in the social sciences, how it developed from the 1960s to the present, and how future researchers can enhance identity research in SLL. Following an introduction and overview in chapter 1, in chapter 2 Block examines identity in the social sciences today, arguing that it springs largely from the poststructuralist influence of Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, Chris Weedon, and others. Block explains the poststructuralist views of identity as socially constructed through interpersonal interactions, face-to-face or electronic and, thus in flux; this contrasts to the earlier view in applied linguistics that assumed that the individual was a stable entity. In chapter 3 Block examines several classic SLL studies, arguing that some of them acknowledged the role of identity, beginning with Wallace Lambert’s work on motivation in the late 1950s. Block sees this early research, including that by Lambert, Guiora, and Schumann, not as “a theoretically impoverished epistemological playing field” (p. 46) that some critics have claimed, but rather as planting the seeds of a poststructuralist view of identity in SLL. Chapters 4 through 6 present recent identityoriented research in the three different physical and sociocultural contexts that are the focus of the book. In chapter 4, Block examines identity issues of adult migrants, including studies of migrants in Western Europe, the United States, Canada, and England. Block suggests that migrant language learners face the greatest challenge to their identities, with learners forced to reconstruct and redefine themselves. The 36-page chapter, like the two chapters that follow, includes detailed summaries of a few illustrative studies. Chapter 5 is devoted to examining identity in foreign language contexts and, like chapter 4, is limited to an in-depth treatment of a few key pieces of research. In this case, Block describes studies of learning French in Australia, German in the United States, Mandarin in the United States, and his own research with an English learner in Spain. While Block believes that foreign language classrooms typically allow for few situations in which new identities linked to the target 642 language can emerge, he describes two cases about which he is hopeful. One is a feminist English as a foreign language class in Japan and one is an Internet-mediated class in which users communicate with others in the target language. In these cases, he concludes that they succeed by helping learners to engage explicitly with the target language and its speakers. In chapter 6 Block examines identity in study abroad contexts. As in the previous two chapters, Block examines a few seminal studies in detail, here focusing on how the study abroad context affects the development of learner identities connected with the target language. The first half of the chapter focuses on gender, in which he cites studies that deal with sexual harassment reported by students. The second half of the chapter analyzes other positions that arise for learners, including the roles played when learners are part of host families, mixing family life with pedagogy. The last segment explores an interesting phenomenon: that study abroad learners sometimes gain an enhanced national identity rather than greater intercultural awareness. Throughout the book Block points out the methodological limitations of prior studies, notably the lack of longitudinal studies and in-depth accounts of learner experiences, such as transcriptions of conversations and interviews. In the final chapter he focuses on strategies for research and lays out recommendations for change. These include (a) a greater emphasis on social class, (b) expanding our dichotomous notions of first language and L2/foreign language to more accurately represent learners who speak multiple first and additional languages at varying levels of development, (c) acknowledging the role of lingua francas in multilingual communities (i.e., mutually accessible languages that are not the language of the dominant language community), (d) examining how technology-mediated communication affects the identity of users, and, finally, (e) considering the application of concepts from psychoanalytic theory to SLL. This book has much to offer readers. Block manages to make an intellectually challenging topic accessible, even for newcomers to the field, without sacrificing the nuances necessary to understand underlying theory. Part of his success lies in his clear, straightforward organization and language and in his ability to unpack terminology and outline multiple perspectives on identity without overwhelming the reader. Those expecting a comprehensive treatment of SLL identity research that includes minority language children The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 in mainstream education and in postcolonial contexts will be disappointed, but, as Block notes, these topics have been covered extensively elsewhere. He also acknowledges the dearth of research published in languages other than English and thus the lack of such studies in his book. In spite of the less-than-comprehensive coverage of L2 identity the title led me to expect, the breadth and the depth of the introduction and the criticism of research Block offers make this a relevant text for scholars in all areas of L2 research. Block’s examination of theoretical and research foundations for identity are likely to initiate new conversations and enhance research not only on identity issues in language learning but also in SLL. ROBERTA VANN Iowa State University DE ANGELIS, GESSICA. Third or Additional Language Acquisition. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2007. Pp. vii, 152. $49.95, paper. ISBN 1–978–1–84769–003–6. This review of research in language acquisition among multilinguals adds to what language teachers need to know about their students. It offers a new perspective on issues that affect foreign language learning, in that it explores issues affecting students who have already acquired two languages (or more) and are learning an additional language. As the writer notes, although there have been decades of research on second language acquisition, there has been comparatively little research among multilinguals acquiring additional languages. This book opens the way to future research in this area. The book is organized into seven chapters: The first two give an overview of multilingualism and factors affecting nonnative language influence, the third and fourth chapters examine phonology and speech production issues, the fifth looks at lexical acquisition, the sixth looks at cognitive development and language acquisition, and the last chapter summarizes findings detailed in the preceding chapters. In general, it is a clearly written and comprehensive introduction to research in language acquisition among multilinguals, an area that deserves more attention than it has previously received. To summarize the findings, we may go directly to the author’s concluding section, “Major Findings and Some Suggestions for Future Research,” in which she states that “multilingual learners are 643 Reviews influenced by the L1 as well as the non-native languages” (p. 132). The author summarizes research that finds that transfer from second (L2) or third (L3) languages also can influence the acquisition of later languages. She shows that language distance is a significant factor, in that multilinguals are affected more markedly by languages closest to the target language, regardless of whether this is the native or a nonnative language. Also, cross-language influences (CLI) may be combined, such that learners are influenced by more than one language at the same time. The combined CLI effect is most pronounced when all of a speaker’s languages belong to the same language family and to the same subgroup within the family (p. 133). De Angelis also reports on language proficiency factors in CLI in multilinguals. The languages in which speakers are most proficient are commonly the source of CLI, whereas such languages are less subject to CLI at the receiving end. The opposite holds for languages in which speakers are less proficient. Even so, CLI in the acquisition of an L3 has been documented in cases in which learners have had only brief experience with an L2. Other factors in CLI in multilinguals that De Angelis covers include recency of use, length of residence and exposure to the L3, and order of acquisition. In the case of recency effects, there is research that documents transfer from languages most recently used. Transfer from languages not recently used, in some cases for as long as 30 years, seems to be limited to lexical influence. CLI tends to increase with length of residence and exposure to a language, which often is correlated with proficiency. In terms of order of acquisition, the L2 has been found to exert more CLI in L3 learning than does the speaker’s native language. This finding suggests the possibility of more research, and it has important implications for language teaching methods. The book includes a section on the lexicosemantic organization of bilinguals and multilinguals. Researchers in bilingualism posit that an additional language may develop a word-association or a concept-mediation type of organizational structure, depending on the proficiency level reached in that language. When extended to multilingual learners who have weak and strong nonnative languages, “the weak language was hypothesized to show a word-association type of structure and the strong language a concept-mediation type of structure” (p. 136). This area is another that beckons future researchers. The writer includes two important factors common to bilingual learners: (a) a reduction in pro- cessing speed for some language tasks and (b) a reduction in the time needed for learning additional languages. Overall, any negative consequences CLI may have are far outweighed by the positive cognitive effects of multilingualism. De Angelis concludes with a reference to sociolinguistic variables, a topic that is not included in the book. In general, I found this an informative and useful introduction to research on multilingual learners, one that language researchers and teachers will read with great interest. JAMES KOHN San Francisco State University HIDALGO, ENCARNACIÓN, LUIS QUEREDA, & JUAN SANTANA. (Eds.). Corpora in the Foreign Language Classroom: Selected Papers from the Sixth International Conference on Teaching and Language Corpora. New York: Rodopi, 2007. Pp. xiv, 362. $101.60, cloth. ISBN 978–90–420–2142–6. Linguistics research regularly sparks changes in language pedagogy, and the relationship between the growing field of corpus linguistics and second language (L2) instruction is likely to be no exception. Insights provided by formal and functional linguistics in the past 30 years have affected research design in second language acquisition (SLA) research and, in turn, the pedagogical grammars with which we teach today. Phenomena such as the preterit and the imperfect are increasingly described with terms and conceptualizations that are informed by theories of aspect, premises that did not underlie such explanations 30 years ago. Corpora in the Foreign Language Classroom is an edited volume of papers presented at the 6th Teaching and Language Corpora Conference in 2004. This collection gives readers an understanding of the role that corpus-based research plays for language pedagogy today, as well as insights into the internal debate about how corpora and associated tools should inform SLA research and L2 instruction. The volume is divided into three sections, the first of which contextualizes important applications, both practical and impractical, of corpusbased tools to research and instruction. In the first section, Chambers and Johansson separately contextualize important practical and impractical applications of corpus-based tools to research and instruction. Both emphasize the notion that research and pedagogy are symbiotic, and both 644 conclude that corpus-based tools will affect both endeavors in an important way. The next section contains papers examining corpus design and corpora use in the foreign-language classroom, which is followed by a section on the practical applications of corpora in the classroom. It is, admittedly, difficult to produce a coherent series of papers from a conference, and the line between theory and practice in both of these sections is not (and may not be able to be) well contrasted. The papers that constitute the bulk of these two sections address the following issues: how to design a corpus for language learners (Braun; Chujo et al.), using corpora for learners studying a target language for special purposes (e.g., Lam; van Rij-Heyligers; Fuentes), as well as in communicative classrooms (Basanta; Papp; Olivier et al.; Cresswell), examinations of language use in textbooks (Meunier & Gouverneur) and how to improve materials visà-vis native norms (Coffey; Gesuato), and, finally, using corpora for learners at more advanced levels of proficiency (Lavid; Tribble). However, corpus linguistics is a research design—in other words, a methodology for obtaining and organizing data. This discipline and its tools do not constitute a theory of the organization of the lexicon or of grammar in the mind of a learner or native speaker, as is the case with functional and formalist approaches to linguistic theory. Thus, the use of corpus analyses in language instruction endeavors will seem premature to many SLA researchers and language instruction experts. Corpus-based tools allow learners to see language in authentic situations and how it varies from one context to another. To readers who view corpus linguistics in this light, the papers in this volume that will be most informative are those examining the potential of corpus tools to help learners understand that the L2 that they are studying is not monolithic, but rather that it varies sociolinguistically (e.g., by formality, gender, and even within the oral mode). The papers by Braun and Tribble demonstrate how corpora could help learners understand nuances of different discourse types. Lam demonstrates how a proper corpus analysis might better inform English for Special Purposes students targeting the tourism industry. Minugh explores the use of corpora to examine metaphors in differing metaphorical and historical contexts. A couple of papers will interest researchers looking to exploit corpus-based tools in projects charting learner development over time, a technique that is growing in English SLA research but is in its infancy in foreign language research projects. Guo and Lenko-Szymanska provide in- The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 teresting papers on how to data mine a learner corpus, whether it be the design of the corpus for general purposes (i.e., consisting of a variety of texts and so it could be used to answer various research questions) or for specific purposes (e.g., consisting of texts specifically designed to study the use of learners’ use of the past tense). Taken together, the papers in this volume address a variety of important issues being discussed by those interested in corpus-based tools in the language learning enterprise, whether the perspective on acquisition or materials development and task design. For researchers or pedagogues interested in knowing the main questions in this field, Corpora in the Foreign Language Classroom will be a worthwhile read. JOSEPH COLLENTINE Northern Arizona University LARSEN–FREEMAN, DIANE, & LYNNE CAMERON. Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978–0–19–442244–4. $30.50, paper. In 1997, Diane Larsen-Freeman published her groundbreaking article on chaos/complexity science and second language acquisition. As she has indicated in various publications, it took time for this article to have an impact. It was clearly ahead of its time, and apparently too few applied linguists understood that it was a new and promising development in the field. Things are clearly different now: A growing community of researchers interested in complexity theory, dynamic adaptive systems, and related theoretical approaches is now adding to the momentum of the dynamic movement. With their new book, Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics, Larsen-Freeman and Cameron set a new milestone in this movement. The aim of the book is to show the relevance of applying theories and concepts from complex systems to applied linguistics in the broad sense. As the authors mention in their preface, they were faced with two major problems. The first was to come to grips with the vast and often technical literature on complex systems (the term they propose to refer to the class of theories on complexity, dynamic systems, and chaos); the second was to translate that information for applied linguists. This is a formidable job, and the authors have been effective in dealing with many of these challenges in most cases. However, at times one gets the impression that it was hard to deal with 645 Reviews some of the technical and conceptual issues at a meta-level. In such cases, the authors have prudently opted to use literal citations from the original texts to invite the reader to make those connections they are able to find. A 1,000-word review cannot do justice to the richness of this book, which sets the scene for discussions on the relevance of complex systems for applied linguistics. The book is organized into eight chapters. The first three chapters provide an introduction to the basics of complex systems as they have emerged in related fields of research. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss language and first and second language acquisition from a dynamic perspective. Chapters 6 and 7 describe the application of the concepts and tools of complex systems theories to the study of discourse and the analysis of what goes on in language classrooms. Finally, in chapter 8, information is provided on how applied linguistic issues can be studied. Several approaches to research are discussed, but the information given is generally not enough to actually do the research proposed. I tend to use a yellow marker when reading relevant literature. Important parts of the text are highlighted with the aim to make rereading easier and to help focus on parts of the text. In the copy of the book used for this review, most of the pages in the first four chapters are almost completely yellow. This highlighting may reflect the high density of the text or my own cognitive limitations, but most likely a combination of the two. Chapters 6 and 7 rest comfortably on the theoretical notions laboriously elucidated in the previous chapters. These two chapters can be read; the other chapters must be studied. One of the main problems with the adoption of a new theoretical framework is that we tend to think and speak in terms of the concepts with which we are already familiar. As the authors write: “In writing this book, we have faced the dilemma of how to talk about matters of complexity theory. This is because our ways of knowing are so bound up with the language we use to discuss them . . . . It is easy to fall back into old ways of thinking, and it requires continual monitoring to ensure that ways of talking (or writing) reflect complex dynamic ways of thinking” (p. x). In the book there are many instances in which the reader feels the authors have taken great pains to explain various issues in such a way that they are not too trivial, technical, or circular. Still, even with all the care given, some traces of earlier paradigms remain. An example can be found in their discussion of formative experiments and dynamic assessment in the chapter on researching complex systems. Larsen-Freeman and Cameron say: “Formative experiments attempt to investigate the potential of a system rather than its state” (p. 244). This statement seems to be a return to the competence/performance distinction to which the authors vehemently object. What is potential in dynamic terms? If a runner does the 100-meter sprint in 10 seconds one day and in 11 seconds the next day, does that mean that he didn’t use his potential on the first day, in the sense that he could have run faster? The point is that he didn’t; he used his resources to run as fast as he could. The system does what it does in its trajectory over time. The fact that on other occasions the set of resources was different does not mean that there is potential. It is not important what the resources may be; what matters is what they are at a given moment. All we have is variation, but that does not necessarily imply potential. The audience for this book is not easy to define. A simple solution would be to advise all applied linguists and their students to read it because it is an important book on a potentially important development in the field, but that may be taking it too far. As indicated earlier, this book is not bedside reading. For a novice reader or a student without a solid background in second language acquisition (SLA) literature, it will be hard work. It is aimed more at advanced M.A. students and researchers than at students who are beginning to explore the area. Reading some of the earlier work on dynamic systems and SLA, like the articles in the recent special issue of The Modern Language Journal (92.2), may be recommended first. The authors summarize their view on the relevance of complex systems as follows: “We feel that seeing the evolution of language, its development, its learning, and its use as complex, adaptive, dynamic, non linear processes rings truer to us than the theories in which we were trained or in what our professional experience has been since. We think that we are not alone in this regard” (p. 251). Indeed, they are not, and this book will no doubt lead to an increase of the number of people who share their views and who are willing to think along with them. KEES DE BOT University of Groningen OMONIYI, TOPE, & GOODITH WHITE. (Eds). The Sociolinguistics of Identity. London: Continuum, 2006. Pp. x, 239. $160.00, cloth. ISBN 0– 58901–118–X. 646 RILEY, PHILIP. Language, Culture, and Identity: An Ethnolinguistic Perspective. London: Continuum, 2007. Pp. ix, 265. $49.95, paper. ISBN 978– 0–8264–8629–5. The problem of identity has preoccupied social scientists for centuries and philosophers for millennia. These two books from Continuum’s Advances in Sociolinguistics series make important contributions to the already enormous identity literature. Such scholarship is increasing exponentially in response to the need to reconceptualize identity in a globalized, poststructuralist, postmodern world. Identity reconceived is fluid, not fixed or unitary, but socially constructed, co-constructed, and continually reconstructed through language. It is unstable, malleable, ongoing, negotiated, and multiple—in other words, a repertoire of roles or subject positions and a combination of individual agency and social influences. These new identity definitions, however, often leave gnawing doubts in the minds of identity scholars, who find the notions of a more integral, less fragmented, and less socially changeable identity more accurate and psychologically satisfying. Have identity studies veered too much toward the social to the detriment of the psychological? In addition to addressing this question by discussing the philosophy and sociology of identity, both books report on exciting applied linguistics research. The main contexts of this research are the political, social, and commercial worlds outside the foreign language classroom. Thus, foreign language researchers will need to go one step further to apply the results of these studies to the classrooms that prepare students for the worlds outside them. Omoniyi and White compiled their collection from 11 papers presented at the Language and Identity Conference at the University of Reading, with two papers added from the 2005 AILA Conference. Only two papers, those by Vann et al. and Spotti, are explicitly classroom based. A major purpose of the book, the editors explain, is to introduce researchers to new conceptual and methodological tools for analyzing postmodern identities (e.g., Ominiyi’s hierarchy of identities, moments, and identification—the process of identity construction). Readers not convinced by postmodern identity definitions may be more interested in one contributor’s suggestion that there may be a core self or psychological identity that manages the expression of social identities. “Is there nothing stable deep inside, behind the different The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 subject positions?” David Block asks (p. 46). Block uses the age-old method of psychoanalysis to study the identities of foreign language learners already studied and written about by other researchers. Then he wonders whether psychoanalysis is too intrusive or not appropriate for studying actual foreign language learner subjects, rather than textual representations of them. As important as the new tools for studying identity are the surprising results of a number of the empirical studies, whose unpredictable findings seem to conflict with conventional sociolinguistic wisdom about language learners’ identities based on their relationships with their second language, their first language (L1), or their heritage language. Developing what she calls English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), a dialect with only the pronunciation features necessary to ensure communication, Jenkins attempts to free nonnative English teachers from the pressure to model their own and their students’ English on the English of native speakers, especially given that most of their conversations are with other nonnative speakers. However, results of her study showed that most of her subjects were not interested in ELF and identified linguistically with native speakers of English, even though some identified culturally with their own L1 communities. This dual alliance also was found in Spotti’s study; expectations that African and Arabic children in the Netherlands would feel alienated from the Dutch language were not met. On the contrary, the children took pride in their mastery of Dutch and felt empowered in relation to their parents, who did not speak it as well, although many still felt ties to their country of origin. Another surprising finding was from Sallabank’s study of language attrition: Guernsey French, which, at stage 7 on Fishman’s 8-point scale, is rapidly dying, does not seem essential to maintaining a Guernsey identity, similar to co-editor White’s finding that the Irish prefer Standard Irish English to Gaelic because English allows them to communicate their identity internationally. Also unpredictable was the embarrassing role that a U.S. science teacher was found to have in assigning active and passive student identities in the classroom, privileging boys over girls and the Spanish speakers in the majority over the Sudanese speakers in the minority (Vann et al.). Riley’s book, which is based on a lifetime of thinking and writing about these relationships and includes passages from 14 of his previous publications, appeals to readers with a sociological rather than a sociolinguistic perspective on identity, language, and culture. Riley offers his readers 647 Reviews a friendly sociology of knowledge textbook. Culture and knowledge for Riley are the same: Culture is the knowledge members of a society need if they are to participate competently in the various situations and activities life puts in their way. It includes such things as knowing how to fish or dance, how to use a telephone or a credit card, how to drive a car or a bargain and how to talk. (p. 36) Because such knowledge is distributed differently, according to the different “socio-discursive positions” of individuals (p. 19), identity formation processes vary. The processes that Riley explores are membershipping strategies (see next paragraph), phatic communion, and childrearing practices. Riley is a role model in the profession, having mastered many languages (among them English, French, Swedish, and Finnish) while living in many countries with his multicultural, multilingual family. Humorous intercultural stories that take place in streets, buses, and restaurants abroad inform the book’s major argument—that identity is co-constructed by self and other, a co-construction that he calls ethos. Agency has its limits; an individual cannot just project the identity features she/he chooses because how others see her/him also determines identity, an observation confirmed by any American who travels to another country. “Socially speaking, identity is as much the product of the gaze of others as it is of our own making” (p. 87). Riley draws from his rich repertoire of experiences as well as from studies conducted at the Centre de Recherche et d’Applications Pédagogiques en Langues (CRAPEL) at the University of Nancy to analyze pragmatic failure between people of different language and cultural backgrounds. He focuses on a study of the perceptions by foreign speakers of French as a second language in France that they are being membershipped first as foreign and second as customers, by French service personnel. His study showed that French counter people, bank tellers, and bureaucrats believe that “service with a smile” is unprofessional, superficial, and “à l’américaine” (p. 223). Because the perceived rudeness of French service people was believed to have hurt the tourism industry, they are now being retrained to assume a customercentered attitude. CRAPEL is studying the effects of this new training program, ironically based on the American service paradigm that is similar to call center training programs in India. As if responding to David Block’s question about a core identity, Riley’s palpable personality on the page, whether he is telling family anec- dotes, discussing knowledge and culture, or reporting research, appears to us to be integral and whole, despite the fact that, as he tells us, he has often been accused of being linguistically and culturally schizophrenic. His personable and scholarly voice makes his readers feel whole as well, thus emphasizing the co-construction of identity while problematizing postmodern identity definitions. CAROL SEVERINO The University of Iowa CHINESE FENG, ANWEI. (Ed.). Bilingual Education in China: Practices, Policies and Concepts. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2007. Pp. xiv, 288. $59.95, paper. ISBN 978–1–85359–991–0. In May of 2005, Great Britain’s Finance Minister Gordon Brown proclaimed that “by 2025 the number of English-speaking Chinese is likely to exceed the number of native English speakers in the rest of the world” (retrieved February 7, 2008, from http://www.bookofjoe.com/2005/05/the_ascent_ of_e.html). More recently, a Reuters report stated that Beijing’s Olympic organizers have a cadre of 400,000 English-speaking recruits in preparation for the Summer 2008 Games. Even while we marvel at the quantitative scale of China’s embracing the study of English as a foreign language, our understanding of the qualitative aspects of that process is still limited. Feng’s edited volume of a dozen studies is a major contribution to, as Colin Baker states in the book’s foreword, “the practices and ideology (emphasis mine)” (p. vii) of bilingual education in China. Particularly distinctive about language education in China are its roots in the distinction drawn between the Han majority (92%) nationality and the 56 minority nationalities (and their 80 different languages). Instruction in Modern Standard Chinese, commonly referred to as Mandarin, has been dealt with in different ways for these two groups. Indeed, most research on bilingual education in China has focused on minority language education in Mandarin, although virtually none of that research has been available in English. In contrast, Feng avoids this traditional dichotomy, choosing instead a thematic approach with four topic areas: (a) policy (including curriculum and ideology), (b) models, (c) projects (and their underlying principles), and (d) English 648 provision for minority nationality students. These four parts are supplemented by two chapters by the editor, a summarizing overview of the 12 research studies, and a critical analysis of the aims of bilingual education in China. For the three studies in part 1, the topical focus is “Policy, Curriculum and Ideological Orientations.” Agnes Lam first compares the history of two bilingual language education models: Mandarin and English for the Han Chinese and Mandarin and nationality language for the non-Han Chinese. She emphasizes issues revolving around language and cultural rights, and she makes recommendations for policy goals in light of the Language Education in China project. Bob Adamson next provides an historical analysis of the depoliticization process within English language curricula in China over the last half century, as well as a sociological perspective on how the uneven availability of resources for English language teaching has led to social inequality. Part 1 concludes with an empirical study by Gerard Postiglione et al. of a special program to develop Mandarin–Tibetan bilinguals in a location physically removed from their home environment. In theory, such an approach should enable students to focus on integration with the broader Mandarin-speaking society. Ironically, the program is shown to be a failure for both Mandarin language skill development and Tibetan language maintenance. Part 2, “Varieties in Bilingual Education,” also has three chapters. Qingxia Dai and Yanyan Cheng provide a typological review of the past 50 years of Mandarin–minority language bilingual education on the mainland. Also building from a historical foundation, Guangwei Hu examines the current passion for and models of Chinese– English bilingual education, including two case studies and an analysis based on them of the consequences for the future of bilingual education in China. Finally, Minggang Wan and Shanxin Zheng, echoing some of the themes of Postigilione et al., consider the conduct of Tibetan– Mandarin bilingual education on home (Tibetan) turf, reporting (in contrast to Postiglione et al.’s findings) a success story, as reflected in two distinct models. Four research projects comprise part 3, “Practices and Underpinning Principles.” Ellen Feng and Jinjun Wang examine a content-based bilingual education model in a well-developed area of southern China. Ellen Zheng and Bob Adamson analyze the failure of a national-level, task-based language instruction model for English, as well as the ineffective implementation of a language The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 policy. Heidi Cobbey investigates four bilingual education projects in relatively underdeveloped areas. The section concludes with Jiazhen Pan’s unique (for this volume) focus on bilingual education in higher education, providing both a critical overview of all programs and an institutionspecific case study. In part 4, “English Provision for Minority Students,” there are two chapters. Binlan Huang examines teacher perceptions of the challenges of teaching English at the tertiary level. Qiuxia Jiang et al. analyze learner perceptions of the challenges of English as a Foreign Language education in remote areas of China, treating aspects such as motivation, cultural awareness, and teacher qualifications. Although there are some small technical glitches in the volume—for example, incorrectly placing the editor’s overview of Cobbey’s article in chapter 1—the overall editing quality of the volume is excellent. One always wishes that there would be Chinese characters rather than only pinyin Romanization in the substantial lists of works cited, but that editorial decision does not detract from the value of those lists of references. In summary, in its wide-ranging examination of the “additive relationship” (p. vii) between both Mandarin Chinese and English language education, and minority language and English language education, Bilingual Education in China is an engaging and impressive work of great value to both Chinese and English language educators. SCOTT McGINNIS Defense Language Institute–Washington Office WU, JIANHSIN. The Way of Chinese Characters. Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2007. Pp. xi, 294. $28.95, paper. ISBN 0–887–27527–3. Chinese, one of the less commonly taught languages in the United States, has increased in enrollments in recent years. Although learning to speak Chinese does not require more time than for other foreign languages, the written language presents big challenges to beginning learners. The Way of Chinese Characters provides a concise and clear explanation of the composition, origin, and evolution of 400 Chinese characters with picture illustrations. The explanations are grounded in the author’s careful study of the origins of those Chinese characters and are presented in traditional script, which can be traced to the late Reviews Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.). If a character existed earlier, its ancient forms are also presented to show the origin and evolution of the character. The book has both English and traditional text explanations. The book ends with four useful character indexes, which are arranged by lesson, pinyin, traditional stroke count, and simplified stroke count. There are two informative sections in the preface: (a) “Types of Script” and (b) “Types of Characters.” The first section lists all of the ancient script forms that each character may have taken in the process of evolution. They are presented in the following chronological order: Oracle(Shang Dynasty: ca. 1600– Bone Inscription (Zhou Dyca.1100 B.C.); Bronze Inscription , which innasty: ca. 1100–221 B.C.); Seal Script (Eastern Zhou Dynasty: cludes Big Seal Script (Qin Dy770–221 B.C.) and Small Seal Script (Han nasty: 221–207 B.C.); and Cursive Script Dynasty: 206 B.C.–220 A.D.). Exceptions are the relatively new characters, which do not have any ancient forms, such as ‘tā, she’ and ‘nı́n, polite form of the pronoun you’ (p. vii). However, even for those characters, the author should have provided their origins, although perhaps in a different format. For example, ‘tā, she’ appeared first in literature in the early 20th century as a counterpart to the third-person male pronoun ‘tā, he.’ As a language whose written form can be traced back almost 4,000 years, the origin of any character reflects part of the history of the language and the society in which the language has existed. The second informative section is the introduction of types of characters. In addition to listing the six basic categories defined by the Han Dynasty scholar Xu Shen—pictographs ( ), explicit characters ( ), associative compounds ( ), picto-phonetic characters ( ), mutually explanatory characters ( ), and phonetic loan characters ( )—the author also uses characters from her book to illustrate each of the categories (pp. vii–viii). As pointed out by the author, the picto-phonetic characters ( ) account for the largest number of characters, and the last two types, mutually explanatory characters ( ) and phonetic loan characters ( ), were more relevant in earlier times, when the character went through the evolution process, and are less obvious to the current learner, who may not see the connections indicated in the explanations given for those words. It would have been helpful had the author provided the percentage of each category of the 400 characters in her book, so that readers could have had a clear sense of the weight 649 on each category and hence allocate their time and energy accordingly. The easiest three characters in Chinese are ‘yī, one,’ ‘èr, two,’ and ‘sān, probably three,’ which are explicit characters and have not changed much since ancient times (p. 21). Another interesting observation is that 35 of the 40 radicals listed in the book are pictographs, such as ‘y ǔ, rain’ and ‘tián, field.’ Radicals are the most commonly used components that may appear as a part of many other characters. The fact that these radicals, or characters when standing alone, play such an important role in the formation of many picto-phonetic characters may be related to the way these characters were created. The unchanging world that these characters represent may have guaranteed the position they secured in the language world of Chinese. An example of a picto-phonetic character is ‘xiăng, to think,’ in which the top part indicates its sound and the bottom part indicates the meaning, which is a radical ‘xīn, heart’ (p. 99). Another interesting type of character is the associate compound, such as ‘róng, to hold; to contain; to allow,’ where the meaning can be derived from the components of the character. The top is the radical for roof and the bottom is the character ‘gǔ, valley; gorge.’ The common characteristic of these two places is the capacity to hold people or things; therefore, it is quite natural to infer the meaning of the associate compound (p. 147). With each character listed in a single entry with brief explanations in English and Chinese and a picture, the book works like a concise dictionary of 400 characters. It explains the meaning in English for learners of Chinese who cannot understand the Chinese explanation. The picture that accompanies each character stimulates readers’ visual imagination and helps them grasp the structure of the character. The use of traditional forms in the main text fits well with the purpose of showing the origin and evolution of each character over the past 2,000 years of history. The complete explanation in simplified characters in the index makes it accessible to learners who are familiar with that format. The selection of characters in this book is based on the words in another popular Chinese textbook, Integrated Chinese, Level 1 Part 1, and the lessons in both books are organized similarly. One addition that would have made the book more appealing to readers would have been the addition of color to its content pages, especially for the picto-phonetic characters, with one color to highlight the visual effect of the pictures and another to signify the phonetic part. Similarly, the 650 drawings could be colored to illustrate the relevant part shown in the character. Overall, the book is well written with solid scholarly research on the origin of characters. Its bilingual format, combined with cartoon drawings, makes the book accessible to beginning learners, whereas the concise Chinese explanation can be used as a quick reference for advanced learners and language teachers as well. With the explanation of meaning, structure, and the evolution process, learners will find Chinese characters less challenging when they have more resources to turn to than merely relying on memorizing without any understanding of the inside world of Chinese characters. LIXIA MA Phillips Academy at Andover YI, ZHOU, & M. LYNNE GERBER. Working Mandarin for Beginners. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2007. Pp. xxv, 325. $64.95, paper. ISBN 978–1–58901–139–7. The first author of this book, Yi Zhou, is a lecturer in the Asian Studies Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the second author, M. Lynne Gerber, is the executive director of the Center for International Business Education and Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One has expertise in teaching Mandarin in the classroom and the other in the process of knowledge and skills acquisition. This combination of perspectives is reflected in the pedagogical approach of the book. Studying Chinese can be intimidating. Learners not only face the usual challenges of learning a new language—vocabulary, grammar, cultural idiosyncrasies, and so forth—but they also have to contend with a non-Roman script. These formidable obstacles frustrate many learners. The authors of Working Mandarin are aware of such difficulties for beginning learners. They intentionally skip over some of these obstacles in the design of this textbook. For example, the focus is on oral communication relying on pinyin. Students do not have to worry about learning the characters at the initial stage of the language acquisition process. The lessons are made more palatable by excluding instruction on writing the Chinese script. The overall objective of this textbook is clear and focused. It is designed “to enable Englishspeaking business students or working professionals with no prior knowledge of Mandarin to de- The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 velop the basic communication skills necessary for a business trip to China or another environment in which Mandarin is spoken” (back cover). Each lesson also has specific objectives for acquiring specific language skills, grammar, and cultural understanding. These statements ensure that students understand the goals of each lesson, which is important for beginning learners who may feel overwhelmed by how much they have to learn. The format and arrangement of Working Mandarin is unique and excellent. It is organized into six thematic units, each of which contains its own set of objectives in language skills, grammar, and cultural understanding. The topics of the first five units are “Building Business Relationships,” “At Work,” “Daily Activities,” “Getting Around,” and “Business Activities.” Each unit consists of four lessons, with the fourth lesson designed as a review of the unit. Moreover, the contents of the first three lessons have some overlap, which makes progressing from one lesson to the next a more encouraging process. In the sixth unit, students are required to complete an independent project, which encourages them to put what they have learned in the first five units into the context of an area of their work or interest. In addition, some fundamentals about the formation of Chinese characters are introduced in this last unit to lay a foundation for students to continue their learning of Chinese. Another desirable feature of this textbook is the variety of its exercises. For example, the same phrase mei guanxi ‘it doesn’t matter’ is practiced in a fill-in-the-blank exercise, a multiple-choice listening comprehension exercise, and a writing exercise in which students compose dialogues. Using different avenues to practice the same phrase almost guarantees mastery of the phrase. More noteworthy than other available textbooks is that Working Mandarin requires students to provide sound files of their own composed and recorded dialogues or passages to be submitted to their language instructor. In this way, students are likely to practice frequently to make their recordings satisfactory. This task type also reduces the embarrassment that students often face when asked to speak Chinese in a classroom environment. At the same time, the instructor can listen to the student recordings and offer corrections and other feedback on a one-on-one basis. With its online features, Working Mandarin is not only a textbook but also an interactive tutor. As Wendan Li, Director of the Chinese Language Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, comments: 651 Reviews Working Mandarin for Beginners is specifically designed for business students and working professionals to develop oral proficiency in work environments. It breaks away from the traditional classroom, uses modern technology for course delivery, and incorporates onsite learning to achieve optimal results. A truly innovative and unique program. (back cover) It is innovative that each copy of the textbook includes a CD–ROM with MP3 tracks of all of the dialogues, vocabulary, and audio exercises in the book. Students have access to all the audio files even without going online, although these materials are also available online at quia.com. Each copy of the textbook has a Book Key, with which one can register for online access to interactive exercises. A recording function is also included for students to record their homework as many times as they wish before they submit their sound file electronically to their instructor. Despite all of its excellent features, there is still more to desire. If there is any weak point in this textbook, it is that it does not contain enough engaging material to promote communicative use of Chinese among learners and to make the acquisition of communicative proficiency more enjoyable. WENYING JIANG University of Alberta ENGLISH BIRCH, BARBARA M. English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom. 2nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2007. Pp. vii, 236. $29.95, paper. ISBN 0–8058–5929–2. English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom, now in its second edition, provides a comprehensive overview of the linguistic features that can influence the bottom level of the second language (L2) reading process: phonemes, graphemes, morphemes, and words. The first edition of English L2 Reading , published in 2002, received the David E. Eskey Award for Curricular Innovation; thus, the purpose of the second edition is not to make significant content changes, but rather to fine-tune its organization, update the research reviewed, correct errors, and expand upon certain topics. The focus of the book is English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) reading, and the intended audience is ESL/EFL teachers or teachers-in-training with an interest in teaching reading. Indeed, this book would serve well as a main or secondary text in an ESL reading methods course. The book also would be useful as a reference for ESL reading teachers seeking tips and techniques for putting bottom-up reading strategies into practice. Birch adopts a balanced or integrated model of reading, in which readers use both top-down and bottom-up processing to assign meaning to a text. However, prior to the publication of this book, much of the available literature on integrated reading models provided only a cursory look at the details of language that have an impact on ESL/EFL reading. Birch’s approach is thus novel in that she focuses on language features central to bottom-up processing. She argues that knowledge and processing strategies are highly language dependent and that the features of English make L2 reading difficult. Instructional strategies that focus on these features and, thus, on bottomup processing may help readers overcome these difficulties. To underscore this argument, Birch first overviews the characteristics of various writing systems and how they are similar to or different from English, and she then discusses low-level transfer of reading strategies from the native language to English before looking at the phonemic, graphemic, morphemic, and lexical characteristics of English. Reading strategies and knowledge are at the core of Birch’s treatment of bottomup reading. For learners to become successful L2 readers of English, they must develop a world and language knowledge base and a set of cognitive and language processing strategies. The various chapters in this book focus on the knowledge and strategies specific to different features of the bottom of the reading process. English L2 Reading is comprised of 10 chapters, two appendixes, and a workbook supplement. Each chapter begins with prereading questions to activate readers’ schemata regarding their experiences reading in English (e.g., Do you remember learning to read as a child? Was it a positive or negative experience?) and study guide questions to be answered during or after reading the chapter. The latter tend to focus on finding facts presented within the chapter and identifying key concepts (e.g., What are graphemes? What are graphs?). Chapters 1 through 9 end with discussion questions that encourage critical reflection on the chapter. Chapters 4 through 9 also include “Spotlight on Teaching,” intended to put certain of the concepts discussed in each chapter into practice through lesson plans and teaching sequences. The prereading, while-reading, and postreading questions throughout the book mirror the integrated model of reading Birch outlines 652 in the introduction; this structure thus models and puts into practice the method she espouses. Although the structure of the book is integrated, Birch does not always link the book’s focus to the integrated reading model she adopts. To make a case for the direct instruction of bottomlevel strategies and knowledge, Birch often strays from the integrated model. For instance, in chapter 5 she argues against the notion that good readers scan a text to get meaning from it (a top-down strategy). She further suggests at various points throughout the book that instructors teach lowlevel processing strategies before asking learners to focus on meaning. This suggestion seems to contradict one of the core concepts of integrated reading models: The purpose of reading is to construct meaning. Birch does claim that top-down and bottom-up reading are equally important, and in some instances she does show how they work together. For example, in chapter 7 Birch suggests that modern phonics instruction (bottom level) be combined with strategies such as reasoning by analogy or relying on contextual information (top level), and in chapter 9 she suggests teaching bottom-up word-learning strategies and word analysis in conjunction with top-down wordlearning and comprehension strategies. Overall, however, Birch falls short of showing how bottomup and top-down processing serve one another or how we can structure reading instruction to effectively develop both types of processing. In spite of this shortcoming, Birch provides a thorough and well-researched treatment of bottom-level reading processes, strategies, and knowledge. Her writing style is accessible to a variety of readers, both native and nonnative speakers of English, both experienced and novice pedagogues. Moreover, she provides ample examples to illustrate concepts and a variety of questions and exercises to facilitate practice. Indeed, English L2 Reading is a valuable contribution to the literature on models and methods of L2 reading. KATE PAESANI Wayne State University HO, DEBBIE G. E. Classroom Talk: Exploring the Sociocultural Structure of Formal ESL Learning . New York: Peter Lang, 2007. Pp. v, 254. $52.95, paper. ISBN 0–8204–7561–0. Classroom Talk: Exploring the Sociocultural Structure of Formal ESL Learning seeks to explain some of the complexities inherent in the English as a The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 second language (ESL) classroom by examining it as a microcosm within the macro structure of the formal learning institution. Resulting from an ethnographic study of an ESL learning situation in Brunei, where the native language is Malay, Ho’s analysis implies that the ESL classroom as microcosm is also embedded within the formal learning traditions of the culture—in this case, that of Great Britain, which colonized Brunei in the early 20th century. Her premise is simple and logical: Limitations on communicative discourse within the ESL classroom result from the sociocultural setting over and above the classroom at the institutional level. Her ethnographic methods, including 18 classroom observations, semistructured interviews, and study and analysis of videos, audio recordings, and field notes, proved “messy and not immediately transparent, but . . . yielded data in their most natural state” (p. 83). Although the effort was undertaken to understand intricacies and complexities of the school’s ethos to shed light on why ESL classroom talk is the way it is, in the end Ho showed in her case study that there was very little classroom talk. Instead, ESL classroom instruction was primarily limited to the Initiation-ResponseFeedback (IRF) pattern of teacher–student interaction. The IRF pattern is an acceptable norm within the context of the study, a school system that privileges grammatical correctness over communicative competence, where both students and teachers appreciate the fact that English language learning is geared toward successful mastery of test-taking skills in the target language and that linguistic codes that are considered formal, correct, and polite within classroom situations signal both authority and linguistic superiority and therefore are preferred over slang or informal classroom talk. Ho writes that “students have been socialized into accepting that this is the way they interact with their teachers in the classroom, thus supporting similar findings in language classrooms elsewhere” (p. 139). Both the culture and socialization reinforce noncommunicative patterns of interaction that constrain the classroom talk and natural interaction that would enhance the language skills that students might find useful beyond the educational setting. Ho’s study is a foray into the sociocultural dimensions of ESL learning that could be built upon by scholars seeking to link the pedagogical practices of an institution to the discourse practices of language instruction. Classroom Talk may also serve the beginning ESL instructor as a tool for reviewing the literature related to and synthesizing observations about second language acquisition Reviews in general. The book may prove useful, as well, to other beginning scholars embarking on participant observation-oriented ethnographic studies. One of the most interesting sections is Ho’s narrative account of the frustration involved in building the trust that is necessary for such a study and her own realization that the complexities she sought to understand were best understood as residing among people rather than in categories of society or culture. ANNE–KATRIN GRAMBERG Auburn University JENKINS, JENNIFER. English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. xii, 284. $22.00, paper. ISBN 978– 0–19–442237–6. This monograph “about language change and the response it elicits among speakers of a language” (p. xi) takes a sociolinguistic approach to the worldwide use of English by nonnative speakers (NNSs), many of whom use English as a lingua franca (ELF) among themselves rather than as a foreign language to communicate with native speakers (NSs) of English. With the globalization of English, Jenkins asserts, many professionals and the public find it “difficult to make the conceptual leap needed in order to allow ELF a legitimate place alongside the Englishes of the inner and outer circles” (p. xi). By examining “language attitudes, beliefs, ideologies, and identity conflicts” surrounding ELF, the book is intended to work toward “a reappraisal that will enable ELF, one day perhaps, to be offered as a pedagogic alternative to (but not necessarily a replacement for) traditional English as a Foreign Language” (p. xii). The choice of a sociolinguistic perspective, privileging the study of language change in terms of phonology and speaker attitude attached to discrete language varieties, points to the usefulness of this book, as well as to its limitations. Throughout eight well-organized and readerfriendly chapters, Jenkins vigorously pursues the case for ELF with polemical skill backed up by a thorough grasp of the issues and an impressive range of research, including her own empirical studies on ELF. Chapter 1 defines ELF and dismantles criticisms of it as “misinterpretations” and “misconceptions” (pp. 19–27). Chapter 2 examines the links between “standard NS English language ideology” (p. 59) and the devaluing of NNS uses of English among language professionals. Chapter 3 builds a methodological framework 653 for empirical studies on ELF accents grounded in language attitude research, particularly folk linguistics and perceptual dialectology. Chapter 4 reviews previous research into ELF attitudes. Chapter 5 reports on Jenkins’s data from several groups of teachers about their perceptions of NS and NNS language and speakership. Chapter 6 describes the author’s questionnaire study of teachers’ beliefs and attitudes in which NS and NNS participants rated and ranked various English accents from around the world. Chapter 7 offers a useful overview of research on language and identity related to ELF. Jenkins’s thought-provoking analysis of her interview data collected from NNS teachers reveals the tensions stemming from their position in “a test-driven, NS English-oriented education system” (p. 224). The closing chapter on attitude, identity, and the future of ELF develops a critique of English NS-biased gatekeeping practices in teaching and research that affect NNS teachers and learners, including basic concepts in second language acquisition (e.g., fossilization, interlanguage). Despite extensive and often illuminating discussions of ideology, attitudes, and beliefs, I was left with the nagging sense that the authority of the NS remains largely undertheorized and underhistoricized in sociolinguistics. For example, Jenkins criticizes linguists, including some sociolinguists, who cannot take ELF seriously because it refers to “unnatural” languages and who are therefore “unable to see it as a natural linguistic development” resulting from language contact and change (p. 16). Although a useful rhetorical strategy, positing the naturalness of ELF seems to lead Jenkins into the same linguistic legitimacy trap she purports to deconstruct. As the desire to legitimate ELF drives her argument, the author stops short of dealing with the larger underlying ideologies of naturalness and nativeness in language that inform linguistics and language education. A poststructuralist and postcolonial critique might interrogate the assumptions of (non)natural and (non)native language in terms of the basic sociocultural and historical situatedness of all language, such that natural and native are compromised notions that ultimately stand in the way of expanding our popular, pedagogic, and scholarly concepts of language and speakership. Employing a folklinguistics approach, which conveniently separates professional linguists from everyone else, seems at odds with the growing body of research (to which this book otherwise contributes) pointing to the complicity of linguistics and linguists in the construction of native standard speaker-biased notions of language and speaker identity. Perceptual dialectology 654 methodology is offered as a way to generate a significant amount of empirical data on why and how “community members” react to, believe in, and share certain perceptions of “language variety boundaries” (p. 148). However, after finishing this book, a reader may still feel at a loss to see how the empirical data showing, for example, the hierarchy of NNS varieties of English can move us beyond increasingly nuanced restatements, however critical they strive to be, of the linguistic prejudices attached to the standard NS language ideology. Perhaps the larger issue here is the role (socio)linguistics plays in naming and inventing language(s) from diverse and complex language practices—in this case, constructing ELF as an entity that can be studied, taught, and learned. The author argues that “we need comprehensive, reliable descriptions of the ways in which proficient ELF users speak among themselves, as the basis for codification” (p. 238). However, in validating ELF through corpora construction, one must wonder whether this invention of ELF as a set of describable and therefore legitimating and empowering practices amenable to linguistic analysis and pedagogical applications might not also fall into the same model of legitimization and authentication associated with the invention of the NS standard that this book so persuasively questions. Perhaps it is deemed necessary to appropriate the tools of linguistic description to fight the inequalities generated by the refusal to admit NNS practices and identities as legitimate. However, one must also ask whether the construction of ELF might not (re)produce its own inequalities as researchers decide what constitutes the corpora. For example, what place will be given to the bilingual or, most often, multilingual practices (e.g., codeswitching, mixing) that characterize much of the lives of ELF speakers? The concerns expressed above do not detract from the contributions this book makes to questioning NS authority in postcolonial contexts. The author is to be commended for her engagement in developing a useful, thoughtful, and informed perspective on one of the most contested issues in language teaching and linguistic research, the (non)native speaker. This book deserves to be read by language professionals engaged in the study and teaching of English and by those working with other postcolonial world languages, such as Spanish and French, for which the construction of NS and NNS language and identity continues to have tangible consequences in the lives of speakers. ROBERT TRAIN Sonoma State University The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 KIRKPATRICK, ANDY. World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. x, 257. $36.00, paper. ISBN 978–0–521–61687–4. What are World Englishes? How can the term be defined? How do we describe and classify the varieties of English? What is the developmental process a variety of English has to go through? Is the wide spread of English due to linguistic imperialism or to a desire of people to learn English? What is the difference between an emerging variety of English and learner English? How does the local context determine usage? Which model of English should be used in classrooms in outercircle and expanding-circle countries? These are challenging questions debated and remaining to be answered. Kirkpatrick summarizes current research findings, describes in detail the linguistic features of selected varieties of English, and explores the criteria and options for choosing a model of English to teach in classrooms. The book comprises three parts, totaling 13 chapters. Part 1 (“The Framework”), covering three chapters, discusses a number of key linguistic and sociolinguistic concepts that underpin the description of the varieties of English, and it presents a history of the development of World Englishes. Chapter 1 (“Key Sociolinguistics Concepts”) focuses on such terms as native varieties, nativised varieties, lingua franca, native speaker , nonnative speaker , and so on. Chapter 2 (“Key Linguistic Terms”) explains some basic linguistic concepts. Chapter 3 (“Models of World Englishes”) provides an overview of various models used to describe World Englishes and summarizes the developmental stages a new variety may go through. Part 2 (“Variation and Varieties”), consisting of eight chapters, examines the linguistic features of selected varieties of World Englishes. Chapter 4 (“Variation and Impurity in British English”) summarizes the historical development of British English and examines its variation and impurity. Chapter 5 (“The Powerful Variety: American English”) describes the development of American English and its variation. Chapter 6 (“A Younger ‘Cousin’ and Indigenous Identity”) explains Australian varieties of Standard English. Chapter 7 (“Englishes of the Subcontinent”) presents some of the many different varieties of English spoken in South Asia. Chapter 8 (“Voices from Africa”) focuses on the Englishes of Africa. Chapter 9 (“Englishes of South-East Asia—Colonial 655 Reviews Descendants?”) describes Englishes of Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and the Philippines. Chapter 10 (“Emerging Englishes: Hong Kong and China”) considers English in Hong Kong and China. Chapter 11 (“English as a Lingua Franca”) discusses the role of English as an international lingua franca, and describes specifically the linguistic features and communicative strategies of English when used as a lingua franca by speakers from countries that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Part 3 (“Implications”), consisting of two chapters, considers some controversial issues associated with the emergence of new varieties of English and their existence alongside more established varieties. Chapter 12 (“Summary of Key Themes”) presents the major linguistic and sociolinguistic themes identified and discussed in the book. Chapter 13 (“Implications for English Language Teaching”) explores the implications for language teaching of the variation that exists within and across Englishes. One of the impressive features of this book is its concise and illusive summary of current research findings on World Englishes. Key concepts are clearly defined, presented, and described. Also unique is the author’s thought-provoking argument that context and learner needs should determine the variety to be taught, as well as his attempt to validate the important roles played by multilingual and multicultural English language teachers. A third strength of the book is its detailed presentation of selected varieties of English and its accompanying CD with authentic examples and transcripts. Apart from these merits, some minor weaknesses can also be noted. First, discussion questions and further readings are not included in every chapter, even though the author intended to make it a textbook or a supplementary textbook. Another drawback of this book is its lack of an innovative and coherent identification procedure or framework for an emerging variety, which would be helpful for describing and explaining different stages of an emerging variety. The third possible improvement lies in the editing. Some Chinese pinyin are marked with tones, whereas others are not. The separation of some words due to the line wrapping does not always appear at syllable boundaries. Several blank pages in the book should have been avoided. Despite its minor flaws, this book makes a significant contribution to the literature on World Englishes. As a handy reference, this book is not only an excellent textbook for English language teaching professionals and trainee teachers but also a valuable resource for anyone who intends to conduct serious research on World Englishes. YONG LANG The University of Texas–Pan American FRENCH ADAMSON, ROBIN. The Defence of French: A Language in Crisis? Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2007. Pp. xx, 199. $59.96, paper. ISBN 978– 1–85359–949–1. This book is another in a series of books and articles, by Anglophones and Francophones alike, about political efforts to promote or regulate the French language in France. Other recent book-length contributions in this area include Anne Judge’s Linguistic Policies and the Survival of Regional Languages in France and Britain (2007), Michel Chansou’s L’aménagement lexical en France pendant la période contemporaine (1950– 1994): Étude de sociolexicologie (2003), as well as many polemical treatises following in the wake of Étiemble’s Parlez-vous franglais? (1964). The work under review here studies both private and public agencies that influence, or seek to influence, both the use of French (status planning) and French usage (corpus planning) in a variety of domains. Chapter 1 describes briefly institutional influences on the creation and imposition of standard French, from the Ordonnances de Villers-Cotterêts (1539) through the founding of the Académie Française (1635), the French Revolution (1789), and the establishment of a national educational system in the 19th century. Until 1900, the primary perceived enemies of the French language were the regional languages and dialects. After 1900, the English language is increasingly a source for anxiety for the French, as indicated by the establishment of a number of private associations and public agencies. Chapter 2 takes a closer look at both types of language defenders and at statutory attempts to regulate the use of French—for example, Loi Bas Lauriol (1975), the constitutional amendment declaring French the official language of the Fifth Republic (1992), and the Loi Toubon (1994). Chapter 2 also considers French policy vis-à-vis regional languages, as well as European Union and Council of Europe policies regarding linguistic minorities. Chapter 3 outlines the activities of four governmental or semigovernmental institutions related to the defense of French: the Académie Française, the Alliance Française, the Délégation générale 656 à la langue française et aux langues de France, and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Chapter 4 sketches the politics of language in three historical periods: (a) the monarchy and language in the 16th and 17th centuries, (b) the Republic and language during the French Revolution, and (c) colonial and postcolonial language policy. Chapter 5 compares French policy with that of other European countries, notably Germany, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Chapter 6 revisits the efforts to defend the French language in the context of a battle between tradition and modernity, democratic ideals and elitist language policies, and the notion of identity and language. The conclusions of chapter 7 come down, reasonably enough, on the side of optimism for the future of French. This book has valuable lists and characterizations of the numerous actors, private and public, involved in the protection of the French language. Tables of nongovernmental organizations devoted to this goal (p. 18), of francophone associations within specific professions (p. 21), and of official reports on the French language (pp. 78–79) are useful, although they could be more complete. Although these efforts are a start, there is plenty of work left to be done. The author has relied heavily, and generally uncritically, on Web sites presented by the organizations and agencies. The sources for her history of the Académie Française are the Académie’s Web site, supplemented by works by members of the Académie, such as Marc Fumaroli. More nuanced observations of the founding and early years of the Académie, such as Hélène Merlin-Kajman’s L’excentricité académique (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2001) and of the effects of intervention, as exemplified by the works of Wendy Ayres-Bennett and Philippe Caron, point the way to future research. Now that all of the editions of the dictionary have been digitized, along with many other major French dictionaries and literary works (e.g., FRANTEXT), the lexicographic choices of the compagnie can be examined in more detail, to great scientific benefit. Similar reliance on Web sites for information about private organizations defending the French language leaves other sources that future critical analysis of their role can explore. An indepth study of the leadership and membership of these organizations, along with their ties to and even participation in government, would give us a fuller understanding of their function in French society. Défence de la langue française has its headquarters in the shadow of the Académie; its president, Jean Dutourd, is a member of the The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 Académie. A prosopographical study of these organizations would be instructive in helping us understand the mechanisms of linguistic dirigisme, and it might help to answer why its supporters are successful in promoting their program in the face of negative public attitudes toward their cause. The author repeatedly laments the fact that language policies have been decided for political rather than linguistic reasons; for example, “any fight for the future of French in the 21st century . . . will not be confined to linguistic objectives” (p. 46). A policy is necessarily political. More importantly, the notion that there is a natural way for languages to evolve and an unnatural way (influenced by institutions or politics) is scientifically unjustifiable. A broader approach to intervention on language, less influenced by Anglo-Saxon individualism, would be more scientific. This work presents useful sketches of the actors in French interventionism. There is, however, a danger in relying almost exclusively on Web sites for such information, both for the content of what is included and for the absence of information on the Web. Subsequent studies promise to examine critically why people intervene and, in more detail, how and to what effect. DOUGLAS A. KIBBEE University of Illinois CONRICK, MAEVE, & VERA REGAN. French in Canada: Language Issues. Modern French Identities Series Volume 28. Oxford, UK: Peter Lang, 2007. Pp. 1, 186. ISBN 978–3–03–910142–9. French in Canada: Language Issues is a remarkable book in a number of different ways. In spite of its modest length, it deals with a number of important topics in a compelling manner. As we move into the 21st century, issues of bilingualism and multilingualism at both the personal and social levels will become increasingly important to understand and address. The case of Canada, which has been pursuing a policy of official bilingualism since the passage of the Official Languages Act (1969), is a powerful example of one approach to such issues, and Conrick and Regan have provided us with an interesting analysis of the nature and dynamics of this policy. French in Canada, although focused on the Canadian case, and on French in particular, is thus a book that should be of interest and concern not only to those interested in Canada and language, or even in francophonie, 657 Reviews but to anyone interested in language matters in the contemporary, globalizing world. The book begins with a broad historical overview of the linguistic history of Canada. The historical background is useful in terms of the remainder of the work, but it is also limited. Its focus, perhaps understandably, is on the history of the relations between Francophones and Anglophones. In spite of recent developments in Canada with respect to the recognition of First Nations peoples, the indigenous languages and cultures of Canada are not discussed in this chapter; nor, in spite of their contemporary significance, are the later non-Francophone immigrant groups or their languages. These oversights are by no means fatal in a work of this sort, but the inclusion of these groups, if for nothing other than comparative purposes, would have been useful. The second and third chapters deal with modern language policy and language planning in Canada. Chapter 2 does so at the federal level, whereas chapter 3 explores these issues at the provincial level in Quebec. These two chapters are interesting, although they are also somewhat parochial. The areas of language planning and language policy studies are well researched at the international level, and there is a huge body of relevant literature that might have been utilized in these chapters to provide clearer analytic frameworks and to offer comparative insights. Unfortunately, there is not a single reference to the standard body of work in language policy and language planning in these chapters, which is disappointing and also raises questions about some of the analysis provided. Chapter 4, entitled “The Changing Linguistic Landscape of Canada,” is concerned with analyzing and discussing the results of the 2001 census. The census data are examined first for Canada as a whole, and then for Quebec. The results of the census demonstrate that although Canada is constitutionally a bilingual state, it is demographically a multilingual one. Native speakers of English constitute just over 59% of the Canadian population overall, native speakers of French constitute just under 23%, and another 18% are native speakers of some other language (more than 100 languages other than English and French were reported). However, demonstrating the assimilatory power of the official languages, 90% of the respondents indicated that, regardless of their native language, they now speak either English or French at home. The situation in Quebec is unique, however. As Conrick and Regan note: Language data from the census for Quebec differ significantly from those of other provinces, given the unique position of Quebec as the only province in which francophones are in the majority . . . This is reflected in the presentation of census data by Statistics Canada, as figures are usually provided for each province and territory, with the addition of a global figurer for Canada less Quebec. (p. 95) Since 1991, there has been a steady decrease in the percentage of Anglophones in Quebec (from 9.2% to 8.3%), a slight decrease in the percentage of Francophones (from 82% to 81.4%), and a significant increase in the number of native speakers of other languages (from 8.8% to 10.3%). In other words, there are now more native speakers of nonofficial languages in the province of Quebec than there are native speakers of English. The fifth chapter deals with education, specifically with French language immersion education in Canada. The authors argue that: Perhaps what is most striking about French immersion programs is that in the light of the fragile position of French in Canada, immersion education seems to offer a clear hope and possibilities for the future of French, certainly in relation to Canada outside Quebec. (p. 130) This chapter makes a compelling case for the value of immersion education, although again there is a great deal of excellent Canadian educational literature that might have been cited in support of the arguments presented. The final chapter focuses on issues of language contact, language variation, and language change in French in the Canadian context. In many ways, it is the book’s richest and most interesting chapter, although it is not tied closely to the earlier chapters. It is, on its own, a valuable summary of interesting linguistic research. Taken as a whole, French in Canada: Language Issues is a timely and topical addition to the literature, and it will be of interest to a broad audience, including students and scholars concerned not only with French in Canada but also with applied linguistics issues generally. TIMOTHY REAGAN Central Connecticut State University CONDITTO, KERRI. Cinéphile: French Language and Culture through Film. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2007. Pp. xxi, 432. $59.95, cloth. ISBN 978–1–58510–258–7. Designed for a second-year intermediate French course, Cinéphile is both a film-based workbook and a comprehensive textbook geared toward 658 language acquisition. Through “a linguistic approach” (p. iii), the subtitle indicates its multiple ambitions: “The goal of the method is to use the presented vocabulary and grammar structures to study and discuss films and their cultural content and to build linguistic proficiency in a meaningful context” (p. xiv). Cinéphile provides all of the tools to offer a comprehensive learning environment adapted to the needs of intermediate students with the usual goal of developing the four language skills: basic and relevant vocabulary, charts of verb conjugations, grammar concepts, and explanations, exercises from simple to complex, and plenty of material for reading and discussion. In addition, Cinéphile seeks to develop cultural awareness in an authentic and practical context. From this standpoint, the material is rich. Its great variety of documents include press and magazine articles, poems and short stories, surveys and various synthetic cultural and historical notes, film reviews, art reproductions, and maps. There are also plenty of color photographs on French daily life, monuments, landmarks, actors, and filmmakers, as well as numerous film photograms. Cinéphile also reaches its third objective, which is to introduce French cinema by presenting a varied and engaging selection of films that represent the diversity of contemporary production in content, genre, and style. The textbook comprises nine chapters, each organized around a feature film: Les Triplettes de Belleville, Le Papillon, Être et avoir, Les Visiteurs, L’Auberge espagnole, Sur mes lèvres, Comme une image, Métisse, and Bon voyage. This selection includes animated film, documentary, comedy, farce, thriller, adventure, and drama. Cultural content is closely linked to each story theme: sport and Tour de France; family and social issues; education, student life, and Erasmus; media and youth; religion; and immigration. Geographic background is introduced, such as Rhônes-Alpes and Le Vercors in Le Papillon and l’Auvergne in Être et avoir . Likewise, historical background is provided when justified: Middle Ages for Les Visiteurs, the European Union for L’Auberge espagnole, and Général de Gaulle and Pétain for Bon voyage. The linguistic proficiency goal is attained through a progressive organization of chapters that articulate the film selection with step-by-step grammar and vocabulary development. Given that each chapter is centered on a film while including a grammatical and cultural agenda, the most obvious risk was to overwhelm the intermediate learner and offer too much information with confusing goals. However, the chapter or- The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 ganization is well designed, clear, and structured in a sequential fashion. Each chapter follows the same three-part format. The previewing section introduces each film with vocabulary exercises and cultural themes. The postviewing section centers on grammar and various activities in context and follow-up discussions. The last section, “Reading, Culture, Research,” guides students through activities intended for personal and constructive responses. For example, chapter 4 on Les Visiteurs begins with a concise cultural note on Le Moyen Âge, provides a Fiche technique with a filmography (pp. 134–135), a short biography of the main actor Christian Clavier, a one-paragraph film summary, and a list of major and secondary characters with actors’ names. The page layout is well done and each subject matter is separated and specified. The iconography is also appropriate and attractive, with a photograph of the Château de Montmirail and a reproduction of a medieval portrait of King Louis VI le Gros. Two pages of vocabulary follow that are classified by topics (famille, métiers, endroits, etc.) on the right, with adjectives, verbs, and idiomatic expressions on the left (pp. 136– 137). The next page presents a vocabulary exercise on professions facing a picture of la Tapisserie de Bayeux, another vocabulary exercise whose purpose is to link French expressions from the film with their English translations, and a sonnet on the Middle Ages by Richepin. The postviewing section includes four exercises that treat general comprehension about the film, starting with simple questions (right or wrong) about the story line. These are followed by a short description of characters to be identified. Interesting links are suggested with other films from previous chapters. An excerpt from La Chanson de Roland both in old and modern French can serve as a short introduction to literature. Other vocabulary exercises follow that deal with different social codes and manners. They aim at explaining the expression and meaning of BCBG (bon chic, bon genre) (p. 142). The grammar section then begins on the adjectif qualificatif . Each difficult point is synthesized in charts for agreement and placement. Special points, such as the difference between il est and c’est, are well explained in a summary box of a different color (p. 145). A short translation exercise on “My favorite Character” follows (p. 146). Overall, 12 out of the 43 pages in this chapter are devoted to grammar. The postviewing section also includes translation exercises from French into English and vice versa (p. 156), a film photogram initiates specific film analysis (p. 157), followed by open-ended 659 Reviews activities leading to writing activities and substantial discussions. A document on the 1789 Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen (p. 159) is provided to address the social class issue from the Middle Ages to the present. The final part, “Communication” (pp. 160–161), offers topics for further film discussion. The third chapter section, “Aller plus loin,” focuses on reading skills by presenting a press review of Les Visiteurs, various surveys and facts on contemporary France, and two documents, one on BCBG language and a short story, Le Paysan médecin, adapted from medieval literature. Cinéphile offers an ideal balance among culture, literature, film, and language acquisition in a sound pedagogical manner. Through its clear organization, attractive graphic presentation, and effective page layout, it combines all elements in a successful and appealing textbook to work with, for students and teachers alike. MICHEL SIRVENT University of North Texas ITALIAN ASKI, JANICE M., & DIANE MUSUMECI. Avanti! Beginning Italian. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Pp. xxvii, 490. $86.56, cloth. ISBN 0–07–321206– 7. ASKI, JANICE M., DIANE MUSUMECI, JUSTIN R. EHRENBERG, CARLA ONORATO– WYSOKINSKI, ZOÉ ROBLES, DARYL RODGERS, & AMY ROWDEN. Workbook/Laboratory Manual to accompany Avanti! Beginning Italian. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Pp. vi, 383. $52.84, paper. ISBN 0–07–321207–5. The first-year Italian textbook Avanti! Beginning Italian is composed of 16 chapters. Four sections constitute each chapter: Strategie di comunicazione, which promotes communicative functions; Lessico, which introduces vocabulary; Strutture, which presents grammatical forms; and Cultura, which integrates listening, reading, writing, and speaking activities. Avanti! effectively creates a student-centered, communicative environment, which is promoted by the current research in second language acquisition and foreign language pedagogy. The text is innovative in opening each chapter with a communicative theme. The opening section, Strategie di comunicazione, is accompanied by video segments of native speakers performing practi- cal communicative functions. Students move from comprehension and recognition of language to the acquisition of specific communicative models. Expressing likes and dislikes using the verb piacere is presented in the chapter 1 clip by native speakers declaring their preferences about cinema. Students are asked to recognize the form in this early stage. In the chapter 3 clip, students see and hear native speakers talking about what they like to do in their free time. At this point, students are asked to produce meaningful language by expressing their preferences for their own free time. Students practice the same communicative topics seen and heard in the native speaker video, using the high-frequency fixed expressions modeled in the clips. The exposure to meaningful language in real-life contexts enables students to use the target language from the beginning in meaningful communication. Meaningful contexts also inform the presentation of vocabulary. New words are introduced to students with the visual aid of photographs and drawings, thus minimizing if not eliminating the need for English and word-to-word translation. Students are therefore able to associate words in the target language to concepts, linking form and meaning. The presentation of the vocabulary shows a progression in complexity, which takes into consideration the newly developed skills of the students. Whereas in chapter 2 clever drawings of people, animals, and objects are associated with adjectives that describe them, chapter 12 introduces Italian cities and towns through an excellent choice of photographs and a brief reading to go along with the pictures. Each Lessico section is completed by a good number of activities meant to engage students in meaningful communicative tasks. The same progression that informs the presentation of the vocabulary is detectable in the complexity of the exercises. If, in chapter 2, students are asked to recognize and match pairs of opposite adjectives, in chapter 12 they move from comprehension of new words within a passage to implementation of those words in sentences that are connected to a real-life context. One of the most innovative features of Avanti!, as well as a stated goal of the authors, is the limited number of grammatical forms covered throughout the text. The section Strutture introduces no more than five grammatical points for each chapter. The criterion used in making the choice of structures to cover and the depth of coverage is based on the relevance of such structures in the production of meaningful communicative language. Therefore, the verb forms that students are expected to acquire and use effectively by the end 660 of the first year of Italian study are given concise English explanations in Strutture, and their use is reinforced through the review sections in the following chapters. The verb forms in question are indicativo presente, passato prossimo, imperfetto, and futuro semplice. The present conditional, the subjunctive mood, and the imperative mood are included in the structures presented in the text, but they are limited to a brief introduction and do not benefit from follow-up activities of review. The passato remoto is introduced for recognition only. Presentations of other forms, such as the past conditional, can be found in the section Per saperne di più at the end of the book. Other noteworthy absences from Strutture include double object pronouns, the pronouns ne and ci (often, unfortunately, paired in most Italian textbooks), the present perfect of modal verbs, and the relative pronoun cui. These structures always present a problem to both instructors and students in the first year of Italian. Students may certainly learn such structures but are unlikely to use them appropriately while performing communicative functions. Instructors who decide to include them in the curriculum will find the relevant explanations in Per saperne di più. The choice of a limited number of grammatical structures addresses instructors’ and students’ concern with the traditional all-inclusive grammatical curriculum. A reduced load of forms offers the opportunity to approach a topic progressively and, moreover, leaves the necessary time to review and recycle the previously introduced grammar and to use it in meaningful interaction. Direct and indirect objects are first introduced in chapter 7 with the purpose of familiarizing students with this logical concept, which is often foreign to them. Object pronouns make their first appearance in chapter 11 and are recycled in chapters 12 and 16. This approach serves the double purpose of promoting acquisition of the object pronouns in the first year of Italian study and preparing students for the acquisition of double object pronouns at the intermediate level. The presentation of the forms is meaning based. The explanation of each structure is introduced by an inductive activity in which students are asked to notice the form in a meaningful context. Students first encounter the present perfect in chapter 6 while reading about the weekend activities of two Italian students. Before they get to the explanation of the structure, students are asked to figure it out by themselves by analyzing the form in context. Although Italian culture is the focus of the Cultura section, cultural content is integral to all of the sections. In addition to the visual chapter The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 openers, which range from Renaissance paintings to contemporary ads, the video clips filmed on location in Italy, and the real-life contexts that frame the new vocabulary, Avanti! offers more information about Italy, Italians, and Italian Americans in the In Italia, In italiano, and In America boxes, which are written in English and are found in each chapter. The textbook is accompanied by a Workbook/Laboratory Manual that provides traditional, drill-like exercises for additional practice to students on every aspect presented in each chapter section. The online version of the workbook provides automatic correction to students and a grade-book feature for instructors. More practice activities with instant feedback are found at the Online Learning Center Web site. The Web site for the instructor’s edition of the book provides instructors with the useful resource of support materials to accompany the culture component of the text. Instructors will find scripts, tips, maps, charts, and pictures to present different aspects of Italian culture in class. This feature may prove helpful to inexperienced instructors who may need guidance in delivering instruction in Italian. The structure of the whole textbook is conducive to instruction in the target language. Avanti! is an innovative textbook, meaning based and communication oriented. Realistic expectations about the amount of material that students can be expected to acquire in the first year of language study, gradual exposure to contextbased forms and vocabulary, ample opportunities to review and recycle previously learned material, and updated cultural content and graphics make Avanti! a student- and instructor-friendly textbook. MARGHERITA PAMPINELLA–CROPPER Towson University BORRA, ANTONELLO, & CRISTINA PAUSINI. Italian Through Film: The Classics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. Pp. xi, 213. $25.00, paper. ISBN 978–0–300–10952–8. A sequel to the authors’ 2004 Italian Through Film: A Text for Italian Courses, which dealt with contemporary Italian cinema, The Classics covers 30 years of Italian film (1945–1981) in a chronological approach. Fifteen chapters are devoted to icons of Italian postwar cinematography, each representing a different director: Roma città aperta (Roberto Rossellini), Ladri di biciclette (Vitorio De Sica), Riso amaro (Giuseppe De Santis), I vitelloni 661 Reviews (Federico Fellini), I soliti ignoti (Mario Monicelli), Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti), La notte (Michelangelo Antonioni), Divorzio all’italiana (Pietro Germi), Il posto (Ermanno Olmi), La commare secca (Bernardo Bertolucci), Il sorpasso (Dino Risi), Il Decameron (Pier Paolo Pasolini), Mimı̀ metallurgico ferito nell’onore (Lina Wertmüller), Una giornata particolare (Ettore Scola), and Tre fratelli (Francesco Rosi). Chapters contain a brief introduction to the film and the director, previewing, viewing, and postviewing exercises, Internetbased tasks, and a reading section to encourage further study. Readings and exercises are entirely in Italian. A preliminary chapter introduces essential film vocabulary as well as useful structures and expressions geared to facilitate discussion and the sharing of opinions, and a concluding chapter offers questions and suggestions focusing on comparative analysis of the films studied and the issues raised therein. An ample bibliography for further investigation or research projects follows. Although The Classics may be used as ancillary material in intermediate-level college courses, the authors have designed it as a textbook for a fifthor sixth-semester film course, based on a 15-week semester meeting 3 days a week; as such, there is material to spare, allowing the instructor to select assignments within each chapter or to omit some films. The book can also be used over two semesters, in tangent with other materials. Offering a wealth of varied and effective material in a well-structured format, Italian Through Film: The Classics will be an appealing choice for programs fighting for enrollments in traditionally underenrolled upper-level Composition and Conversation courses; it would not be surprising, however, to find most undergraduates more comfortable with cinema-based coursework than their literature-trained instructors. This text will be a welcome addition to the desk of the language teacher whose use of film may be limited to generic lab assignments (“watch an Italian movie and write a review”) or even to occasional classes dedicated to the discussion and analysis of the more popular films included in the authors’ earlier volume. Instructors who do not have a background in film studies or who are not movie buffs should be aware that although the text supplies the essentials and a plethora of activities, it does not supply answers to all of the open-ended questions or all of the experience necessary to guide students toward those answers. Those familiar with Italian cinema may question the choice of films, sometimes neither the most famous nor most representative of a director. Indeed, the authors themselves acknowledge the difficulty of balancing pedagogical aims and personal preferences. All but one (Risi’s Il sorpasso) are now available in DVD format; instructors may wish to screen movies to ensure that the content is appropriate for their students. One of the concerns raised by a text of this kind is, of course, how suitable it is to the level of the students it addresses. Given that the work covered in four semesters of college Italian can vary considerably from program to program, with some schools spreading a first-year text over four semesters and others remaining loyal to the second-year that focuses on a review of the grammar, it is clear that third-year textbooks must allow for a wide range of abilities. The Classics contains more than enough material to challenge the best students (and some of the postviewing analytical questions will test even native speakers who have seen the films two or three times), but it does not exclude the average student from enjoying and profiting from the learning experience. The previewing exercises, which focus on general subjects and vocabulary building, are suitable for all. (There is occasionally an unpredictable item, such as “What do you know about Italy during World War II?”[p. 8], and instructors may remind students to find the answer online rather than reply “Nothing.”) The during-viewing and postviewing exercises can be distracting if not reviewed carefully before viewing the film, resulting in numerous rewinds to answer questions of dubious value to the plot. Weaker students will have difficulty with the expansion readings and all will no doubt benefit from English subtitles when viewing the films, whose characters frequently speak in dialect rather than in standard Italian. The postviewing activities range from the creative to the analytical, allowing for choice in the degree of difficulty desired. The Classics is a welcome addition to Italian studies. Although it can probably be used to best advantage by students with some background in cinema or those with strong Italian language skills, if used judiciously it will benefit and engage students and instructors at a variety of levels. DEBORAH L. CONTRADA The University of Iowa MAIDEN, MARTIN, & CECILIA ROBUSTELLI. A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian. 2nd ed. London: Hodder Arnold, 2007. Pp. xxxiii, 478. $29.37, paper. ISBN 978–0–340–91339–0. The second edition of A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian appeared a mere 7 years after the first 662 edition, testifying to the popularity of the earlier work. In their concise and excellent introduction, the authors begin by stating that the aim of their book is “to provide a comprehensive work of reference for learners of Italian whose native language is English, or who possess a very good knowledge of English . . . It [has] a detailed index and list of contents . . . [and] extensive cross-referencing within the text” (p. 1). The authors have wisely eschewed illustrating grammatical points with decontextualized sentences, choosing instead examples from newspapers, magazines, and various well-known authors. In addition, ample use is made of the Web site www.alice.it, “a database of contemporary Italian literature, including interviews with authors” (p. 1). Finally, their introduction notes one of the most valuable and unusual aspects of this comprehensive work: constant attention to the “considerable differences of register between the kind of Italian used in formal discourse (such as making a public address, academic or bureaucratic writing, etc.) and informal (particularly spoken) usage” (p. 2). It is useful to the nonnative speaker to learn, for example, that perché, acciocché, and affinché are not absolutely synonymous (as most grammar books would imply), but that perché “is the commonest purpose conjunction in spoken Italian, while affinché is used mainly in writing . . . [and that] acciocché is rare, and now found only in literary style” (p. 428). Similar nuances appear in other examples throughout the book, and they are neatly summarized and classified in the final chapter, “Register Differences in Modern Italian Grammar.” Unfortunately, for all the wealth of useful material the book contains, finding the answer to a specific question can become the proverbial search for a needle in a haystack. A case in point: A nonnative speaker needs to know whether to say continuare a or continuare di, prepositions being the biggest stumbling block in almost any language. Looking in the index under continuare (where there is nothing, understandably, because the term is too specific), then under verbs (nothing, understandably, because the term is too broad), and under prepositions (where there are 13 page references, but none for the page on which the answer will ultimately be found), the reader finally finds the answer on page 8 of the 11-page table of contents, under “Aspects of Sentence Structure,” itself a rather broad index heading. The approximately 30-page section devoted to verbs and adjectives followed by a or di (or no preposition) before an infinitive contains an The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 exhaustive presentation of the subject. However, it is a long, arduous, and far from intuitive process to find the answer to a simple question: a or di? Given that one is not expected to read a reference work straight through as if it were a novel, this approach is probably the best way to appreciate the breadth and depth of material here. Although the authors have tried to make their linguistic terms (e.g., protasis, apodosis, clitics, coreferent, rheme) accessible to nonspecialist readers through their “Glossary of Key Terms,” they sometimes lapse into a jargon so arcane that only those steeped, if not drenched, in linguistics could hope to understand. For example: If a direct object is dislocated, what we may term a “trace”3 of it is normally “left behind” in the form of a clitic pronoun accompanying the verb from which the direct object has been removed: [with explanatory footnote] 3 “Trace” is a transparent and appropriate term. It is important to stress, however, that we are not using it here in the technical sense which it has in generative linguistic theory, of a phonetically null element supposedly occupying the place from which a syntactic element has been moved. (p. 359) For the most part, A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian is extremely up to date. Of the 34 works cited in its bibliography, 24 were published since 1990. The book includes mention of the euro (in circulation only since 2002), and the current colloquial use of cioè (to which might have been added niente) “as a ‘filler’ . . . rather like ‘I mean’ in English” (p. 418). However, there is at least one sentence, presumably from the first edition, that should have been dropped in the second: “Apparently, no name of this kind [e.g., il Novecento] is available to denote the twenty-first century” (p. 453). How about il Duemila? Despite its attempt to cover Italian grammar exhaustively and the plethora of illustrative examples it offers, this book lacks several explanations that are important to its target audience, native English speakers. In addition to prepositions, there are probably no more difficult areas for us than the use of the adverb anche and the verb piacere. Although both are treated in the book, the difficulties they pose for the English speaker (shifting placement of anche and reversal of English subject and object with piacere) are ignored. Similarly, there is no mention of metà, whose use could have been contrasted with that of mezzo. Notwithstanding these and other shortcomings—the occasional omission or minor error, inclusion of ultra-rarefied words in the 663 Reviews interest of completeness, an attempt to impose a sometimes nonexistent logic on prepositions, nonintuitive reference points—this is an extremely worthwhile book. With this reference work at hand, no one need ever again utter the stereotypically nonnative clunker Ciao, professore! BETTYE CHAMBERS Georgetown University JAPANESE HEISIG, JAMES W. Remembering the Kanji 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters. 5th ed. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007. Pp. v, 460. $32.00, paper. ISBN 978–0–8248–3165–3. HEISIG, JAMES W., HELMUT MORSBACH, & KAZUE KUREBAYASHI. Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries in 3 Hours Each. 3rd ed. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007. Pp. x, 147. $15.00, paper. ISBN 978–0–8248–3164–6. Over the last 30 years, James Heisig, a philosopher of religion and a long-time resident of Japan, has come to be known among learners of Japanese for his three-volume Remembering the Kanji series and its offshoot project Remembering the Kana, both with multiple editions and French, German, and Spanish versions. Reviewed here are the fifth edition of the first volume of the former (the new editions of the other two volumes are due to appear in 2008) and the third edition of the latter. These books are designed to help nonnative speakers of Japanese to learn on their own the tripartite Japanese writing system: kanji or characters of Chinese origin in the former and hiragana and katakana, the two sets of written symbols that represent the basic units of sounds of the Japanese language, in the latter. As its subtitle conveys, Remembering the Kanji 1 focuses only on the meanings and the writing of kanji, not on their pronunciations, whose exercises are in Remembering the Kanji 2. In this book the author aims “to provide the student of Japanese with a simple method for correlating the writing and the meaning of Japanese characters in such a way as to make them both easy to remember” (p. 1) by using a mnemonic-based approach that takes advantage of “imaginative memory” (p. 3). Heisig’s imaginative memory method is cumulative, building from meaningfully assigned images to simple kanji characters and elements that can be part of different and more complicated kanji characters. To create images, the author discards drawings or pictographs entirely. Instead, he wants the learner to create images with words. For instance, the character for day is introduced as “sun or day” (p. 19) and the kanji element that looks like the Arabic numeral 1 as “a cane or walking stick” (p. 27). When the kanji consisting of these two elements appears, it is explained as follows: A walking stick is needed for days of olden times [the meaning of the kanji in question], since days, too, get old—at least insofar as we refer to them as the “good old days.” The main thing here is to think of “good old days” when you hear the key word olden times. The rest will take care of itself. (pp. 27–28) The book introduces a total of 2,042 kanji in this fashion, a few more than Japan’s Ministry of Education’s official list of commonly used kanji (1,945). It is divided into three parts, which may be taken as three stages of learning the Heisig method. In part 1, which is titled “Stories,” Heisig demonstrates his method of remembering the meanings and shapes of 276 characters, which are divided into 12 lessons, with each lesson introducing from 10 to 46 kanji. Part 2, entitled “Plots,” introduces 232 characters in seven lessons, where “the weaning process” (p. 117) begins. In these lessons the stories are abbreviated into simple plots, which learners are to fill in with details so that they can better associate the stories with the meanings and shapes of the kanji in question. The last part, entitled “Elements,” serves as a place where learners train their imaginative memories by creating their own stories to help them remember better the characters that they are trying to learn, using the skeletal information of the elements provided for the kanji in question. For instance, the first kanji in this final section means “dye.” It is presented with the meanings of its three elements: water, nine, and tree (p. 179). The rest of the work (i.e., creating a story about the character) is left to the learners. A total of 1,534 characters are introduced in 37 lessons in part 3, grouped according to their common elements. Indexes are available for all of the kanji introduced in the book, their elements, and their meanings. Like Remembering the Kanji 1, Remembering the Kana is designed for self-study. It uses the imaginative memory method to teach the two sets of 46 kana or syllables: hiragana and katakana. A full page is devoted to explain one kana, including its pronunciation, the original Chinese character from which it is derived, its explanation or story, 664 and example words that include it. For example, the story of the first kana, pronounced a, is as follows: The syllable a begins with a dagger , its “blade” bending to the right so as to flow into the next stroke. Below it a no-parking sign. [ . . .] The sound a calls to mind a playful little otter, swimming on his back in the middle of a pond whose banks are picketed on all sides by noparking signs. On his tummy are a stack of daggers, which he is tossing one by one at the signs, clapping his paws with glee each time he hits a bull’s eye. (p. 5) The first half of the book provides hiragana practice, which is followed by practice in katakana. Both parts are structured in the same way. First, a full-page explanation of each kana is given for all of the 46 syllables in the order that the standard kana chart lists them. The six lessons begin immediately afterward, carefully guiding learners through the preceding kana pages step by step. Instead of having the learners study the kana from the beginning to the end of the kana chart, they are led through each set of kana randomly so that all of the example words on each page can be recognized. For instance, in the first hiragana lesson, learners are taken to the 46th hiragana and then to the 2nd hiragana so that they can read a twosyllable word listed on the page for the second hiragana. Heisig’s imaginative memory method reminds me of enigmatic kōan practice used to train the Zen Buddhist student in matching their minds with the mind of the enlightened one. A kōan, or a kanji or kana story in this case, may seem to be the subject here; however, like kōan practice, the story is to supersede subject–object duality (i.e., to fuse the story with the properties of the kanji or kana in question in one’s mind). When that happens, one may say that learning has taken place. The method is rather unconventional and it is in particular against the current trends of kanji instruction that emphasize the teaching of kanji in context or as part of vocabulary acquisition. Whether this method leads to the learning of Japanese orthography is, I believe, a matter of the learner’s personal preference. One must be a believer in the method to go through over 400 pages of Remembering the Kanji and to follow the instructions of Remembering the Kana that are, in my view, unnecessarily complex. Finally, one serious problem with Remembering the Kana is the presentation of kana pronunciation, for which English words containing their approximate sounds are used. For instance, the syllable for a is introduced as equivalent to o of the English on and a of father ; such confusing in- The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 stances are numerous throughout the book. An audio supplement may replace the written pronunciation guides in future editions. SUFUMI SO George Mason University YAMAGUCHI, TOSHIKO. Japanese Linguistics: An Introduction. New York: Continuum, 2007. Pp. xviii, 220. $49.95, paper. ISBN 0–8264–8790–4. —–. Japanese Language in Use: An Introduction. New York: Continuum, 2007. Pp. xviii, 231. $49.95, paper. ISBN 978–0–8264–9352–1. These two textbooks are published as companion volumes. As the titles indicate, Japanese Linguistics (JL) complements Japanese Language in Use (JLU ) in topic coverage. The first book deals with the more traditional areas of linguistics and the second focuses on language use and includes discussion of pragmatics, discourse, language and culture, and radio talk. Yamaguchi dedicates one chapter to each of these topics. In a typical chapter, she presents basic information about a topic in nontechnical prose, and this section is followed by various activities for students that relate to the presentation. After an activity, the author almost always provides what she calls a “Commentary,” where she gives a suggested solution or an approach to arriving at the correct solution. Many of the examples are taken from authentic texts (e.g., frames from a variety of comic books and strips) rather than the common practice of using artificial examples to illustrate a point, although some short examples were apparently created by the author. At the end of both books, there is a comprehensive list of books and articles referred to or used by the author, an English subject index, and a Japanese subject and name index. Japanese language examples throughout the books are provided in the Japanese script, with most of the kanji characters with their pronunciations in the phonetic script hiragana. The rōmaji convention chosen for presentation is the modified Hepburnian system with the vowel length indicated with a macron. JL and JLU were written after the culmination of Yamaguchi’s 5 years of teaching linguistics to university students, and they represent a considerable commitment of the author’s time and energy. Additionally, these books are two of only a small number of introductory textbooks on the linguistic aspects of the Japanese language available in Reviews English and are among a few that aim to teach Japanese linguistics (application of linguistics to the analysis of the language). The possibility of having an option of adopting them as textbooks is attractive to those who teach advanced students of Japanese in the English-speaking world. JL and JLU were not entirely successful in this debut. Unfortunately, the books, especially JL, contain a fair number of errors. These errors, which may reach a half dozen or more on one page, are most noticeable in the phonetics and phonology sections. For example, the author states, in speaking about speech sounds in general, that they are “produced when air is pushed out of the lungs and passes through the vocal cords and vocal tract” (JL, p. 1), which makes us wonder about nonpulmonic sounds such as ejectives and clicks. The sound [g] is given as the only allophone for the Japanese /g/, leaving out the well-known nasal allophone [N] that is used in many parts of Japan (JL, p. 18, Table 2.3). Elsewhere, the nostril is included as an articulator (Figure 1.2, JL, p. 3). Other articulators in the mouth are identified, but, without arrows, it is not clear to the reader to what part of the mouth the numbers refer (JL, p. 3) because the illustration is small. Other anomalies include cases in which phoneme sequence /hi/ is given the surface form transcription of [i] (should be [çi]) (JL, p. 13), phonetic and phonemic symbols are inconsistently used (e.g., /f/ on p. 21, which should have been /h/), and regressive and progressive assimilations are confused (JL, pp. 20, 30), among others. These errors will keep both the instructor and students looking for the errata sheet. Although the phonetics and phonology sections are two of the most disappointing for their large number of errors, other chapters (much fewer in the second book) are also sprinkled with outright, albeit some minor and typographical but at the same time annoying, errors and overgeneralizations (e.g., “2LDK” is translated as “2 living dining kitchen” and the WHO is rendered as sekai hoken kikan, not the correct sekai hoken kikō). Along these lines, in a section dealing with verb forms, the –te form of Japanese verbs, which is normally treated as part of the conjugation, is presented as a free connective morpheme (JL, p. 74) without discussion or justification. We also learn that all kanji characters are ideograms (JL, p. 99) and “synonyms . . . refer to two words whose meaning is very similar but not exactly the same” (JL, p. 138). Did the author mean to say that some kanji are ideograms and true synonyms are very difficult, if impossible, to find? Explaining the use of the change-of-state (become) verbs, the 665 author offers an example like Akichi ni apāto ga tatta ‘an apartment was built in the vacant lot’ and states that the “example shows that the Japanese speakers perceive the situation in such a way that the absence of an apartment changes into a presence of an apartment” (JL, p. 163). Many would take issue with this sort of statement, which borders on a proposal for an intrinsic connection between language and cognition, where a lexical feature is straightaway connected to the speaker’s perception. The author claims that these books, unlike other similar publications, make profuse use of authentic language examples. Indeed, it is refreshing to read examples from real life, as many of us have seen worn-out and insipid sentences in linguistics textbooks. Using authentic examples, however, is not always successful because doing so may obfuscate the point being illustrated and because the vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatics/sociolinguistics in the examples may not be immediately comprehensible to the audience. Anyone who has tried to appreciate cartoons in a foreign language would agree that understanding authentic language examples is challenging without appropriate linguistic and cultural background. Text 2.14 (JLU , p. 56), an excerpt from a play script, contains a sentence that reads Omae mo rakutarō da ne. Here the reader is invited to find the meaning of omae in this context. Although the purpose of the exercise may be meaningful, rakutarō ‘happy-go-lucky person,’ which is a neologism and is untranslated in this context, makes this exercise harder than it should be. The use of authentic text is an issue in the second book, in which the examples tend to be long and complex. Although authentic language data are useful, a careful weighing of advantages and disadvantages was needed. Although I do not always agree with Yamaguchi’s analysis, the real strength of the twobook set is found in JLU , where the author seems to be in her element. The coverage and discussion of topics in this section is quite good and includes discussion on aspectual and modal markers, deixis, implicature, discourse cohesion, gender and age variation in language use, politeness, and conversational moves. The concluding section on radio talk that illustrates these conversational moves is particularly interesting. The attractiveness of adopting these books for classroom use may diminish due to a general absence of exercises that are aimed at teaching students how to conduct linguistic analysis. This is a drawback, especially for JL, as it is a fact book about the language. The author states at the outset 666 The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 that she avoided using technical vocabulary and analytical methods of various linguistic theories, which can be seen in the presentation (especially in JL), but this avoidance may have been ill advised because one can do only so much without these tools. The author’s presentation in JL does not take the reader through the process of identifying a linguistic problem, analyzing data, and arriving at a conclusion. In this connection, the author should not have been so timid in saying that the commentaries in the books are mere projections of the author’s thinking. This position does not stir confidence in the reader. Although some conclusions in linguistics are debatable, some analytical processes and linguistic facts are straightforward and indisputable. In summary, of these two titles, JLU contains much interesting information and is worth adopting. As for JL, I am less sanguine, as instructors would have to be vigilant about errors and provide many exercises of their own. Finally, the reader should be aware that these books do not deal with the historical development of the language, genetic affiliation, or regional language variation, which are subjects in which many of my students have shown much interest. HIROSHI NARA University of Pittsburgh PORTUGUESE TESCHNER, RICHARD V., & ANTÔNIO R. M. SIMÕES. Pronouncing Brazilian Portuguese. Newark, DE: Linguatext Limited, 2007. Pp. 332. $29.95, paper. ISBN 978–0–942566–93–2. Pronouncing Brazilian Portuguese (henceforth PBP ) is a pronunciation textbook of the Carioca (Rio de Janeiro) variety of Portuguese. It can be used in addition to a standard language textbook in first-year college Brazilian Portuguese language classes. PBP can also be used as the main textbook for a Brazilian Portuguese Phonetics course comparable to the textbooks used in Spanish Phonetics courses in the United States and Canada (e.g., Schwegler & Kempff’s Fonética y fonologı́a españolas, 3rd ed., Wiley, 2007). PBP takes advantage of the fact that in North American colleges many students in Brazilian Portuguese classes, in addition to English, know either French or, more commonly, Spanish, by comparing the sounds of Portuguese with the other languages just mentioned throughout the text. However, as the authors state in the introduction to the book, “[the textbook’s] sole intent is to teach the sounds of [Brazilian Portuguese]. By presenting English, French or Spanish equivalents [they] merely seek to support that goal” (p. 3). Users of PBP do not have to know French or Spanish to use this book. As the title indicates, this book is written in English. Yet, it is accessible to readers with a less than fully native knowledge of English. Although the authors somewhat arbitrarily chose to present the Carioca dialect, which they claim to be the prestigious one, something many Paulistas (residents of São Paulo) would dispute, PBP can be used easily by instructors speaking other varieties of Brazilian Portuguese (Paulista, Gaucho, Mineiro, etc.). The notational system employed by the authors is user friendly for instructors speaking all varieties of Brazilian Portuguese. Moreover, and very important, PBP can be used by Portuguese instructors who are not specialists in Portuguese linguistics or phonetics because the authors use linguistic terminology sparingly. Linguistic terms, such as phoneme, allophone, grapheme, and the like, are rarely used. In addition, PBP contains a helpful glossary with the linguistic (mostly phonetic) definitions of terms used throughout the book, such as nasal vowel, stop, and fricative. In colleges throughout the United States, many students learning Brazilian Portuguese language are Spanish speakers. These students usually learn the grammar and vocabulary of Portuguese easily. However, their portuñol phonology emerges within a few days of the beginning of their Brazilian Portuguese language studies. Spanish speakers learning Brazilian Portuguese will learn to pronounce the language correctly only if they are taught it explicitly (and, of course, if they practice it and are tested on it often). Further, in the United States, many other students studying Brazilian Portuguese are native speakers of English. These students are already familiar with most, if not all, of the sounds that characterize the Carioca dialect of Brazilian Portuguese (e.g., [z], [š], [ž], [tš], [dž]). PBP does a good job in highlighting similarities at the segmental level not only between English and Brazilian Portuguese but also between the latter and Spanish, as well as French. For these reasons alone, the authors and publishers of PBP are to be commended for producing this textbook for teaching Brazilian Portuguese phonetics and phonology in a classroom environment. As the authors state in the introduction, “[i]n no sense does PBP seek to be a complete phonological grammar of the Portuguese language. 667 Reviews Instead PBP teaches only what’s needed to help [Brazilian Portuguese] students pronounce the language accurately” (p. 5). Thus, in my view, the value of PBP as a reference book for Brazilian Portuguese, in general, and for the Carioca dialect, in particular, is greatly diminished. This is a pity. Linguists studying and researching the phonetics and phonology of Portuguese and the Romance languages are likely to be disappointed by this book. However, perhaps this criticism is unjustified, given that this book is not intended for an audience of linguists studying phonetic and phonological Brazilian Portuguese structures, but of students learning to pronounce the language. In this sense, PBP is a good resource for Portuguese language instructors. I recommend this book to all instructors teaching Brazilian Portuguese in language or phonetics courses. EDUARDO D. FAINGOLD The University of Tulsa SPANISH GILL, MARY M., BRENDA WEGMAN, & THERESA MÉNDEZ–FAITH. En contacto: Gramática en acción. 8th ed. Boston: Thomson Heinle, 2007. Pp. xxi, 388. $80.95, paper. ISBN 978–1–4130–1377–1. Audio CD, packaged with text. —–. En contacto: Lecturas intermedias. Pp. xix, 292. $58.95, paper. ISBN 978–1–4130–1373–3. The challenge of writing an intermediate-level language textbook is formidable, given the varied abilities of students both within and between university language programs. This eighth edition of En Contacto: Gramática en acción hits the mark in some ways and misses it in others. The text contains 12 chapters that are organized around such universal themes as Gustos y preferencias, Presencia latina, and Amor y amistad. Chapters are divided into five sections, beginning with Presentación del tema, which includes an author-written thematic reading, vocabulary and comprehension, and discussion activities. Gramática y vocabulario follows, with thematic vocabulary, grammar explanations, and exercises to reinforce and apply the grammar presented. Next, En otras palabras presents lists of expressions commonly used in Spanish to fulfill certain communicative functions related to the chapter’s theme. Then, En contacto includes synthesizing pair and group activities and topics for writing assignments. Finally, Videocultura presents advance organizers and postviewing activities to accompany thematically related video clips included on a DVD. In the preface to this edition the authors point out the communicative focus of the En contacto program, but the textbook activities lend themselves to a communicative approach with varying degrees of success: Whereas some activities are open ended and allow for students to interact in Spanish in authentic and meaningful ways, others are little more than pattern drills in which responses to prompts are likely to be decontextualized and formulaic. There is a good variety of activities, however, which would make it easy for instructors to select activities that are well suited to their methodology and syllabus. Chapter themes are broad and allow for easy adaptation to the interests and abilities of individual classes. Thematic vocabulary is current and includes an impressive range of dialect-specific expressions and slang that university students will find relevant and useful. Although the treatment of topics in some readings, audio and video materials, and textbook activities may be somewhat superficial for some university students, quotations, photos, and other realia included in the text’s layout provide potential points of departure for group or class discussion to delve more deeply into chapter themes. The color photography and realia lend visual appeal to the text. In addition, the annotated instructor’s edition includes suggestions for expanding on textbook activities and generating class discussion on chapter themes. Presentation of grammar follows a traditional tack, with at times verbose English explanations and lists of uses of structures accompanied by verb paradigms and Spanish examples presented with their English translations. This format is advantageous to ensure student comprehension of explanations, particularly if a course is set up for grammar to be studied and practiced at home so that class time may be devoted to communicative activities. However, a possible disadvantage is that students are encouraged to access Spanish through English. The audio CD that is packaged with the textbook includes recordings of native speakers reading the introductory paragraphs of each chapter. In addition, there are brief recorded conversations that relate to chapter themes that may be used along with associated listening exercises that are included in the Presentación del tema section of each chapter. It is clear that the recordings were produced with the ears of nonnative students of Spanish in mind because the speech is by and large deliberate, clear, and 668 undistorted by ambient noise. An unfortunate downside of this sensitivity to students’ developing listening skills is that the conversations are a bit stilted, which may detract from students’ interest and motivation to use them as a resource to challenge and therefore develop listening skills. The DVD program includes a series of video clips of between 4 and 6 minutes in length that tie in with chapter themes. The clips vary in topic, from Spanish flamenco to ecotourism in Ecuador. In contrast with the audio CD, the DVD provides authentic speech samples and the opportunity for students to hear dialects of Spanish spoken in Mexico, Ecuador, and Spain. The Cuaderno de ejercicios and Manual de laboratorio supplements contain additional grammar exercises and listening comprehension activities. The exercises that comprise the Cuaderno de ejercicios are highly structured but range from vocabulary-matching activities to transformation exercises to guided writing of paragraphs. Again, this structured nature would likely lend itself to courses that are set up for grammar to be studied and practiced outside of class. The appropriateness of the level of some of the exercises might be called into question, however. For example, items in reading and listening comprehension exercises included in the supplement frequently repeat the wording of the passage, making for shallow comprehension activities. Furthermore, some of the exercises seem more appropriate for younger adolescents (e.g., an assignment to write your teacher a postcard from a Spanish-speaking country) than for university students, but the variety is such that instructors may select from the exercises included in the text and ancillary materials. Lecturas intermedias is a reader that is coordinated in themes, vocabulary, and grammar with the base En contacto: Gramática en acción text and, according to the preface, is designed for use either as a stand-alone text (although there is no explicit treatment of grammar in the reader) or in concert with the base grammar text. In the preface, the authors state that the focus of the reader is the development of reading skills, lexical knowledge, and cultural awareness, and the text seems to be adequately equipped to meet this objective. The theme of each chapter is introduced by means of an image (of a work of art created by an Hispanic artist) that is accompanied by activities meant to encourage conversation and practice related vocabulary. These activities range from somewhat simple to those more likely to engage intermediate-level university students. Author-written introductions to the chapter themes and the readings’ authors are followed The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 by at least two authentic reading selections per chapter. These readings represent a laudable variety of writers and genres, from journalistic pieces to poetry to excerpts from novels, and include canonical pieces as well as contemporary works. All selections are glossed, with English or Spanish equivalents provided. A Spanish–English glossary is included as an appendix. Prereading activities serve to practice vocabulary and reinforce reading strategies, and postreading activities check comprehension, expand upon themes, and provide topics and steps for writing activities. In earlier chapters, selections are divided up by brief sets of comprehension questions, and in later chapters, all of the comprehension questions and other activities appear at the end of a selection. Although the objectives stated in the preface may be met through judicious use of the materials and activities provided, it is unfortunate that reading and grammatical structure are not truly integrated, either in the base text or in the reader. There are many selections that could be used as effective points of departure for contextualized treatments of verb aspect, mood, and appropriate use of register and literary devices, to name just a few of the possibilities, and instructors might consider tapping this potential should they choose to adopt the En contacto program. CATHERINE A. STAFFORD University of Wisconsin–Madison GRAVINA, SCOTT, ISABEL JAÉN–PORTILLO, CLAUDIA MÉNDEZ, & REGINA SCHROEDER. Épocas y avances: Lengua en su contexto cultural . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. Pp. xi, 438. $80.00, paper. ISBN 978–0–300–10836–1. FUNCIA, RAMÓN, JULIANA RAMOS, LISSETTE REYMUNDI, & JULIEN SIMON. Épocas y avances: Lengua en su contexto cultural . Cuaderno de trabajo. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. Pp. vii, 275. $30.00, paper. ISBN 978–0–300–10837–8. Épocas y avances represents a doubly ambitious undertaking. On the one hand, the authors have attempted to integrate the literature and cultural history of Spain and the expanse of Latin America with a serious review of Spanish grammar; on the other, it makes considerable demands of intermediate- and advanced-level undergraduates. In the 22 units the authors promise “a broad spectrum of content-rich material for the study of the language and culture of the Spanish-speaking Reviews world” through “a communicative-humanistic approach” (p. vi). The authors describe their design as one reflecting the “episodic” nature of evolutionary psychology and undertaking a “symbolic approach to teaching and learning,” at the same time demonstrating adherence “to the current standards for foreign language teaching” (p. vii). Students are indeed provided frequent opportunities to demonstrate interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes of discourse. An advance organizer, or prelectura, effectively introduces students to the concepts introduced in each thematic reading. Approximately half of these passages are available on the audio CD included with the text and provide students the opportunity to hear narrations in both standard Latin American and Castilian Spanish. Particularly intriguing are the politically correct efforts of the authors to encourage students to reflect on the numerous instances of ethnic, religious, and political intolerance across the centuries in both peninsular Spain and Latin America and their often tragic consequences. What stands out in the text, however, is the way in which themes, grammatical presentations, and skill-building activities are successfully integrated. For example, after completing a systematic review of preterit and imperfect tenses and after reading about the tradition behind the pilgrimage to Santiago and references to other traditions, groups of students are asked to create their own medieval legend, while simultaneously incorporating verbs in the preterit and imperfect (p. 111). Students are expected to make intelligent comparisons between ancient civilizations or more recent historical periods and the present. After being introduced to two jarchas, for example, pairs of students are first asked to play the roles of two Mozarabic sisters who enthusiastically describe with abundant detail the men with whom they are in love and then to write a brief jarcha incorporating the results of the previous brainstorming activity. The focus on paintings, photographs, and other visual representations runs the length of the volume, and students have frequent opportunities to infer the intention of artists and to relate their observations to the thematic context of a unit. The attention devoted to the varieties of Spanish throughout the Hispanic world is noteworthy. For example, the authors cite grammatical preferences that depend on one’s geographical background, such as the tendency of a Spaniard to say Esta mañana he desayunado poco, whereas the equivalent utterance in Mexico might be Esta mañana desayuné poco, a reality students of Spanish observe in travel, yet rarely encounter in 669 textbooks. There is a brief, intelligent discussion of the use of vos in much of Latin America, something equally rare in most texts; there is also an exercise in which students are asked to rewrite a paragraph ostensibly composed by a Spaniard by changing 10 core lexical items to the equivalents one would encounter in Mexico. Although the authors take pride in their exclusive use of the target language in terminology, explanations, and models throughout the text, there always lurks the danger of ambiguity in some of the examples presented, such as comparisons of verbs that possess different meanings depending on the tense employed. Additionally, one wonders if students will understand explanations of aspect, mood, and the like from explanations and examples given entirely in Spanish, such as aunque entienden versus aunque entiendan (p. 415). Materials on syllable division, written accents, verb formation, and other grammatical phenomena provided in the appendix will prove useful to students. However, given that nouns in the glossary (pp. 426–433) appear without definite articles, one wonders if determining the gender of such nouns as aporte, caos, élite, hinchazón, ingle, and régimen will present a problem for students at this level. The workbook authors, none of whom is a member of the textbook-writing team, have superbly woven into the vocabulary-building and grammatical exercises, as well as the developmental writing activities, the historical and cultural focus of each unit without duplicating what appears in the textbook. Like the audio CD accompanying the primary text, the one provided with the Cuaderno provides examples of Castilian and Latin American speech varieties. Auditory comprehension exercises ensure that students will listen to each passage more than once. For example, students must on occasion first circle words they hear in a passage, then listen again for content required for them to respond to factual questions. The Cuaderno invites students to become engaged in a variety of imaginative open-ended or guided scenarios, such as one requiring them to play the role of a 17th-century criollo writing an article critical of the sociopolitical plight of those in the Americas at the hands of Spain (p. 168) or to pretend to be a criollo rebel fighting the Spanish crown and attempt to convince a friend to become his ally (p. 177). One excellent target audience for this text might be highly motivated heritage speakers who possess the requisite skills to interpret and appreciate a variety of text types and yet would benefit from both an intensive review of Spanish grammar 670 and a broader understanding of the Hispanic world beyond the national cultures with which they are familiar. Those considering adoption of this attractive and well-conceived program would be advised to examine the text, workbook, and accompanying CDs to be certain that the student audience being targeted is prepared for the challenges presented The Modern Language Journal 92 2008 by the thorough grammar construct and rather demanding activities. Otherwise, the package appears to offer a viable option for advanced students. CHARLES MAURICE CHERRY Furman University Congratulations to 2008 ADFL Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession Winner The Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL) is awarding its 2008 Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession to Renate A. Schulz, Ph.D. The award honors eminent scholar-teachers for exceptional contributions to the field of foreign languages and literatures at the postsecondary level. Dr. Schulz is a professor of German Studies, a faculty member of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT), and Interim Head, Department of German Studies at the University of Arizona. She came to the United States from Germany in 1958 and earned a Ph.D. in Foreign Language Education from The Ohio State University. Before coming to the University of Arizona in 1981, she taught in the Peace Corps in Nigeria, at Otterbein College (Ohio), at the State University College of New York at Buffalo, and at the University of Arkansas. She also held visiting appointments at the United States Air Force Academy, the Universidad de las Américas in Puebla, Mexico, and at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Prof. Schulz’s research interests lie in the areas of second language acquisition, language and culture teaching, assessment, and foreign language teacher development. She has lectured and published widely on those topics. She is a past president of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers’ Associations (NFMLTA) and of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG). She also is a past editor of Die Unterrichtspraxis: The Teaching of German, and currently serves on the editorial advisory boards of the The Modern Language Journal and Forum Deutsch. Congratulations, Prof. Schulz!