MLJ Reviews

Edited by JUDITH E. LISKINGASPARRO

University of Iowa
MLJ Review Policy
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puter software, and materials that (a) present re-
sults of research inand methods offoreign
and second language teaching and learning;
(b) are devoted to matters of general interest to
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marily for use as textbooks or instructional aids in
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vey information fromother disciplines that relates
directly to foreign and second language teaching
andlearning. Reviews not solicitedby the MLJ can
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terials that are not reviewed in the MLJ cannot
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be typed with double spacing and submitted elec-
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THEORY AND PRACTICE
H

ELOT, CHRISTINE, & ANNEMARIE DE

MEJ

IA. (Eds.). Forging Multilingual Spaces: Inte-

grated Perspectives on Majority and Minority Bilin-
gual Education. Clevedon, England: Multilingual
Matters, 2008. Pp. v, 264. $54.95, paper. ISBN978
1847690753.
Individual and societal bilingualismhave been ex-
amined both as goals and for what we can learn
about the results of language contact. The edi-
tors of this volume posit that exploring our dou-
ble vision of bilingualismsituations in which it
brings advantages and prestige as well as those
in which bilingualism is invisible and related to
power and dominationcan change an incoher-
ent discourse to one that informs both policy and
practice.
Thirteen scholars present work in eight
national contexts, divided into the Americas
(Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and the United
States) and Europe (Catalonia/Spain, England,
France, and Ireland). They seek to bridge the
gap between historically established dichotomies
of elite and minority bilingualism. The catalyst for
the volume was a colloquium at the Fifth Interna-
tional Symposium on Bilingualism in Barcelona
in 2005. Contributing scholars variously represent
a focus on bilingual school programs for indige-
nous groups, national minority groups, migrant
minority groups, and dominant language groups.
The goal of the volume is to have these schol-
ars illuminate the multiple settings and language
contact situations in which bilingual education
programs operate and the challenges that each
context presents.
In the introductory chapter, editors H elot and
de Meja pose a series of questions: Can we
develop truly integrated and inclusive language
policies that will challenge monolingual mono-
cultural perspectives and envisage pluralism from
a plurilingual point of view? Can we envisage
new relationships between languages at the so-
cietal level and translate these into more open
education policies which will break down barriers
between the different categories of languages?
(p. 13).
In chapter 2 Garca asserts that the time is
right to witness a coalescing of Spanish language
instruction in the United States that brings to-
gether Spanish as a foreign language teaching,
attention to Spanish as a heritage language, the
decades-long use of Spanish in bilingual teach-
ing, and the more recent teaching of Spanish as a
global language. Historical and current practices
in each teaching setting are outlined, supported
by data on demographics and enrollment. Garca
argues that two-way dual language bilingual edu-
cation programs have the potential to integrate
policies, attitudes, practices and pedagogies
(p. 32), and she outlines the resistance to such
a model from both government and professional
spheres.
In chapter 3 Hamel sets the stage for the ex-
ploration of bilingual education in Latin Amer-
ica by examining the historical traditions of the
two different contexts in which it has taken place:
indigenous education, serving (primarily poor)
speakers of the many languages represented in ru-
ral and immigrant urban areas, and elite private
676 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
bilingual schools, developed to serve high-
prestige language communities. The parallels
across national settings with respect to struggles
for literacy development and content learning in
the indigenous languages are many. Yet within
countries, programs utilizing two languages as
the media of instruction often vary according to
the regional patterns of language use and lan-
guage shift.
Examining the state of bilingual schooling
in Colombia, de Meja and Montes Rodrguez
describe in chapter 4 the distinction between
internationally visible, socially accepted forms
of bilingualism that lead to rewards within a
global marketplace and bilingualism that is in-
visible, involving indigenous or creole languages
in which the rst language continues to be de-
valued and associated with poverty and lack of
development. The authors make the case that
indigenous education has long been considered
under the anthropological reserve (p. 131),
diminishing both its status and potential to in-
form policy makers and practitioners in language
education.
Focusing on Argentina in chapter 5, authors
Ban and Rettaroli see teachers as key in the
design and implementation of effective bilingual
schooling, yet they make the argument that at-
tending to the nature of the teaching staff is often
a low priority within the educational community.
The chapter describes ve bilingual programs
for indigenous children, for deaf children, in
state schools, in language contact situations, and
in elite schools. In Argentina, unlike in the
United States, the term bilingual education is still
a positive term in both public and educational
discourse.
Chapter 6 begins the shift of the volume to
a discussion of language education policy in
Europe. Anderson, Kenner, and Gregory explore
language policy in the United Kingdom as it re-
lates to the 10.5% of primary school children who
have a home language other than English, at the
same time describing attempts to make language
learning available at the primary levels for major-
ity language students. Muchlike the UnitedStates,
the United Kingdom routinely laments a mono-
lingual citizenry while it wrestles with the compli-
cated nature of providing appropriate schooling
for students learning English as their second or
third language. A more common contradiction is
evident in the description of a content-based lan-
guage programin which British students learn ge-
ography through French, which represents a step
forward in modern foreign language instruction.
Aprogramfor Turkish-speaking students that pro-
vides for bilingual science instruction, however, is
disbanded. Such incoherent discourses (p. 193)
related to multilingualism are cited repeatedly by
authors in this volume; they provide excellent ex-
amples of the lack of a thoughtful planning pro-
cess that wouldbring disparate elds andpractices
together.
In chapter 7 H elot outlines the nature of bilin-
gual education in France, describing how the
French government recognizes a need to develop
plurilingualism, yet approaches native French-
speaking learners and immigrant and refugee
learners in different ways. She prefers the anal-
ysis of bilingualism in two contexts (family and
school) and the relationship betweenthem. Much
like other national settings, recent renewed focus
on improved foreign language learning, which
is described as value added models of bilingual
programmes for the monolingual elites (p. 204),
does not have a parallel concern for bilingual de-
velopment where the language learning needs of
minority students are concernedelite bilingual-
ism versus folk bilingualism.
Spain provides the context in chapter 8 for
Escobar Urmeneta and Unamuno to discuss lan-
guage learning in Catalonian schools. As in other
countries in Europe, recent attention has focused
on developing international language learning
programs at earlier ages in Spain, and language
courses that integrate content with language
learning are increasing at both primary and sec-
ondary levels. At the same time, immigrants are
part of the educational landscape in Catalonia,
resulting in tensions among the need for their
multilingual development, a desire to maintain
Catalan, and a desire to develop international
foreign language competence, particularly in
English.
Overlying that dynamic are the political and
social tensions inherent in the case of Catalo-
nia, a region that offers unique insight into
the complexity of developing plurilingualism.
The chapter includes a case study of a primary
school that includes excerpts of fascinating in-
terviews with two boys, a Pakistani and a Fil-
ipino, who with great certainty describe their
awareness of situational language use of Spanish,
Catalan, and English within their classrooms and
communities.
In the nal chapter OLaoire examines
bilingual schooling in Ireland. Irish language
revitalization is an interesting phenomenon in
a country where 4% of the population claims
Irish (the ofcial language) as a rst language.
Teaching Irish as a second language has been
part of educational policy since the 1920s, and
Reviews 677
Irish immersion programs have emerged since
the 1970s. These programs report concerns that
mirror those of other communities implement-
ing immersion language programsnamely, con-
cern about the viability of immersion in a nonelite
language and a fear of lack of academic success
in English. In recent times, the arrival of immi-
grant groups has complicated discussions about
language use and policy.
Several key themes appear across contributions
in this volume. First is that the terms bilingual-
ism and bilingual schooling vary when researchers
attempt to pin down both policy and practice
across nations and communities. Second, the di-
chotomy between school programs available to
majority and minority language members is com-
monplace, regardless of whether the school set-
tings are in Europe or the Americas. Third, the
lack of knowledge of research on bilingual learn-
ing, combined with an assimilationist orienta-
tion, characterizes much of educational practice
where language-minority students are concerned.
Fourth, communication across language educa-
tion programs is limited; practitioners within
countries do not communicate outside of their
elds; teacher educators and researchers do not
cross boundaries in their examination of practice;
educational policy at the national level reects
this isolation. Finally, lack of a common plat-
form where issues can be discussed (as described
by de Meja and Montes Rodrguez, p. 131) has
led to separate programs and has precluded con-
versations about what bilingual education could
be.
Edited volumes often can be uneven, but the
overall strength of chapters here overshadows the
few instances where the reader could have ben-
eted from additional information. The value of
the volume is the development of an historical
and social context for the discussion of language
policies related to bilingual schooling in each na-
tional context as well as the descriptions of lan-
guage use and instructional practices that reect
suchpolicies. The needtoteachacademic content
and develop bilingualism, while in effect address-
ing power imbalances among language groups
and developing societal bilingualism, places a dif-
cult burden on educational institutions. This
volume urges us to converse across national and
programmatic boundaries in order to take up the
task.
CONSTANCE WALKER
University of Minnesota
ORTEGA, LOURDES. Understanding Second Lan-
guage Acquisition. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2009. Pp. xv, 304. $32.75, paper. ISBN 978
0340905593.
This book provides an encyclopedic collection of
information that will enable the reader to under-
stand second language acquisition (SLA). It is a
text designed for graduate students and will also
be equally useful to experienced researchers and
teachers.
As one would expect from Ortega, this is a mas-
terfully constructed text. The information pre-
sented is well researched and comprehensively
referenced. In the preface, Ortega cautions that
researchers may present the nature of SLA in a
number of ways, all of them complex. Even so,
the organization of this book is both logical and
cyclic in its development. It is also put together
in such a way that a reader can dip into different
sections without needing to followa prescribedor-
der. At the same time, key concepts are returned
to and developed so that the readers understand-
ing is extended. Throughout the text, the content
is explained and illustrated by useful tables and
case studies. Sometimes when a text is designed
to provide a breadth of coverage, depth can be
the casualty. However, Ortega avoids this pitfall by
providing a guide for further readings. The abun-
dant references also provide novice readers with
a valuable resource.
The book begins with an introduction to SLA.
The second chapter, Age, contains discussions
about rate and ultimate attainment as well as
an outline of the debate regarding the critical/
sensitive period. Particularly interesting is the his-
torical account of the development of various the-
ories pertaining to age. In fact, throughout the
book, Ortega consistently provides useful data
describing the background and development of
concepts to their current form. I hope that her
discussion about comparing monolingual and
bilingual attainment is taken up by educational
bodies around the world.
The next chapter, Crosslinguistic Inuences,
provides another well-situated historical account
that makes understandable the complex issue of
inuence of the rst language (L1) on the ac-
quisition of a second language (L2), although
novices will need to make use of the anno-
tated further reading. The account of inter-
action in the fourth chapter (The Linguistic
Environment) outlines the key areas within the
cognitiveinteractionist paradigm. It begins witha
678 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
descriptionof Schmidts famous case study of Wes,
a Japanese artist living and working in Hawai'i,
and then examines Schmidts ndings in relation
to the acculturation model and with respect to the
contribution of attitudes. The chapter then pro-
ceeds through the key areas of comprehensible
input, negotiation for meaning, output, noticing,
interaction and acquisition, negotiation of form,
and negative feedback, and it concludes with dis-
cussion about the limitations of the linguistic
environment.
Chapter 5 (Cognition) brings together some
complex and cutting-edge concepts that are the
focus of much current research. It explores
the nexus between psychology and SLA by dis-
cussing such issues as information processing,
practice and automaticity, memory (long term
and working), and emergentism. It also deals with
attentionlearning with and without it and how
it is distinct from awareness. The exemplars for
some of the complex concepts (e.g., DeKeysers
study of skill acquisition and Robinsons study of
symbolic vs. associative learning) are particularly
illuminating.
The sixth chapter (Developing Learner Lan-
guage) builds on the previous two and explores
interlanguage and the theories that underpin it.
Connections among the various theoretical and
research paradigms are made explicit as Ortega
walks us through this area. There is discussion
of such concepts as Universal Grammar, the con-
nection between L1 and L2 acquisition, input
processing, the stages of interlanguage, fossiliza-
tion, and processability theory. She also explores
the issue of whether the native speaker should
be used as a benchmark for L2 acquisition, one
of a number of themes revisited throughout the
text.
The next three chapters deal with individual
differences in SLA. Chapter 7 explores the con-
cept of foreign language aptitude: what it is; how
it differs and overlaps with ability, intelligence,
and grammatical sensitivity; its interrelationship
with memory; and the impact of age and recent
developments in the eld. Motivation is the fo-
cus of chapter 8, and it includes topics one would
expect in such a discussion (integrativeness, its
antecedents, orientation, and attitudes) as well as
more recent debates and departures, which lead
Ortega to describe the area as a vibrant land-
scape of change (p. 190). The third of these
chapters examines affect and individual differ-
ences. It includes an interesting description of
the role of personality in L2 learning, highlight-
ing once again Ortegas deep and diverse knowl-
edge of the literature. This chapter explores both
the traditional areas of individual difference, in-
cluding styles and strategies, as well as more con-
temporary ones such as anxiety and willingness
to communicate. She concludes with an indica-
tion of a future directionnamely, self-regulation
theory.
The book concludes with an account of one of
the more recent and controversial areas in SLA:
exploring the contribution of the social to SLA.
It begins with a succinct outline of the theories
of socioculturalism and poststructuralism and the
constructs related to these (e.g., self-regulations,
inner speech, and the zone of proximal devel-
opment [ZPD]). With the ZPD in mind, Ortega
revisits negative feedback and interaction from
a sociocultural perspective, thus providing a use-
ful balance to the cognitiveinteractionist descrip-
tion provided in chapter 4. The chapter and
book conclude with an examination of a number
of interrelated developments, including conver-
sational analysis, functionalsystemic linguistics,
socialization, identity theory, and technology-
mediated communication. Overall, the text pro-
vides much food for thought and potential areas
of exploration for novices and experts alike.
RHONDA OLIVER
Edith Cowan University, Australia
SLABAKOVA, ROUMYANA. Meaning in the Second
Language. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter,
2008. Pp. xi, 326. $152.00, cloth. ISBN 978311
0203226.
In this book, Slabakova presents her bottleneck
hypothesis, a model of second language acquisi-
tion (SLA) that attempts to characterize the pro-
cess of acquiring a mental representation of the
second language (L2), taking the mental repre-
sentation of the rst language (L1) grammar as a
starting point. Slabakova adopts a Universal Gram-
mar (UG) perspective and claims that the mor-
phosyntax of the L2 constitutes a bottleneck for
learners as they construct grammars of the L2.
Once learners have constructed appropriate men-
tal representations of the L2, they will be able to
understand and express the meanings, both inter-
pretable and uninterpretable, that are encoded
in the morphosyntax. Using data from neurolin-
guistic and behavioral studies of language acqui-
sition, Slabakova demonstrates how her model of
SLA processing works. She also argues that the
Reviews 679
model will engender testable predictions about
the development of SLA and delineate realistic
expectations for learner achievement.
In the rst chapter, the author gives a brief
overview of the literature on the critical period
hypothesis, touching on human language acquisi-
tion as well as on critical periods in other species.
Noting that several researchers have proposed
that the critical period affects different parts of
the language module in different ways and that
research has demonstrated that there may be dif-
ferent critical periods for different skills, she pro-
poses that many of these studies can be subsumed
under a multiple critical period hypothesis.
Inchapter 2 Slabakova lays the theoretical foun-
dation for her bottleneck hypothesis by exam-
ining the theories of Chomsky and Jackendoff.
She adopts a blend of these theories, noting that
both agree that meaning (conceptual structure)
is universal and lies outside the domain of a
particular language. Thus, meaning may be rep-
resented differently in the syntaxsemantics in-
terface of different languages; these differences
usually appear in the functional lexicon as differ-
ent morphosyntactic forms. For example, English-
speaking learners of Spanish will have to learn to
express past habituality (expressed through the
simple past in English) by using imperfect verb
forms in Spanish. This mismatch creates a bottle-
neck for L2 learners, who must learn not only the
formbut howthe formis usedto express meaning.
The author begins chapter 3 with a demon-
stration that the bottleneck hypothesis relies on
an understanding that meaning and functional
morphology are processed differently. She then
presents a review of psycholinguistic studies of
language processing that demonstrate that mor-
phosyntax and semantics are subserved by differ-
ent parts of the brain.
Because many of the studies cited in the previ-
ous chapter involve the use of event-related po-
tentials (ERPs), chapter 4 constitutes a critical
examination of what imaging studies actually test.
Given the present state of knowledge concerning
what is measured by these tests, the author con-
cludes that, at present, behavioral studies of lan-
guage processing are the most reliable source of
information about the representation of language
in the mind.
In chapter 5 Slabakova details her bottleneck
hypothesis, claiming that morphology poses the
most difculty for L2 learners. She argues that her
hypothesis is supportedby three types of evidence:
(a) processing differences between morphology,
in contrast to syntax and semantics; (b) learn-
ers differential abilities to control functional cat-
egories and to produce the morphology related
to these categories consistently; and (c) learners
accurate and effortless acquisition of the semantic
properties of the L2.
Chapters 6 and 7 are reviews of studies whose
results can be interpreted as supporting the bot-
tleneck hypothesis. In chapter 6 Slabakova ex-
amines behavioral research focusing on learning
tasks in which learners must resolve a mismatch
between their L1 morphosyntax and that of the
L2 to express a particular meaning. For example,
English-speaking learners of Chinese must learn
to express telicity by using the particle le instead
of by encoding it into verb morphology and ob-
ject cardinality, as is the case in English. In chap-
ter 7 she looks at another series of studies that
examine learning tasks involving more complex
syntax (e.g., discontinuous constituents or quan-
tier scope) that poses poverty-of-the-stimulus L2
learning situations that call for negative feed-
back. For example, English-speaking students of
German will need to learn that a sentence like
Was hat die Katze gebissen? can mean both What
has the cat bitten? or What has bitten the cat?
(pp. 252254). Once learners have acquired the
correct mental representation for this, the ambi-
guity is acquired without effort.
The nal chapter briey recapitulates the rst
seven chapters and ends with suggestions for fur-
ther research and a few implications for language
teaching.
This book introduces an interesting and
testable hypothesis about the process of acquir-
ing the grammar of an L2. Each chapter is clearly
organized, beginning with a review of the ar-
gument so far and ending with a summary of
what has been discussed. Although the prose
is easy to read, the overall organization of the
book does not follow an expected pattern, given
that a complete description of the bottleneck hy-
pothesis, which is the centerpiece of the book,
does not appear until chapter 5. This organiza-
tion makes it difcult for the reader to know
how the information presented in the rst four
chapters pertains to the hypothesis. Because the
book assumes familiarity with syntactic theories
and terminology, it is meant for advanced stu-
dents and SLA researchers. There are also dis-
tracting, but decipherable, typographical errors
and errors of syllabication, especially in chap-
ters 6 and 7. Despite these shortcomings, the bot-
tleneck hypothesis is interesting and testable and
has the potential to advance our understanding
of the processes that underlie the acquisition of
an L2.
MARY EMILY CALL
Montclair State University
680 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
SPOLSKY, BERNARD, & FRANCIS M. HULT.
(Eds.). The Handbook of Educational Linguistics.
Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008. Pp. xxii, 675.
$175.00, cloth. ISBN 9781405154109.
In 1978 Bernard Spolsky published an introduc-
tion to the eld of educational linguistics partly
in response to the problems of dening the
discipline of applied linguistics but also to de-
marcate linguistic research that directly connects
language to education. With The Handbook of Ed-
ucational Linguistics some 30 years later, Spolsky
and Hult set out to assess the current status and
the future of this still-emerging eld, typically con-
sidered closely linked to, but separate from, ap-
plied linguistics. The expansive volume contains
42 chapters with an impressive range of themes
and disciplines. Its broad scope is reinforced by
the diversity of contributors to the volume and by
chapters that are co-authored by a team of sea-
soned and junior scholars. Readers will recognize
many leading gures in the elds of applied and
educational linguistics.
Part 1, Foundations for Educational Linguis-
tics, presents the knowledge base obtained from
areas such as neurobiology, psycholinguistics, an-
thropology, and sociolinguistics. Although con-
nections between research and practice are drawn
throughout the volume, this relationship is the
explicit focus of part 3 of the book. Parts 1
and 3 frame the central part of the volume,
Core Themes, which includes 25 chapters. The
Handbook achieves cohesion not only through ex-
plicit thematic connections but alsothroughmore
subtle associations that create linkages across
chapters.
In their two introductory chapters, the editors
situate educational linguistics historically and ex-
amine its relationship to linguistics and other dis-
ciplines. Spolsky denes educational linguistics as
an area of study that provides the essential instru-
ments for designing language education policy
and for implementing language education man-
agement (p. 2). The editors regard as the main
purpose of educational linguistics to inform and
shape language policy and, moreover, educational
practice as the trigger for scholarly inquiry. Hult
further denes educational linguistics as funda-
mentally transdisciplinary, in that it draws on an-
alytical and methodological tools that come from
a variety of relevant disciplines such as anthropo-
logical linguistics, clinical linguistics, psycholin-
guistics, and sociolinguistics to address issues or
problems.
The majority of the chapters in part 1 estab-
lish the relevance of core elds to educational
linguistics, including neurobiology, psycholin-
guistics, linguistic theory, sociolinguistics and so-
ciology of language, and linguistic anthropology.
Mesthries chapter on sociolinguistics and the so-
ciology of language covers essential concepts such
as variation, overt and covert prestige, language
contact, code choice, and identity. Mesthrie then
points out the relevance of sociolinguistics to
education as manifested, for example, in Bern-
steins theory of elaborated and restricted codes.
Although linguistic decit models have been re-
placed by more contextualized and nuanced views
of language use, Mesthrie considers Bernsteins
premise that schools establish language norms
and require code choices still relevant today. Sim-
ilarly, Hudsons chapter on linguistic theory intro-
duces the reader to fundamental linguistic ideas
by way of distinguishing between, for example,
description and prescription, form and function,
texts and systems, and words and meanings.
Inthe penultimate chapter of part 1, McGroarty
contends that political issues affect a speech
communitys language choices and uses. Her
chapter concludes with a charge to educational
linguists to inform the public about the cur-
rent linguistic situation in the United States, in-
cluding successful language education programs,
and to research the relationship between institu-
tional agendas and language capacity. In the nal
chapter, Lo Bianco illuminates the complex re-
lationship between educational linguistics and
education systems. States, which govern and con-
trol educational agencies and institutions, ap-
prove and authorize what Lo Bianco refers to
as secondary linguistic socialization (p. 113).
In its early understanding, educational linguistics
aimed at applying explicit knowledge about lan-
guage, based on mentalist linguistic approaches,
to the second language classroom. Both educa-
tional linguistics and education systems, however,
have shifted to a constructivist approachthat takes
into account context, social criteria, and variabil-
ity. Lo Bianco points to three major ongoing
changes in these two elds: the inclusion of non-
Western researched languages, the transforma-
tion of literacy, and learners orientation toward
their peers for the acquisition of knowledge. With
these three themes resurfacing in several chap-
ters of part 2, Lo Biancos chapter serves as a kind
of bridge, adding to the overall cohesion of the
volume.
Part 2, Core Themes, illustrates the editors
premise that a researcher aligned with educa-
tional linguistics takes a theme or problem as
Reviews 681
a starting point and then synthesizes the re-
search tools in his/her intellectual repertoire to
investigate or explore it (p. 17). In addition to
language education policy and management
already established in the introduction as the
main purpose of educational linguisticsthe ed-
itors group the chapters in part 2 under four ad-
ditional subtopics that embody the work in edu-
cational linguistics: Linguistically and Culturally
Responsive Education, Literacy Development,
Acquiring a Language, and Language Assess-
ment. Appropriately, many of the 25 chapters fo-
cus on well-known topics such as literacy (Hull
and Hern andez), bilingual and biliterate prac-
tices (Reyes andMoll), the language of instruction
(Walter), acquisition orders (Bardovi-Harlig and
Comajoan), interlanguage and language transfer
(Skehan), second language acquisition and ulti-
mate attainment (Birdsong and Paik), and assess-
ments (Bachman and Purpura), to name just a
few.
In this vein, Hull and Hern andez (ch. 23) trace
the eld of literacy as a contextualized social prac-
tice, point to the discrepancy between our consid-
erable knowledge of literacy and the persistent
perception of literacy learning as a problem, and
call for research that pays equally rigorous atten-
tion to in- and out-of-school learning environ-
ments. Although the authors acknowledge that
language policy might revert to more narrow con-
ceptions of literacy, they call for literacy studies to
attend to a wide range of issues, including mul-
tiple modalities, multilingual literacies, and the
tension between literacy as a means of empower-
ment but that potentially reinforces inequality.
Other chapters tackle areas of inquiry that have
been explored to a lesser degree. Watt and Fair-
eld, for example, pursue the role of religious
literacy in religious education and in the develop-
ment of faith. Religious traditions, they remind
us, rely on access to and comprehension of their
sacred texts and, in essence establish religious lit-
eracy both as the process and the goal in religious
communities.
Picas chapter, Task-Based Teaching and
Learning, opens part 3 of the book, Research
Practice Relationships, with an examination of
tasks as methodological tools equally fruitful for
research and instruction. As Pica has shown in
several studies, authentic tasks shed light on the
process of acquiring a second language while pro-
moting language acquisition. Much like part 2,
part 3 productively combines familiar topics such
as corpus linguistics (Conrad and LeVelle), the
role of interaction and output in communica-
tive language learning (Swain and Suzuki), and
computer-assisted language learning (Chapelle)
with a chapter that discusses the way in which the
differentiatedtheory of perceptioncaninformed-
ucational linguistics (van Lier).
Though closely linked to linguistics, educa-
tional linguistics transcends disciplines, which
perhaps perpetuates its lack of institutionaliza-
tion. The theme-based and transdisciplinary na-
ture of educational linguistics, however, has pro-
duced inspiring research and will continue to
do so in the future. Timely and important, The
Handbook of Educational Linguistics advances our
understanding of the role of linguistics in edu-
cation as well as the urgent need for effective
collaborationamong linguists, educators, andpol-
icy makers, all of whom will benet greatly from
consulting it.
JOHANNA WATZINGERTHARP
University of Utah
WEBSTER, JONATHAN J. (Ed.). Meaning in Con-
text: Strategies for Implementing Intelligent Applica-
tions of Language Studies. New York: Continuum,
2008. Pp. 313. $150.00, cloth. ISBN 97808264
97352.
The occasion for the chapters included in this
volume was the opening, in March 2006, of the
Halliday Centre for Intelligent Applications of
Language Studies at City University of Hong
Kong. It is therefore tting that the collections
lead chapter comes from the honoree, the emi-
nent BritishAustralian linguist M. A. K. Halliday,
who argues that the possibility of intelligent appli-
cation of language studies rests on a theoretical
understanding of the nature, the functions and
the spacetime organization of human language
(p. 9). In other words, language is our primary re-
source for meaning-making, a capacity due to the
role of grammar as a meaning-making resource.
A capacity view of language places discussion in
the virtual world of theorizing and in the world
in which language works for usnamely, in hu-
manexperiences of ordering andinterpreting our
environment as well as our inner world of con-
sciousness. In so doing, it enables an appliable
linguistics as an antidote to the unhelpful split be-
tween theoretical and applied approaches to the
study of language. Halliday convincingly lays out
this argument, helpfully incorporating the kinds
of language-related activities the volumes remain-
ing chapters address.
682 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
In the following chapter, Bateman highlights
a fundamental dilemma resulting from the fo-
cus of systemicfunctional linguistics (SFL) on
the paradigmatic axis in language description.
Although this approach has supported a success-
ful history of automatic natural language gener-
ation of texts by computational systems through
the use of systemnetworks, he demonstrates its in-
herent limitations for effective automatic analysis
and interpretation of texts. He concludes that sys-
temicists must pay considerably more attention to
lexicogrammatic syntagmatic organization, which
would make it less simple along that axis than it
currently is. Also theoretically oriented are Butts
reections on the robustness of conceptualizing
language as a realizational system within overall
systems. When such realizations are regionalized
(i.e., when a given rhetorical unit is investigated
on its own terms), they can begin to account for
complex domains for which change is a constant
rather than a deviation from idealized expecta-
tions. Fang takes on yet another central notion
of SFLthat of topical theme. From a multifunc-
tional view, she provides a highly detailed analy-
sis of Chinese clauses in terms of themerheme
structure by examining topical theme under a
textual orientation. By contrast, the next two
chapters, by Hu and Don, and Huang and Wang,
respectively, showa dramatic topical shift and turn
in theoretical and methodological sophistication.
The former provides largely anecdotal evidence
regarding PowerPoint presentations as a multi-
modal genre; the latter, not unsurprisingly, iden-
ties as a patterned registerial phenomenon the
nature of EnglishChinese codeswitching in three
Chinese language newspapers in Guangzhou,
the capital of the south China province of
Guangdong.
By far the most expansive and most compelling
contribution of the volume is that by Matthiessen,
Teruya, and Wu. It argues for an understand-
ing of multilingual studies as an interconnected
space that would include such areas as compar-
ative and typological studies, interpretation and
translation and the training of its professionals,
foreign language teaching, multilingual lexicog-
raphy, and multilingualism in general. Using the
two central notions in SFL for their theoretical
groundingthe cline of instantiation and the hi-
erarchy of straticationthey choose the inter-
personal system of languages to make a richly de-
tailed case not only for the capacity of a multi-
functionally oriented SFL to connect otherwise
disparate areas but also to uncover insights at
the level of analysis that is likely to be most
productivenamely, the middle region between
the individual instance and the system of the
language.
Patricks report on a text categorization task
commissioned by the Australian Securities and In-
vestment Commission to detect fraudulent repre-
sentations on Web pages and Internet channels
offers an inside look at challenges, procedures,
limitations, and successes of computational text
categorization using an SFL framework. Acompu-
tational environment also characterizes Steiners
chapter, which focuses on the area of explicitation
in translation studies: In moving from one text to
its translated rendition, some aspect of meaning is
made more explicit than was previously the case.
Relating explicitness to directness and density in
lexicogrammatical features and also differentiat-
ing them from each other, Steiner presents a so-
phisticated discussion of relevant issues, their op-
erationalization, and their exemplary application
in a computational environment to two book in-
troductions, in German and English. The kind of
annotation scheme used in these stages demon-
strates the gains to be had from an SFL-guided
theoretical querying, to illuminate connections
much beyond those even carefully gathered statis-
tics can reveal.
Finally, the last two chapters continue the
opaqueness surrounding decisions on chapter
inclusion, ordering, and expansion. The rst,
a rambling treatment by Thumboo of poetic
creativity in a globalized English, is so remote
from the purported concerns of the volume as
to make it nearly inscrutable. In a brief con-
cluding chapter, Zhu argues that the standard
way to illustrate grammatical metaphornamely,
through nominalizationneeds to be extended
by demonstrating how verbalization, too, offers
a compelling instance of this meaning-making
resource.
As readers devote themselves to, at times, de-
manding and highly technical reading, they may
experience considerable ambivalence. Although
the volumes 10 chapters showcase the enviable
range of interests within SFL, most especially
in computational applications and further the-
ory renement, there is good reason to wonder
whether the shared meaning and context presum-
ably provided by the conference has nearly van-
ished in the resultant publication. The hurdles for
edited volumes and, especially, conference pro-
ceedings, in terms of topical coherence, sustained
focus, identiable publication motivation and
goals, targeted reader background knowledge,
and progression in argument are well known.
However, these can be addressed through a rigor-
ous selection and editing process and thoughtful
Reviews 683
introductory conceptual framing. Absent that ed-
itorial effort, an absence further burdened by
a considerable range of subject matter and de-
mands for high degrees of technical knowledge
and solid background in SFL, the volume risks at-
taining its scholarly goals. That danger becomes a
reality when good editing practices regarding in-
formation structuring, transparency of argument,
adherence to stylistic conventions in contribu-
tions by nonnative users of English, redundan-
cies, readability of gures and tables, consistency
of style, and completeness and accuracy of refer-
ences are distressingly neglectedinmany of the in-
dividual contributions. The result is that the chap-
ters must stand on their own merits; fortunately,
most can.
HEIDI BYRNES
Georgetown University
YOUNG, RICHARD F. Discursive Practice in Lan-
guage Learning and Teaching. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Blackwell, 2009. Pp. vii, 267. $39.95, paper. ISBN
9781405184441.
For the past several decades, the dominant ap-
proaches to the study of second language (L2)
learning and teaching have been mainly psy-
cholinguistic, centering on the role of language
and the mental processes involved in its learning.
In recent years, however, there has been an in-
creasing recognition of the social dimension of
language and the importance of the sociocultural
contexts in which learning takes place. Taking a
discursive practice approach to L2 acquisition,
this book provides a detailed discussion of how
context affects the processes of language teach-
ing and learning. In this approach, language is
not viewed as a tool to comprehend or produce
meaning but as a particular type of social action.
Similarly, language learning is seen as a process of
learning how to participate in such actions.
The book consists of seven chapters. Chapter
1 focuses on dening discursive practice. Draw-
ing on insights from practice theory, the chap-
ter denes the term practice not as what learners
do to learn a language but as how social realities
are created through action. Discursive practice is
thus dened as how such realities are constructed
through language and how these processes inu-
ence and are inuenced by the social and po-
litical circumstances in which they occur. Chap-
ter 2 explores the historical origins of practice
theory, tracing its evolution in different theories
of meaning and language use within linguistics,
philosophy, and anthropology. Chapter 3 consid-
ers the different ways in which researchers ana-
lyze the role of context and its relationship with
language. Four approaches with illustrative stud-
ies are reviewed: an applied linguistics approach
with a focus on language and how it is developed
through context; an ethnographic approach with
a focus on context and its relationship with both
language and other socially related issues such
as identity, belief systems, and power relations;
an emotional approach focusing on learners
feelings and responses to their language learn-
ing experience; and a political approach focus-
ing on political ramications of discursive prac-
tice and how societal and ideological values are
communicated through practice. Chapter 4 dis-
cusses resources that participants employ in dis-
cursive practices, including verbal, interactional,
and nonverbal resources. It also examines theo-
retical frameworks that can be used for their anal-
ysis, such as systemicfunctional grammar, con-
versation analysis, and participation frameworks.
Chapter 5 focuses on the relationship between
discursive practices and learning. Two learning
theories that conceptualize language learning as
a socially grounded process are discussed: lan-
guage socialization theory and situated learning
theory. Chapter 6 discusses the implications of
a discursive practice approach for language ped-
agogy and testing. Two approaches to teaching
are examined, each taking a different perspective
on how language instruction can be grounded
in discursive practices. One focuses on analyzing
the internal structure of discourse and attempt-
ing to replicate it in instruction (called pedagogy
of practice) and the other focuses on the political
and ideological functions of instructional prac-
tices and how they impact learning (called criti-
cal pedagogy). The chapter also explores the role
of context in assessment, and to this end, it also
highlights the political and societal consequences
of language testing. Chapter 7, which is the nal
chapter, begins by revisiting some of the key ideas
discussed in earlier chapters and then highlight-
ing other areas that require further work, such
as a comprehensive examination of the interplay
between context and language as well as a more
detailed exploration of the contributions of prac-
tice theory to designing effective pedagogical and
assessment strategies.
A key premise of the book is that language
learning and teaching are forms of discursive
practice that are both socially embedded and
situationally constructed and, hence, cannot be
understood outside their sociocultural and
684 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
political contexts. By drawing on insights from
a perspective whose contributions have been rel-
atively unexamined in L2 acquisitionnamely,
practice theorythe book draws our attention to
the reciprocal connection between language and
context, highlighting not only how context affects
the development of humans verbal and nonver-
bal resources but also how the use of these re-
sources contributes to the processes and practices
that construct context. Areal strength of the book
is the quality of the arguments presented as well as
the scope of the issues covered on both theoreti-
cal and practical levels. On a theoretical level, the
book integrates insights from various theoretical
positions within linguistics and sociolinguistics,
including functional grammar and language so-
cialization, to develop a theory of discursive prac-
tice. Pedagogically, the book explores how such a
theory can be applied to practical issues, such as
classroominstructionandL2 assessment. Another
strength is the detailed examples from research
that illustrate the empirical approaches andstrate-
gies that have been employed in research that
studies language learning as a discursive practice.
My only critical comment relates to the discussion
of learning theories in chapter 5. I had hoped to
see a discussion of Vygotskys sociocultural theory,
a perspective that views language learning as in-
herently social and inextricably connected to its
social context. Although this perspective is men-
tioned in a few other places in the book, a more
detailed treatment of this theory and its premises
would have enhanced the discussion of language
learning as a situated discursive practice in this
chapter.
All in all, this text is a signicant contribution
to the scholarly literature on the role of context
in L2 teaching and learning. It is a valuable re-
source for anyone interested in the relationship
between social context and language acquisition
and howlearners develop their verbal and nonver-
bal skills as they engage and participate in social
discourse. The book is highly readable and can be
used as a reference or textbook for both graduate
and upper level undergraduate courses in applied
linguistics and second language acquisition.
HOSSEIN NASSAJI
University of Victoria
CHINESE
HEISIG, JAMES, &TIMOTHY W. RICHARDSON.
Remembering Simplied Hanzi 1: How Not to Forget
the Meaning and Writing of Chinese Characters. Hon-
olulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008. Pp. v, 424.
$25.00, paper. ISBN 9780824833237.
HEISIG, JAMES, &TIMOTHY W. RICHARDSON.
Remembering Traditional Hanzi 1: How Not to Forget
the Meaning and Writing of Chinese Characters. Hon-
olulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008. Pp. v, 433.
$25.00, paper. ISBN 9780824833244.
Each of these books, one of which focuses on sim-
plied characters and the other on traditional
characters, is the rst of a two-volume textbook
aimed to help learners of Chinese to learn the
meaning and writing of 1,000 most frequently
used Chinese characters plus 500 less commonly
used but easy characters. Each book is composed
of three main sections. The introduction pro-
vides the rationale of the learning methods in
the book and the design of the book. The lesson
section contains 55 lessons divided into three sub-
sections based on three memorization methods:
stories (lessons 112), plots (lessons 1319), and
elements (lessons 2055). These methods gradu-
ally provide full stories, simple plots, and, nally,
the basic elements that comprise a character that
help learners build formmeaning connections
among the different elements of a character. The
index section consists of ve indices: (a) charac-
ters in order of their appearance in the book, (b)
primitive elements used to form each character,
(c) characters by number of strokes, (d) charac-
ters by pronunciation, and (e) characters by the
order of the English translation. The learning
approach promoted in the books is mnemonic,
arranging the appearance of characters from sim-
ple to complex. Each character in both books is
presented within a frame containing the charac-
ters frame number (order of appearance in the
book), written form, key word (key meaning in
English), story or plot to help remember the char-
acter form, stroke order, and primitive meaning
(the real or fabricated meaning of this character
to help associate other characters with this ele-
ment).
The books are thoughtfully organized. Both
books start with a detailed explanation as to why
the mnemonics approach is employed, equip-
ping users with a rational background to under-
stand how to appropriately use the books. Each
lesson also starts with a helpful explanation of
the themes to be covered. Clear transitions and
elaborate explanations are provided for lessons
delivered with the three different memorization
methods. In each lesson, each character or
Reviews 685
primitive element is presented within a consistent
frame, which is easy to access and process.
As the authors point out in the introduction,
the books are aimed to help learners who plan
to learn only how to write and understand the
meaning of the most frequently used characters
in Chinese texts. To serve this purpose, the ap-
proach deployed in the books is successful. The
characters are thoughtfully chosen and logically
sequenced throughout the 55 lessons. The tran-
sition from providing full associative stories to
skeletal outlines to, eventually, key words along
with primitive meanings is reasonably designed. It
aligns with adult language learners general cog-
nitive development process. Users of the books
should be able to follow the approach easily. The
stories are engaging, reasonable, and helpful for
memorizing the form and meaning of each char-
acter. The well-known relevant Western cultural
stories are cleverly infused with the primitive
meanings of elements in each character, which
helps English-speaking users to build connec-
tions. In addition to some elements original
meaning in Chinese, an additional meaning,
called primitive meaning in these books, is also
adopted or even created to stimulate vivid im-
agery association between the elements and new
characters. It is particularly thoughtful that a
completely new character or primitive element
is not introduced until all familiar elements have
been learned. The plots method and the elements
method also are contingently helpful for users to
use their own imagination to memorize the mean-
ings and forms of more characters.
Despite the careful organization and thought-
ful design, the readership of the books may be
limited by the approach adopted in them for
three major reasons. First, the pure mnemon-
ics approach may mislead users in learning the
meanings of characters in the long run. This ap-
proach indicates that all characters are formed
with one or more meaningful elements. Follow-
ing this approach, users may end up, intention-
ally or unintentionally, understanding any new
character based on the meanings of elements
comprising the character. In fact, the majority
of modern Chinese characters are formed by a
radical indicating the meaning and a phonetic
part containing some pronunciation cue. In most
situations, the phonetic part has nothing to do
with the meaning of the character. Thus, users
following the approach in the books closely may
encounter great difculty and confusion when ex-
posed to additional characters at a more advanced
level. Second, the mnemonics approach may not
be as efcient as a traditional phonetic association
approach when users are learning a larger num-
ber of characters formed by multiple elements.
Because of many modern Chinese characters for-
mation style, many characters can be associated
with each other by the similar phonetic parts they
share. Deliberately creating articial associations
between the authentic or fabricated meaning of a
phonetic part and a character may demand much
more work than just combining the new radical
form and a familiar phonetic part.
The third reason concerns the practical pur-
poses of learning the writing and meaning of
Chinese characters. Different fromEnglish words,
many modernChinese characters are morphemes
rather than individual words. In other words, a
large number of Chinese characters may convey
different meanings in combination with different
characters. By learning every character individu-
ally, learners may risk missing the characters con-
textual meanings. As a result, learners will have
difculty comprehending modern Chinese texts.
Learning each single character without its phrasal
context may result in memorizing Chinese char-
acters for the sake of memorization.
In addition to the approachs inherent limi-
tations, the selection of the key words for some
characters is also questionable. For example, the
character (p. 181) in Remembering Simplied
Hanzi 1 is most commonly used as a measure word
to describe frequency. It means time as in three
times or four times. By contrast, the meaning
next is used less frequently insimplied Chinese
texts. This choice may be inuenced by the au-
thors traditional character learning background.
However, for simplied character learners, this
may cause confusion. It would have been more
helpful had the authors provided explanation for
how each homonyms key word is selected.
In all, the books constitute a useful resource
for those who are beginning their Chinese char-
acter learning journey and are interested only in
learning the meaning andwriting of Chinese char-
acters. The associative stories made to connect
the elements in each character are very appealing
and helpful for remembering meaning and form.
There is no doubt that users following this ap-
proach closely can develop high prociency in un-
derstanding and writing the characters included
in the books. However, it is doubtful whether it is
practical for learners of Chinese to use the meth-
ods promoted in the books for advanced-level
character learning. In addition, due to the ap-
proachs limitations discussedhere, I have reserva-
tions about recommending the books as primary
resources to learners of Chinese who have been
studying Chinese characters with pronunciation
686 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
and those who aim to understand or compose a
text for more practical purposes.
LI JIN
DePaul University
SUN, HAO, & DANIEL Z. KADAR. (Eds.). Its
the Dragons Turn: Chinese Institutional Discourses.
Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, 2008. Pp. 262.
$68.95, paper. ISBN 9783039111756.
This volume is made up of ve essays that de-
scribe and analyze Chinese institutional discourse
in a variety of settings. The preface states that in-
stitutional discourse refers to interactions that are
goal-oriented. . . inwhichone participant, at least,
represents an institution rather than acting as an
individual (p. 7). The ve essays provide insight
into Chinese institutional discourse that takes
place in different contexts: survey interviews for
the 2005 U.S. census, telephone calls to businesses
and services in Shanghai in the mid-1990s, court-
room trials in imperial China, business meetings
in Hong Kong in the 2000s, and doctorpatient
interactions in Hong Kong in 2006. The organi-
zation of the volume privileges place over time:
Chapter 1 begins in the United States, chapter 2
moves to Shanghai, chapter 3 focuses on ctional
locations in northern China, and chapters 4 and
5 are located in Hong Kong.
As specied in the preface, the volume has
academic objectives, which are to contribute
to several areas of linguistics and social stud-
ies, including . . . critical discourse analysis, cross-
cultural communication, politeness research, and
pragmatics, as well as a general oneto serve as
a resource for readers who desire to develop a
better understanding of Chinese society and insti-
tutional behavior so that they will be more success-
ful and effective in communication when they are
engaged in cross-cultural encounters. Further-
more, the readers of the book are not assumed
to have any command of the Chinese language
(p. 9). It features lively and engaging scholarship
focusing on varied themes and is overall light on
jargon, thus relatively comprehensible to the non-
specialist reader.
The rst essay, Pans Cross-Cultural Communi-
cation Norms and Survey Interviews, notes:
Formal Chinese communication is geared towards
human relations and power hierarchies . . . The pre-
ferred communication style is indirectness and face-
saving strategies appropriate to the power relation in
a specic domain. . . Consequently there is an inher-
ent conict between traditional survey interview tech-
niques and Chinese communication norms . . . This
clash can lead to the collection of unreliable data
through an inappropriate form of interviewing.
(p. 18)
The data were gathered in 2005, when the U.S.
Census Bureau carried out the AmericanCommu-
nity Survey (ACS) to collect demographic data
and other information. To facilitate the survey,
the Census Bureau developed literature about
the ACS translated into four languages, includ-
ing Chinese. Research teams conducted inter-
views to test the effectiveness of this material. The
data set for this essay includes interviews with na-
tive speakers of English as well as with Chinese-
speaking immigrants. Analysis of the data showed
that whereas English-speaking respondents were
articulate, expressive . . . and open (p. 33), the
responses of the Chinese speakers were short,
ambiguous, sometimes unrelated to the question,
and often gratuitously concurrentthat is, many
Chinese speakers preferred to agree with the per-
son asking the question (p. 33).
The essay notes that, in China, demographic
information is gathered via local police depart-
ments through the household registration system
and that a survey may not be the best way to gather
information in Chinese communities. It appropri-
ately suggests that census takers in Western locales
redesign the interview process to be culturally res-
onant with Chinese respondents.
The second essay, by Sun, entitled Participant
Roles and Discursive Actions: Chinese Transac-
tional Telephone Interactions, relies on data col-
lected in Shanghai in the mid-1990s. These data
seem outdated, given the rapid pace of change
and reform in China. The essay concludes that
the level of service provided by call-takers at
mostly state-owned enterprisesto callers seek-
ing informationwas less than is generally ex-
pected for such interchanges. Call-takers did not
self-identify, and they positioned themselves at a
higher status than the caller. The callers therefore
had to resort to polite, self-denigrating language
to obtain the information needed. In all, the in-
terchanges were different from those based on
customer-centered principles. There is no men-
tion of whether things have changed in the past
decade and a half, as China as well moves toward
customer-centeredness.
The third essay, by Kadar, is entitled Power and
Formulaic (Im)Politeness in Traditional Chinese
Criminal Investigations. It argues that impolite-
Reviews 687
ness is used as a tool to assert power and dom-
ination in courtroom trials in traditional China.
The corpus used for textual analysis consists of
14 gongan court case novels and novellas
fromthe Ming and Qing periods. The essay points
out that the magistrate uses informal and deroga-
tory forms of second-person address ru you
(informal, derogatory) and ni youto assert
elevated status and authority, whereas the defen-
dants use honoric forms of address (e.g., your
honor). It includes a case study of a story from
the Qing dynasty novel Di Gongan The
Criminal Cases of Judge Dee, called the n ee
Zhou trial. The author argues that the defendant
(a woman accused of murdering her husband)
temporarily turns the proceedings to her bene-
t by inverting linguistic convention, but this ar-
gument is not entirely convincing. The womans
strategy relies less on language use than on her
manipulation of the situation to posit herself
as a victim, and her asserting that social norms
(for the chaste widow) should trump court con-
vention in this case. Nonetheless, the essay is a
page-turner!
The fourth essay, by Chan, is titled Meeting
Openings and Closings in a Hong Kong Com-
pany. The business in question is identied by
the pseudonym Rainbow. There is no indication
of when the data were collected, but there is
reference to the meetings being video-recorded
on mini DVDs, which became available in 1998.
The study foregrounds the methodology used, al-
though the content seems obscure. It concludes
that there is little difference between meeting
openings and closings in this Hong Kong com-
pany and similar companies elsewhere.
Finally, Luke, Lam, and Zhang offer Electronic
Medical Record Keeping and DoctorPatient In-
teraction: An Analysis of Medical Consultations in
Hong Kong. Data fromthe consultations in ques-
tion, gathered in Hong Kong in 2006, support
observations made in recent literature that when
physicians use computers for record-keeping, they
spend less time talking to patients, which may
diminish the quality of the relationship between
physician and patient.
In all, the volume is eminently readable and
highly informative, both about methodological
approaches in a variety of elds as well as about
aspects of Chinese culture that would be difcult
to access without such painstaking research. The
editors and authors have met the goals they set
for themselves.
CYNTHIA Y. NING
University of Hawai'i
DUTCH
BODEGOM, GERDA, & BRUCE DONALDSON.
Colloquial Dutch 2. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Pp. 208. $52.95, paper. ISBN 0415310768.
As its title suggests, this volume is a sequel to Collo-
quial Dutch: The Complete Course for Beginners and,
as such, it is intended for the intermediate lan-
guage learner. The book claims to stand on its
own apart from the beginning course, which is
true for the most part. Nevertheless, this review
occasionally makes reference to volume 1 by way
of comparison.
Arranged in 12 topical units, chapters high-
light areas of Dutch society and culture, address-
ing the customary topics such as Dutch traditions,
cities, travel, weather, home and family, food and
health, media, leisure, politics, sports and society,
and culture. Each unit presents a variety of ma-
terials, including reading and listening texts, ex-
ercises, grammar explanations (called language
points), dialogues with vocabulary lists, and con-
cluding sections on idioms, proverbs, and cultural
tidbits. In addition, 140 minutes of audio material
accompanies the book in the course pack.
Each unit features eight exercises; an answer
key is appended. The format of the exercises
varies from the traditional true/false type to re-
freshingly creative activities in which the learner
must choose who might have made selected com-
ments about a topic of a reading (p. 10). Other
creative exercises ask the learner to nd the op-
posite of selected words or to rephrase given state-
ments according to the grammar point learned.
When short lists of proverbs are introduced in
each unit, the book often requires learners to
match them to their English equivalents, a ped-
agogical strategy superior to listing the Dutch
proverb along with its English equivalent.
For all the strengths of this book, the intro-
duction is disappointingly brief. Over half of the
introduction deals with the new spelling rules in-
troduced in 1996. Even though the discussion of
the new spelling is superbly written, there seems
no reason for this topic to dominate. Missing is
a justication for the choice of topics. Many of
the topics are usual fare in language learning, to
be sure. However, why, for example, do the au-
thors include sports and recreation but not edu-
cation? Why is leisure the focus of an entire unit,
whereas the topic of religion receives only a foot-
note (p. 112)? Another lacuna in the introduction
involves advice to the reader about how exactly to
688 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
use the book. It would be useful to know what
strategies learners can apply to master new vo-
cabulary. What is the professional wisdom about
pacing in self-study? How does the learner best
combine the audio and written material? Cer-
tainly the answers to these questions are learner
specic and highly individualized, but some sug-
gestions based on the latest pedagogical literature
would be welcome.
The intermediate learner preparing to enter
the Dutch-speaking regions of Belgiumwill be dis-
appointed in the sparse reference to the Dutch
language in Belgian Flemish culture. To be fair,
volume 1 does address the issue of where Dutch
is spoken worldwide, but because volume 2 claims
to stand on its own, some such basic information
about the Dutch-speaking regions and cultures
bears repetition.
In spite of these criticisms, the strengths of Col-
loquial Dutch 2 are considerable. This book sets
itself apart for its clarity of style, presentation,
and explanation. The authors display a genuine
curiosity for language and for the particulars of
Dutch idioms. They have a knack for explaining
the nuances of Dutch, especially for the English
speaker. The authors show a remarkably good ear
and eye for what the language learner needs to
know. The following excerpt is a sample of the ap-
pealing style where the authors address the chal-
lenging concept of adjective endings. It features a
comfortable conversational tone in combination
with astute observations of Dutch usage.
Did you notice the following three phrases in the
reading text about Ghent: het Stedelijk Museum, het cen-
traal station and het openbaar vervoer? According to the
above rule you would have expected stedelijk, centraal
and openbaar to take an ending, so why dont they?
Well, there is a long list of nouns, particularly neuter
nouns, which, even when preceded by the singular
denite article, do not require that the preceding ad-
jective be inected as you would expect according to
the rule above . . . . Watch out for these exceptions.
You need to learn them one by one as you encounter
them as there is no hard and fast rule you can learn.
(pp. 2627)
Colloquial Dutch 2 is visually appealing for a pa-
perback restrictedto black and white. It is less clut-
tered than volume 1 and noteworthy for its lean
and clean page layout. The course packs listening
tracks are conveniently provided on both CD and
cassette. The book also serves as a handy grammar
reference, and its coverage of topics such as subor-
dinating conjunctions (p. 107), plural formation
(pp. 54ff.), and the imperative mood (pp. 38ff.)
is impressively thorough for a book of this size.
HERMAN J. DE VRIES, JR.
Calvin College
DONALDSON, BRUCE. Dutch: A Comprehensive
Grammar . 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Pp. xiii, 438. $58.95, paper. ISBN 9780415
432313.
This grammar represents the latest in a long line
of indispensible reference materials by Donald-
son targeting intermediate and advanced English-
speaking learners of Dutch. It is a bit unfortunate
that the volume appears in the Routledge Com-
prehensive Grammars series, given that it is not
a comprehensive grammar, which is stated clearly
in the preface. This grammar is intended as a de-
tailed practical reference work that anticipates dif-
culties that the English-speaking learner will en-
counter in the advanced stages of the acquisition
of Dutch. Donaldson has delivered a thoroughly
revised, updated, and expanded version of a se-
ries grammar that began with his Dutch Reference
Grammar (1981), and it should nd a place on the
bookshelf of every serious Anglophone student of
Dutch.
After four short chapters on pronunciation,
spelling, punctuation, and modern relics of the
earlier Dutch case system, the grammar is orga-
nized into chapters according to parts of speech
(articles, nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.). The con-
sequence of this organizational principle is the
absence of a chapter dedicated to syntax, with the
result that fundamental syntactic issues are dealt
with piecemeal throughout the book. This diffuse
presentation of syntactic issues can be overcome
with skillful use of the detailed index, but it would
nevertheless seem useful to present the basic syn-
tactic principles of main clauses and dependent
clauses in a single chapter. By way of explanation
of the lack of a chapter on syntax, Donaldson
states in the preface that he has yet to see a presen-
tation of Dutch syntax that could be of any prac-
tical use to the foreign learner of the language
(p. xi), but his excellent practical discussion of
syntactic issues sprinkled throughout the book in-
dicate that he might be just the person to write
such a chapter.
The individual chapters are packed with lu-
cid grammatical explanations, clear examples,
and, where appropriate, extensive lists of the
morphological forms under discussion. Chapter
Reviews 689
11, Verbs, lists all strong and irregular verbs
and their forms, including notes on confusing
ne points: The verb zuigen to suck is strong
(innitive zuigen, imperfect zoog, past participle
gezogen), but in a footnote (p. 197) Donaldson
explains that the compound verb stofzuigen to
vacuum is weak (innitive stofzuigen, imperfect
stofzuigde, past participle gestofzuigd). The exten-
sive lists of examples make this grammar a useful
source of teaching material for intermediate and
advanced students, some of which would be dif-
cult to glean from any other source. The chapter
on adjectives includes a list of common but often
compound adjectives, which are typical of spoken
Dutch but can be opaque to the learner of Dutch
(e.g., hemelsbreed very wide; kurkdroog as dry as
a bone, but literally as broad as the sky and as
dry as a cork).
One of the strengths of Dutch: A Comprehensive
Grammar is the attention paid to different reg-
isters of spoken and written Dutch so that the
reader can make informed choices about usage.
This type of discussion is valuable because even
native speakers of Dutch have a hard time ex-
plaining such distinctions. An example would be
the excellent presentation of the possessive rela-
tive whose, whichhas three possible realizations,
wiens, van wie, and wie zn (p. 90). This type of pre-
sentation allows the reader to make appropriate
choices when speaking or writing Dutch, given
that wiens would sound strange in normal spoken
Dutch and wie zn would be inappropriate in for-
mal written Dutch.
The utility of the grammar is enhanced by use-
ful appendices, including extensive information
on letter-writing conventions and on the termi-
nology of email and long lists of proper nouns for
countries, nationalities, and geographical names.
From these lists, the reader can quickly ascertain
that a female Slovakian is a Slowaakse in Dutch,
that the Dutch rendering of Berlin is Berlijn, and
that the Mediterranean Sea is de Middellandse Zee,
all of which is difcult information to extract from
even the most comprehensive of dictionaries. Per-
haps the most useful appendix helps the reader to
decode the ubiquitous but often thoroughly con-
fusing Dutch habit of using a large number of ab-
breviations and acronyms as a kind of shorthand.
Thus, although every native speaker of Dutch
knows that m.i. is the abbreviation for mijns inziens
in my opinion and that the KNVB refers to the
Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond Royal Dutch
Football League, a nonnative speaker can spend
years guring out such things. The appendix pro-
vides a quick decoding of nearly 200 of the most
commonly used abbreviations. The appendices
are rounded out by a useful glossary of grammat-
ical terms.
There is so much of use in this grammar that
criticisms are mainly small quibbles. Dutch is a
pluricentric language, so there are standard vari-
eties usedinthe Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname,
and the Netherlands Antilles. Some of the differ-
ences in usage might have been highlighted or
discussed in greater detail. It is odd, for exam-
ple, that the voiced soft g is correctly cited as a
southern Dutch shibboleth, whereas the Flemish
retention of glide [w] pronunciation of Middle
Dutch /w/, as compared to the northern realiza-
tion as [] or [v], is not mentioned at all despite
its salience. However, these are minor issues in the
broader scheme of things.
ROBERT B. HOWELL
University of WisconsinMadison
OOSTERHOFF, JENNEKE A. Basic Dutch: A
Grammar and Workbook. New York: Routledge,
2009. Pp. viii, 197. $34.95, paper. ISBN 9780
415774437.
Intermediate Dutch: A Grammar and Workbook. New
York: Routledge, 2009. Pp. viii, 204. $35.95, paper.
ISBN 9780415774444.
Part of the Grammar Workbook series published
by Routledge, Basic Dutch and Intermediate Dutch
are traditional reference grammars for native
speakers of English. In this review, both com-
panion volumes are considered. As the titles sug-
gest, the rst volume is primarily intended for
novice learners of Dutch and for those with prior
exposure who want to improve or rene their
command of the grammatical structures of the
language; the second volume is meant for learners
who are already familiar with the basic structures
and want to move on to more advanced linguistic
features of Dutch.
The Basic Dutch grammar book is well struc-
tured. Following a brief preface, the 25 units focus
on topics of Dutch grammar. Each unit consists
of two parts. The rst part begins with an intro-
duction of the topic in English, accompanied by
examples of English equivalents and either a few
unconnected sample sentences or a paragraph in
Dutch containing several examples of the gram-
matical topic under discussion, along with an En-
glish translation. Next, we nd an explanation of
the structure at hand, and more sample sentences
are provided. The author pays attention to the
grammatical aspects of spelling in her work. The
690 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
second part of each unit contains ve or six exer-
cises that progress in difculty. As a rule, the exer-
cises are closed-ended. The appendix includes a
list of commonly used strong and irregular verbs,
arranged according to the stem vowels of the in-
nitive, the preterit tense, and the past participle.
Finally, there is a key to the exercises and an index
of grammatical topics.
In the preface, the author draws attention to
three conscious choices that she made for this
work. First, she decided not to include a chap-
ter on pronunciation. This choice was motivated
by the belief that learners can access sound les
on the Internet. Second, she claims that she at-
tempted to provide a situational context for the
sample sentences and exercises in the book, indi-
cating that traditional grammars are often lacking
in this respect. To achieve this goal, she uses an
imaginary family of four, their friends, and neigh-
bors fromthe small village of Hardegarijp. Finally,
she indicates that she wanted to place anemphasis
on written exercises, although she does include a
few oral exercises.
The author used excellent judgment in deter-
mining what belongs in the basic book. The ex-
amples that illustrate a given grammatical topic
are usually well chosen and are always translated
into English. She focuses exclusively on the stan-
dard Dutch language as it is used in the Nether-
lands, ignoring regional variations, including
Belgian use. The grammatical explanations are
written entirely in English, but sometimes they
lack clarity. In unit 2, for example, where the
modal auxiliary verbs are discussed, after the brief
introduction, the tables with the conjugation pat-
tern of these verbs in the present tense, and the
examples of sentences that contain modal verbs,
readers are told that sometimes, the main or ac-
tionverb innitive at the endof the sentence is left
out. It is, however, implied (p. 12). In two of the
following Dutch examples, not only is the inni-
tive left out but also the subject, although the ac-
companying English translations suggest that the
direct object and the innitive are omitted. Al-
though the examples are grammatical, the reader
does not nd any explanation for the unexpected
omissions. Another example can be found in the
discussion of the imperative in unit 20, where the
author rst introduces common imperatives with-
out a subject. She then claims that when a group
is addressed, sometimes t is added to the stem.
But rather than using this old form, in the plural
we prefer to add a subject (p. 126). Two examples
that are meant to illustrate this feature for the plu-
ral, however, are singular imperatives. A nal ex-
ample occurs in the unit on word order, where the
author does not make a clear distinction between
a prepositional phrase andanindirect object. This
point is relevant here because it is possible to use
a prepositional phrase instead of an indirect ob-
ject in Dutch, provided one also makes adjust-
ments in word order. The following grammatical
explanation of this feature in the grammar is mis-
leading: When the indirect object is preceded
by a preposition, it can follow the direct object
(p. 147).
The aims and the structure of Intermediate Dutch
are the same as for Basic Dutch. The intermediate-
level book uses vocabulary items associated with
topics introduced in second-year textbooks, and
the author states that the volume can also be used
as a review grammar in courses at the advanced
level. Even though the book is intended for stu-
dents with a higher level of prociency, there are
no open-ended exercises. This grammar displays
weaknesses similar to those of its basic compan-
ion. For example, in the unit on passive voice, we
are told that
the passive construction is formed with the auxiliary
verb worden and the past participle of the main verb
(here we call this the passive participle). The form of
worden is the nite verb, and the passive participle is
at the end of the sentence. (p. 133)
Of the four examples intended to illustrate this
grammatical feature, only two contain the auxil-
iary worden, but no explanation is provided for
the absence of the auxiliary in the other two
sentences.
These books are perhaps best used in a class-
room setting in which an experienced teacher is
able to clarify the grammatical explanations and
answer the many questions that a close reading of
the reference works will raise. The teacher would
encourage and expect students to use the newly
acquired grammatical structures in more creative
and open-ended tasks. I would also recommend
that these books be used in conjunction with a
textbook or additional materials that introduce
the learners to the people and the culture of the
Netherlands and of the Dutch-speaking area of
Belgium.
COLETTE VAN KERCKVOORDE
Bard College at Simons Rock
FRENCH
LABEAU, EMMANUELLE, & FLORENCE
MYLES. (Eds.). The Advanced Learner Vari-
ety: The Case of French. Frankfurt, Germany:
Reviews 691
Peter Lang, 2009. Pp. 298. $75.95, paper. ISBN
9783039110728.
This volume, a peer-reviewed collection of articles
that grew fromthe 2006 workshop entitled Revis-
iting Advanced Varieties in L2 Learning held at
Aston University, is a valuable contribution to sec-
ond language (L2) research. The conference was
designed as a follow-up to a special issue of AILE
(Acquisition et Interaction en Langue Etrang`ere) in
1996, editedby Bartning, onthe topic of advanced
L2 French. In the current volume, the article de-
riving from Bartnings keynote speech in 2006
provides the central themes for the other contri-
butions. The importance of this collection relates
to three points: its focus on advanced learners (as
opposed to beginners or near natives, the subject
of numerous L2 studies); its emphasis on French
(L2 English being a frequent language of investi-
gation); and its breadth of theoretical perspective
and empirical data. The dozen articles, written
in English, cover L2 French not only from differ-
ent theoretical views (e.g., functionalism, sociolin-
guistics, discourse analysis) but also from varied
approaches to the data (oral/written, grammar/
vocabulary/style, lexicon/discourse). The au-
thors use variedmethodologies, suchas case study,
interview, writtendocumentation, grammatical as-
sessments, and longitudinal treatments.
Although not indicated in the table of contents,
after Bartnings initial keynote, the chapters are
grouped into three sections, Advanced L2 Mor-
phosyntax, Lexis and Formulaic Sequences,
and Discourse and Pragmatics. Bartning, who
developed a rubric of stages of L2 development
along with Schlyter, outlines the prole of ad-
vanced learners according to grammar and dis-
course function mastery. Bartning distinguishes
A features (regular grammatical characteristics
that follow a progressive developmental trajec-
tory) from B features (irregular and idiosyncratic
items that need be memorized and are not sys-
tematic in development). She renes her earlier
formulations by relying on the extensive corpora
and research of recent years. She sets the bar for
NP, VP, and discourse development for the sub-
sequent articles that expand on her categories.
Another leitmotif she raises that traverses the vol-
ume is the comparison of advanced L2 learners
and native speakers.
The articles of the rst section on mor-
phosyntax treat verb morphology (Housen;
Kemps; Pierrard; and Housen, Kemps, and Pier-
rard), tense/aspect (Labeau; Howard), relative
clauses (Monville-Burston and Kakoyianni-Doa),
and nominalverbal number agreement (

Agren).
Housen et al. study the development of ver-
bal morphology (nitude and inection) and
tensemoodaspect by a group of rst language
(L1) Dutch adolescents as documented in their
oral narration of the frog story.

Agrens inves-
tigation looks at a group (Swedish L1) of ado-
lescents whose morphological accuracy in num-
ber marking in NP and VP is examined in
written texts. Howards article, which compares
the aspectual morphosyntax and vocabulary of
L1 English students before, during, and after
study abroad in France, is a ne complement to
Labeaus more theoretical discussion of aspect for
Anglophone learners. Finally, Monville-Burston
and Kakoyianni-Doa use Greek L1 participants
to examine nonstandard relative constructions
found both in native and L2 populations, not-
ing that the L2 deviance (about 15%) does not
necessarily result from nonstandard input but is
probably related to cross-linguistic tendencies for
relativization.
The two articles in the lexis section cover for-
mulaic sequences (Forsberg) and phraseologi-
cal units (Bolly), whereas the three articles in
the discourse section treat discourse complex-
ity (Klinger), style (Tyne), and ongoing narra-
tion using progressive (Leclercq). Forsberg does a
cross-sectional study (L1 Swedish) of formulaic se-
quences through data from structured interviews.
Bolly examines V + NP combinations with the
high-frequency verbs prendre to take and donner
to give in written corpora (FRIDA database of
Anglophone learners of French). Klinger looks
at three case studies (L1 Japanese) to compare
syntactic complexity in L1 and L2 French, tak-
ing into consideration discourse conditioning.
Tynes work likewise looks at discourse condition-
ing and its development longitudinally, as he con-
trasts rst- and fourth-year Anglophone students
in naturally elicited speech (formal presentation,
formal conversation, and informal conversation).
Finally, Leclercq explores simultaneity, the aspec-
tual information imparted by progressive in En-
glish and etre en train de to be in the process of
in French. Using an oral lm retelling narrative
with Anglophone learners, he explains how sev-
eral meansaspect, presentatives, and temporal
adverbialscontribute to the narrative structure
to convey contemporaneous actions. The second
and third sections complement the more syntactic
aspects of advanced L2 French with the inclusion
of lexical and pragmatic attributes of this level of
language.
One might quibble that there are too many
footnotes, but that is a minor criticism. Another
692 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
possible detraction is the fact that the volume
deals almost exclusively with instructed learners, a
potential limitation given the importance of nat-
uralistic input. Howards article provides an inter-
esting perspective on the role of target language
and culture immersion, but he is not the only
one to link instructed learning with naturalistic
input. Most of the articles address the opportuni-
ties for instructed learners to gain sociopragmatic
competence in tandem with morphosyntax. For
example, Tyne points out that advanced learners
differ from beginners in the same program not
only in terms of their grammatical and discourse
competence but also in their acquisition of differ-
ences in stylistic register from their frequent for-
ays into the target culture. Overall, the volume is
a positive contribution to L2 literature, to French
linguistics studies, and to the complementarity of
morphosyntax with discourse aspects of language.
It is clearly presented, well edited, and amply doc-
umented. The data furnished will undoubtedly be
useful to L2 scholars.
JULIA HERSCHENSOHN
University of Washington
GERMAN
SCHUELLER, JEANNE. Cinema for German Con-
versation. Newburyport, MA: Focus, 2009. Pp. xiv,
354. $46.95, paper. ISBN 9781585102808.
The explosion in the 1980s of lms in VCR and
VHS formats was a godsend to language teach-
ers. For a few years, to be sure, one was able to get
only the most popular contemporary lms, partic-
ularly the winners of international prizes. There
were the classics of Weimar cinema, as well, and
access to these lms became steadily easier. The
VHS has been largely replaced by the DVD, to the
dismay of many teachers who built sizable VHS
collections. However, the array of lms has mush-
roomed ever further, and mail delivery has facili-
tated access.
In 1991, the Goethe-Institut published Begeg-
nungen: Spiellmsequenzen als Sprechanla. A VHS
cassette and a 77-page workbook treated nine dif-
ferent feature lms but only with brief excerpts
(4 minutes on average). The accompanying ex-
ercises were rudimentary, but the workbook also
included transcripts of the dialogue in all excerpts
(three of the nine lms were 1920s silents), syn-
opses, and the basics of lm analysis.
In 2005, Focus Publishing brought out
German Culture through Film: An Introduction to
German Cinema (255 pages, by Reimer, Zachau,
and Sinka), all in English, with an Arbeitsbuch zu
German Culture through Film (275 pages, by Reimer
and Zachau) that contained carefully conceived
exercises in German for a well-known selection of
14 from the 31 lms in the basic text.
Starting in 2003, Focus Publishing also began
presenting a series of books starting with Cinema
for French Conversation (covering 20 lms, now
in its third edition). This was followed by Italian
(2005, treating 16 lms), Russian (2005, 2 vol-
umes, 14 lms), Spanish (now in its second edi-
tion, 18 lms), and Portuguese (2009, 14 lms).
Cinema for German Conversation joined them in
2009 (12 lms). The format is similar across
the series, with a comprehensive series of target-
language materials and exercises for each lm
(approximately 25 pages).
The 12 chapters treat the following lms (those
currently available through Netix are marked
with an asterisk):

Merry Christmas (Christian Car-
ion, 2005);

Rosenstrae (Margarethe von Trotta,
2003); Das Wunder von Bern (S onke Wortmann,
2003); Solino (Fatih Akin, 2002);

Das Leben der
Anderen (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck,
2006); Berlin is in Germany (Hannes St ohr, 2001);

Alles auf Zucker (Dani Levy, 2005); Am Ende kom-

men Touristen (Robert Thalheim, 2007);

Im Juli
(Fatih Akin, 2000);

Kebab Connection (Anno Saul,

2005); Die Blindg anger (BerndSahling, 2004); and

Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei (Hans Weingartner,

2004).
Schueller has chosenonly lms made withinthe
past decade, from 2000 to 2007. Some prospec-
tive users of the book may quarrel with her se-
lection, which features several lms with which
most American German teachers and students
probably will not be familiar. However, there are
also some lms that received considerable inter-
national and lm-festival attention.
The author apparently chose 12 lms so that
teachers might use 1 lm per week in a normal
college semester. However, it will be an ambi-
tious class that works its way through an entire
chapter each week, quite apart from the viewing
time for the lm. The activities are quite inventive
and should stimulate discussion. Moreover, each
chapter contains a substantial amount of read-
ing material in addition to conversation cues and
questions.
Should each lmbe shown in class? The math is
obvious: If the typical course has 150 minutes per
week and these lms average 108 minutes (the
range is 82 to 137 minutes), little time will be
Reviews 693
available for the conversation that the book and
the lms seek to stimulate. This reality makes the
idea of outside-of-class screenings or some modal-
ity entailing library viewing almost irresistible, but
the immediacy of the lm in the classroom is
sacriced.
The books title makes clear that these lms
are meant to emphasize a single prociency by
stimulating conversation in German. The mix of
content and form is crucial when one talks about
lms. As the adage goes, lms are hard to explain
because they are so easy to understand. Everyone
knows how to watch one. Most people are willing,
even eager, to judge the lms they watch. Access
to feature lms has never been easier. The con-
cept of this textbook is one whose time has come.
However, there is too much material in this sin-
gle book for a one-semester course. Happy is the
German program in the luxurious position of be-
ing able to offer a two-semester sequence.
One should probably also note that instructors
also have the option of using Borra and Mader-
Koltay, German through Film (Yale University Press,
2007), which presents eight lms covered in 15-
page chapters with a variety of language acquisi-
tion exercises.
RICHARD J. RUNDELL
New Mexico State University
TSCHIRNER, ERWIN, BRIGITTE NIKOLAI, &
TRACY D. TERRELL. Kontakte: A Communicative
Approach. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.
Pp. xxxvi, 433. $141.88, cloth. ISBN 978007
3355092. Testing Audio CD, free to adopters.
Workbook/Laboratory Manual , $61.56. Audio CD
program, $75.31.
The work reviewed here is the latest edition of
a popular German textbook (and accompanying
package), whose rst edition appeared in 1988.
The Kontakte instructional package contains the
textbook itself, an accompanying workbook, vari-
ous audio programs (e.g., for pronunciation and
listening comprehension), a DVD program called
Blickkontakte, a test bank, a picture le, and a
Web site with a number of resources for both stu-
dents and instructors (e.g., short quizzes on var-
ious grammatical and cultural topics and the in-
structors manual). Kontakte relies heavily on the
Natural Approach to second-language teaching
and learning developed by the late Tracy Terrell,
one of the authors of the book.
The books 14 chapters follow the same pat-
tern, dealing with Themen, Kulturelles, Lekt uren,
and Strukturen, in that order. Each chapter is pre-
ceded by a reproduction of a painting. The The-
men sections are divided into Situationen, contain-
ing communicative activities (partner activities,
interviews, etc.) designed to illustrate grammat-
ical points without explicit grammar instruction;
the notes in the instructors edition of the text
spell out the grammar points that correspondwith
the activities. The sections titled Kulturelles inter-
sperse cultural information (about the German
educational system, leisure activities, etc.)
throughout the chapters, and they include video
clips featuring German speakers discussing the
topics at hand. The Lekt uren present brief reading
selections, accompanied by prereading exercises
and exercises to be completed while and after
reading the text. Finally, grammar discussions and
exercises are given in the Strukturen und

Ubungen
sections at the ends of the individual chapters.
Many of the activities involve a recurring cast of
characters, consisting of both Americans learning
German and people living in various parts of the
German-speaking world.
A look at any chapter will give a more de-
tailed snapshot of the contents and structure of
the book. Chapter 7, Unterwegs, deals with travel
and travel-related issues, for instance. The chap-
ter is preceded by a picture of Albrecht Altdor-
fers 1522 painting Donaulandschaft mit Schloss
W orth, which is intended to serve as a spring-
board for practicing detailed descriptions of ob-
jects and for discussing geography. Four Themen
are coveredinthis chapter: geography, transporta-
tion, cars, and travel experiences, in that order.
Each of these topics is discussed via several exer-
cises; the section on Geograe, for instance, opens
with a picture illustrating geography-related vo-
cabulary (e.g., der Wald, das Gebirge), followed
by two geography-themed guessing games (Wer
weigewinnt and Ratespiel: Stadt, Land, Fluss),
a related activity in which students must locate
cities on a map of Germany, and an interview ac-
tivity about landscapes. Cultural issues discussed
in this chapter include drivers licenses in Ger-
many and vacations; the video sections look at
the use of bicycles in Germany and travel experi-
ences. The Lekt uren are Heines poemDie Lorelei
and a short detective story by Egger, in which
a motorcycle trip plays a pivotal role. The exer-
cises presented in these sections cover a variety
of topics. For instance, the prereading exercises
for the Heine poem ask students to write possi-
ble answers to a series of questions based on an
illustration of the poemfor example, Ist das eine
lustige oder eine traurige Geschichte? Woher wissen
Sie das?; two ll-in-the-blank exercises are given;
and the last exercise asks students to discuss
694 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
stories with a similar theme to Die Lorelei (for
this particular exercise, it might have been use-
ful to suggest a few possible texts for comparison,
e.g., The Odyssey, in case no parallel stories spring
to mind). As for grammar, the chapter covers rel-
ative pronouns, comparative and superlative, da
and wo compounds, the (present) perfect tense,
and the simple past tense of the verbs haben and
sein. These topics are introduced in the chapters
main text (e.g., the two geography-themed guess-
ing games introduce relative pronouns and the
superlative form of adjectives, respectively) and
are discussed more explicitly in the Strukturen
section.
According to the preface, changes made to this
edition of Kontakte include the following: Vocab-
ulary lists and cultural information and activities
have been updated; some of the older readings
and some of the illustrations have been replaced;
the neue Rechtschreibung is used throughout the
book; the video program Blickkontake has been
updated and converted from VHS to DVD; the
online learning center has been revised and ex-
panded (and has replaced the interactive CD
ROMavailable for earlier editions); and the pages
are nowlarger, which was intended to improve the
textbooks legibility.
Earlier editions of Kontakte have been justi-
ably praised, and the same generally positive
assessment applies to this edition. Grammatical
explanations are accurate and concise, and the
various activities engage students interest and do
a nice job of introducing grammatical topics in a
nonthreatening way. The textbook is visually ap-
pealing: The illustrations are colorful and the lay-
out is clean. The video program Blickkontakte is
also well done, and instructors have the option of
viewing it with German subtitles, thus enhancing
its usefulness for beginning students. (One does
have to keep an eye out for the occasional bit of re-
gional German in the video clipse.g., the use of
tun as an auxiliary by one intervieweeas sharp-
eyed students will notice and ask about it.) The
changes made to this edition are almost inevitably
for the better, although a few involve trade-offs
(e.g., the larger pages do indeed make the text-
book easier to read, but it is now more awkward
to use than the earlier editions with their smaller
pages). The package is very expensive, around
$200 for the textbook and workbook alone.
Reviews of earlier editions have criticized Kon-
takte on the grounds that grammatical discussions
are sometimes more diffuse than they should be
and that the order in which various grammatical
topics are introduced is not always clearly moti-
vated. For example, prepositions are introduced
by semantic eld, not by the case they assign, as
they tend to be in other textbooks (e.g., preposi-
tions of time are introduced before prepositions
of location). This decision creates some overlap
(e.g., zu and nach are introduced in chapter 6,
when talking about directions, but then discussed
again in chapter 10 when talking about places).
This issue has not changed in this edition; the au-
thors justify the structure of the textbook in the
Instructors Manual , where they point out that we
cannot expect our students to master a grammar
point the rst time it is introduced (p. 101). In
line with the philosophy of the Natural Approach,
the authors also argue that vocabulary is more
important than grammar, given that communica-
tion is possible without grammar (or without a
complete grasp of grammar) or with grammati-
cal errors, but it is impossible without vocabulary.
One of the reasons that Kontakte has attracted so
many instructors over the years is its emphasis on
vocabulary and communication. Kontakte entered
the rst-year German textbook market at a time
when most textbooks emphasized grammar learn-
ing over communicative skills, and so it played an
historical role. Most current textbooks strive to in-
tegrate grammar and communication; thus, this
textbooks grammar presentation may seem inad-
equate to some.
Ultimately, the decision to use this textbook
will hinge on ones theoretical orientation: Those
who subscribe to the Natural Approach in some
versions will be more open to it than those inter-
ested in a more traditional, four-skills approach.
Instructors who decide to use Kontakte in their
classes will nd it an appealing textbook with a
number of excellent qualities.
MARC PIERCE
University of Texas at Austin
IRISH
STENSON, NANCY. Basic Irish: A Grammar and
Workbook. New York: Routledge, 2008. Pp. ix, 246.
$34.95, paper. ISBN 041541041X.
Intermediate Irish: A Grammar and Workbook. New
York: Routledge, 2008. Pp. ix, 246. $37.95, paper.
ISBN 0415410428.
Stensons two Grammar and Workbook vol-
umes for Basic Irish and Intermediate Irish are
organized according to traditional pedagogical
practice, with chapter headings such as Nouns
and Articles, Verbal Adjectives and the Present
Perfect, Comparisons, and Dialect Variation.
Reviews 695
Each chapter contains exercises and the answer
key, an advantage over the typical placement of
answers at the end of books, resulting much page
ipping. As such, the books completely fulll the
stated goals. The books assume some basic knowl-
edge of grammar and of Irish itself; they are not
meant for people learning Irish ab initio.
The fact that Stenson uses the tables of contents
to pinpoint what she will cover in each chapter
will please grammar-oriented learners. This fea-
ture is not a foregone conclusion, at least among
Irish language textbooks. Many otherwise excel-
lent Irish textbooks have either no table of con-
tents, like N Ghr adas Progress in Irish (Educa-
tion Company of Ireland, ca. 1960) or have a ta-
ble of contents that simply lists features such as
Introduction, Lessons 136, Appendix, and
Vocabulary, such as

O Siadhails Learning Irish
(Yale University Press, 1980, 2006).
One feature in the marketing of Basic Irish is
a little ambiguous. It is described as a reference
grammar on the back cover but not in the ti-
tle. A reference grammar is not meant to be read
sequentially but rather to be consulted for spe-
cic points as the need arises. In fact, Stensons
books are written in a more narrative style, de-
scribing and illustrating the grammar rather than
summarizing it. They start with basic points, such
as spelling and word order, and proceed in or-
der of usefulness to learners, ending, in the sec-
ond volume, with sections on the subjunctive and
dialect variation. As such, they are pedagogical
grammars, more like a traditional grammar-based
textbook than a reference grammar. Additionally,
reference grammars are usually indexed, whereas
Stensons books are not. Even given the books
slant toward pedagogy rather than reference, it
would still be useful to have an index. Perhaps
one could be added online at some point.
One small disadvantage to the layout of the
book and, in fact, to the layout of many tradi-
tional grammar books is that the reader can get
lulled into a sense of having mastered the mate-
rial simply by seeing example after example. The
emphasis is on understanding and manipulating
the phrases going from Irish to English, but for
many people, the other direction (English or an-
other language to Irish) is far harder and eventu-
ally shows real mastery of the target language. It
is true that the abundant exercises provide much
opportunity for practice, but even there, most of
the work is Irish to English or Irish to Irish. It
would be helpful if the chapter content could give
readers more of an interactive workout, includ-
ing English to Irish, before students attempt the
exercises.
One way to get extra mileage from books like
these is to work in reverse, after completing the
text in the normal way or for sections that might
already be familiar. Using a simple low-tech tool
like an index card to cover up part of a page,
one can read the right-hand column of a two-
column section and work on predicting what the
left-hand column will contain. Students can also
read from bottom to top. This strategy will quiz
learners on what they have learned the rst time
around. In dealing with some of the intricacies
of Celtic grammar, though, it can be surprisingly
useful to use this technique. This extra practice is
especially advisable whenone considers howmany
changes from the root forms are required in Irish
for a seemingly simple phrase, like the old mans
good horses (capaill mhaithe an tseanfhir , from:
capall + maith + sean + fear ). Given that three of
the six changes are at the beginning of their re-
spective words, a counterintuitive phenomenon
for speakers of English and, in fact, most lan-
guages, extra practice is extra helpful.
Learners who have solid backgrounds in gram-
mar will probably nd it easier to transition to this
book from more conversationally oriented mate-
rial than students who have used only commu-
nicative materials. These days, the younger the
students, the less likely they have studied any tra-
ditional grammar in English as a rst language. To
be confronted with the notion that one phrase is
correct and that some other attempt at the phrase
is incorrect may be a jolt. Many of todays stu-
dents have been told both in their English and
their high school foreign language classes that
the most important thing is to express themselves.
This experience will likely be more intensive with
Irish than with some other languages, given that
so many learners nd the initial consonant muta-
tions (lenition and eclipsis) and the situations to
which they apply hard to remember.
Regarding grammatical terms, Stenson keeps
the text relatively jargon-free. She mentions in
the introduction the level of familiarity that
she expects with grammatical terminology (e.g.,
noun, verb, adjective, singular/plural, subject,
predicate, object). Grammar terms beyond
noun, verb, and adjective are increasingly
unfamiliar to students today, and words like
gerund or participle seem to set off alarms
in their minds.
Eventually realizing the value of grammar for
precision in communication, many students will
relish exactly what this book offers: an explana-
tion of rules and carefully thought-out exercises,
most of which leave little or no room for ambi-
guity. Of course, some learners will bring dialect
696 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
material into the mix and may have to make al-
lowances for the fact that the books mostly use
An Caighde an the Standard. As the author states,
the books are not meant to provide instruction ab
initio. Users are expected to bring some grammar
and vocabulary basics with them when they start
using Stensons series.
There was one very strange typo in English,
deteach, in Basic Irish (p. 23). Other than this
instance, the text is one of the most accurately
rendered IrishEnglish books I have seen in a
long timeno mean accomplishment in this era
of nonhuman proofreading.
At a practical level, I would note that two pages
of my copy of Basic Irish were not cut correctly
(pp. 203 and 209) and another (p. 214) had an
unreadable torn patch.
The Routledge series of Basic and Interme-
diate language grammars and workbooks pro-
vides solid reinforcement for learners who already
have some background in the target language.
As such, these volumes join Routledges other
books in the series, which ranges from Cantonese
to Welsh, and they also enhance its Celtic lan-
guage offerings, which include Breton and Scot-
tish Gaelic. Stenson is one of the few American
cainteoir lofa uent Irish speakers in academia.
She uses the Caighde an in these texts, but pos-
sesses an impressive blas Chonamara Connemara
accent.
ROSLYN BLYNLADREW
University of Pennsylvania, Penn Language Center
KOREAN
BYON, ANDREW SANGPIL. Basic Korean: A
Grammar and Workbook. New York: Routledge,
2008. Pp. viii, 246. $32.95, paper. ISBN 9780
415774871.
Comprised of an introduction to and exercises on
25 essential grammar points for beginners of Ko-
rean language study, this volume offers English
learners of Korean an affordable single-volume
supplement for understanding the linguistic
structures unique to Korean. Starting with a guide
to the Korean alphabet and basic sentence or-
der, the author covers such essential elements as
nouns, pronouns, numbers, particles, tense, reg-
ular and irregular verbs, adverbs and adjectives,
and the uniquely Korean sociolinguistics of hon-
orics and speech levels. Each unit includes the
topics of study, the explanatory narratives about
the topics, and several categories of exercises. The
Key to Exercises section at the end gives learners
the correct or standard answers to the questions
posed in the unit exercises. A short index of En-
glish grammatical headings nalizes the volume
for convenient reference.
The common yardstick for foreign language
and second-language uency is successful ac-
quisition and demonstration of the four lan-
guage skillslistening, speaking, reading, and
writing; however, it is solid understanding of
the grammar that gives structure and quality to
the real-life performance of these skills. This re-
cent guide to understanding Korean grammati-
cal structure aims to provide reference and re-
source for both beginners and students with some
knowledge of the language. Structurally, the book
meets the authors promises with cross-culturally
tailored pedagogical narratives, abundant ex-
ercises with answer keys, hang ul entries with
English translations for grammatical terms
wherever applicable, and examples geared to-
ward understanding Korean as context-oriented
language.
The challenge of writing a language textbook
does not stop with providing a favorable structure,
however. Execution of details and precision is the
next hurdle. Although Basic Korean largely deliv-
ers its promise to suit both classroom use and in-
dependent study, it leaves room for improvement
in the beginning units in particular. First, with-
out an audio recording of pronunciations of Ko-
rean vowels, consonants, and their combinations
to complement the written introduction, begin-
ners outside of the classroom setting could never
be sure how these sounds should be articulated.
Without a CD or cassette tape as a companion
tool, readers of Basic Korean must depend solely
on the comparable Roman alphabetical symbols
to fulll the critical task of imagining the basic
Korean sounds. In reality, some of the key Ko-
rean sounds inclusive of the vowels , , and or
the consonants , , and do not have equiva-
lents in English, and the comparables listed are
only partially accurate. Also problematic is the au-
thors nondifferentiation of and (pp. 1, 4, and
47). Contemporary Koreans largely fail in their
public and private language use to uphold the
classic distinction between the two phones, ob-
served until recently in classrooms and in the me-
dia. Sound values that have endured prehistoric
and historic distance should not be so easily dis-
carded due to trends of pop culture, at least not
in the language teaching eld.
This point leads to the discussion of the
critical role of people in language pedagogy:
when to lead and when to follow. What bal-
ance do we strike between linguistic heritage and
Reviews 697
popular trend? My recommendation is that the
Korean language pedagogy eld claim more lead-
ership in preservation and less in following cur-
rent trends.
Other suggestions for improvement include the
following of a more systematic practice of con-
sonant and vowel conjugation in unit 1 before
the exercises for identication and the revision
of some pedagogical narratives to improve clarity
and avoid misinformation. For example, in de-
scribing Korean as a context-oriented language,
the author explains that the further the word
is from the end of the sentence, the less impor-
tant the element is and more likely it is to be
dropped (p. 10). If the authors intention is to
teach an important aspect of Korean language
the tendency to drop contextually obvious infor-
mation from discoursethen compounding this
statement with a distalproximal hierarchy of in-
formation may be misleading. With the exam-
ple of learners may conclude that
is dropped because it is contextually obvious,
but they may also assume incorrectly that is
less important than (p. 10). The spo-
radic division of Sino-Korean and Native Ko-
rean may overwhelm beginners, who with only
a rudimentary grasp of Korean do not yet pos-
sess the linguistic sensitivity to understand this
division. In distinguishing Sino-Korean and Na-
tive Korean varieties, we need to be circumspect,
as there are numerous words that have been hy-
bridized in Korean everyday use. For example,
in (p. 17) could be of , and therefore
Sino-Korean. In the exposition about the special
particle , more reservation in distinguishing
between correct and incorrect use would be pru-
dent. For example, is not nec-
essarily wrong, as it can form the argument there
are some restaurants with decent food, especially
if the listener is claiming a negative opinion of
most restaurants (p. 50). The book picks up ow
and quality in the discussions of honorics, pro-
nouns, sociolinguistic variations, and methods of
address. Basic Korean as a whole is a welcome addi-
tion to the existing resources in Korean language
pedagogy.
CHAN E. PARK
The Ohio State University
LATIN
NEUMANN, JEANNE MARIE. Lingua Latina: A
College Companion based on Hans rbergs Latine
Disco, with Vocabulary and Grammar . Newbury-
port, MA: Focus Publishing, 2008. Pp. xxiii, 323.
$24.95, paper. ISBN 9781585101917.
This volume, which accompanies rbergs Lingua
Latina, part 1, Familia Romana, is a highly worth-
while undertaking. As the title intimates, its goal is
to enable students at the college level, where cur-
ricular constraints do not allow for the leisure of
a purely inductive mode of learning, to approach
the language through rbergs delightful Latin
narratives that span Roman culture from every-
day life to myth and literature. Each chapter cor-
responds to a chapter in rberg and contains, in
English, a helpful anticipation of the Latin read-
ing, explanations of all new grammar (with gen-
erous examples) and a vocabulary of new lexical
items that in effect provides a running vocabulary
for the reading, obviating tedious page-turning in
a comprehensive vocabulary. (A vocabulary cov-
ering all readings does appear at the end of the
volume.)
It is precisely because such a resource would be
so valuable that Neumanns Companion is so disap-
pointing, indeed, exasperating, for the extremely
careless proofreading throughout. Such inatten-
tion has resulted in inconsistent and confusing
presentation of grammar, numerous inaccuracies,
and a multitude of other errors.
Two areas of pervasive inconsistency in presen-
tation may have derived from the fact that Lingua
Latina is a companion volume and so must accord
with rbergs text, even where rberg diverges
from conventional usage. One of the inconsis-
tencies lies in rbergs precedented but uncon-
ventional practice of using a separate feminine
form for the interrogative pronoun (so, Quis?
Quae? Quid?) rather than letting Quis? serve for
both masculine and feminine. Neumann alerts
students that when you read ancient authors you
will usually nd quis used for both masculine
and feminine (p. 48). However, by that point,
inconsistency has already been compounded by
inaccuracy. The interrogative pronoun is given as
quis? quae? quid? on page 9 but as quis? quae?
quod? on page 18. Quis? Quid? appears in a Recen-
sio on page 43, but the interrogative pronoun is
again quis, quae, quid on page 46? The pronoun
quisque is said to be declined like the interroga-
tive pronoun with the addition of que (p. 120)
when the forms given (quique, quaeque, quodque)
derive from the interrogative adjective and are in-
consistent with the section heading.
Confusing inconsistencythough not gram-
matical inaccuracyalso occurs in the forms in
698 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
which the principal parts of verbs are given, and
this situation, too, may derive from rbergs un-
conventional practice. Instead of the four prin-
cipal parts standard for active verbs in Latin
grammars and lexica (e.g., voco, vocare, vocavi,
vocatum), rberg gives threethe present and
perfect active innitives and the neuter perfect
passive participle/supine (e.g., vocare, vocavisse,
vocatum); instead of the three principal parts con-
ventional for deponent verbs (e.g., conteor , con-
teri, confessus sum), rberg gives only twothe
present and perfect innitives (e.g., conteri, con-
fessum esse). Once students have sufciently pro-
gressed to require all principal parts, Neumann
states that inher book, four principal parts will be
listed: rst person singular present indicative ac-
tive [which she encloses in parentheses], present
innitive active, perfect innitive active, perfect
innitive active [sic; this is one example of careless
proongpassive is meant here], but the per-
fect innitive passive [here correct] will be listed
without esse (p. 153). Why is the nal entry called
an innitive when, without esse, it is merely the
perfect passive participle? In any case, active verbs
are to be expected in the format (dico), dicere,
dixisse, dictum, deponents in the format (loquor ),
loqui, locutum esse. However, these announced
patterns are not consistently maintained in the
chapter vocabularies. To take but a few examples:
esse given with the perfect participles of both ac-
tive and deponent verbs (pp. 180f); esse omitted
for both deponents and active verbs (pp. 187f);
rst person singular perfect (e.g., admiratus
sum) instead of innitive for some deponents
(pp. 204f); masculine instead of neuter perfect
passive participles for some active verbs (p. 220).
No distinctions of meaning account for these
variations.
Other confusion is simply a consequence of
inadequate proofreading. The sentence The
possessive adjective eius serves to replace the geni-
tive (p. 22) is hopelessly muddled; it should read,
The genitive eius of the personal pronoun serves
to replace the possessive adjective for all three
genders. The particle num is rst identied as
introducing a question expecting the answer no
(p. 4), but the meanings given in the chapter vo-
cabulary (if, whether, p. 6) pertain to num intro-
ducing anindirect questionto whichthe nature of
the answer is not anticipated; on page 208 this lat-
ter use of num is illustrated but not explained. On
page 201, num in a direct question is translated as
though it were nam for.
There is a surprising anomaly in the presen-
tation of some verb forms. In a Nota Bene, Neu-
mann offers the helpful advice that the perfect
subjunctive looks like the future perfect indicative
except for the 1st personsingular (p. 230), forgiv-
ably ignoring the quantity of some syllables in the
perfect subjunctive. However, in explaining the
formation of the imperfect and pluperfect sub-
junctives (pp. 199 and 239), Neumann does not
offer the almost universal mnemonic that these
are simply the present and perfect innitives with
personal endings added. Further, Neumanns for-
mulation (inserting re or ere between present
stem and personal endings for imperfect, isse
for pluperfect) does not account for the imper-
fect subjunctives of sum (p. 200) or of volo, nolo,
and malo, the latter nonetheless described as per-
fectly regular (p. 237).
Intermittent factual errors add confusion. Neu-
mann states that in indirect discourse the perfect
innitive represents anactionhappening after the
main verb (p. 145; rather than action before, cor-
rect on p. 155). The future passive participle does
not end in tus, ta, tum (p. 163). In conditional
sentences, imperfect and pluperfect subjunctives
express conclusions as well as conditions unful-
lled (p. 240). In the example of a present un-
real condition (p. 241), the second verb should
be the imperfect subjunctive audires rather than
the pluperfect audivisses. The Optative and In-
direct Questions are not introduced by ut, as is
suggested by the heading on page 242 (and not
all examples under Some Subjunctive Signals
are subjunctive). Finally, it is not the case that all
syllables other than those ending in a short vowel
are long; a statement disproved by an example
immediately following (p. 247).
Formatting errors abound. In perhaps the
worst, the perfect passive personal endings intro-
duce the summary of the perfect active (p. 146).
Spelling errors are frequent. Enclitic is said to
be derived from rather than from
(p. 9). Diphthong, otherwise correctly spelled
(pp. xvii, xix, 247, and 305), becomes dipthong
in both Latin and English (p. 250). Aghast,
ereptum, and queror are all misspelled (p. 213),
as are boldness and condicionis (p. 234). (On
the latter page, remigro is meant for move back;
remigo means row.)
Unfortunately, these examples could be multi-
plied. It is regrettable that a volume that would be
so useful cannot be recommended in its present
form. Whatever the merits of a grammar text oth-
erwise, if an instructor must constantly apologize
for and correct its errors, students lose faith in
both the text and the instructor who selected it
in the rst place. Can one hope for an error-free
second edition?
HELEN E. MORITZ
Santa Clara University
Reviews 699
RESEARCH METHODS
RASINGER, SEBASTIAN M. Quantitative Research
in Linguistics: An Introduction. New York: Contin-
uum, 2008. Pp. viii, 230. $39.95, paper. ISBN 978
0826496034.
This introductory text to quantitative research in
the area of linguistics is designed as a primer
aimed at students and researchers in languages
and linguistics who have a minimum of prior
knowledge in the eld. It is written as a guidebook
leading the readers through the process of setting
up a quantitative research study from beginning
to end while providing themwith practical advice,
ranging from setting up the database in an Excel
le to providing an overview of tools for analysis
of data.
The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 con-
sists of four chapters that provide an introduction
to basic quantitative research concepts and ter-
minology, describe how to identify and shape an
inquiry question, describe how to develop a
methodology and research design and conduct
sampling, and describe how to design a question-
naire and code it. Part 2 consists of ve chap-
ters that review data analysis and hypothesis test-
ing and provide an overview of statistical tools for
analysis of data. Chapter 10 (Appendices and So-
lutions) provides a quick guide to Excel func-
tions, a series of important charts and statistical
tools for analysis of data, and all solutions to tasks
and exercises presented in the chapters. The in-
tent of the author was to allow readers to be able
to perform simple but thorough analyses of any
data set, using Microsoft Excel or a similar soft-
ware (p. 5). The chapters are interspersed with
tasks shaded in gray that readers can performwith
their owndata topractice the principles presented
in the text. An especially effective feature within
these shaded areas is a set of reective questions
that encourage the reader to think analytically
about the statistical procedures and results.
Integrated into each chapter are numerous ex-
amples from studies in language education and
linguistics that provide a rich context for this
introduction to quantitative research. This text
is especially useful and relevant for undergradu-
ate and graduate students in language education
and linguistics who typically take generic quan-
titative courses devoid of any reference to their
particular content area. The authors language is
lucid, clear, and coherent, which allows readers
to follow the content with ease and to carry out
the functions described in the narrative. Unlike
most quantitative research books, this text is user
friendly andis supplementedwithmultiple charts,
tables, and visuals to support and enhance un-
derstanding of the concepts, formulas, and algo-
rithms. Each chapter builds on the next in a struc-
tured fashion that scaffolds the research experi-
ence step by step so that readers can try each step
out as instructed in the shaded boxes within the
chapters.
An especially effective and attractive feature of
this text is that all data and examples are drawn
from research studies in linguistics, which allows
readers to learn about the research in linguis-
tics while learning how to conduct research. This
book lends itself well for use in an introductory
course in research methodology in language edu-
cation and linguistics. It can be used both as a text
for a class or independently by an individual who
seeks to gain a solid background and introduc-
tion in quantitative research. Each chapter con-
tains an outline and keywords at its onset to pro-
vide a quick overviewof the content. For example,
chapter 4 (Questionnaire Design and Coding)
is divided into 10 subheadings (e.g., 4.5 Pilot-
ing, 4.6 Layout, 4.7 Number and Sequence
of Questions) that readers can use to determine
which sections they need to read or study within
the chapter. The chapter narrative is numbered to
correlate with these 10 subheadings, respectively,
allowing the text to be used as a resource in ad-
dition to serving as an introduction to the topic
itself.
As the author points out in the introduction,
many studies in sociolinguistics and psycholin-
guistics are based onquantitative data and analysis
and if we want to fully understand these studies
we need to have at least some idea what those
terms, indices, gures and graphs mean (p. 3).
Although comprehensive books devoted to quan-
titative research exist in the eld of linguistics,
they are typically too complex for those seeking
to read and understand quantitative research ar-
ticles or to make their project methodologically
sound. This book is highly recommended for indi-
viduals who are easily intimidated by numbers and
simple statistical analyses. The authors approach
allows readers to understand the basic concepts in
quantitative research and become adept in basic
statistical procedures for use in the areas of lin-
guistics and language education. His step-by-step
manual-like approach optimizes success for learn-
ers who seek to learn independently and is equally
useful for an introductory course for students of
linguistics seeking an introduction to quantitative
research.
700 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
The unique strengths of this book lie in its
readability, the opportunity to practice what is de-
scribed through a series of structured tasks, and
its organization into coherent chapters that are
in logical relationship to each other. The author
has provided a great service to those among us
who shy away from quantitative research due to a
fear of numbers and statistics. This book reads like
a narrative text encouraging and motivating the
readers to continue reading in order to discover
principles and skills that lie at the heart of quanti-
tative research tied to their chosen discipline.
ALEIDINE J. MOELLER
University of NebraskaLincoln
WEI, LI, & MELISSA MOYER. (Eds.). The Black-
well Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and
Multilingualism. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell,
2008. Pp. vii, 403. $49.95, paper. ISBN 9781
405179003.
The editors of this volume wish to provide ad-
vanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and new
researchers in the elds of bilingualism and mul-
tilingualism with a handbook on the perspec-
tives, methodologies, procedures, and tools for
their investigations, and they have succeeded in
doing so in a way that fosters interdisciplinar-
ity and respects the complexity of the subject
matter. No fewer than two dozen seasoned and
emerging researchers from Europe, the United
States, Canada, and Asia describe a spectrum of
approaches in the study of bilingualism, rang-
ing from various aspects of data collection, to
the role of contemporary technology, to hybrid
methods of analysis. Although not entirely free
of the redundancies and discontinuities typical of
the genre, the present manual displays a delib-
erate cohesiveness in the standardized format of
the articles and in the cross-references to pieces
throughout the tome. Divided into three parts,
the two introductory and three closing chapters
by the editors frame the 17 chapters on Proce-
dures, Methods, and Tools in part 2. The section
summaries within each chapter assist readers in
assimilating vast amounts of detail and thus en-
hance the user-friendliness of the volume.
Weis opening Research Perspectives on Bilin-
gualism and Multilingualism gives a rundown
of the main research questions on bilingualism
dating back to the 19th century and empha-
sizes developments in the eld during the last
few decades. In this context, the linguistic, psy-
cholinguistic, and sociolinguistic perspectives are
established as the three main elds of inquiry
that incorporate other subsidiary models. Under-
lining the broad scope of the subject, Wei em-
braces transdisciplinary (p. 15) methods while
recognizing the challenges that funding, jargon,
and originality (or lack thereof) pose to such re-
search. Furthermore, aware that not all research
questions are value-free, he warns of the possi-
ble misunderstanding and even discounting of
methodologically impeccable studies within an
ideological framework. Indeed, Moyers practical
follow-up piece on how to embark on a project
prompts researchers to continually link research
questions, theory, methods, and data, as she fur-
ther denes the conventions pertaining to the
three approaches outlined by Wei; her cues to
scrutinize the afnity between the research ques-
tionand project design, the ethical considerations
vis-` a-vis participants, the interpretation of data,
and the presentation of results serve as under-
lying threads throughout the volume and as re-
minders of the broader implications in studying
bilingualism.
Although they reect Wei and Moyers three
main rubricslinguistic, psycholinguistic, and so-
ciolinguistic perspectivesthe chapters in part 2
are not categorized, so the comments that fol-
low sometimes conate related topics in the in-
terest of conciseness. The rst few chapters in
part 2 address practical concerns in identifying
types and sources of data, selecting individu-
als or groups to study, and establishing a suit-
able project design. Data can be obtained from
surveys, questionnaires or personal observations,
from spontaneous conversations or elicited re-
sponses, from individuals or groups according to
geographic, gender, age, or economic considera-
tions, and fromwritten sources; linguistic samples
can be examined through cross-sectional, longitu-
dinal, or case studies; and the analysis may focus
on the lexical, syntactic, phonological, or mor-
phological level. In a more scientic vein, Kroll,
Gerfen, and Dussias demonstrate how the recog-
nition of words, sounds, and sentences can be ex-
plored through visuallexical decision tasks, eye
tracking, and other techniques. Abutalebi and
Della Rosas piece on current imaging technolo-
gies, such as EEG, PET scans, and fMRI, that allow
glimpses at the neural architecture of the bilin-
gual brain includes guidelines on how to build
such experiments, model experiments, and charts
comparing the utility of each neural imaging tech-
nique. Also timely are the chapters on computer-
assisted tools for data gathering and analysis.
Reviews 701
Regarding audio and video recordings, Clemente
highlights the distinct advantages of digital tech-
nologies in terms of quality and security while
providing a thorough checklist of considerations,
from recording to transcribing, in every eventu-
ality; the Turrell and Moyer chapter immediately
following expands on methods of transcription.
Data banks, corpora, quantication, and statistics,
de rigueur in any handbook on linguistics, round
out the attention devoted to data analysis in this
section.
The remaining chapters in part 2 deal with soci-
olinguistic topics. Cod os item on interviews and
questionnaires and Hellers on ethnography high-
light the contextual and interpersonal dynamics
at play during the research process. Likewise, Xu,
Wang, and Wei caution against searching for an
independent entity of social structure rather than
discerning the string of social relationships in-
volved; thus, the social networking analysis they
propose compares how the degree of integration
in a social group impacts members linguistic be-
havior. The chapters on conversation, critical dis-
course, and narrative analysis further elaborate
on the linguistic considerations of language in ac-
tion within social settings. Matters of power rela-
tions inevitably surface in these discussions, most
particularly in Purviss nal Media Analysis,
by accentuating the textual, cultural, political
economic, and social alliances that shape rep-
resentations of inclusivity in the mass media yet
silence multilingualism. These chapters put into
relief Weis skepticism of value-free research and
exemplify forms and functions of disciplinary
cross-pollination.
Part 3 consists of three brief but useful chap-
ters detailing possible project ideas, informa-
tion on disseminating the results of original re-
search, and resources that support explorations
on bilingualism. The chapter on project ideas is
particularly benecial to novice investigators in
bilingualism, as the editors pick four overar-
ching themeschange, migration, conict, and
childrenand list pertinent research questions of
a linguistic, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, edu-
cational, and interdisciplinary bent for each of
them, suggesting methods and tools of inquiry
along the way. An asset as well as a shortcoming of
this volume, given that it never takes for granted
the readers expertise or initiative, the other two
chapters list journals, Web sites, book series, con-
ferences, research tools, and tips on conference
presentations and publishing that are apt to be
familiar even to beginners, but the work in its en-
tirety is nonetheless a reassuring companion to
both newcomers to bilingualism research and to
veterans venturing into more up-to-date subdo-
mains.
ALICIA RAMOS
Hunter College, CUNY
SPANISH
BARCEL

O, BRENDA. Nuestras culturas: An Inter-
mediate Course in Spanish. Boston: Heinle Cen-
gage, 2009. Pp. xiii, 256, A-11, I-4, IAE-17. $84.49,
paper. ISBN 061857459X. DVD, ISBN 0618
574654; free to adopters.
NAVARRO, MARTA, & BRENDA BARCEL

O.
Nuestras culturas. Student Activities Manual .
Boston: Heinle Cengage, 2009. Pp. 120. $53.99.
ISBN 0618574611. Audio CDROM, $28.99.
ISBN 0547004117.
Designed for the intermediate level, Nuestras cul-
turas blends culture and language to provide
engaging activities that will promote student in-
teraction. Its objective is to expand vocabulary
and cultural awareness beyond rst-year language
study by presenting in part 1 eight cultural themes
that are intrinsic to Hispanic cultures, each pre-
sented in its own lesson. Part 2 contains a reviewof
problematic grammatical structures. The text at-
tempts to bridge the gap between what intermedi-
ate students learninthe classroomabout Hispanic
cultures and what they may encounter in study or
travel abroad. The text interweaves the national
foreign language standards of communication,
culture, comparisons, communities, and connec-
tions with particular attention to the three Ps
of culture: products, practices, and perspectives.
Student interaction is built through the inter-
pretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes
of communication. The text is nearly entirely in
Spanish, making minimal and judicious use of En-
glish only for occasional translations.
The cultural themes bring to the fore topics
that other texts often address with a nod, such
as interpersonal relations, personal space, inter-
generational relations, possible historical expla-
nations for reserved attitudes, gestures, and hos-
pitality. The usual topics, dating and schedules,
also have a dedicated lesson. There are ve well-
orchestrated sections in each lesson: Entrando en
materia, Los refranes y el arte, Los cuentos y sus au-
tores, Un poco de gram atica, and Nuestras culturas.
Students are guided from interpreting language
as they might encounter it in the Hispanic world;
to grasping explanations of vocabulary, grammar,
702 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
and culture and practicing language in interper-
sonal or presentational communication; to reso-
lution of a conict that might arise as they study or
travel abroad. The lesson opener is a photograph
that portrays the cultural theme, asking students
to interpret the photo, asking Qu e dice la foto?
Student-centered objectives for the lesson also ap-
pear at this point, followed by a brief Vocabulario
esencial section and an explanation of the cultural
theme. Three or four contextualized activities in
this section are designed to elicit students view-
points on the theme using the new vocabulary in
pair, group, or individual practice. The Los refranes
y el arte section provides additional context for
the theme, organized around a Spanish proverb
or expression, photos of art or cartoons that ex-
emplify the theme, and presentation of additional
vocabulary needed to talk about the theme. The
author offers new words, cognates, and contrasts
between words and concepts that appear similar
inEnglishandSpanish, including more thantime-
worn false cognates. Containing 1215 contextu-
alized exercises, the section logically and effec-
tively uses proverbs and art to guide students from
interpretive to interpersonal use of language re-
lated to the theme. Here students build sociolin-
guistic andsociocultural competence as they learn
how to talk about the elderly or indigenous peo-
ple, for instance, with respect and understanding.
The section Los cuentos y sus autores employs pho-
tos and illustrative charts to present an authentic
text by a Hispanic author, divided into sections
for ease of discussion. Comprehension and ex-
tension activities maintain a student-centered fo-
cus on meaning and discussion rather than on
detailed discrete points contained in the reading.
The grammar section, Un poco de gram atica, be-
gins with an image that relates the theme topic
to the students personal lives. The grammatical
concepts contained in the authentic readings are
presented in succinct and simple terms, provid-
ing the framework upon which students can build
interpersonal communication. Throughout these
sections, the cultural theme is reinforced by draw-
ing students attention to the products, practices,
andperspectives of Hispanic cultures. The last sec-
tion, Nuestras culturas, vicariously puts students
into situations their peers have encountered in
travel or study abroad. After viewing and listen-
ing to episodes found on the DVD or the Web
site, students are asked to resolve a conict us-
ing oral and written interpersonal and presen-
tational communication for debates, skits, and
email messages. Students are guided to conduct
investigations to nd factual information to ex-
pand their understanding of the conict. This sec-
tion provides a culminating language-use experi-
ence for students, thus enabling them to success-
fully manage their encounters in study or travel
abroad.
Unlike ancillaries for other texts, the accom-
panying DVD does not simply provide a visual of
content covered in the text but rather contains
a dramatic representation of ve friends from
different cultural backgrounds who attempt to
overcome misunderstandings caused by these dif-
ferences. The narrator is engagedas a sixthfriend,
who also asks student users of the DVD to give the
characters assistance and advice in resolving their
conicts, thus providing a rich source for class-
room presentational communication and discus-
sion. These episodes, althoughstaged, are realistic
and even a little edgy at times, but they are always
anchored in the cultural base of the characters.
The Student Activities Manual that accompanies
the text maintains the communicative approach,
closely connected with the text in theme, con-
tent, and form. A highlight of the manual are
actual interviews with Hispanic peers, who talk
about issues raised in the text, such as generos-
ity or lack of condence. The interviews provide
an interesting stimulus for listening and speaking
practice and class discussion. Additional practice
and grammar quizzes on the Web site are indi-
cated with icons. Resources on the Web site for
students as well as instructors support the text in-
teractively in context-rich ways that are both fun
and sophisticated.
Overall, the text uses meaningful input and
structured output to create an engaging and
student-centered learning environment that re-
volves around culturally signicant themes. In
addition to the thematic organization, other
salient features include its authentic reading
selections and straightforward Standards for For-
eign Language Learning so that instructors who
are not familiar with the standards will neverthe-
less nd the text useful. At rst glance, poten-
tial adopters may believe that the book is too
brief to bridge effectively language and culture
for intermediate-level language learners. How-
ever, the author effectively accomplishes this goal
in ways that maintain student interest and engage-
ment. Perhaps most thrilling for instructors will
be the language their students will produce as a
result of participating in the thought-provoking
communicative activities offered in the book.
JUDITH L. SHRUM
Virginia Tech
ERICGENE SHREWSBURY
Patrick Henry Community College
Reviews 703
CHASE, ROBERT O., & CLARISA MEDINA DE
CHASE. An Introduction to Spanish for Health Care
Workers: Communication and Culture. 3rd ed. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009. Pp. x, 361.
$55.00, paper. ISBN 9780300124262.
This is not a phrase book or a translator
(p. xxvii) but rather a course with a guided learn-
by-doing approach aimed at facilitating better
communication between health care providers
and their Spanish-speaking patients. It is designed
for students with no previous contact with the
Spanish language who are in direct contact with
Spanish-speaking patients. The third edition of
this 11-chapter textbook comes with a comple-
mentary DVD with 24 brief video clips (with op-
tional subtitles in Spanish) and a companion Web
site (http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/chase/
indexchase.htm).
What makes this book stand out is the fact that
the authors are themselves medical interpreters
and the book has been tested in classrooms. The
third edition, in particular, has responded to sug-
gestions from instructors by adding several gram-
matical items, such as the imperfect and com-
mands, and an increased number of improvised
oral exercises.
An Introduction to Spanish for Health Care Work-
ers consistently adheres to the principles of com-
municative language teaching, which focus on
the functional language and its appropriate use
in context. Accordingly, the course follows a
functional structure, with each unit, in turn, di-
vided into specic communication goals. These
progress from basic (e.g., greeting a patient, ask-
ing for location) to more complex goals (e.g.,
teaching sessions for patients). Topics include in-
juries, pharmacotherapy, diet and nutrition, tests
and procedures, diagnoses, and specialized topics
such as hospitalizations, dentistry, mental health,
palliative care, maternity, and the promotion of
safer sex (p. xxvii). The choice of topics is excel-
lent, and the cultural notes show a particular sen-
sitivity toward the Latino population. The book
offers insights into how Latino patients may feel
and think about different health care issues, and it
gives helpful suggestions on how to address effec-
tively possible cultural misunderstandings. One
cultural note, for example, explains the crucial
importance of building trust with Latino patients
to achieve their compliance with a prescribed
treatment (pp. 151152). Avoiding stereotypes at
all times, the text emphasizes the diversity of the
Latino population.
One of the greatest challenges of this kind
of course is the heavy lexical load that students
are expected to learn. Throughout the book
there are several SpanishEnglish vocabulary lists
(some rather long) given in context, which some-
times include diagrams (e.g., internal organs
and glands). The two excellent glossaries (En-
glish/Spanish and Spanish/English) in the ap-
pendix will surely be a very helpful tool for
both learners and instructors, who can quickly ac-
cess the entire lexicon. Aware of the vocabulary
challenge, the authors offer several mnemonic
strategies to make those lists manageable, such
as semantic maps and kinesthetic cues. These
mnemonic strategies are suggested whenever the
context makes the vocabulary load heavier (e.g.,
body parts). Although students are frequently en-
couraged to use mnemonic strategies, the authors
do not offer many activities based on them.
It is clear that the authors support the notion
that learners master grammar points by applying
them in communicative tasks. Accordingly, gram-
mar structures, which include the present tense,
the three past tenses, and the informal and formal
commands, are introduced according to commu-
nicative need. Some items, however, may benet
by being introduced earlier in the course (e.g.,
the construction of questions in Spanish). Addi-
tionally, some difcult items may require more
detailed explanation (e.g., stem-changing verbs
are casually explained in a small footnote in
the last chapter). As a reference, the index in-
cludes a list of some irregular and stem-changing
verbs conjugated inthe moods and tenses studied.
Instructors may want to create additional written
grammar exercises based on the dialogues in the
DVD to help visual learners improve accuracy in
verb morphology.
According to the preface, students are com-
pelled to practice orally from the beginning.
The authors offer four types of activities that pro-
gressively merge conversation and health care vo-
cabulary in various medical contexts: (a) directed
mechanical activities (Ejercicio) to clarify grammar
instruction and promote accuracy; (b) commu-
nicative activities (Actividad), which require stu-
dents tocomplete medical tasks inpairs or insmall
groups; (c) improvisation exercises (Drama impre-
visto), in which students are asked to go beyond
their comfort zones, take risks, and monitor their
speechsometimes these role-plays are set up so
that students must add personal or invented in-
formation or devise communicative strategies to
deal with difcult emotional reactions from their
patients; and (d) recycling activities (Reciclaje)
to consolidate learning by combining newly and
704 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
previously learned materials. Occasionally, these
activities are based on realia, like medical forms
and advertisements. Sometimes the activities of
Ejercicio and Actividad are similar, and doing them
one after the other nonstop may be unnecessarily
repetitious.
There are written exercises that students can
correct by themselves using the helpful answer
key at the back of the book. However, these ex-
ercises are scarce, so instructors may wish to add
some as follow-up activities, particularly in a col-
lege course. Inadditiontothese four activity types,
there are short readings followed by comprehen-
sion questions.
The two new elements in this edition are use-
ful but still need further development. The video
clips effectively show native Spanish speakers us-
ing all of the previously learned structures and
vocabulary. Students can read the script, which is
followed by a comprehension exercise. In addi-
tion, the companion Web site is easy to navigate.
Althoughit provides only basic tips tolearners and
suggests a few follow-up activities for instructors,
through it students can download soundtracks
from the DVD and listen to them independently.
The links provided include a wide range of re-
liable sources that can be useful in creating new
materials for the course. Students are able toemail
the results of the Learning Check quizzes to their
instructors. Unfortunately, the quizzes are some-
what disappointing because they are short and
include only multiple-choice items. All in all, how-
ever, it is the best textbook of Spanish for health
care that I have seen.
PILAR MARC

E
University of Iowa
LEMOND, MALIA, CYNTHIA BARLOW, &
SHARON FOERSTER. Pasaporte: Spanish for Ad-
vanced Beginners. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.
Pp. xv, 211. $86.25, paper. ISBN 978007
3513188.
FOERSTER, SHARON, & JEAN MILLER. Gram-
mar Exercises and Speaking Activities. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2009. Pp. vii, 209. free to adopters.
Online Learning Center, free to adopters. CD
ROM, $17.50. ISBN 9780073285474.
The Pasaporte textbook program is designed
to address an instructional challenge present in
many Spanish language programs: instructing
Spanish students who are too advanced for a be-
ginning Spanish course but who are not suf-
ciently prepared to enter second-year Spanish.
The Pasaporte program includes a student text-
book, access to an online learning center, an au-
dio program, supplementary materials including
grammar exercises and speaking activities, and
a CD with songs from various Spanish-speaking
regions. The content of the text and supple-
mentary materials is arranged around the theme
of a global opportunities fair, in which students
are presented with travel opportunities to sev-
eral Spanish-speaking countries for different pur-
poses. In addition to the focus on global oppor-
tunities in the Spanish-speaking world, the text
aims to build students skills with regard to seven
communicative functions (describe, compare, re-
act and make recommendations, narrate in the
past, talk about ones likes, talk about the future,
and recognize hypotheses) and to include activi-
ties that address each of the National Standards
for Foreign Language Learning.
The chapters open with an introduction that
orients students to a particular Spanish-speaking
country by activating students prior knowledge
and by introducing basic cultural and geographic
information, such as the fact that Seville is the
capital of Andalusia, Spain and is famous for
amenco. Each chapter provides two vocabu-
lary sections in which vocabulary is presented
through colored line drawings that consistently
represent aspects of the global opportunity or
country in focus. Additional vocabulary is pre-
sented in thematically organized lists with English
translations. Vocabulary comprehensionopportu-
nities are provided through listening activities as
well as through activities in which students are
asked to respond to statements that are mean-
ingful in the context of the line drawings. Vocab-
ulary production opportunities are provided by
responding to statements or informationsupplied
by the text. Both comprehension and production
activities are set in the context of the text itself,
although for a few of the production activities,
students are also asked to share personal infor-
mation, such as information on courses they are
taking.
In each chapter, students are rst exposed
to grammar through a short reading passage,
which is followed by comprehension questions.
Next, a grammatical explanation is provided, fol-
lowed by what are primarily production exer-
cises. Cloze activities and other ll-in-the-blank
exercises focused on a particular grammatical
form are common throughout the grammar sec-
tions. The exercises tend to move from those
Reviews 705
requiring a word or phrase to those requir-
ing a sentence response. Given the considerable
amount of research that has shown the effective-
ness of input-based grammatical exercises, which
require learners to process aspects of grammar
in the input so that formmeaning connections
are made, it is surprising that the authors chose
to include only production exercises. As for the
exercises that are included, although most are
meaningful in the context of the themes of the
text, few are set up so that students use the gram-
mar to communicate unknown or personal infor-
mation. In other words, the majority of exercises
serve more for display purposes rather than for
truly communicative purposes. There are, how-
ever, some information gap activities and pair
work activities that require students to share in-
formation that is not known by their partner.
At the end of each chapter, students are pro-
vided with opportunities to use the language to
engage in reading, listening, speaking, and writ-
ing activities. These activities are generally tied to
the global opportunity or country in focus for the
particular chapter. The supplementary text and
the online learning center provide additional sup-
port for each chapter, including a large bank of
mechanical and meaningful drills for additional
vocabulary and grammar practice. The online
learning center includes a section that poses a few
culture questions, which students can answer by
searching the Internet. The supplementary text
provides six additional speaking activities, which
are mostly communicative.
The nal chapter of the textbook includes re-
view and wrap-up activities that incorporate the
vocabulary, grammar, and cultural information
presented in the previous chapters. In addition,
students are asked to tell to a partner what they
have learnedinterms of eachof the sevencommu-
nicative goals of the book. These activities provide
a unique and thoughtful closure to the course.
In all, Pasaporte has certain strengths that rec-
ommend it as a viable option for high-beginner
students of Spanish. Most importantly, it is de-
signed for high beginners and is laid out so that
the material can be covered over one semester.
The authors of Pasaporte have done a nice job
of structuring the course around the interesting
global opportunity theme.
Pasaporte should, however, be considered in
light of its shortcomings. First, although the text
presents plenty of reading and listening compre-
hension opportunities, it provides minimal input
designed to encourage formmeaning connec-
tions with grammar structures. Second, although
the majority of the exercises and activities pro-
vided in the text are meaningful in that a student
must understand the overall meaning of a phrase
or sentence to provide a response, at times, these
activities could be completed in a way where the
focus on meaning is lost, rending the activity a
mechanical drill. Moreover, the activities are of-
ten set in the context of an imaginary character
or situation. Thus, students have relatively few op-
portunities to communicate truly meaningful and
personal information in the Spanish language.
The text could be improved by additional oppor-
tunities for students to engage in the process of
discovery regarding the countries and global op-
portunities in focus, to relate this information to
their lives, and to evaluate and communicate per-
sonal information and basic thoughts related to
the topics. I suspect that instructors will supple-
ment the text so that more emphasis is placed on
communicating personal information and engag-
ing students in tasks related to exploring authen-
tic opportunities in Spanish-speaking countries.
Indeed, the instructors notes contain suggestions
for personalizing some of the activities. Such sug-
gestions could be incorporated into the text itself.
Finally, the text would be more interesting if more
authentic texts were incorporated into the read-
ing and listening activities.
In the introduction of Pasaporte, the authors
state that their text aims to lighten the grammar
load and increase opportunities for communica-
tive practice (p. x). However, a clear departure
from traditional texts in which grammar is the
central focus is not evident. Most information and
activities are meaningful but not communicative.
Thus, the text may not have reached its goal to in-
crease opportunities for communicative practice.
Upon using this text, students will review much,
if not all, of the vocabulary and grammar needed
to be prepared for a second-year Spanish course.
At the same time, however, students ability to use
the vocabulary andgrammar tocommunicate may
not be as developed as if they were provided with
more opportunities to communicate personalized
and meaningful information.
KARA MORGANSHORT
University of Illinois at Chicago
LUCAS MURILLO, MAR

IA CONCEPCI

ON, &
LAILA M. DAWSON. Con bro! 2nd ed. Hoboken,
NJ: Wiley, 2008. Pp. xxxvi, 437. $102.95, cloth.
ISBN 9780471264170. Video DVD, $30.95.
ADAMS, CATALINA, STEVE JOHNSON,
706 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
MAR

IA CONCEPCI

ON, LUCAS MURILLO, &
KIMBERLEY SALLEE. Con bro!: Beginning
Spanish: Activities Manual . 2nd ed. Hoboken,
NJ: Wiley, 2008. Pp. vii, 121. $70.95, paper. ISBN
9780471272526.
Designed with the American Council on the
Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Na-
tional Standards for Foreign Language Learning
in mind, Con bro! is a beginning program in-
tended for college or university students study-
ing Spanish as a foreign language. The primary
textbook, accompanied by an Activities Manual
and a number of ancillaries, promotes ACTFLs
ve target areas of language learning: commu-
nication, culture, connections, comparisons, and
communities. This textbook program does excel-
lent work integrating these ve components into
every chapter.
The text is organized into an introductory les-
son and 11 theme-based chapters. Chapter 1,
which introduces general conversational phrases
and common, introductory vocabulary, has a dif-
ferent structure from the rest of the chapter, a mi-
nor inconsistency that is somewhat off-putting and
needlessly distracting. Chapters 212 are evenly
composed of three Escenas, with pages marked by
different colors. Each Escena opens with colorful
drawings presenting vocabulary related to a gen-
eral theme. The next section, En acci on!, consists
of a series of activities for contextualized prac-
tice of vocabulary and grammar, including the
listening activities Oye! and A escuchar!. These
activities are accompanied by high-quality audio
recordings of native speakers that provide stu-
dents with listening tasks, allowing them to better
develop their aural comprehension skills.
Grammar is presented in Manos a la obra!,
a brief chart that explains specic grammatical
points. Each Escena ends with Tu mundo cultural ,
a section devoted to exploring diverse aspects of
the cultures of Spanish speakers. The last section
in each chapter, Tu mundo en vivo, consists of two
additional cultural components: A video presen-
tation and an authentic reading selection accom-
panied by reading strategies as well as prereading
and postreading activities. These materials pro-
vide further opportunities for students to connect
tolanguage throughculture. The culminating fea-
ture of each chapter is Autoprueba y repaso, which
provides students with opportunities for review
and self-assessment.
It is interesting to note that even before the
rst chapter, illustrations introduce some Spanish
phrases for classroom instruction. This guide in-
troduces pronunciation rules and practice skills
that are useful in any Spanish classroom. Addi-
tionally, from chapter 5 through the rest of the
book, only Spanish is used for activity instructions
and most of the cultural discussions. Items that in-
clude some English include helpful asides, gram-
matical sections, and Sabes qu e? boxes.
Beyond the textbook, Con bro! is accompanied
by an Activities Manual , which includes both the
workbook and lab manual. Each offers a num-
ber of writing and listening exercises that provide
further practice withthe vocabulary and the gram-
matical structures studied in each lesson. An an-
swer key for the workbook allows students to self-
correct these activities. The programalso includes
a DVD and a companion Web site. The engaging
video material features native Spanish speakers in
everyday situations and professional settings.
The strengths of this textbook are many. Most
of all, the book features detailed and compelling
cultural discussion of the Spanish-speaking world,
with a special emphasis on cultural practices, per-
spectives, and traditions of Hispanic communities
in the United States. The book merits praise for
its cultural diversity and the cultural awareness
it promotes. The authors explore cultural under-
standing withrefreshing insight, andexplanations
of culture are well integrated into every chapter. It
is a denite highlight that many other textbooks
lack.
These cultural insights begin in chapter 1,
where the textbook presents an historical devel-
opment of Spanish language, including the lin-
guistic inuence of Roman control of the Iberian
Peninsula and Spanish exploration of the New
World after 1492. The history lesson also includes
effective illustrations. Another detailed and in-
sightful discussion (ch. 12) explores the topic of
immigration. The authors not only discuss His-
panic immigration to the United States but also
the movement of individuals from Latin America
to Spain. Students can compare the similarities
and differences of the immigrant experience in
these contexts. I have not seen this topic covered
so thoroughly in any other textbook.
The cultural material goes beyond themes of
history and current events to include topics that
inuence social interaction, such as body lan-
guage, appropriate social behavior, cultural tra-
ditions, and a vast array of meaningful topics,
including architecture, food, medicine, and city
transportation. All of these themes help students
communicate better as they become more fa-
miliar with nonlinguistic factors that they are
likely to encounter in Spanish-speaking commu-
nities. The authors have integrated this cultural
Reviews 707
material with language learning in a way that
will increase students cultural literacy and subse-
quently boost their communicative competence.
Despite the commonly accepted knowledge that
language learning involves more than grammar
rules and vocabulary development, many text-
books still limit their cultural components to brief
marginal notes. Without a doubt, the integrated
and deep exploration of culture improves the
overall effectiveness of this textbook package.
The illustrations and cartoons in the text func-
tion with differing degrees of effectiveness. The
ongoing comic strip is excellent, as it depicts
students searching for apartments and going to
parties. These vignettes provide a context for
meaningful and realistic conversations that may
connect with the lives of university students. Addi-
tionally, every chapter has photographs that effec-
tively depict moments of life in Spanish-speaking
communities.
However, the full-page illustrations that present
vocabulary and begin each chapter sometimes
seemcontrivedandreect oldnarratives that have
beenusedintraditional textbooks for years. These
caricatured illustrations could be from textbooks
used in the 1970s, sometimes even emphasizing
stereotypes that almost undermine the cultural
lessons from the rest of the book. Specically,
one two-page illustration includes pictures of two
women discussing a telenovela. Although conver-
sations like this one may occur, this line comes
across as an overused stereotype, made even more
distracting because of the progressive exploration
of culture that guides the rest of the book. More
authentic materials such as pictures, texts, city
maps, and magazine articles could introduce the
same vocabulary while enhancing the overall qual-
ity of this textbook. Vocabulary presentation can
be more effective if it is introduced in a real-world
setting with photographs of real people engaged
in authentic conversations. The use of authentic
material makes the foreign language and culture
come alive.
Overall, I amdisappointed with the elements of
this textbook that follow the predictable textbook
script. Not surprisingly, I am more enthusiastic
about the treatment of cultural literacy that the
authors explore with refreshing insight. The au-
thors have succeeded in creating a valuable tool
that will help to develop learners communica-
tive skills. I look forward to more textbooks that
incorporate cultural literacy fully with language
learning.
ISABEL PARRA
University of Cincinnati, Clermont College
RAMOS, ALICIA, & ROBERT DAVIS. Portafolio,
Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Pp. xvi, 217.
$44.00, paper. ISBN 9780077216115.
Portafolio, Vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.
Pp. xvi, 210. $44.00, paper. ISBN 978007
7257989.
Portafolio is a welcoming program designed for
introductory college Spanish courses. The two-
volume soft-cover text aims to develop students
basic communicative language skills through ex-
posure to the target culture. Spanish is presented
within the context of authentic written and spo-
ken input from native speakers of different ac-
cents and cultural backgrounds. As noted by
the authors, Portafolio is designed for its porta-
bility, accessibility, and purchasing options. In
addition to a series of multimedia ancillaries in-
cluding audio CD, DVD, and the Portafolio de
actividades via Quia
TM
, the Portafolio is available
in print and online as an e-book through the
VitalSource
TM
platform. Unlike other conven-
tional rst-year textbooks, Portafolio is supported
by digital supplements via the Portafolio-to-Go
Web site, which enables students to down-
load audio, video, and grammar tutorials to
portable laptops and MP3 players. Also wor-
thy of mention is the Online Learning Center
(www.mhhe.com/portafolio), which provides stu-
dents with additional exercises along with im-
mediate feedback to practice the vocabulary and
grammar covered in the text. To reinforce listen-
ing and speaking skills, abundant audio tracks in
conjunction with a digital phrasebook powered
by iSpeak Spanish are available for students to use
via an iPod or MP3 player at a minimal additional
charge with the adoption of the text.
The two-volume text consists of 15 chapters.
Each volume contains appendices explaining im-
portant grammatical points, verb forms, and
spelling and pronunciation contrasts between En-
glish and Spanish. Also included are Spanish
English and EnglishSpanish glossaries as well as
a general grammar and vocabulary index. Each
chapter focuses on specic cultural topics and
opens with a two-page introduction to the chap-
ter and its objectives, accompanied by a country
map and a photo related to the chapter theme.
The chapter is organized in the same format with
two Vocabulario and two Gram atica sections, an
interview Charla con . . . , and the Portafolio cul-
tural . Following the introductory pages is the
rst Vocabulario section with various types of exer-
cises. A minor disappointment of the Vocabulario
708 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
sections is that no readings in dialogue or dra-
matic form are included to serve as a point of de-
parture for student conversation and interaction
to practice new lexical items. The rst Gram atica
section follows the presentation of vocabulary. In
general, the explanations are precise and brief,
using charts and examples in Spanish to compare
and contrast with English structures. For instance,
the Gram atica section on page 151 of volume 2
introduces the present subjunctive with expres-
sions of doubt using a clearly displayed chart to
illustrate the concept. To ensure students under-
standing of the target concept, an Autoprueba is
included at the end of many grammar presenta-
tions. The majority of the grammar spreads out
into different chapters covering merely one or
two particular grammar points per grammar sec-
tion. However, several major grammatical points
are crammed into one chapter. For example, the
subjunctive with noun antecedents, unequal and
equal comparisons, the future tenses, and the sub-
junctive with future actions are presented in chap-
ter 14, which may be overwhelming to beginning
students.
Listening to voices of native speakers from
the Spanish-speaking world is a powerful and
effective way to linguistically and culturally im-
merse students. One of the major strengths of this
text is a variety of native-speaker interviews pre-
sented in the Charla con . . . section after the rst
Gram atica presentation. Personalized interviews
can be viewed on the DVD or in the Online Learn-
ing Center . These authentic interviews not only
expose students to different regional dialects but
also enable them to learn the specic target cul-
ture areas through the real-life experiences of na-
tive speakers rather than the presentation of facts
found in most rst-year texts. In addition, each
interview is accompanied by a Vocabulario util box
to facilitate listening comprehension. Following
the interview are various types of exercises, from
comprehension check to personal reection. The
second Vocabulario and Gram atica sections appear
after the Charla con . . . presentation, and the or-
der of material is the same as for their earlier
counterparts. Additional vocabulary on the chap-
ter theme and new grammar lessons are included
to provide practice of lexical and linguistic items.
As culture is the central thread of the text, one
of the most noteworthy features is the Portafolio
cultural , which expands each chapter theme into
different aspects of Hispanic culture, including
geography, lm, music, cuisine, national identity,
and popular culture. The Portafolio cultural is di-
vided into seven parts: Naci on, Actualidad, Cartel-
era, Gente, Icono, Opini on, and Mi portafolio, and
each part features a specic aspect of the cultural
theme. For example, the Cartelera on page 77
of chapter 10 is an entertainment section that
discusses typical Argentine meat-based cuisine,
whereas the Icono section on page 78 presents
information about the famous tango dance and
music from Buenos Aires. Through these cultural
readings, it is hoped that students will begin to
make connections between their own culture and
the target culture. Finally, Mi portafolio provides
students with the unique opportunity to develop
their writing skills and cross-cultural awareness.
One of the two activities in the Mi portafolio sec-
tion is Redacci on, which guides students through
the process of writing using a portfolio to view
their work in progress over a period of time.
Moreover, Exploraci on offers additional Internet
resources for students to further explore the chap-
ter themes.
The Portafolio program is effective and engag-
ing because of its rich cultural content with use-
ful presentation and practice of vocabulary and
grammar. The format of the text is user friendly
with clean page layouts and easy-to-follow icons to
guide students through the chapters. The scope
and sequence of the grammar in general is well
balanced. The text offers a variety of sequenced
activities from form-focused to meaning-based ex-
ercises. Some of them are divided into various
steps from controlled to open-ended activities in-
volving an input-to-output approach that allows
students to create ideas expanding on what they
have learned. For instance, Pr actica B Los sitios que
frecuento (ch. 10, p. 68) contains two steps. Paso 1
requires students to read a list of places and give
a rating to each place. In the next step, paso 2,
students answer questions using the information
in paso 1. Ideally, a paso 3 could be added to give
students an additional opportunity to use new lex-
ical items by interviewing a partner and sharing
their ndings with the class.
Despite the presentation of cultural readings
in the Portafolio cultural section, the fact that no
particular section is devoted to developing stu-
dents reading skills may disappoint those who
wish to engage students in the reading process
through the typical convention of prereading
and postreading exercises. Nevertheless, reading
comprehension checks, with a minimum of two
open-ended questions, are helpful for the devel-
opment of students cross-cultural understanding
and awareness and should not be overlooked.
In sum, Portafolio is a solid beginning Span-
ish program with many good qualities. As todays
learners are technologically savvy, the exciting ar-
ray of digital supporting materials is particularly
Reviews 709
appealing to language students. Additionally, a
number of ancillaries permit instructors to pick
and choose the supplements that best t their stu-
dents needs.
LINA LEE
University of New Hampshire
ROSA DE JUAN, CARMEN, MARISA DE PRADA,
PILAR MARC

E, & DANICA SALAZAR. Temas de

salud: Manual para la preparaci on del Certicado
Superior de Espa nol de las Ciencias de la Salud de la
C amara de Comercio e Industria de Madrid, Madrid,
Spain: Edinumen, 2009. Pp. 211. $30.95, paper.
ISBN 9788477114680.
The development of medical Spanish curricula at
universities and colleges around the country has
seen explosive growth over the past 10 years. The
increasing problem of language differences as a
barrier to quality health care has been amply doc-
umented and constitutes an important threat to
the health of populations in signicant areas of
the country. Language barriers are directly linked
to delayed treatment, misdiagnoses, medical er-
ror, and poor patient compliance. Additionally,
language barriers are indirectly linked to the un-
deruse of pediatric care among children of par-
ents with limited English prociency and lack of
access to public health care nancing sources.
Federal regulations and state legislation, further-
more, have been introduced to alleviate the prob-
lem of language barriers in health care by requir-
ing the presence of bilingual healthcare providers
and medical interpreters. In some states, the cer-
tication of health care providers and medical
interpreters in languages other than English is
becoming the norm.
Temas de salud is a study guide designed to assist
students in passing the certication examination
in medical Spanish designed by the Chamber of
Commerce and Industry of Madrid. The guide
also aims to develop linguistic prociency at the
B2 level of the Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages. The study guide of-
fers readers a clear view of the scope of the exam
and contains numerous exercises and activities to
prepare test-takers for the tasks required in the
examination. The curriculum provides an exten-
sive vocabulary review covering critical semantic
domains such as ambulatory care, hospital care,
emergency roomcare, medical specialties, mental
health, infancy andaging, andpublic health. Each
chapter consists of a series of readings that begin
witha prereading activity, followedby comprehen-
sion questions and interactive activities. Through-
out the text, there is a heavy emphasis on medical
dialogues. Rather thanrely onrote memorization,
however, readers are challenged to construct dia-
logues based on information capsules presented
in both the readings and in short explanations of
injury and illness strategically placed throughout
the text. Following a four-skills approach, the text
also prompts students to write about health and
health care issues in ways that are both thought
provoking and meaningful.
In the area of lexical development, the text is
unique in its treatment of the subtle semantic dif-
ferences between pseudosynonyms. For example,
the text gives useful advice on the differences be-
tween phrases like urgent care and emergency
care and words like cold and u. The de-
velopment of vocabulary is highly contextualized
throughout its 10 chapters. Covering a range of
topics, the text seamlessly integrates novel vocabu-
lary words into real-world scenarios that promote
the acquisition of meaning. The use of authen-
tic materials such as health-related brochures, ad-
ministrative forms, and other realia strengthens
the contextual approach to lexical acquisition.
Although the book certainly achieves its aim of
aiding students in passing the certication exam,
I am less certain about its ability to achieve the
wider aim of ensuring that professionals have
the appropriate language skills needed to pro-
vide quality medical care. The organization of
the text is somewhat problematic and reects the
common notion that health care is really noth-
ing more than sick care. The chapter on pub-
lic health and prevention, for example, is left for
the end, giving it the feel of an afterthought. Its
focus, furthermore, is on large-scale health pro-
motion campaigns rather than on individualized
health education. The linguistic skills needed to
provide critical information on prevention and
to persuade patients to change health behaviors
seem to be missing from the text. This issue is
symptomatic of a more overarching problem in
the text. After reading and reviewing the text sev-
eral times, I could not help but ask myself: Is
this a medical Spanish text or a medical text in
Spanish? This is certainly a vexing question for
those of us involved in teaching language for
specic purposes and one that concerns many
applied linguists. Although the text certainly en-
gages readers in critical linguistic functions, it
offers few resources and little opportunity for stu-
dents to reect critically on and appraise these
710 The Modern Language Journal 94 (2010)
functions. Pragmatic functions dealing with po-
liteness, persuasion, and other critical discursive
features, for example, are not presented. The sci-
ence of medicine drowns out the science of lan-
guage and, in doing so, impedes important op-
portunities for students to develop both commu-
nicative skills and metacommunicative knowledge
that will help them to become better health com-
municators. The goal of a medical Spanish text,
I believe, must be to strike a unique balance be-
tween what students learn about medicine and
what students learn about language. Such a bal-
ance will ensure a generative competency among
health care providers that will allow them to use
the language creatively and appropriately in the
multiplicity of communicative situations they will
encounter.
Temas de salud offers many insightful tech-
niques and strategies for the development of
medical Spanish. Although its approach excludes
some important topics that deal with language is-
sues in medical encounters, its coverage of vocab-
ulary related to a wide variety of medical domains
is noteworthy. For this reason, it is a useful re-
source for advanced Spanish students seeking to
improve their command of medical terminology
in Spanish. For the same reason, it should also be
a required reference for Spanish language educa-
tors and researchers involved in the development
of medical Spanish curricula.
GLENN A. MART

INEZ
The University of TexasPan American