17.68, Review: Applied Linguistics: Hall (2005)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-68. Wed Jan 11 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.68, Review: Applied Linguistics: Hall (2005)

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1)
Date: 09-Jan-2006
From: Ingrid Mosquera Gende < ingrid at udc.es >
Subject: Literature in Language Education 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 17:47:40
From: Ingrid Mosquera Gende < ingrid at udc.es >
Subject: Literature in Language Education 
 

AUTHOR: Hall, Geoff
TITLE: Literature in Language Education
SERIES: Research and Practice in Applied Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Palgrave Macmillan
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-2774.html 

Ingrid Mosquera Gende, Department of English Philology, Facultad de 
Filología, University of A Coruña

INTRODUCTION

This book constitutes a critical review of research into literature in 
language education, of interest to teachers of English and of modern 
foreign languages as well as to students and researches, either with 
or without experience. This book includes sections concerning the 
language of literature, the reading of literature, the usefulness of 
literature in language education, intercultural development through 
literature, and so on. There are suggestions for those who wish to 
engage in projects or research in this area. The primary focus is on 
the language of literature, the reading of literature, literature as 
culture, and literature in education.

SYNOPSIS

The book comprises the following divisions: 
General Editor's Preface; 
Acknowledgements; 
Introduction: Literature as Discourse; 
Part 1 Language, Literature and Education; 
Part 2 Exploring Research in Language, Literature and Education; 
Part 3 Researching Literature in Language Education; 
Part 4 Resources; 
Glossary; 
References; 
Name Index; 
Subject Index.

In about one page, series editors Christopher N. Candlin and David R. 
Hall, from Macquarie University, Sydney, explain the purpose of the 
international book series ''Research and Practice in Applied 
Linguistics'', to which the present book belongs. A collection designed 
for students and researchers in Applied Linguistics, TESOL or 
Language Education among other related fields of study. In this 
Editor's Preface the style of the writing is also described as 
being ''user-friendly'' (p. x), easy to read, and the main points and 
concepts are stressed, with illustrations, etc. The common structure of 
the books has to do with identifying key researchable areas and 
provide examples, details, research tools, resources, and so on. At 
the same time these books provide several sections designed for 
further study, which are mentioned by the editors, but, since we are 
going to describe these later on, there is no need to enumerate them 
at this point. Candlin and Hall wonder about the way in which research 
can be useful to practical matters, a core subject in the series, trying 
to demonstrate that a good professional practice should be based on 
good research and the other way around, good research should take 
into account practice(p. xi). This Preface is quite attractive, the 
audience this book is aimed for is presented, as well as the objectives 
of the series' editors; therefore a student, a teacher, a researcher or 
even an ''outsider'' could be very interested in reading it, due to the 
explanations about its style, content, aims, etc.

Acknowledgements are worthy of mention since these continue the 
same line introduced in the Preface: emphasis on its readable style 
and on the figures of researchers and students as the centre of 
interest which were never forgotten as potential audience of the book 
while writing it.

The introduction begins with two quite radical quotes from Colin 
MacCabe ''Literature is dead. Long live writing'' (p.1) and from 
Derrida ''There is nothing outside the text'' (p. 1); these two quotes 
could be a very good beginning for a potential class. Only two other 
chapters begin with quotes, chapters 7 and 8, both in part 
3, ''Researching Literature in Language Education''. However, in that 
same sense, it is fundamental to notice that all the chapters are full of 
questions, and many chapters even begin with one: 
Chapter 1 ''Literary Language and Ordinary Language'': ''Does 
literature have a language of its own, perhaps rather unrepresentative 
of, or rather different from, ordinary language (e.g. old-fashioned, 
obscure, pretentious, generally 'difficult')?'' (p. 9); 
Chapter 2 ''Literature in Education'': ''This chapter addresses the 
following questions: What is the place of literature in education? What 
is claimed to be learned from reading, studying, discussing and writing 
about literature in educational contexts? How has literary reading 
been assessed? How do literature and language relate to culture?'' (p. 
39); 
Chapter 3 ''Reading Literature'': ''What are the dominant theories and 
models for the reading of literature? What gaps or problems exist for 
our knowledge, especially with regard to second or foreign language 
readers of literature? What empirical research is necessary? More 
specifically, How does reading literature differ from other types of 
reading? What makes 'a good' or 'poor' reader of literature? And what 
is known about reading literature in a second language?'' (p. 83); 
Chapter 4 ''Language in Literature. Stylistics, including Corpus 
Linguistics - Readability Studies'': ''What do we know of the language 
of literary texts and what impact has this knowledge had on the uses 
of literature in education?'' (p. 129). 

Any of those questions would also constitute a good beginning for a 
class. I believe that, from these questions and from the quotes, the 
main points in the book are already mentioned. The questions are a 
perfect way of introducing each of these chapters, letting the audience 
know what they are going to find in each of them. And, from the point 
of view of a potential reader, if I should recommend the reading of a 
specific part of the book, so that that potential reader would find it 
interesting enough to keep on reading it, I would recommend him or 
her to read the beginning of the chapters, without a doubt, as well as 
to have a look at the general structure of the book, the Contents' 
section, where we can already find the rest of opportunities that the 
book offers to any kind of reader, either a expertise one or a mere 
curios person.

After the introductory chapter, there follow the four parts of the book, 
which contain the individual chapters. Part 1 comprises chapters 1 to 
3 and each chapter is subdivided into numbered sections. In all these 
three chapters the last section is devoted to conclusions, this being a 
very important decision, and a right one from my point of view, due to 
their being the opening chapters of the book and therefore 
intensifying their need of being clear and concise.

Part 2, ''Exploring Research in Language, Literature and Education'', 
includes chapters 4 to 6, together with its own introduction, which 
points out the most important aspects of the previous chapters at the 
same time introducing more questions to solve in the part being 
introduced.) Part 3 also has its own introduction, along with chapters 7 
and 8. Part 4, ''Resources'', is built around chapter 9 alone, ''A Guide 
to Resources for Research in LLE''.

The main content is followed by a glossary, references, name index 
and a subject index, all very complete and clearly helpful to users of 
the book. I think these are important matters to include in a book 
which is devoted to education.

EVALUATION

The most significant thing about this book is its accessibility, which 
suggests that the author has the same attribute. When I was reading 
8.2, ''Some possible projects for literature in LLE'', I felt sure that if I 
had a project in literature I could e-mail him and he would give me kind 
advice. The chapters are full of charts with fundamental aspects such 
as important quotes, concepts, data or similar points, all designed to 
leave everything as clear and accessible as possible to reach as wide 
an audience as possible.

My main personal opinions were made clear earlier in this review. 
Geoff Hall effectively presents his ideas and proposals with the 
minimum degree of complication needed for the varied potential 
audience and with a great capacity for attracting and awakening 
curiosity in the reader by means of an engaging style as well as by 
means of quotations and questions. If the reader does not know the 
answer to those questions, he/she will find them very well explained 
and answered in the book with clear language supported and 
defended by the author. However, as in any book of research worthy 
of the name, many new questions arise, and Hall invites teachers, 
scholars, students and amateurs in general to think about them from a 
critical perspective. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ingrid Mosquera Gende teaches at the University of A Coruña, Spain. 
Her Ph.D. is in English Philology; her Doctoral Thesis is about Edwin 
Muir: "Early Poetry of a Late Poet: Analysis of First Poems". She has 
undertaken several research visits to Canada, Germany or Scotland, 
among others, supervised by specialists such as Professor Cairns 
Craig and Robert Crawford. She is a researcher of projects related to 
Translation Studies, Literature and Education. She has written many 
publications and contributions about Translation, Scottish Literature, 
as well as other fields of study, including Education, Irish Literature, 
and Spanish Literature. She also teaches courses of education via the 
internet in collaboration with The University of Islas Baleares, Spain, 
and is a reviewer and translator for various universities.





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