28.5268, Review: Language Acquisition; Linguistic Theories; Phonology: Goedemans, Heinz, van der Hulst (2016)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-5268. Tue Dec 12 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.5268, Review: Language Acquisition; Linguistic Theories; Phonology: Goedemans, Heinz, van der Hulst (2016)

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Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2017 15:14:07
From: Roman Lesnov [rlor84 at gmail.com]
Subject: Dimensions of Phonological Stress

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/27/27-5155.html

EDITOR: Jeffrey N. Heinz
EDITOR: Rob  Goedemans
EDITOR: Harry  van der Hulst
TITLE: Dimensions of Phonological Stress
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2016

REVIEWER: Roman Lesnov, Northern Arizona University

REVIEWS EDITOR: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

“Optimizing Language Learner’s Nonverbal Behavior. From Tenet to Technique” by
Tammy Gregersen and Peter D. MacIntyre is a masterwork that successfully
achieves three main goals. Firstly, it introduces the reader to the notion of
nonverbal behavior by discussing the definition, teachability of, and
trainability for nonverbal signals. Secondly, the book provides a
classification of nonverbal signals followed by in-depth discussions of the
majority of existing nonverbal code types. Finally, the authors present a
collection of useful classroom techniques for developing second language
learners’ competence in recognizing and employing nonverbal behavior in
communicative situations. Thus, the book forms a unison of theory and practice
pertaining to nonverbal behavior and its role in second language classrooms.

The structure of the book reflects its threefold purpose. The book consists of
three main parts – Part 1. Introduction, Part 2. Codes, and Part 3.
Activities. These three pillars are preceded by a foreword and a preface, and
followed by a conclusion, references, an author index, and a subject index.
The book’s foreword immediately captivates the reader by providing a brief
historical overview of pedagogical approaches to second language teaching,
with the role of nonverbal behavior situated within the evolution of those
approaches. It sets the overall tenor of recognizing nonverbal signaling as an
essential dimension of communication in any language. The preface defines the
intended audience for the book and key definitions, and gently acquaints the
reader with the book structure.

Part 1 starts off by discussing the power of nonverbal communication with the
illustration of a gesture that made a life-and-death difference in people’s
lives. The reader is further introduced to the links between verbal and
nonverbal communication. Both types of communication are claimed to occur in
both intrapersonal and interpersonal modes. According to the authors, the
former is rarely accounted for in existing definitions of nonverbal behavior,
which may diminish the theoretical value of the concept.

Both verbal and nonverbal types of communication are claimed to operate along
the same three dimensions – communicative, affective, and cognitive
dimensions. Respectively, nonverbal behavior is discussed in terms of its
impact on the development of second language learners’ communicative,
affective, and cognitive competencies. In the communicative realm, nonverbal
cues can substitute, complement, accentuate, regulate, or contradict the
verbal message. Each of these functions is briefly addressed and exemplified
in Part 1. From the affective standpoint, nonverbal signals convey
interlocutors’ emotions. Cognitively, nonverbal behavior is believed to be a
facilitator of second language learners’ language comprehension and
production. The discussion of the upsides of being a nonverbally savvy second
language learner logically proceeds to the consideration of six challenges
associated with the teaching of nonverbal behavior. These challenges include
but are not limited to cultural specificity, learners’ differing abilities to
decode and encode nonverbal signals, and individual variability of nonverbal
behavior. To overcome those challenges, the authors offer a wide-ranging list
of encoding and decoding teaching strategies. 

Part 2 consists of five chapters, each of which is involved with a particular
nonverbal code – gesture, posture, facial expression, eye behavior, space and
touch, or prosody. The first chapter reviews existing definitions and
classification schemes of gestures. The authors seem to favor Ekman and
Freisen’s (1969) scheme of gestural cues for successful communication, which
categorizes gestures into illustrators, regulators, emblems, and affect
displays. Making use of this functional classification, the authors explain
how gestural signals influence the communicative, affective, and cognitive
dimensions of communication in a target language. The chapter is abundantly
infused with respective references to classroom activities found in Part 3 of
the book.  

With respect to the communicative dimension, gestures are shown to facilitate
learners’ sociolinguistic, discourse, strategic, and grammatical competencies.
Regarding the sociolinguistic competency, particular attention is paid to the
roles of culture-specific gestures, language-specific rhetorical styles, and
context-specific situations in gesture use. In relation to discourse, gestures
are described as turn-taking regulators and effective instruments for
interaction construction. Strategically, gesture use is viewed as a
compensator for a limited language ability. Lastly, the authors summarize the
research into the potential of gestures to convey communicative intentions and
improve listening comprehension.

Based on the research into the link between gestural behavior and affect, the
authors show the effectiveness of gestures in rapport-building and
communicating emotion. It is noted that gestures are especially instrumental
in determining the strength of interlocutors’ emotion.  In addition, the link
between affect-related gestural functions and the zone-of-proximal-development
theory (Vygotsky, 1987) is discussed. It is suggested that gestures promote
target language output and, thus, activate the potential of learners’
linguistic development. On the other hand, the authors highlight that certain
types of gestures, labeled as adaptors, may send negative emotional signals
and hinder communication. 

There are also several cognitive functions of gestural behavior that are
discussed by the authors. They include increasing comprehension, promoting
learning, enhancing internalization and memory in lexical acquisition as well
as improving language production and self-regulation. Each of these functions
is discussed in depth and shown to stem from current research findings. 

The second chapter turns to the nonverbal code of posture. Unlike gestural
behavior, postures are believed to be less ubiquitous in everyday
communication and have limited communicative and cognitive functions.
According to the authors, posture primarily influences the affective dimension
of communication in a target language. Specifically, it is described as an
indicator of both interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships, with the
potential to display inclusiveness, congruence, openness, assertiveness,
confidence, likeability, and power among interactants. It is noted that
posture often works in concert with other kinesic cues to fulfill the
aforementioned functions. Albeit less profuse, the contributions of postures
to the communicative and cognitive functions are also discussed in the
chapter, with respective references to the in-class activities found in Part 3
of the book. 

The third chapter links facial expression to improved communicative and
affective facets of interaction. The authors summarize the research showing
strong links between facial expression and sociolinguistic, discourse, and
strategic competencies. For example, facial expression may be considered a
conversation facilitator if it indicates interactants’ willingness to take a
turn. In addition, observing people’s faces can raise the interpretability of
interlocutors’ emotional states. Potential emotional contradictions due to
culture, power, or gender are discussed. The chapter hosts references to a
number of instructional techniques related to the connection between facial
expression and target language affect and communication.

The fourth chapter details the functions of eye behavior in target language
communication. It is shown that gazing can perform a number of communicative
functions, such as regulating the flow of conversations, establishing
relationships, and commanding responses. On the affective side, the functions
of eye contact include, among others, monitoring feedback, reflecting the
level of intimacy of relationships, and establishing credibility. Eyes are
also said to indicate the nature and degree of cognitive activity. The authors
underscore that these functions normally operate conjunctively rather than
occurring one at a time. The dependencies of these functions on context,
culture, personality features, and gender are also addressed. The chapter
refers to a range of communicative, affective, and cognitive teaching tools
(in Part 3) for the aforementioned functions. 

The themes of the fifth chapter are space (proxemics) and touch (haptics).
Communicative and affective functions of both themes are reviewed. A proper
use of space during a speech act is depicted as a culturally defined
construct, capable of conveying affective and emotional signals among
interactants. For example, proxemics is shown to designate social zones,
including intimate, personal, social, and public zones, and determine the
levels of affiliation and privacy. In turn, a proper use of touch can serve
sociolinguistic purposes, fulfill discourse functions, and convey affect in a
target language. Specifically, touch can communicate power and status,
regulate turn-taking, and convey affection or aggression. The impact of
demographic factors, culture, and context on the above-mentioned functions is
given particular attention.

The sixth chapter of ‘Part 2: Codes’ explores how communicative, affective,
and cognitive functions are carried out by prosody of speech. The chapter
briefly outlines the definition and types of prosodic features, including such
suprasegmental features as pauses, volume, intonation, stress, rhythm, rate,
and voice quality. Communicatively, vocal cues are seen as promoters of
grammatical, discourse, strategic, and sociocultural competencies. Speech rate
and stress are shown to be particularly effective at marking thought groups
and accentuating important information in the message. Affectively, prosody
serves as an indicator of emotions, self-confidence, and interlocutors’
knowledge of the content of a conversation. Cognitively, prosodic features are
believed to enhance listening comprehension and organize discourse. Each of
these functions and many of their subfunctions are reviewed in detail and
accompanied by references to corresponding blueprints of classroom activities
in Part 3 of the book. 

The book’s Part 3 is a collection of classroom techniques, or activities,
aimed at teaching second learners to decode and encode nonverbal messages. The
techniques are grouped according to the three functional dimensions of
nonverbal signals, namely communicative (48 activities), affective (54
activities), and cognitive (27 activities). As mentioned earlier, each
activity is briefly described and referred to in a respective portion of the
text of Part 2 (Codes) whereas Part 3 features comprehensive descriptions of
the activities. Activity descriptions include a statement of the activity’s
objective, suggestions on targeted proficiency levels, thorough preparation
instructions, and detailed procedures. Each activity comes with a matching
quote, which motivates the reader to understand and employ the activity. Some
of the techniques are accompanied by a video that visualizes the activity and
often provides additional tips or related illustrations. Although the actors
in the videos are not professionals, their illustrations are relevant and
useful. The link to the video resources is provided in the note-for-readers
section at the start of the book.

EVALUATION

Unquestionably, Tammy Gregersen and Peter D. MacIntyre have succeeded in
exposing the pivotal role and invaluable instructional usefulness of nonverbal
cues in target language classrooms. The authors should take pride in the fact
that their book is well-organized, reliable, and resourceful. First, the prose
of the book is structured and logical, which greatly helps the reader to
navigate in the world of copious nonverbal codes and their functions. Even
though the “backbone” of the book may seem too branchy, the logic behind it
helps to navigate the reader. Every branch of prose presents a detailed,
in-depth account that effortlessly connects into the big picture the book
draws. Next, the authors’ conclusions are far from being of speculative
character. Chapter discussions stem from empirical research, with plenty of
seminal and current sources cited. This solid research basis maintains the
reader’s confidence in the validity of the authors’ reasoning. Thus, the book
may be a valuable source for applied linguistics students and scholars looking
for existing knowledge about the role of nonverbal signals in a target
language communication. Language scholars would likely appreciate the breadth
of the reference section as well as the comprehensiveness of the author index
and the subject index. Finally, the book contains a myriad of resources
ranging from text-based sample outlines of classroom activities to video-based
illustrations of (and beyond) those activities. They will be appreciated by
both second language in-practice teachers and learners. As ready-to-go
pedagogical tools, these resources can be painlessly integrated into real
classroom practices. Although the activities were designed originally for
English learners, the design of the classroom techniques can be easily
upgraded, altered, or enhanced if demanded by a particular language teaching
context. 

It is not an easy feat to pose criticisms of this book because the authors
left little room for improvement. It can be mentioned that the book contains a
small number of typos. The quality of photos of nonverbal signals interspersed
in the text could also have been much higher. Most of the photos were not shot
professionally in terms of lighting and aberrations, which does a slight
disservice to the authors. Next, while the authors’ reasoning throughout the
first two parts has a demonstrated solid research basis, there are few
indicators of validity presented for the techniques and activities in Part 3
of the book. It is stated that some of the activities were adopted from
external resources. For the most part, however, the reader does not know
whether these activities were peer-reviewed and how many revisions they have
undergone. Having this information would add credibility to Part 3 of the
book. Finally, the book would benefit from having suggested reading lists
after each part and/or chapter of the book. These expert-informed suggestions
would further navigate novice readers in the existing literature pertaining to
the role of non-verbal signals in the target language communication. 

REFERENCES

Ekman, P. & Freisen, W. V. (1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior:
Categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica, 1, 49-98.

Vigotsky, L. S. (1987). Thinking and speech. In R. W. Rieber and A. S. Carton
(eds). The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky, Volume 1: Problems of General
Psychology (pp. 39-285). New York: Plenum Press.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Roman Lesnov is a doctoral student in Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona
University. His specialization is second language listening assessment, second
language testing, and statistical methods for applied linguistics. Roman is
also interested in researching the relationship between pronunciation
production and second language listening comprehension.





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