32.2400, Review: Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics; Syntax: Rankin, Whong (2020)

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Subject: 32.2400, Review: Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics; Syntax: Rankin, Whong (2020)

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Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2021 00:01:13
From: Elena Sharafutdinova [sher at mail.fresnostate.edu]
Subject: Grammar

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36689597


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-3697.html

AUTHOR: Tom  Rankin
AUTHOR: Melinda  Whong
TITLE: Grammar
SUBTITLE: A Linguists' Guide for Language Teachers
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2020

REVIEWER: Elena Sharafutdinova, California State University, Fresno

SUMMARY

“Grammar: A Linguists’ Guide for Language Teachers”, written by Tom Rankin and
Melinda Whong and published by Cambridge University Press (2020), aims at
closing the gap between theoretical linguistics and language teacher training.
This book is explicitly and directly addressed to teachers—with or without any
specific linguistic background—to provide them with “tools to address any
challenging question about grammar” they may encounter in their everyday
teaching activity (1). The two authors, who are linguists with teaching
background, apply a “language-data-based approach” (1) to help teachers to
obtain a better grasp of the complexity of language, what is possible and not
possible in the grammar of a language and, more generally, to understand how a
language works. To achieve these goals, Rankin and Whong discuss a variety of
linguistic phenomena (from word order to the construction of the past tense)
taken from a great number of languages, including English, French, Italian,
Russian, Korean, Japanese, Swahili, Sanskrit, and Norwegian.

The book is comprised of 5 chapters, each of which tackles a different topic:
the relationship and gap between linguistics and education (Chapter 1),
language (Chapter 2), grammar (Chapter 3), language learning and acquisition
(Chapter 4) and, finally, language education (Chapter 5). The first chapter
also serves as an introduction to the whole book, providing its general
structure. Each chapter has a main narrative in which a concept is developed
in a cumulative way. However, in all the chapters except Chapter 5, the main
narrative is accompanied by a series of text boxes (“Case in Point”) used to
highlight a specific grammatical phenomenon—for example, the use of articles,
the passive voice, etc. The text boxes are meant to work as independent units
which the reader can work through separately. To strengthen the practical
nature of this book, each chapter concludes with a list of hands-on questions
to suggest to the reader ways to apply the concepts covered in the chapter in
his/her everyday activity as a teacher. 

Chapter 1, “A Guide to the Linguists’ Guide to Grammar”, addresses the
relationship and gap between linguistics and education. The authors first
introduce the two opposite approaches in linguistics to language: formalists
(who are more interested in the grammatical structures of language, i.e.,
form) and functionalists (who focus more on how language is used, i.e.,
function). The opposition between form and function is illustrated with a
specific example, a comparison in the use of the passive voice in English and
Swahili. The reader can follow the reasoning detailed in the main narrative to
understand the difference between form and function and refer to the text box
which addresses the same topic in a more specific way. Chapter 1 also
introduces the reader to different approaches to linguistics to describe how
language works and how it develops. In doing so, Rankin and Whong introduce
the reader to general theories and also to different fields and subfields of
linguistics. A practical definition is provided each time a new term is
introduced. This way, the reader can follow and understand complex
explanations. Moreover, each approach is linked to a grammar phenomenon (for
example, verb classes, evidentiality, telicity, etc.) which is analyzed by
comparing English grammar with that of another language. The comparison allows
the reader to expand his/her notion of the topic. For example, in the case of
the passive voice, a comparison between English and Sanskrit shows that,
contrary to Sanskrit, English does not possess a marker for the middle voice,
but still allows middle constructions with specific verbs. This information
can help a teacher in building a teaching strategy or provide a more effective
explanation of English passive voice. 

Chapter 2 discusses the notions of language, languages, and Language. Like any
other chapter, the concepts covered in this chapter are discussed from the
perspective of language teachers who are not necessarily proficient in
linguistics. Therefore, Rankin and Whong provide a series of basic definitions
such as the “human Language” (with a capital “L”) in contrast to other forms
of communication, its main characteristics (duality of structure,
discreteness, and arbitrariness), and different variations within human
language. For example, the difference between two sounds can be linguistically
meaningful in one language but not in another one and, according to the two
authors, the same idea applies to grammar. The grammatical concepts made
available by human facility can be applied differently according to the
language we speak or want to learn. Through a series of examples involving
grammatical concepts such as person, number, etc., the authors show how what
is taken as normal in English represents only one of the possibilities of
grammar (46) and, at the same time, they show how some concepts are shared by
all languages. In other words, among the infinite possibilities of meanings
and functions, some of them “find grammatical expression in all languages”
(48). This is what the authors call “Virtual Grammar”, the idea that “certain
grammatical concepts or features are universally expressed in all Languages”
(48). Rankin and Whong’s discussion of the classifications of language
families represents another effective example of how the book is structured.
The authors observe that even though English is genetically closer to German
than to the Romance languages, for a series of satellite-framed verbs (i.e.,
verbs that require a preposition) there is a Latinate counterpart (verb-framed
pattern). This demonstrates that it is still possible to “find typological
similarities between languages without close genetic connections” (56).
Finally, Chapter 2 discusses the notion of “a language” and its relationship
to dialects.

Chapter 3 introduces the reader to the intricacies of grammar by starting from
the general way grammar is usually perceived—as a set of arbitrary rules that
have to be learned. Grammar is then discussed in more abstract ways, such as
the prescriptive-descriptive dichotomy. The expression “Virtual Grammar”, used
by the authors to talk about the grammar they have in mind, aims precisely at
this goal: to present grammar in the abstract way it is conceived in
linguistics but, at the same time, in a way that is pedagogically useful. This
is the reason why they analyze grammar in two ways. One is as the “mental
grammar” each individual possesses, based on the individual’s own linguistic
experience. This mental grammar is characterized by an obvious degree of
variability across individuals, although overlap across individuals makes a
speech community sharing the same grammar still possible. The second way is
the “general mental capacity for grammar”, which is fixed across the human
species (80). The goal of the authors’ choice is to “convince” the reader that
an understanding of grammar in this way “can be pedagogically useful” (81).
The two ways lead the reader through their notion of “pedagogical grammar” as
“a way of thinking rather than a set of rules” (95). Through the discussion in
the main text, as well as in the text boxes about specific topics (among
others: preposition displacement; number, countability, and genericity;
unaccusativity; case marking and pronouns; agreement and participles;
habituality and incompleteness), Rankin and Whong suggest that the
reader/teacher build a catalogue of grammatical properties that does not
ignore the dichotomy between the specific (the many features building up the
complexity of grammar) and the abstract. 

Chapter 4, “Language learning and acquisition”, addresses the paradox
represented by the different language learning outcomes in first and second
language acquisition: while people eventually master the language they have
been exposed to from birth (L1), they encounter limitations in learning a new
language (L2) as adults (“fossilisation”). This chapter is therefore devoted
to second language acquisition (SLA) and how, according to SLA, the
acquisition of L1 and L2 are “the same and different” (118). On this account,
the chapter presents research contradicting the assumption that learning
language later in life is the same as learning general skills (“Fundamental
difference hypothesis”). Linked to the concept of “transfer”, the chapter also
discusses the techniques proposed by VanPatten’s “Processing Instruction”.
VanPatten focused on the cues used by learners for comprehension and how they
differ from language to language. Rankin and Whong also discuss the
“Bottleneck Hypothesis” addressing the acquisition problem—one of the sources
for fossilisation—caused by the encoding of different types of meaning for
specific morphemes. Based on this discussion, Rankin and Whong suggest the
reader/teacher design exercises that help the learner to make connections
between meaning and grammar structure. Chapter 4 also provides a summary of L2
grammar development in each of its stages: the beginning, the middle stage,
and the advanced one. For each stage, the influence of L1 transfer is
discussed. In the final part of Chapter 4, Rankin and Whong talk about the
differences between classroom vs. “some kind of immersion” learning (137),
with the explicit intent of challenging the idea that the two settings are
completely different. For this purpose, the authors discuss a series of
concepts and teaching approaches, in particular, “overgeneralisation errors”,
“language instinct”, and “prosodic bootstrapping”—employed by children to
identify word/phrase boundaries—to be paired with the use of “formulaic
sequences” in teaching a language. The discussion of the innate abilities of
children in acquiring a language is then followed by some considerations
regarding the equally crucial role played by “nurture” in the language
learning process. Linked to this discussion is the question: “Can language be
learnt later in life?” posed by the authors at the end of the chapter. To
answer this question, they contrast the use of quantifier scope in English and
Japanese, suggesting that “abstract properties of language can also be learned
later in life” (156). 

The last chapter, “Language education”, contains more general remarks on
language education. In particular, Rankin and Whong discuss the purpose of
language teaching by questioning the high goal set by Sato and Loewen (2019)
of fluent and accurate L2 usage. Rankin and Whong point out that teaching is
connected with much broader educational goals (a “messy reality” 163). They
also contrast the teaching of language vs. the teaching of other subjects and
dwell on unanswered questions related to language development and language
learning. Chapter 5 also reflects on previous language knowledge and how the
knowledge of an existing language can actually be used in L2 instruction. In
addressing this topic, Rankin and Whong discuss the concept of “nativeness”
and analyze possible differences between a language learned from birth and
languages learned later in life. The last topic covered in Chapter 5 is the
relevance of linguistics research to language teaching and, more generally,
the relationship between theory and practice in teaching a language. 

EVALUATION

In “Grammar: A Linguists’ Guide for Language Teachers”, the authors Tom Rankin
and Melinda Whong present a hands-on discussion of grammar phenomena through a
comparison of a variety of languages, in order to provide teachers with
research-based tools to teach and talk about grammar in class. 

Drawing on the comparison between different linguistic approaches to language
and on language-based data, this book aims at closing the gap between
theoretical linguistics and language teacher, a well-known issue already
pointed out by Lennon (1988) among many others. By mingling theoretical
approaches with insightful and practical examples based on the
most-established research in linguistics and by providing clear definitions of
the technical terms and theories discussed in the book, “Grammar: A Linguists’
Guide for Language Teachers” is capable of turning complex aspects of
linguistics into a clear narrative that can be followed by a reader who does
not have a  background in linguistics.

To conclude, “Grammar: A Linguists’ Guide for Language Teachers” is
recommended to all those teachers who want to enrich their teaching of grammar
in class, in alignment with Johnston and Goettsch’s (2000) claim emphasizing
the importance of training language teachers in theoretical linguistics
alongside language pedagogy and applied linguistics. Readers will benefit from
this book not only because it helps teachers better to grasp the complexity of
language, what is possible and not possible in the grammar of a language, and,
more generally, how language works, but also because it provides practical
explanations of grammar phenomena across a variety of languages. In this way,
the book is sure to enhance teaching strategies in the multilingual classroom.

REFERENCES

Johnston, Bill and Karin Goettsch. 2000. In search of the knowledge base of
language teaching: Explanations by experienced teachers. “Canadian Modern
Language Review/ La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes”, 56(3). 437–468.

Lennon, Paul (1988). The linguist and the language teacher: Love at first
sight or the end of the honeymoon. “English Teaching Forum”, 26(4). 2-5. 

Sato, Masatoshi and Shawn Loewen. 2019. Towards evidence-based second language
pedagogy: Research proposals and pedagogical recommendations. In Sato,
Masatoshi and Shawn Loewen (eds.), “Evidence-based second language pedagogy: A
collection of instructed second language acquisition studies”, 1–24. New York:
Routledge.

VanPatten, Bill. 1996. “Input processing and grammar instruction: Theory and
research”. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Elena Sharafutdinova holds two master’s degrees, one in teaching Italian as a
second language and one in Linguistics. Her primary research interest is in
second language acquisition and pedagogy with a focus on the Italian language.
Elena is also interested in phonology and the interaction of second language
acquisition with different disciplines within and outside linguistics. She
actively participates in international and national conferences on applied
linguistics and education. Currently, Elena teaches Italian for the department
of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at California State
University, Fresno.





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