17.1588, Review: Applied Ling/ESL: Hughes (2006)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1588. Wed May 24 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.1588, Review: Applied Ling/ESL: Hughes (2006)

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1)
Date: 22-May-2006
From: Peter Clements < peter at iuj.ac.jp >
Subject: Spoken English, Applied Linguistics and TESOL 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 21:09:48
From: Peter Clements < peter at iuj.ac.jp >
Subject: Spoken English, Applied Linguistics and TESOL 
 

Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-592.html 

EDITOR: Hughes, Rebecca
TITLE: Spoken English, TESOL, and Applied Linguistics
SUBTITLE: Challenges for Theory and Practice
PUBLISHER: Palgrave Macmillan
YEAR: 2006

Peter Clements, Graduate School of International Relations, 
International University of Japan, Japan

PURPOSE AND CONTENTS

This volume brings together work by linguists and applied linguists 
working primarily in North America and the British Isles, though Hong 
Kong, Singapore, and Finland are also represented. As implied in the 
title, the collection aims on the one hand to discuss a range of 
theoretical issues raised by recent empirical research into spoken 
English, and, on the other, to examine some of the implications of this 
work for English language teaching (ELT). Many of the contributions 
thus make explicit reference to data, whether by reviewing research, 
presenting samples of actual spoken language, or both, while at the 
same time offering proposals for and critical discussion of pedagogical 
practice.

The book is divided into four parts, the first of which (''Attitudes and 
Ideologies'') includes two chapters which focus in different ways on 
attitudes towards language learning and learners, as well as the 
ideologies that inform teaching practices. In Chapter 1, ''Uncovering 
the Sociopolitical Situatedness of Accents in the World Englishes 
Paradigm,'' Jasmine C.M. Luk and Angel M.Y. Lin critically analyze the 
status of English and ELT in Hong Kong since its independence from 
Great Britain, focusing particularly on the preference among teachers 
and learners for British-Australian-North American (BANA) accents as 
learning targets. The chapter thus complicates the explicit project of 
World Englishes to gain acceptance for non-native varieties of English 
by demonstrating some of the problems that this project runs into in 
actual practice.

In Chapter 2, ''What the Other Half Gives: The Interlocutor's Role in 
Non-native Speaker Performance,'' Stephanie Lindemann presents 
several samples of interactions between native and non-native English 
speakers, focusing specifically on places where communication 
problems occur. While previous research on such interaction has 
concentrated on the non-native speaker's verbal behavior, thus 
emphasizing non-native speakers' linguistic deficiencies as the root 
cause of miscommunication, Lindemann argues that native speakers' 
verbal behavior, as well as their negative judgements of non-native 
speakers, are just as likely to lead to communication breakdowns.

Part II, which includes four chapters on various aspects of prosody, is 
perhaps the most directly concerned with spoken language data and 
its theoretical implications, though teaching issues are also addressed 
in several of the chapters. In Chapter 3, ''Reading Aloud,'' noted 
linguist Wallace Chafe extends his previous investigations of the 
difference between spoken and written language by contrasting 
differences in the prosodic patterns within spoken extracts including 
both spontaneous and recited speech. Among the insights that Chafe 
offers is the observation that prosody and punctuation are closely 
interrelated in recited texts.

In Chapter 4, ''Intonational Meaning Starting from Talk,'' Ann 
Wennerstrom argues that intonational meaning, or the way discourse 
is shaped by features such as pitch and volume, deserves more 
attention in both language teaching and in applied linguistics 
research. She synthesizes the research on intonational meaning and 
suggests that a ''discourse-first'' approach is most appropriate to 
analyzing language learners' intonation. She then demonstrates this 
approach through microanalyses of three brief samples of speech, 
thus highlighting a number of patterns in interlanguage intonation that 
are not explained by theoretical models.

Chapter 5, ''A Review of Recent Research on Speech Rhythm: Some 
Insights for Language Acquisition, Language Disorders and Language 
Teaching'' by Ee Ling Low, presents, as its title suggests, a review of 
cross-linguistic research into speech rhythm, focusing particularly on 
different quantitative indexes of rhythm. After comparing the results 
that these indexes have yielded in specific studies, Low then 
discusses the applicability of one index to investigations of language 
acquisition and language disorder, and then concludes with some 
proposals for using it as a language teaching tool.

Hughes's own contribution, ''Factors Affecting Turn-taking Behaviour: 
Genre Meets Prosody'' (Chapter 6), which is co-authored with 
Beatrice Szczepek Reed, examines the factors that influence turn-
taking in interactions between native and non-native speakers of 
English. After reviewing the research on turn-taking, they present a 
set of hypotheses on what speakers must know in order to accomplish 
turn-taking effectively in conversation. These hypotheses are then 
discussed in light of an analysis of two brief extracts of a conversation, 
revealing the influence not only of micro-level features of prosody and 
syntax, but also of macro-level characteristics of genre and idiolect. 
Hughes and Szczepek Reed conclude by arguing that turn-taking 
research needs to incorporate both micro- and macro-level features 
into its investigations.

The third section of the book, ''Spoken Discourse and Language 
Pedagogy,'' is more explicitly concerned with discussions of language 
teaching, and so there is less emphasis on the presentation and 
analysis of language samples (though continual reference is made to 
spoken language data). The first of these, ''Spoken Discourse, 
Academics and Global English'' by Anna Mauranen, presents an 
argument for the prioritization of spoken language corpora as the 
basis for linguistic descriptions which in turn provide the basis for 
pedagogical practice. Mauranen further holds that more importance 
should be given to English used as a lingua franca, not only to 
counteract the implicit reliance on native speaker models entrenched 
throughout applied linguistics research and language teaching, but 
also to more accurately reflect the ways in which English is most 
commonly used throughout the world today.

In Chapter 8, ''Spoken Grammar: Vague Language and EAP,'' Joan 
Cutting outlines a model of vague language that she has developed 
from a longitudinal corpus drawn from a group of applied linguistics 
graduate students. Cutting then argues that vague, or implicit, 
language needs to be more directly included in textbooks and other 
ELT materials, rather than referred to as something to be avoided, as 
has traditionally been done. Fiona Farr's contribution, ''Reflecting on 
Reflections: The Spoken Word as a Professional Development Tool in 
Language Teacher Education'' (Chapter 9), also draws on a corpus 
developed in the context of a graduate teacher training program to 
argue for spoken language corpora as a stimulus for self-reflection in 
language teacher training. In particular, Farr presents extracts that 
illustrate the range of feedback strategies that teacher trainers use.

In ''Analyzing Classroom Discourse: A Variable Approach'' (Chapter 
10), Steve Walsh reviews the research on classroom discourse, 
categorizing previous studies according to a number of approaches 
(for example, interaction analysis, discourse analysis, conversation 
analysis), concluding with a more detailed discussion of several 
studies that have taken what he calls a variable approach, which 
takes into account the dynamic, situated nature of classroom contexts. 
The variable approach, Walsh argues, provides more accurate 
descriptions of classroom discourse because it recognizes that 
interactional patterns vary according to relationships among students 
and teachers, and teachers' pedagogical goals.

The final section of the book narrows the focus by including two 
chapters which explore issues related to assessment of spoken 
language. John M. Levis's chapter, ''Pronunciation and the 
Assessment of Spoken Language'' (Chapter 11), looks specifically at 
pronunciation as a component of spoken language assessment, 
arguing that comprehensibility, and not accuracy, should be the focus 
of such assessment, and furthermore that comprehensibility needs to 
be understood in flexible terms depending on whether speakers and 
hearers are native or non-native speakers, or a combination of the 
two. The final chapter, ''Local and Dialogic Language Ability and its 
Implication for Language Teaching and Testing'' by Marysia Johnson 
Gerson, draws on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and Bakhtin's 
heteroglossia to argue for assessment that is locally and dialogically 
situated within the contexts in which language learning takes place. 
Such an approach, Johnson suggests, would place more value on the 
learner's developmental potential rather than actual level of 
development.

EVALUATION

Although the book's stated aim is to discuss both the theoretical and 
pedagogical implications of research into spoken English, the chapters 
vary considerably as to how thoroughly they address that aim. In 
several chapters, teaching is deemphasized in favor of reviews of 
research and discussions of empirical data. At the opposite end of the 
spectrum are those pieces which concentrate on building arguments 
and developing proposals for pedagogical practice with less direct 
attention to research and data. To be sure, even the research-
oriented chapters are pitched at a reasonably non-technical (though 
not oversimplified) level so as to be accessible to a general audience. 
However, many of the chapters seem to speak more resonantly to 
either the teacher or the researcher. There are, of course, some 
exceptions to this. Ann Wennerstrom's contribution (Chapter 4), for 
example, admirably manages not only to review research on 
intonation and present several sample analyses, but also to develop a 
theoretical point that has implications both for teaching and research. 
Stephanie Lindemann's chapter (Chapter 2) does a similarly 
commendable job of reflecting on both theoretical and practical issues 
in evaluating non-native speaker performance.

A further observation that can be made is that the chapters do not 
consistently make use of sample data. Although the book presents a 
wealth of insight on a great variety of issues (as should be clear from 
the summary above), those issues seem to come more sharply into 
focus when they are grounded in actual examples of spoken English. 
Again, there are exceptions to this. Both Steve Walsh (Chapter 10) 
and John M. Levis (Chapter 11) present such carefully developed 
frameworks to center their arguments (about, respectively, classroom 
discourse and spoken language testing) that the discussion does not 
suffer from a lack of specific examples. Similarly, Jasmine C. M. Luk 
and Angel M. Y. Lin's chapter (Chapter 1) does not make direct use of 
sample data, but develops its discussion of the status of different 
English accents in Hong Kong through reference to an abundance of 
published research and anecdotal evidence.

These, however, are not so much shortcomings as points that 
interested readers should bear in mind as they approach the book. As 
a whole, the book provides a set of accessible, issues-driven 
discussions of the ''state of the art'' in spoken language research and 
practice. It thus has something to offer researchers and practitioners 
working in a wide range of professional contexts. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER


Peter Clements is currently Assistant Professor at the International 
University of Japan where he teaches academic English courses for 
graduate students. He recently completed his PhD in applied 
linguistics and composition at the University of Washington. His 
research interests center around second language writing, particularly 
response, revision, and assessment, contrastive rhetoric, and 
applications of discourse analysis to foreign language learning and 
pedagogy.





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