A BIASED BIBLIOGRAPHY: COMMENTS ON SELECTING TEXTS FOR A METHODS COURSE IN TESOL

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A BIASED BIBLIOGRAPHY: COMMENTS ON SELECTING TEXTS FOR A METHODS

COURSE IN TESOL

Christina Bratt Paulston University of Pittsburgh

At conferences on teacher training in foreign language teaching, the question of how to select texts for methodology courses is often raised. It is an important matter, yet one that is virtually ignored both in the literature and in methodology courses themselves. The first time I was personally faced with this problem, I did what many teachers do: I chose the texts I had been trained with. The result was unfortunate because the choice went counter to what I now see as the two basic variables in selecting texts: (a) the instructor’s bias, that is, his own theoretical convictions about the nature of language learning; and (b) the requirements and constraints of the actual situation in which the teacher trainee will teach, a variable which should be the overriding consideration in determining the objectives for the course.

With regard to (a) above, let me offer a specific example of my own bias. I join the eclectic stand of Ronald Wardhaugh (1972). I can no longer accept the theoretical assumptions of classic audio- lingual theory, but neither can I accept the techniques of cognitive code learning, many of which strike me as utter nonsense. Further- more, I completely accept Carroll’s (1971) opinion that habit for- mation theories and innate learning theories are not mutually ex- clusive but rather complementary. Finally, I fail to become c m - vinced of the pedagogical value of transformational-generative grammar; I much prefer a structural approach in teaching foreign languages.

This article attempts a review of the twelve texts I consider most suitable for methodology courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). These texts are examined from the viewpoint of approach, method, and technique. The criteria for inclusion are rather vague: in almost all cases, I have used them my- self as texts and have found them to be either “unique” and/or highly useful. The purpose of the article is to bring together useful information for teacher trainees in order to facilitate selection

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130 LANGUAGE LEARNING, VOL. 23, NO. 1

of textbooks for methodology courses. I assume that the objectives of such courses are similar to those of the University of Pitts- burgh program, which attempts to prepare students to teach any- where in the world, under varying circumstances, and at any of several levels of ability. In the United States, these courses a re usually on the M.A. level, and students a r e primarily prepared to teach English language skills, but many students end up adminis- tering programs, teaching methodology courses, and preparing materials as well. In short, after a course o r two, teacher trainees are expected to handle on a practical level almost any situation which might occur in TESOL. It is therefore more important to train future teachers to grasp the processes and procedures for dealing with problems in ESOL, than it is for them to memorize a bag of tricks. It is the old problem of theory and practice. Ward- haugh (1972) notes that there is nothing s o practical as a good theory, but I also think that theory is best taught in facing and dealing with actual problems of teaching. The implications for choosing a textbook for a methods course a r e obvious; one needs a text that t reats theoretical considerations as well as practical.

As always when one discusses theory and practice it is useful to distinguish between approach, method, and technique. Approach is the “set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language and the nature of language and learning” (Anthony 1972:5). Approach is the theoretical foundation upon which any systematic method is based. Many of the assumptions held a r e axiomatic in that they cannot be proved either true or false. As such, the merit of any approach is unarguable in terms of theory, and one must look at the effectiveness of the method which it has generated. Methods refer to the procedures of language teaching, to an “over- all plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach” (Anthony 1972:6). The lesson plan, the curriculum, the scheduling of classes and the‘selection of textbooks, in fact most of the decisions made about language teaching outside the classroom, form part of the method and should of course be in har- mony with the basic tenets of the approach. The method is imple- mented by techniques, by actual classroom behavior or the specific strategies which the teacher selects to achieve his objectives. The selectionand sequencing of these strategies as well as the strategies themselves are based on the method and hence are in accord with the theoretical issues of the approach.

On a theoretical level we commonly recognize four major approaches: grammar-translation, direct method, audio-lingual, and cognitive code. There is also a fifth, variously referred to as

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“modified audio-lingual” or an eclectic approach. Rather than di- g re s s in a lengthy discussion of these approaches, I will assume the reader’s familiarity with them. (See Mackey 1965:137-292, for a detailed discussion of methods.) In spite of the recent fad within foreign language teaching to dismiss the consideration of major approaches as inconsequential to good teaching (Jarvis 1972, Wolfe 1973), I consider a basic understanding of the theoretical founda- tions of these five approaches as crucial to any productive work in teacher training, as do Chastain (19711, Bosco and DiPietro (1971), Rivers (1964) and Stevick (1971).

The following books are my recommendations for texts in a course o r program which prepares teachers of English to speakers of other languages. The books are classified according to the approach of language teaching which they follow and then ordered after the aspects of language teaching they deal with: approach, method o r technique. I have considered primarily two variables, the instructor’s bias and the constraints of the teaching situation. Where these conflict, I find the latter more important as a guide- line in the selection of texts.

Grammar translation It is unlikely that any instructor today is biased toward the

grammar-translakon approach, but as a constraint of the teaching situation it still remains with us. It is frequently commented that aspects of the cognitive code are similar to those of grammar- translation, and one might therefore think that a cognitive code text would be preferable. The difficulty is that no cognitive code text on the technique level exists, and surely teachers in a situation which demands grammar-translation desperately need to be exposed to other techniques of teaching.

The direct method amroach

Billows, F. L. The Techniques of Language Teaching, London: Longmans, 1961.

This book deals with procedures and techniques in language teaching according to the direct method. Billows comes across as an eminently kind and sensible man, and a positive practicality permeates the book and probably accounts for the delight my students have always taken in it. I use it as a text primarily with European teachers or with those who will teach in British oriented school systems. They especially enjoy the chapters on teaching prose literature and poetry, a topic typically over-looked in Ameri-


can texts. The discussion of unsupervised work is insightful and I especially enjoy the chapter on “ Co-operation in language learning’.’ which is an early exponent of our present emphatic concern for interaction activities in the classroom (Rivers 1972).

Bright, J. A. and G. P. McGregor. Teaching English a s a Second Language. London: Longman, 1970.

This is another sensible book about procedures and techniques, based on the authors’ experience in Africa teaching English in secondary schools and training teachers for secondary schools. The book does not deal with language learning on the elementary level. The topics covered are vocabulary, reading, writing, speech, drama, poetry, and grammar. There is a wealth of examples, models, charts with explanatory comments so that the actual classroom behavior of the teacher becomes very clear. I find sur- prisingly little to quarrel with, and it is probably the best text I know of to prepare students to teach.overseas.

The audio-lingual approach

Fries, Charles. Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Lan- guage. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1945.

This book is the initial and classic statement of the theoretical and procedural concerns of the audio-lingual approach, which Fries called the “ora l approach.” It deals with sounds, structure and words, and cultural considerations; almost one half of the book is an appendix containing Michigan materials. One can not help but be impressed with how very sound most of Fries’ comments about language learning still remain. Just as transformational linguistics very clearly builds on structural linguistics, so our present knowledge about second language learning is permeated by Fries’ thinking. The strength of the book, from a classroom teacher’s viewpoint, lies in the linguistic analysis of what to teach. Much of the nonsense in language teaching for which the audio-lingual approach is commonly blamed, such as mechanical overdrilling and the absence of rules and explanations, is noticeable absent. Indeed, Fries even advises giving explanations in the mother tongue (7). Somewhere in his program, this book should be required reading for every E S L teacher.

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Finocchiaro, Mary. English as a Second Language: From Theory to Practice. New York: Regents, 1964.

I have many reservations about this book ranging from linguistic objections (Finocchiaro says there a r e 154 function words in English (27); there are in fact many more) to pedagogical (grammar rules are not necessary (59), fluency of utterance should pre- cede any visual exposure to language materials (70), etc.). These statements are hallmarks of what has become identified as classic audio-lingual methodology, Fnd today we have evidence that casts serious doubt upon the efficiency of such a methodology on a procedural level. Presumably Finocchiaro herself would question some of these statements today.

However, my overseas students find this book useful for several reasons. In the first place, they can understand it; Finocchjaro manages to present highly technical material in simple and non- technical terms. In the second place, the book is primarily on the technique level and deals with the kind of concerns classroom teachers face everyday. It is full of do’s and don’ts with sample dril ls and exercises, covering aspects of curriculum, teaching the various language skills, materials, and testing all in 130 pages. And finally, the book is permeated by Finocchiaro’s inimitable concern for the knowledge of the classroom teacher’s world.

I will continue to use this text with foreign teacher trainees who have difficulties with English; their delight in the book over- r ides my theoretical concerns.

Dacanay, Fe. Donald Bowen (ed.). Techniques and Procedures in Second Languuge Teaching. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, 1963.

This book is the only full-fledged classroom text on the technique level in ESL following the audio-lingual approach. There a r e seven chapters (presenting structures, drills, pronunciation, reading, writing, and testing) all with detailed lesson plans, sample lessons, exercises, reading passages, and comprehension questions. The book is the only text I know which consistently considers techniques from different levels of proficiency and consistently provides sample techniques for these different levels.

Now for the bad news. The book is written at the Philippine Center for Language Study specifically for the Philippine situation, which tends to give the book a local tone and to limit its applicability. Also, I question the theoretical assumptions about language teaching on which the book is based. The following is a typical


statement from her book: “The t e rm structure refers to the pat- terned arrangement of the units of an utterance so that these units signal a meaning that can be understood and responded to by those who hear and read them” (98). This is not very helpful as an introduction to structural pattern dril ls . I find it crucial that teachers understand why and what they are doing as well as knowing how to do it. There is little sense in doing pattern practice if one doesn’t understand the difference between structure and pattern. Compare Rivers’ statement: “In this chapter, the term ‘structure’ will be reserved for the underlying system of princi- ples which determine the observable interrelationships of language elements (patterns)’’ (1968100). In its simplicity, it is a very elegant statement about the relationship of deep and surface structure.

The result is that we have to pick our way very carefully through Dacanay, and it irritates the students to have to question so consistently what they read. Last year they unanimously recom- mended that we no longer use the book as a text and I have fol- lowed their recommendation.

Cognitive code learning approach

Lester, Mark (ed.). Readings in Applied Transformational Gram- mar. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1970. 314 pp.l

This is a n anthology consisting of nineteen articles. To the degree that the cognitive code learning approach tends to be associated with the transformational-generative viewpoint of language, the book belongs in this section. As far as it deals with language teaching, it is a very dubious choice. I have selected it as it is the only book I know of which unhesitatingly pretends to claim applications of transformational grammar. While I think it fails in such a claim, it is only fair to call the book to the attention of those who share Lester’s bias.

My own reaction to the book is extremely biased, which is curious as I have considerable tolerance for speculations about language teaching. I bridle at the claims of practicality: “In general, the transformationist’s analysis of verb phrase constructions, beginning with Chomsky’s simple C(M) (have-n) (be+ing) verb formula, brings startling simplicity and clarity to our understanding of the grammatical structure of a number of discontinuous

1The Second Edition (1973), with some significant changes, has just become available as this article goes to the press.

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and elliptical verb constructions: transformational grammar seems to offer suggestions neatly and precisely for what a program for teaching English verb structure would have to include” (Newmark 213-214). My reaction is like Wardhaugh’s: “neither the grammar nor existing descriptions give teachers any way of teachi% these insights” (1971: 16); Newmark’s claims are simply unfounded. Then I read that

Since lexical vocabulary is introduced in a transformational grammar by phrase-structure rules only, an apparent theoretical jus- tification seems to be offered for teaching new vocabulary in simple kernel sentences, without complicating the teaching of vocabulary by teaching new sentence patterns at the same time, and vice versa. (215)

The grammatical analysis is already out of date, but the advice remains as sound as ever; it is what Dacanay and the other audio- linguists have always said. It illustrates the tendency to discuss old techniques in new jargon; as Kenneth Pike reportedly said, classroom teachers know today what linguists won’t discover for another thirty years. I can continue in this vein until I become as ill-tempered as Twadell (1973) and the reader justifiably won- ders if I included the book just to criticize it. There a r e several interesting articles that language teachers should be familiar with, such as Hunt’s and Jakobovits’. Part I contains excellent essays by Lenneberg, Miller and Chomsky; it has little to do with language teaching but deals instead with their conception of language. Included is the oft-quoted “Linguistic Theory” by Chomsky. He is worth quoting again: “Once again, I would like to stress that the implications of these ideas for language teaching are far from clear to me.” (59)

Lugton, Robert (ed.). Toward a Cognitive Approach to Second Lan- guage Acquisition. Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum De- velopment, 1971. 244 pp.

This is an anthology of thirteen papers, most of which deals with theoretical concerns. The Toward in the title is significant because in no way can all of the authors be said to be strict cognitive code theorists. Rather, the reader is presented with a careful consideration of present concerns in language teaching, most of which are based on a comparison and/or criticism of the classic audio-lingual approach. Wardhaugh’s excellent “ Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: The State of the Art” makes very clear how we cannot yet afford to be categorical about the nature


of language learning. Bosco and DiPietro provide ‘a useful way (in spite of their terminology) to compare approaches .to language teaching in terms of a distinctive feature analysis. Every teacher should be familiar with the arguments presented by Jakobovits and Chastain.

In short, if the other texts used in the program are primarily audio-lingual o r modified audio-lingual, (except Chastain, see below) this would be my choice of text for introducing the students to recent theories of language teaching.

Smith, Jr., Philip D. Toward a Practical Theory of Second-Lan- guage Instruction. Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum Develop- ment, 1971. 106 pp.

I include this book in my list, although I have never used it as a text, because it is the only monograph which can be identified with the cognitive code approach. While Smith might well disagree with my classification, his “ Basic Proposition” and “ Practical Applications” (the chapters are not numbered) list and share the same assumptions as those normally associated with cognitive code learning. Smith pulls together many of the concerns raised in Lugton’s reader in a simplified restatement of many of the com- plex issues discussed in the field of language teaching today. I share completely his biases as outlined in “ Practical Applications,” however, we differ decidedly on the technique level: I don’t question at all the results reported in “Does It Work?” (102-103), but I do think there is a middle ground, and that drills still have their place in the classroom (Paulston 1971).

The weaknesses of the book as a text lie in the objectives (as far as I can ascertain from the sample materials) of language teaching which are truly oral-aural; there is no attempt to deal with reading, writing, pronunciation (except to dismiss it), listening comprehension, and spelling. The book presents basically a global approach to language teaching; however, the implications for language teaching on the intermediate and advanced levels are not discussed on a pr’ocedural level.

The modified audio-lingual o r eclectic approach

Allen, Harold and Russel Campbell (eds.). Teaching English as a Second Language. Second Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.

This is the second edition of Harold Allen’s anthology of the same title (1965). It would probably be more accurate to say that

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it is a new anthology as thirty-five of the original fifty articles have been replaced by thirty more recent contributions to the field of language teaching. The second edition reflects the changes which have taken place in language teaching during the last ten years; new theories and new data have resulted in new assumptions about language learning. In Part I on theories and approaches, only Anthony’s classic article “Approach, Method, and Technique” r e - mains; of the others Wardhaugh, Bolinger, and Chastain in three excellent articles discuss present issues from an eclectric viewpoint. The reaction of those of my students who have had teaching experience to Lakoff’s “Transformational Grammar and Language Teaching” is not printable, but the article is well worth reading as it clearly outlines the biases and concerns in language teaching from a generative viewpoint. One might wish for Lamendella’s (1969) reply to have been included.

Parts I1 and I11 on methods and techniques of teaching language skills in general do not reflect the implications of the issues discussed in Par t I. My own “Structural Pattern Drills: A Classifi- cation” is perhaps an exception. Rather they reflect the practical concerns of classroom teachers. Virtually every author has been a classroom teacher and this is apparent in their pragmatic approach to real problems. The Allen and Stevick articles on materials are most useful; the emphasis throughout on communication is important as well as timely. Unaccountably there is no article on teaching pronunciation. The section on reading is the weakest; all the articles are written from the British experience and deal primarily with procedures rather than techniques. I quite agree that students must learn to discover the meanings of words in context, but I would also like to know just how they learn this. Knapp’s article on composition remains as good as in the first edition, and I find remarkably little to quarrel with in Dykstra and Paulston’s “Guided Composition,” (the article was written in 1965, and I have changed many of my assumptions since then).

Contrastive analysis has lately become a moot point and Part IV deals with what it is and why it is used. This is not contrastive analysis in a narrow sense but rather a comparative approach to a wide range of language matters, reflecting the present theoretical concern for dealing with variation in language in formal analysis. Perhaps the best article in this section is Robert Kap- lan’s “ Cultural Thought Patterns in Intercultural Education,” ob- ligatory reading for anyone teaching advanced writing in ESOL.

In Part V on Testing, Carroll’s classic article remains. Cooper’s article may be a useful introduction to standard concepts in testing, but there are matters with which I disagree. Oller at


his heretical, polemic best is really very good on the value of dic- tation as a test; I only wish the article contained procedures for scoring. Upshur’s article on cross-cultural testing really deals with Hymes’ concept of “communicative competence,” a crucial concern in sociolinguistics.

Par t VI, Current Issues, again reflects the changing concern of TESOL: it primarily deals with aspects of bilingual education. Mackey’s frequently cited “A Typology of Bilingual Education” is included as well as articles by Lambert, Spolsky, and Fishman and Lovas.

I have commented at length on this reader as it and Croft (see below) will no doubt become the standard anthologies in the field fo r many years to come. In a sense, this means that they a r e competing texts, as the instructor is likely to choose one o r the other. He can, of course, as we are doing this summer, use both. Certainly they should both be included on the student’s reading list.

I used Allen and Campbell in a program for international teachers of English where I concentrated on methods and techniques but wanted to make certain my teachers were exposed to present controversy and concern on a theoretical level. Parts I, IV, V, and VI do this very well, and herein lies the strength of the book.

Chastain, Kenneth. The Development of Modern Language Skills: Theory to Practice Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum De- velopment, 1971.

There are two books which I would consider basic texts for a methods course, and this is one of them. The other is Rivers (see below). I would recommend one o r the other; there is too much overlap to use both.

This book is clearly on the approach and methods level; “it is not intended to be a cookbook,” (1) says Chastain, which means that as a text it must be supplemented, and my choice would be Croft (see below). It is eclectic in objectives: “ F o r too long, language teachers have searched for the method rather than at- tempting to formulate guidelines to enhance the teacher’s own par- t icular capabilities, experience, preferences, and personality, ” (2) as well as in approach; theoretical and procedural aspects of (primarily) the audio-lingual and the cognitive code approaches are dispassionately considered throughout the book. This is not a text for the novice instructor unless he has considerable experience in classroom teaching; such ambivalent attitudes toward procedures very easily lead to frustration in classroom teachers, who are more than likely to ask the instructor which is the right way to do it.

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The answer preferably is based on more than the bias of the instructor.

Part I considers theoretical issueb of language teaching from many points of view. Chapter VI on research is especially useful. The chapter headings of Par t I1 include Listening Comprehension, Reading, Speaking, Writing, General Guidelines, Lesson Planning, Classroom Activities, and Evaluation. There are also various appendices, one of which attempts to deal with Discipline. It is true that discipline is very often a crucial problem in American high schools but I refute out of hand the basic premise of that chapter: “ The problems of discipline are symptomatic of fundamental de- ficiencies in the teacher” (370). The majority of discipline problems in United States high schools today are symptomatic of the social ills of that society, and to blame the teachers results in a cruel demoralizing of a professional corps.

Having said this is one of the two basic texts, I won’t attempt any detailed and objective criticism. It behooves any instructor to be intimately familiar with the book. Many of my students this year agreed that Chastain and Rivers overlapped; those with no previous exposure to language teaching insisted that Rivers was crucial to “putting it all in place”; the foreign students commented that Chastain was much easier to understand, that is, the readability level demanded a lower proficiency level; and all agreed that it was easier to find one’s way in Chastain (there are section headings). They also liked the large print of Chastain, the quality of the paper and other such irrelevant but essential mechanical qualities. At a final count, the class was evenly divided between Chastain and Rivers, with everyone finally agreeing that Rivers should be a prerequisite and Chastain the final text. It should be added that we have two methodology courses, (one on theoretical concerns and the other on procedures and techniques) and Rivers will be required reading for the theoretical course; students who have not read Rivers will be required to read it on their own.

Subjectively-which, when all is said and done, is how you choose a text-my,own preference is torn between the two. Basic- ally I prefer Rivers and her meticulous scholarship; she knows what good language teaching is and says so. One problem is that the book is now five years old, and we as well as Rivers have modified our opinions during the last five years about what con- stitutes efficient lamuage teaching. Chastain discusses more recent theoretical issues and students find him easier to understand.


Rivers, Wilga. Teaching Foreign-Language Skills. Chicago: Univer- sity of Illinois, 1968.

This is the present classic of methodology texts, and recom- mended for the novice instructor. River’s bias is toward a modified audio-lingual approach, the major difference from Chastain. But it is an extensive modification; Rivers was one of the first to question the assumptions of the audio-lingual method (Rivers 1964); this book is permeated with those questions and doubts. My own thinking and writing has been greatly influenced by this book. Like Chastain, this book is on the approach and method level. The text deals with teaching grammar, pronunciation, listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. There are also chapters on cultural understanding, testing, and the language laboratory as well as two introductory chapters on the audio-lingual method and other approaches. Like Chastain, this book is written for foreign language teaching, not for ESOL specifically, but since neither discusses techniques, it makes no difference. Rivers needs to be aug- mented with two texts, one for techniques and one . t o introduce more recent theoretical considerations; for the latter, Allen and Campbell, Lester, o r Lugton would all be good choices.

Croft, Kenneth. Readings on English as a Second Language. Cam- bridge, Mass.: Winthrop, 19722

Possibly it is ,unfair to say that this book competes with the Allen and Campbell; this is the only anthology on the technique level in ESOL. It is popular with my students. Its particular theoretical bias may not be sufficiently modified for my taste, but there are times where that makes astonishingly little difference on the technique level. I quarrel with at least half of Strain’s assumptions about language learning, yet I still find his discussion of techniques for teaching pronunciation very useful. On the other hand, McIntosh’s assumption that “we should never talk about language until we know how to speak the language” (115) makes it impossible for me to accept her techniques.

There is a very useful introduction by Croft discussing the field of TESL, its organizations, journals, and teacher qualifica- tions. In Section One on Trends and Practices, Anthony and Nor- ris’s “Method in Language Teaching” and Rivers’ “Rules, Pat- terns, and Creativity” are especially helpful and serve as a frame-

2For a careful review of this book, see Carlos Yorio, in Language Learning 22:2 (December, 1972), 305-307.

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work for the following articles. Section Two on Speaking and Under- standing is very useful. Besides the article by Strain, Robinett’s “ Simple Classroom Techniques for Teaching Pronunciation” provides many other tricks for teaching English sounds. Hockett’s “ Learning Pronunciation” points out among other things that there are many sounds one has to produce before one can recognize them, something I have been certain of ever since I studied Thai. Section Three on Grammar is too classic audio-lingual for my taste, and the only article I agree with is my own “The Sequencing of Structural Pattern Drills.” Section Four on Reading has Norris’ excellent “Advanced Reading: Goal, Techniques, Procedures,” which is to date the most useful article I know for this topic. Hall’s spelling tables are also instrumental for reference. Section Five on writing has two practical articles by Dykstra and Slager on controlled composition and my own favorite, R. Kaplan’s “ Cul- tural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education” where he outlines his thesis that logic as an organizing principle of phenome- na is not an extension of intelligence but culturally conditioned. The other Sections cover Vocabulary, Testing, Teaching Aids and Other Selected Topics; I especially like Bowen’s “A Multiple- Register Approach to Teaching English,” a subject ignored far too much in the literature.

There are of course numerous other books on language teaching which are beneficial as reference works. Croft has a bibliography in his Introduction. I would like to mention two very recent ad- ditions which have not yet appeared in the bibliographies. Donald Larson and William Smalley, Becoming Bilingual: A Guide to Lan- guage Leawing (New Canaan, Conn.: Practical Anthropology, 1972) is an unusual book in that it is written for the learner rather than for the teacher. Edward D. Allen and Rebecca M. Valette, Modem Langwge Classroom Techniques (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Ja- vanovich, 1972) is a useful monograph on the technique level. The target languages are French, German, and Spanish which makes it, less suitable as a text but it may still be helpful as a reference work. And finally I would like to mention the Center for Curricu- lum Development series “Applied Linguistics and the Teacher: A Series in Applied Linguistics,” of which Chastain, Lugton, and Smith are a part. In addition, here are some references for more specialized topics, which the instructor may find helpful.

Contrastive analysis: Lado, Robert. Linguistics Across Cultures: Applied Linguistics for Languuge Teachers. Ann Arbor: Uni- versity of Michigan Press, 1957.


Erro r Analysis: George, H. V. Common Errors in Lartguage Learning. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1972.

Instructional Objectives: Mager, Robert. Preparing Instructional Objectives. Palo Alto, Calif.: Fearon Publishers, 1962.

Language Laboratory: Higgins, J. J. A Guide to Language Labora- tory Material Writing. Oslo: Universitets Jorlaget, 1969. Stack, Edward. The Language Laboratory and Modern Language Teaching. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.

Socio-cultural considerations: Abrahams, Roger and Rudloph C. Troike. Language and Cultural Diversity in American Edu- cation. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972. Burger, Henry. E thno - Pedagogy : C ross - Cultural Teaching Techniques. Alberquerque, New Mexico: Southwestern Coopera- tive Educational Laboratory, 1971. Spolsky, Bernard. ed. The Language Education of Minority Children. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1972.

Testing: Harris, David. Testing English as a Second Language. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969.

Valette, Rebecca. Modern Language Testing: A Handbook. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1967.

I have been openly subjective in my comments, and have de- liberately avoided an objective sounding style. I have wanted to make very clear that these comments are not based on empirical research or unbiased scholarship. Rather they a r e based on my own judgment and experience, which I thought might be helpful in an unpretentious way. I a m concerned about the quality of our teacher training in ESOL, and this article may be seen as one step to remedy a problem we have tended to ignore.

REFERENCES

Allen, Harold B. (ed.). 1965. Teaching English as a Second Language. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Anthony, Edward M. 1972. Approach, method and technique, in H. Allen and R. Campbell (eds.) Teaching English as a Second Language 4-8. /New York: McGraw -Hill.

BOSCO, F. and R. DiPietro. 1971. Instructional strategies: their psychological and linguistic bases, in R. Lugton (ed.) Toward a Cognitive Ap- proach to Second Language Acquisition. Philadelphia: Center for Cur- riculum Development.

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Carroll, John. 1971. Current issues in psycholinguistics and second language Teaching. TESOL Quarterly 5.101-114.

Chastain, K. 1971. The Development of Modern-Language Skills: Theory to Practice. Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum Development.

H a r r i s , David. 1969. Testing English a s a Second Language. New York: M cGraw -Hill.

Jarvis, Gilbert A. Teacher education goals: they are tearing up the street where I was born. Foreign Language Annals 6.198-205.

Kelley, L. G. 1969. Twenty-five Centuries of Language Teaching. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House.

Lamendella, John T. 1969. On the irrelevance of transformational grammar to second language pedagogy. Language Learning 3-4.255-270.

Mackey, William F. 1965. The meaning of method. Language Teaching Analysis 137-292. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Paulston, C. B. 1971. The sequencing of structural pattern drills. T E S L Quarterly 5.197-208.

Rivers, W. 1964. The Psychologist and the Foreign-Language Teacher. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Rivers, W. 1968. Teaching Foreign-Language Skills 100. Chicago: Uni- versity of Illinois.

Rivers, W. 1972. Talking off the tops of their heads. TESOL Quarterly

Stevick, E. 1971. Adapting and Writing Language Lessons, Chapter I. Wash-

Twadell, W. F. 1973. Straw men and pied pipers. Foreign Language Annals

Wardhaugh, R. 1971, in R. Lugton (ed.) Toward a Cognitive Approach to Second Language Acquisition. Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum De- velopment.

Wardhaugh, R. 1972. TESOL: current problems and classroom practices, in H. Allen and R. Campbell (eds.) Teaching Eqglish a s a Second Lan- guage 19. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Wolf, David E. 1973. Student teaching: toward a confluent approach. Modern Language Journal 57.113-119.

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ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION IN SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARN- ING, by R. C. Gardner and W. E. Lambert, Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers, Inc., 1972. 316 pp.

In their introduction, the authors state: “ This book summarizes a twelve-year research interest in what appears to be a very simple question: How is it that some people can learn a foreign language quickly and expertly while others, given the same oppor- tunities to learn, are utter failures?”(l) Gardner and Lambert attempt to answer this question by proposing a “sociopsychological perspective [to] the process of learning a second language,”(2) and they approach their investigation by stressing the affective domain-, in particular, the sociopsychological variables of attitude and motivation.

While some of the research reported in Attitudes and Motiva- tion in Second- Langwge Learning has been previously published, Gardner and Lambert have integrated their new findings with their previous work. This book is divided into eight chapters and three appendices. The first two chapters, “Introduction” and “ Back- ground Ideas and Research Procedures,” provide the most coherent statement I have seen published of the authors’ position on the role of attitudes and motivation in second language learning. These two chapters summarize the major theoretical themes that reappear frequently throughout the book, and outline the significant results found in the studies which are subsequently presented.

Chapters 3-6 discuss the new studies that Gardner, Lambert, and their associates have conducted with American students learning French as a foreign language. These chapters represent an extension of the Montreal studies (for which Gardner and Lambert are noted) to the United States, and a r e provided to support three major theoretical positions: 1) attitude and motivation function in second language learning as variables independent from aptitude and general intelligence; 2) a favorable attitude toward another culture, and a desire to learn about that culture, coupled with a favorable attitude toward the target language and language learning in general, a r e conducive to foreign language study; and 3) integrative motivation- the desire of a student to learn about a foreign culture “because he is interested in it in an open-minded way, to the point of eventually being accepted as a member of that other group” (3)-is

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more characteristic of successful second language learners than instrumental motivation-the desire to study a language for “the more utilitarian value of linguistic achievement, such as getting ahead in one’s occupation”(3). These four chapters (3-6) report investigations into aspects of these three major hypotheses; they a r e entitled: 3-Extensions to American Settings: The Louisiana, Maine, and Connecticut Studies; 4-The French-American Students’ Approaches to the Study of French; 5-Students’ Stereotypes of French-speaking People; 6-Student Views on the Value of Language Study.

Chapter 7, “The Philippine Study,” reports research conducted in a culture significantly different from that of the Canadian and American studies, and it represents an attempt to test the validity of the research procedures in a culture quite unlike that of North America.

The last chapter, “Attitudes and Motivation in Second-Language Learning: In Perspective,” is perhaps the most significant chapter in the book. It integrates all of the previously discussed research findings into a coherent whole that has applicability to a theory of second language acquisition, and it also offers suggestions for further research and investigation. It is in this last chapter that Gardner and Lambert bridge the gap that allegedly exists between first and second language learning:

. . .In order to learn the rudiments of a language, the infant must come to identify with language users and want to be like them. Learning their code and the distinctive way they use it isoneofthe infant’s means of expressing his identification. . .We see a very similar developmental sequence in the case of learning a foreign language. . .The learner, we argue, must be willing to identify with members of another ethnolinguistic group and to take on very subtle aspects of their behavior, including their distinctive style of speech and their language. Throughout these studies we have focused attention on individual differences in willingness to make this type of identification and the motivational implications of these differences. . .(135) The three appendices constitute more than one half of the

book’s length. Appendix A outlines, in detail, the experimental procedures that the authors used with the English-speaking Ameri- can students and the French-American students that they investi- gated. This appendix can be useful to anyone who wishes to repli- cate the present studies or to design his own study, and it illustrates the complexity of the interrelated variables which constitute “ attitude” and “motivation.”

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Appendix B consists of twenty-three pages of correlation matrices and provides the statistical interpretation far the experimental findings.

Appendix C is composed of seven additional “Readings,” and includes articles written by the authors and their collaborators on topics related to the general themes of the book. Among those art icles reprinted here are “ Attitudinal and cognitive aspects of intensive study of a second language,” “The relation of bilingualism to intelligence,” and “Evaluational reactions to spoken languages”; all three reported the findings of studies conducted in Canada before the major American studies of this book were under- taken.

The analogy that Gardner and Lambert draw between the motivational and attitudinal similarities in child and adult language acquisition emphasizes the growing tendency to regard first and second language learning as cognitively similar processes.1 While these processes differ minimally, according to the cognitive ma- turity of the learner, they differ maximally due to the reluctance or inability of the adult learner to adopt the requisite motivational and attitudinal characteristics which Gardner and Lambert have found to be so conducive to second language acquisition. If we consider the parallels in Dulay and Burt’s2 studies on learning strategies in second language acquisition in children, and in the recent work in e r r o r analysis and learning strategies in adult second language acquisition,3 it can be seen that the cognitive processes in first and second language acquisition a r e similar. The Gardner and Lambert findings, Nida’s4 observations on the reluctance to integrate oneself into a foreign culture as a cause f o r the failure to “succeed” in second language acquisition, and Guiora’s5 studios on empathy and the willingness to allow “per-

15. C. Catford. Learning a language in the field: problems of linguistic relativity. Studies in Lunguage and Language Behavior 7-21. Progress Report No. VIII, Center for Research on Language and Language Behavior. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan.

David P. Ausubel. 1964. Adults versus children in second-language learning: psychological considerations. Modern Langyage Journal 48.420424.

2Heidi C. Dulay and Marina K. Burt. 1972. Goofing: an indicator of children’s second language learning strategies. Language Learning 22.235-252.

3Jack C. Richards. 1971. Error analysis and second language strategies. Language Sciences

Larry Selinker. 1972. Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics 10.209-23 1. 4Eugene A. Nida. 1971. Sociopsychological problemsin language mastery and retention, in Paul

Pimsleur and Terence Quinn (eds.) me pSrchoZogv of Second Language Learning 59-65. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

SAlexander Z. Guiora, et aL 1971. The effects of experimentally induced changes in ego states on pronunciation ability in second language: an exploratoly study. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan (unpublished paper).

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meability of ego-boundaries” all indicate the importance of affective variables in second language acquisition and point out the differences in attitudes and motivation in children and adults. When Gardner and Lambert’s position is viewed in this light, the affective variables they consider become fundamental to a theory of language acquisition and second language acquisition in particular.

While this book is significant and essential to investigators of second language acquisition, it should always be borne in mind that the hypotheses presented are still largely tentative. Lambert and his associates have claimed in earlier studies that integrative motivation is more conducive to foreign language learning than instrumental motivation. These claims have been challenged by Lukmani6 in her study of Marathi speakers learning English to improve their life styles in Bombay. Now, the results of Gardner and Lambert’s Philippine study, paralleling Lukmani’s findings, have caused the authors to reevaluate their earlier hypothesis: (‘ . . .It seems that in settings where there is an urgency about mastering a second language-as there is in the Philippines and in North America for members of linguistic minority groups-the instrumental approach to language study is extremely effective” (141). Gardner and Lam- bert now contend that while strong motivation is significant for successful second language learning, the type (instrumental or integrative) will vary according to the cultural setting. They currently maintain that “. . .striving for a comfortable place in two cultural systems” (that is, becoming proficient in a foreign language and culture without a resultant loss of. native linguistic or cultural identity) “may be the best motivational basis for becoming bilingual which in turn is one’s best guarantee for really belonging to both cultures” (142).

It now appears that Gardner and Lambert have realized the inherently narrow scope of their originally strict adherence to an instrumental-integrative motivation dichotomy. Their work outside continental North America has indicated to them that “not only should other settings be studied in their own right, but these same settings should be revisited and reexamined with improved versions of the same instruments and measures and with newer, more searching instruments” (142), in the hope of formulating a more accurate definition of ((motivation.”

The uncertainty about the ultimate role and nature of motivation and attitude in second language acquisition does not detract from the usefulness of this book. While much of the theory presented here has been previously published, the authors’ recent

6Yasmeen M. Lukmani. 1972. Motivation to learn and learning proficiency. Lunguuge Learning 22.261-273.

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findings cast a new light on the old interpretations and analyses. Furthermore, the authors’ suggestions for further investigations, and the inclusion of their research techniques invites experimen- tation and innovation on the part of others interested in second language acquisition. Since this clearly-written, non-technical book is one of the f i rs t that systematically questions the roles of attitude and motivation in language learning, it is indispensable to anyone seriously interested in investigating affective variables in second language acquisition.

Barry P . Taylor University of Michigan

RE VIEW

SOCIOLINGUISTICS: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION, by Joshua A. Fish- man, Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers, Inc ., 1971. 126 pp.

Probably the most unfortunate aspect of Sociolinguistics: A Brief Introduction is that it is virtually impossible to present a brief introduction to sociolinguistics which will be acceptable or palatable to both social scientists and linguists. Anybody who tries is fair game for criticism because the very attempt will fail to emphasize somebody’s pet approach o r theory in a field which is fraught with the predictable insecurities which interdisciplinarity invariably brings. In his foreword to the book, Charles A. Fer- guson points out that sociolinguistics is far from unified in goals, techniques, o r levels of analysis. Conferences on sociolinguistics tend to bear this out, but this fact is not sufficient to keep socio- linguists of all persuasions from talking with each other.

Part of the problem comes in defining the field itself. Fish- man tries several times:

. . .the discipline that seeks to determine (among other things) who speaks what variety of what language to whom, when and concerning what.” (2)

“ A l l in all sociolinguistics seeks to discover the societal rules o r norms that explain and constrain language behavior and the behavior toward language in speech communities.” (3)

. . .also seeks to determine the symbolic value of language varieties for their speakers.” (3)

“Sociolinguistics is the study of the characteristics of language varieties, the characteristics of their functions, and the characteristics of their speakers a s these three constantly interact, change, and change one another within a speech community.” (4)

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66

These attempts at definition tend to characterize sociolinguistics primarily as the sociology of language. The field (hardly a discipline by the way) also may be viewed rather more broadly than this as:

1. An attempt to solve linguistic problems by adding the dimension of behavior to the dimension of code with which linguists usually work.

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2. An attempt to solve social science problems by using language a s data.

3. An attempt to solve educational problems by using language data seen in realistic .social settings as the basis for educational engineering, however i t is defined.

Fishman’s book does service primarily to the second of these views. That is, he provides a useful survey of the current views of the sociology of language. He defines the speech community and shows how Bloomfield’s 1933 view of it no longer obtains. He offers an introduction to micro (role relationships and situations) and macro (domains) sociolinguistics, although the explanations a r e far from clear. He addresses himself t o such practical questions as why people can live side by side and still not learn each other’s languages and why, despite some evidence of language uniformity through the mass media, language massification is not taking place.

Perhaps the best sections, however, are the ones on societal bilingualism, in which Fishman clearly explains the difference between stable and transitional diglossia, and bilingualism (section 5) and sociocultural organization, in which the author clearly re- jects the linguistic relativity of the Whorf hypothesis (section 6).

The views of sociolinguistics which are considerably less well- treated are those which see the field as trying to solve problems in linguistics and in education.

In his effort to provide a brief introduction to linguistics (presumably for the social scientists who might read the book), Fish- man offers, perhaps necessarily a caricature of the field. Exactly how a sociologist might benefit from being told that phonemics involves meaning-related differences between two sounds (9) is difficult to imagine. Likewise, the author’s definition of phonology as the systematic description of the sounds of language is archaic and inaccurate. Fishman does mention more recent views of linguistics, including Chomsky’s, but descriptive or generative, his definition of linguistics is hopelessly static. The static view of descriptivism is no less inadequate than the static view of generative ,grammars. Neither accounts fo r variability. Both either sweep in under the rug or ignore it as trivial. Recent efforts to address thesequestions have been made by linguists such as Labov, Shuy, Bailey, and Fasold. All of them seem to disapprove of static gram- m a r of any persuasion.

This section on linguistics also seems particularly ingroupish, leaning heavily upon New York area scholars (for example, the dialectologists who have worked on the Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada might at least have been mentioned). The

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reading list on linguistics is curiously sub-divided into “ Popular Introductions” (two out of three are out-dated), “ Representative American Texts” (how are these distinguished from popular introductions?), “One Classic and Two Recent European Texts” (the list contains four books, posing an interesting mathematical problem), “ A Newer ‘ Transformational’ Approach” (as opposed to what?), “Journals to Glance At” (a better list could be provided) and “References.” Altogether, the section of linguistics will be of no use to linguists and of only questionable value to non-linguistis. Many linguistic t e rms are undefined o r are defined several pages after they are introduced, o r are inadequately defined.

There are in this book other annoying features, at least one of which could have been solved by better editing. There is a reference in section 4 (63) to “. . .the sociolinguistic units referred to in Section 4, above.” The sentence is clumsy to begin with bM by the time the reader gets to this incestuous reference he is ready to give up completely.

There is also a kind of unnecessary vagueness in places as, for example, when the author refers to phonological variables realized in certain ways (64) when he might have said to “a certain frequency of occurrance” or something more germanely precise. Likewise his contrast of Labov’s focus on phonological features with Fischer’s research on morphological units (variation between -ing and -in in the present participle), is somewhat con- fusing to linguists, who would view Fischer’s work as phonological variation, not grammatical.

Other difficulties which one might have with this book relate to organization and style. However good the units may be, they simply do not hang together. One might have wished for more discussion about the excellent research projects cited, then dropped. One might have asked for a more considerate introduction to terms seen, perhaps, for the first time in this book. One might have expected clearer sentences than the following:

“In general, the more fargoing the linguistic differences between any two co-territorial populations (i.e., the more the differences are basically grammatical-syntactic and morphological rather than primarily phonoloigal or lexical), the more their linguistic repertoires are compartmentalized from each other so as to reveal little if any interference, and the more they reveal func- tionally different verbal repertoires in terms of the sociolinguistic units reviewed in Section 4, above-then the greater the interaction- al and sociocultural gap between the speech communities involved.” (63)

The mind boggles.


If the book does service only to that aspect of sociolinguistics characterizable as the sociology of language, it is incomplete as an introduction even a brief one, to sociolinguistics. How linguists solve problems of variability is not even mentioned. How sociolinguistics leads to answers to educational problems is only briefly noted, with no reference whatsoever to the recent work on Black English. The style is lumbering and vague. Professor Fishman is an excellent scholar who has produced many valuable works in the field. It is unfortunate that he was not offered more helpful criticism in producing this book.

Richard L. Light State University of New York at Albany

REVIEW

LINGUISTICS, by David Crystal, Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books, Inc., 1971. 276 pp.

Linguistics is intended for the intelligent general reader who knows little o r nothing about modern linguistics and wishes to edu- cate himself. A second, and quite numerous, potential audience consists of professionals in such fields as psychology, sociology, and anthropology who feel a need to draw upon some of the methods and findings of linguistics as these relate to their own particular fields of interest. With these groups of readers in mind, Crystal orients his book toward “ a clear general picture of [linguistics], not a specialized introduction.” (10) A work such as this, making general linguistic concepts and theory available to the intelligent novice, has long been needed. Not since Robert A. Hall’s popular and influential Leave Your Language Alone (reprinted as Linguis- tics and Your Language) has there been a genuine “introduction” to linguistics that did not presuppose a great deal on the part of the reader. But Hall’s book was Structuralism personified and nothing is currently available which does for contemporary linguistics what Hall did for structural linguistics. Crystal’s book is welcome in this respect. I only wish he had written a better book.

Linguistics consists of five chapters: Why Study Language?, Traditional Approaches to Language Study, Linguistic Science, Major Themes in Linguistics, and Linguistics and Other Fields. The meat of the book is found in Chapter 4, Major Themes, but unfortunately this chapter exists independently of the other four and lacks any relevance to Crystal’s stated reasons for writing the book.

In Chapter 1, Why Study Language?, Crystal assumes a de- fensive posture from the start . He apologizes for linguistics as a science and goes. on to make too much of a few scattered and isolated instances where linguistics has immediate and practical applications. The rhetorical title of Chapter 1 is answered by stating two reasons for studying language; one is for its intrinsic value and the other is practical applications of linguistic knowledge. Crystal claims that Linguistics is concerned with the latter. Among these practical applications is the role linguistic knowledge plays in recognizing and hopefully ameliorating such language dis- orders as catastrophic loss of language ability, and impaired o r delayed language acquisition. Crystal contends that linguistic training

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156 LANGUAGE LEARMNG, VOL. 23, NO. 1

is also useful in avoiding breakdowns in communication, in teaching (why not in learning?) a foreign language, in teaching certain aspects of the mother-tongue, and in the appreciation of literature and stylistics. After devoting 36 pages to these putative practical applications of linguistic knowledge, one would expect Crystal to devote the remainder of the book to showing explicitly how linguistics could contribute to a better understanding, if not facilita- tion of the above. But he does not. Rather he says: “Ultimately more important [than the immediate practical applications of linguistic study] is the need to study language because it is the key to the understanding of so much of human behaviour, both of our- selves and of our interaction with others.” (36) Thus we are now led to believe that Crystal will develop the themes of language and i ts role in human communication and in human thought processes. But again we are misled. After an initial chapter explaining at least covert relationships between language and some immediate problems concerning the use of language, Crystal claims that the real purpose of Linguistics “. . .is to explain what is involved in a linguistic approach to language study.” (36) Crystal’s original purposes are well-chosen and should have been developed. How- ever, all but the first 36 pages of Linguistics are devoted to more o r less abstract linguistics, without the applications promised in Chapter 1.

Chapter 2, “Traditional Approaches to Language Study,” is generally well-written and traces a brief history of linguistics from the early Greeks, through the development of formalized English grammar, to certain fundamental precepts of modern linguistics; for example, “Each language must be analyzed and described in terms of its own structure.” Chapter 2 contains the same injunc- tions and general linguistic premises usually found in introductory texts. But throughout the book, Crystal tends to overwrite. He takes two pages where half a page would be sufficient. He uses multiple adjectives where one would suffice. His summaries are not really summaries at all, but rather re-wording of previous paragraphs. Because of this overwriting the book tends to become tedious and Crystal often loses the thread of his theme and the general topic fails to move ahead as it should. If indeed Crystal is writing for the intelligent general readey, then he leaves that reader unguided and forces him to sor t out the meaningful from the superfluous by himself. Linguistics just does not come off as a general introduction to the study of language.

In Chapter 3, Crystal attempts to explain just what linguistic science is. The word ‘science’ must be stressed because fundamental tenets of the scientific method are used by Crystal to show

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both the rigor of linguistics and the ways in which certain forms of this rigor are relaxed with respect to linguistic theory. This chapter is the strongest in the book, but it is certainly not intended for a naive reader.

Crystal states that all sciences, including linguistics, must have at least three character is t ics: explicitness , systematicness, and objectivity. The explicitness criterion requires a precise and standardized terminology, and specific (non-intuitive) criteria for classification. Systematicness requires that an investigation be carried out in an organized way, avoiding such things as partial coverage of a topic, and impressionistic commentary. Objectivity refers to the use of empirical (objective) evidence. Crystal, although basically sympathetic to the generative cause, is forced to exclude intuitions from the realm of t rue empirical data. Although he feels that one can allow intuitions as evidence, “ there seems no choice but to refer to the more extreme trends in mentalistic linguistics as ‘not strictly scientific.”’ (110) On the whole, Crys- tal’s discussions of the goals and characteristics of science are quite good. But again he overwrites and covers the same topics t ime and time again without elucidating them any further. Re- hashing one paragraph in another does nothing to further the discussion. Rather it impedes the progress of the topic at hand.

After a brief “ interlude” into application of linguistic techniques to the permissable sequences of adjectives in English, Crystal develops six “Major Themes in Linguistics.” This section, Chapter 4, is by far the longest in the book (102 pages) and attempts to show the historical antecedents of modern linguistics as they developed, especially since the beginning of the 20th cen- tury. Crystal discusses the development of linguistics in Europe and in America, stressing the work of Jones, Rask, Bopp, Verner, Sapir and especially Saussure. With this background material, Crystal charts the development of phonetics, phonology (including a good discussion of the concept of the phoneme), morphology, ‘ surface’ syntax (Immediate Constituent analysis), ‘ deep’ syntax (Generative-Transformational), and semantics. Crystal offers valid criticisms of IC analysis and of the phoneme. He also gives an adequate appraisal of current positions in generative theory. A weakness seems to be the mention of the generative semanticists and the work of Fillmore in case grammar, but no elaboration of these basically competing philosophies. Here again the chapter is overwritten. Crystal includes good material, but he belabors his discussions and tends to get lost in non-essentials.

In Chapters 2, 3, and 4, Crystal talks about theoretical o r pure linguistics. There is little, if any, applications of these discussions

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to the problems posed in Chapter 1. Linguistics promises something important, but fails to deliver, even covertly. Chapter 1 might just as well have been left out completely as Crystal makes no attempt to relate the remainder of the book to his previously stated purposes.

In “Linguistics and Other Fields,” (Chapter 5) Crystal is especially disappointing. He mentions new, and supposedly fascinating, fields such as Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics, but he never explains the role of linguistics in the development or practice of these disciplines. F o r example, Crystal states that “ Sociolinguistics studies the ways in which language interacts with society. It is the study of the way in which language’s structure changes in response to its different social functions, and the definiton of what these functions are.” (252) One page reiterating this definition follows, but nothing more. Surely so broad a field as the interactions of language and society deserves much more than this.

Crystal’s book contains some good material, but the good gets lost in a welter of reiterations that add nothing to the discussion and digressions into superfluous areas. It is therefore a very difficult book to read. The reader is left to his own devices to sepa- rate the meaningful from the superfluous.

As a general text for an educated but relatively naive audience, Linguistics does not live up to expectations. Nor is it a good introductory theoretical text. The book does not give a concise, accurate summary of the current state of linguistics, nor does it give a concise statement of historical antecedents. Anyone looking for practical applications for linguistics, which was what Crystal promised in Chapter 1, will be disappointed. We are still waiting for a 1970’s general introduction to the methods and significance of contemporary linguistics.

R. E. Callary Northern Illinois University

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