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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION
Encyclopedia of Language and Education
VOLUME 6: KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LANGUAGE
The volume titles of this encyclopedia are listed at the end of this volume.
Encyclopedia of Language and Education Volume 6
KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LANGUAGE
Edited by
LEOVANLIER Monterey Institute of International Studies
Monterey, California USA
and
DAVID CORSON The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto Canada
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Knowledge about language I edlted by Leo van Ller and Davld Corson. p. c •. -- (Encyclopedla of language and educatlon : v. 6)
Includes blbl10graphlcal references and lndex. ISBN 978-0-7923-4933-4 ISBN 978-94-011-4533-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-4533-6
paper) 1. Language awareness. 2. Language acqulsltlon. 3. Language and
languages--Study and teachlng. 4. Language teachers--Tralnlng of. 1. Van Ller, Leo. II. Corson, Davld. III. Serles. P120.L34K59 1997 407--dc21 97-30204
ISBN 978-0-7923-4933-4
Cover picture:The Tower ojBaby/on, Pieter Bruegel the Elder Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam
AII Rights Reserved © 1997 Springer Science+-Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1997 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 6: KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LANGUAGE
General Editor's Introduction vii
Introduction xi
Section 1: Historical and Theoretical Issues
1. Language Awareness and Knowledge About Language: An 1 Overview
Arthur van Essen 2. Pedagogical Grammar: From Prescriptive to Descriptive 11
John Walmsley 3. The History of Language Awareness in the UK 21
B. Gillian Donmall-Hicks 4. The Theory and Practice of Argument in Education 31
Patrick J.M. Costello
Section 2: Knowledge About Language and the Language Learner
5. Metalinguistic Development in First Language Acquisition 43 Jean Emile Gombert
6. Phonological Awareness and Learning to Read 53 Tom Nicholson
7. Morphological Awareness and the Second Language Learner 63 Dominiek Sandra
8. Language Awareness and Learning Styles 73 Sabine Jones
Section 3: Knowledge About Language, the Curriculum, and the Classroom
9. Whole Language: The Whole Story 87 Kenneth S. Goodman
10. Language Awareness at the International High School 99 Anthony J. DeFazio
11. Explicit Knowledge and Second Language Pedagogy 109 Rod Ellis
L. van Lier and D. Corson (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Volume 6: Knowledge about Language, v-vi.
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
12. Language Awareness and Translation 119 Patrick Zabalbeascoa
13. Awareness and Language Switch in Second-Foreign Lan- 131 guage Learning Contexts
Sofia Papaefthymiou-Lytra 14. Literacy and Genre 139
Aviva Freedman and Paul Richardson 15. Esperanto and Language Awareness 151
Mark Fettes
Section 4: Teacher Development
16. The Teacher as Educational Linguist 163 Christopher Brumfit
17. Language Awareness in In-Service Programmes 173 Tony Wright and Rod Bolitho
18. Awareness Raising About Classroom Interaction 183 Amy Tsui
19. Assessors' Language Awareness in the Evaluation of Aca- 195 demic Writing
Bruce Maylath 20. Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Argument 205
Sally Mitchell
Section 5: Critical Language Awareness
21. Critical Discourse Analysis and Educational Change 217 Romy Clark and Roz Ivanic
22. Awareness of Non-Standard Varieties in the Schools 229 David Corson
23. The Role of Language Awareness in Critical Pedagogy 241 Catherine Wallace
24. The Commodification of Classroom Discourse 251 Stanton E.F. Wortham
25. Language Use and Awareness in the Multicultural Work 261 Place
Kaye Malcolm
Subject Index 271
Name Index 279
Tables of Contents Other Volumes 287
GENERAL EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION
This is one of eight volumes of the Encyclopedia of Language and Education published by Kluwer Academic. The publication of this work signals the maturity of the field of 'language and education' as an international and interdisciplinary field of significance and cohesion. These volumes confirm that 'language and education' is much more than the preserve of any single discipline. In designing these volumes, we have tried to recognise the diversity of the field in our selection of contributors and in our choice of topics. The contributors come from every continent and from more than 40 countries. Their reviews discuss language and education issues affecting every country in the world.
We have also tried to recognise the diverse interdisciplinary nature of 'language and education' in the selection of the editorial personnel themselves. The major academic interests of the volume editors confirm this. As principal volume editor for Volume 1, Ruth Wodak has interests in critical linguistics, sociology of language, and language policy. For Volume 2, Viv Edwards has interests in policy and practice in multilingual classrooms and the sociology oflanguage. For Volume 3, Bronwyn Davies has interests in the social psychology of language, the sociology of language, and interdisciplinary studies. For Volume 4, Richard Tucker has interests in language theory, applied linguistics, and the implementation and evaluation of innovative language education programs. For Volume 5, Jim Cummins has interests in the psychology of language and in critical linguistics. For Volume 6, Leo van Lier has interests in applied linguistics and in language theory. For Volume 7, Caroline Clapham has interests in research into second language acquisition and language measurement. And for Volume 8, Nancy Hornberger has interests in anthropological linguistics and in language policy. Finally, as general editor, I have interests in the philosophy and sociology of language, language policy, critical linguistics, and interdisciplinary studies. But the thing that unites us all, including all the contributors to this work, is an interest in the practice and theory of education itself.
People working in the applied and theoretical areas of education and language are often asked questions like the following: 'what is the latest research on such and such a problem?' or 'what do we know about such
viii GENERAL EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
and such an issue?' Questions like these are asked by many people: by policy makers and practitioners in education; by novice researchers; by publishers trying to relate to an issue; and above all by undergraduate and postgraduate students in the language disciplines. Each of the reviews that appears in this volume tries to anticipate and answer some of the more commonly asked questions about language and education. Taken together, the eight volumes of this Encyclopedia provide answers to more than 200 major questions of this type, and hundreds of subsidiary questions as well.
Each volume of the Encyclopedia of Language and Education deals with a single, substantial subject in the language and education field. The volume titles and their contents appear elsewhere in the pages of this work. Each book-length volume provides more than 20 state-of-the-art topical reviews of the literature. Taken together, these reviews attempt a complete coverage of the subject of the volume. Each review is written by one or more experts in the topic, or in a few cases by teams assembled by experts. As a collection, the Encyclopedia spans the range of subjects and topics normally falling within the scope of 'language and education'. Each volume, edited by an international expert in the subject of the volume, was designed and developed in close collaboration with the general editor of the Encyclopedia, who is a co-editor of each volume as well as general editor of the whole work.
The Encyclopedia has been planned as a necessary reference set for any university or college library that serves a faculty or school of education. Libraries serving academic departments in any of the language disciplines, especially applied linguistics, would also find this a valuable resource. It also seems very relevant to the needs of educational bureaucracies, policy agencies, and public libraries, particularly those serving multicultural or multilingual communities.
The Encyclopedia aims to speak to a prospective readership that is multinational, and to do so as unambiguously as possible. Because each book-size volume deals with a discrete and important subject in language and education, these state-of-the-art volumes also offer authoritative course textbooks in the areas suggested by their titles. This means that libraries will also catalogue these book-size individual volumes in relevant sections of their general collections. To meet this range of uses, the Encyclopedia is published in a hardback edition offering the durability needed for reference collections, and in a future student edition. The hardback edition is also available for single-volume purchase.
Each state-of-the-art review has about 3000 words of text and most follow a similar structure. A list of references to key works cited in each review supplements the information and authoritative opinion that the review contains. Many contributors survey early developments in their topic, major contributions, work in progress, problems and difficulties, and
GENERAL EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION ix
future directions for research and practice. The aim of the reviews, and of the Encyclopedia as a whole, is to give readers access to the international literature and research on each topic.
David Corson General Editor Encyclopedia of Language and Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto Canada
INTRODUCTION
In this volume, editors and contributors have sought to bring together a representative collection of articles that all deal with a central theme: the role of knowledge about language (or, as it is often called, metalinguistic knowledge) and awareness of language in education.
The papers included move well beyond the usual discussions about the explicit teaching of formal aspects of language as part of language development in schools. In fact, all contributions advance the notion that an awareness of and information about the forms (grammar, style, pronunciation, etc.) of language are useful, or even necessary. However, all contributions also look further than traditional prescriptive grammar rules, vocabulary lists, spelling tests, and so on. Rather, what is emphasized is the varied nature of language knowledge, and the multiple ways in which such knowledge can be part of educational experiences and human growth. The variety of language knowledge and experiences presented in these pages reflects the broad view of language that is adopted here for educational purposes. As Maturana and Varela put it in their fascinating book The tree of knowledge, "every reflection ... invariably takes place in language, which is our distinctive way of being human and being humanly active" (1992: 26).
Using language, in the spirit of this collection, is not primarily a matter of uttering or writing messages that conform to rules of grammar, diction, spelling and rhetorical structures of standard language. First and foremost, using language, and using it consciously and deliberately, means expressing our humanity and collaborating with others in the construction of our common reality. The demands of "proper" or "standard" language are surely an important part of educational reality, but they need not overshadow all other facets of language. This is a constant danger when prescriptive grammar is inculcated in classrooms by grammar teachers through "innumerable acts of correction", as Bourdieu puts it (1991).
Debates about language are often heavily skewed towards issues of correctness, proper usage, the "right" way to say and write words. Language mavens in newspapers and magazines field questions from readers about who versus whom, I versus me, the use or abuse of irregardless and hopefully, and the right pronunciation of short-lived and harassment. Although such discussions are interesting, they are not very different
xu INTRODUCTION
from discussions about proper ways of dressing, eating, or behaving at funerals. In other words, public discussions about language tend to focus on linguistic etiquette rather than on other substantive issues (I leave aside, for the moment, debates about language policy, such as whether or not English should be the official language of the US, or if African-American children should be allowed to use black English or Ebonies in the classroom). There are exceptions to this, for example in the work of Deborah Tannen about language use between men and women, Richard Lutz's descriptions of "doublespeak" in politics, and Richard Lederer's amusing books on language fun and games (Tannen, 1986; Lutz, 1989; Lederer, 1990).
The central mission of this volume, from the perspective of the editors, is to promote a broader awareness of language, its uses and its abuses, its strengths and its fragility, its social and its private functions, its power and its playfulness.
Greater knowledge about language will not solve all the social and educational problems we face in many countries around the globe. However, as many of the contributions show, if we look at language carefully and respectfully, without being blinded by superficial questions of right or wrong, we can make educational experiences richer and more efficient for learners in different classrooms, in schools, and at work.
When we ask children about their best and worst subjects in school, they will very often include language (native and foreign) among their most difficult and hateful (i.e., "boring") subjects. Yet, these same children, out of school, will entertain you with word games, puns, examples of slang expressions, deadly accurate imitations of regional or foreign accents, and a thousand testimonials of keen language interest and skill. This illustrates a deep paradox about language and education: even though language is fascinating to children and grownups alike, and a constant focus of attention and comment, in school it is often stripped of precisely those things that make it interesting. It is almost a general rule that language is interesting when it is used, but boring when it is taught. Of course, everything can be taught badly, and conversely, everything can be taught well, and this volume addresses the diverse ways in which language can be and is taught well, in different parts of the world.
To teach language well requires an awareness of what it is and does, an awareness that it is more than words or sentences that are either right or wrong. It also requires a genuine effort to teach language across the curriculum, that is, to agree on a common language philosophy in the school, a common commitment to assist learners in finding a personal, strong, effective voice to speak in. These are difficult tasks. First, they require a broad definition of language (such as that proposed by ecolinguistics, or ecologicailinguistics, e.g. Makkai (1993), Miihlhausler (1996)), second, they require synchronization and collaboration across disciplines and school
INTRODUCTION xiii
departments, in a school culture which appears increasingly "balkanized", in the words of Andy Hargreaves (1994). Detailed proposals for language policy across the curriculum have been made in various countries (see, e.g., Corson, 1990). The contributions by Donmall, van Essen, Corson and Goodman show how difficult such changes in practice can be. Brumfit and Wright and Bolitho offer some suggestions about teacher education in this respect.
In reaction to old-style grammar teaching, with its parsing and diagramming of sentences and endless drills and rules, many approaches to language teaching have tried to be anti-grammar or grammar-less, but, as a recent thematic issue of English Journal (1996) argues, the pendulum has now once again swung back to the inclusion of grammar teaching, at least in English as a native language instruction in the US. Whether or not a similar pattern of grammar-rejection followed by a grammar-return has occurred in second and foreign language teaching is not quite so clear. Certainly, there have been - and are - methods which advocate a focus on communication or fluency, and others which focus on solid formal instruction and accuracy, but these appear to have existed side by side, or occasionally in competition, over the last few decades. There is also a third, and rather recent, trend which proclaims that the era of packaged methods is over, and which proposes alternative ways of organizing teaching (Kumaravadivelu, 1994; van Lier, 1996).
What really is knowledge about language? How is it used by a leamer, and how is it promoted by a teacher? How much of this knowledge is explicit, and how much is implicit? How much of it is "knowing that", and how much is "knowing how"? I suggest that there may be a significant difference between metalinguistic knowledge and language awareness, and that both types are necessary and produce an essential tension. The former is what you come up with if you test or interview people, because it is limited to that which can be expressed in technical words, or metalanguage; the latter accompanies and guides the conscious language user's language use, but is not easily amenable to explicit scrutiny or comment. The former may be the tip, the latter the submerged bulk of the iceberg of language knowledge.
The contributions to this volume examine a number of aspects of knowledge about language in this wider sense. It has been our particular aim to show, not so much in any single review as across the entire range, that explicit knowledge of formal features of language, critical sociolinguistic analysis and artistic appreciation all relate to one another, and that a responsible and rich language education cannot dispense with any of them.
There are still a number of questions to which no clear answers are currently available. In second language acquisition, for example, the extent to which negative evidence, that is, explicit correction, or explanation of
XIV INTRODUCTION
linguistic phenomena, is necessary or beneficial, still requires a great deal of research (see Ellis, this volume; see also Doughty, Fotos). A recently concluded study at the Centre for Language in Language Education of Lancaster University (Alderson, Clapham & Steel, 1997) concludes that there is little relationship between metalinguistic knowledge and language proficiency. Of course, the last word has not been said about this issue. If we consider metalinguistic knowledge as a set of tools, we should not conclude that having more tools is always better. To use an analogy, we do not call someone a better carpenter just because he or she has more tools or a larger toolbox. However, that does not mean that carpenters can do without tools. What matters is how they are used, and teaching metalinguistic knowledge may be very different from learning how to use it. Further, as mentioned above, language awareness and language knowledge may be two quite different things. We can look forward to more research like that of Alderson et aI., in the hope that some of these questions can be answered.
Another area of much current debate is the appropriate balance, for each child, between creative (Whole Language) and formal (Phonics) approaches to the acquisition of literacy. As the reviews by Goodman, Nicholson and Sandra show, neither wholesale, uncritical implementation of a particular method, nor its summary rejection (as is often the tenor of public discussions of the whole language - phonics issue) are appropriate decisions in education. A similar either-or debate, equally unhelpful, is sometimes witnessed in the UK and elsewhere between two interpretations of language awareness: explicit grammatical knowledge on the one hand, and critical awareness on the other. The reviews by van Essen, Donmall and others in the first section of the volume clearly illustrate the futility of such debates.
Late in the production of this volume the Ebonics controversy erupted in the US. The various voices in this debate illustrate, perhaps more powerfully than anything written in this volume, the need for higher levels of awareness about language for all people, not just students on school benches and their teachers. The review by Corson in this volume gains increased significance in the light of the Ebonics debate (see also Fillmore (1997), Long (1997), van Lier (1997), and the review by Corson in Volume 1 on non-standard varieties and educational policy, which discusses the Ebonics debate).
An area that needs increasing attention is that of the relationship between language education and technology. Even though it is stereotypically assumed that computers and other electronic systems lead to impoverished communication, it can be demonstrated that careful planning and design can actually lead to enhanced and enriched communication through the use of technology (Crook, 1994). However, technology can also have the opposite effect - that of reducing communication and increasing the inequality
INTRODUCTION xv
of educational opportunity (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). The research of these issues, and their relation to communication in schools and classrooms, should be a priority, though it is beyond the scope of this volume.
Let us, by way of conclusion, summarize what it has been possible to bring together in this volume. We have traced the history of language awareness and know ledge about language (van Essen, Donmall, Walmsley, Gombert), looked in detail at classrooms to see how language is treated (DeFazio, Papaeftymiou-Lytra, Tsui), examined specific types of classrooms (Ellis, Jones) and academic subjects (Fettes, Zabalbeascoa), from literacy (Goodman, Nicholson, Sandra) to academic writing (Clark & Ivanic, Maylath, Wallace), the teaching of argument (Freedman, Mitchell, Costello), discussed teacher development (Brumfit, Wright & Bolitho) and critical social issues (Corson, Wortham), and looked at communication in the multilingual work place (Malcolm).
As this volume - and the Encyclopedia of Language and Education as a whole - shows, language is the central means by which education is conducted and constructed, and its development itself is also one of the major goals of education. Everything schools aim to achieve depends in large measure on language, on the effectiveness of its use in instruction, its contribution to the well-being of students, and the students' command of language in cognitive, academic, social and personal ways. Equality and excellence in education, in all subject areas, can only be achieved through a profound understanding of language, and through equality and excellence in language education.
REFERENCES
Alderson, J.e., Clapham, e. & Steel, D.: forthcoming, 'Metalinguistic knowledge, language aptitude and language proficiency', Language Teaching Research 1(2).
Bourdieu, P.: 1991, Language and Symbolic Power, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Corson, D.: 1990, Language Policy Across the Curriculum, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Crook, e.: 1994, Computers and the Collaborative Experience of Learning, London: Routledge.
Doughty, e.: 1991, 'Second language instruction does make a difference: Evidence from an empirical study on SL relativization', Studies in Second Language Acquisition 13, 431-469.
English Journal: 1996, The Great Debate (Again): Teaching Grammar and Usage 85(7). Fillmore, C.J.: 1997, 'A linguist looks at the Ebonies debate', TESOL Matters 17(1),
13-14, 16. Fotos, S.: 1994, 'Integrating grammar instruction and communicative language use through
grammar consciousness-raising tasks', TESOL Quarterly 28(2), 323-346. Hargreaves, A.: 1994, Changing Teachers, Changing Times: Teachers' Work and Culture
in the Postmodern Age, New York: Teachers College Press. Kumaravadivelu, B.: 1994, 'The postmethod condition: (E)merging strategies for second!
foreign language teaching', TESOL Quarterly 28(1), 27-48.
xvi INTRODUCTION
Lederer, R.: 1990, The Play of Words: Fun and Games for Language Lovers, New York: Simon & Schuster.
Long, M.: 1997, Ebonies, Language, and Power, University of Hawaii Working Papers in ESL,15.1.
Lutz, W.: 1989, Doublespeak, New York: Harper Collins. Makkai, A.: 1993, Ecolinguistics: i Toward a New **Paradigm** for the Science of
Language? London: Pinter Publishers. Maturana, H. & Varela, EJ.: 1992, The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human
Understanding, Boston: New Science Library. Mtihlhiiusler, P.: 1996, Linguistic Ecology: Language Change and Linguistic Imperialism
in the Pacific Region, London: Routledge. Tannen, D.: 1986, That's Not What I Meant: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks
Relationships, New York: Ballantine Books. Tyack, D. & Cuban, L.: 1995, Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School
Reform, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. van Lier, L.: 1996, Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, Autonomy, and
Authenticity, London: Longman. van Lier, L.: 1997, Critical Language Awareness and Language Use in Multilingual
Classrooms: A Social-Interactionist Perspective, unpublished paper.
