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Factor 3:
Informal/Classroom
0.39*
0.34*
Factor 2:
Formal/Local School
E5 E6 E12
0.84 0.89 0.73
D1: Course D2: University D14: Parents
of Study entrance exams expectations
0.54 0.45* 0.68*
Factor 4: Exams
0.66*
0.35*
D1: Ministry
guidelines
Factor 1:
CLT Approval
0.90
0.34* 0.22*
0.08
Note. The arrows marked E1, E2, E3, and so on represent residual error estimates for each
observed variable.
*On parameter estimates between latent and dependent variables: statistically signicant. On
parameter estimates between latent and observed variables: estimated by the structural
equation modeling program.
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711 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2000
Segmentals and Global Foreign Accent:
The Japanese Flap in EFL
TIMOTHY J. RINEY
International Christian University
Tokyo, Japan
MARI TAKADA
Georgetown University
Washington, DC, United States
MITSUHIKO OTA
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
This article investigates the relationship between global foreign accent
and a more discrete feature of pronunciationthe substitution of the
Japanese ap ([]) for English liquids (// and /l/). The percentages
of Japanese ap substitutions by 11 Japanese students during their rst
and fourth years of college were calculated for target // versus /l/, in
reading versus spontaneous tasks, and for word-initial singleton (#_V)
versus word-initial cluster (#[C]C_V) environments. The number of
observations for each speaker ranged from 276 to 318, and individuals
percentages of ap substitutions ranged from 0.4% to 77.8% for all
attempts at English liquids. The principal nding was a strong negative
correlation (r = 0.805) between percentages of Japanese ap substitu-
tion and accent ratings. Furthermore, aps occurred more often for /l/
than for //, more often for singleton liquids than for liquids in
clusters, and more often in spontaneous than in reading tasks. The
discussion addresses debate over teaching segmentals versus supra-
segmentals and related pedagogical priorities.
T
ESOL professionals are generally aware that ESL and EFL pronun-
ciation textbooks written in the 1960s and 1970s dealt primarily with
the teaching of vowels and consonants, in what is now sometimes
referred to as a segmental approach. It is also fairly common knowledge
that, beginning in the 1980s, the segmental approach was challenged by
a suprasegmental approach, and since then pronunciation pedagogy in ESL
712 TESOL QUARTERLY
publications and at TESOL conventions has increasingly emphasized
stress, rhythm, and intonation (e.g., Acton, 1986; Gilbert, 1984, 1993;
Wong, 1987). For Gilbert (1984), representing the latter approach, for
example, practice with individual sounds is placed in a subordinate
position, after practice with intonation (p. 2). The rationale for this,
according to McNerney and Mendelsohn (1992), was that suprasegmentals
have the greatest impact on the comprehensibility of learners English
(p. 186).
According to Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin (1996), however, a
new movement in pronunciation teaching is underway. Pronunciation
instruction has been moving away from the segmental/suprasegmental
debate and toward a more balanced view (p. 10). For a number of years
there has been agreement that the goal of teaching English pronuncia-
tion is not necessarily to try to make students sound like native speakers
of English. Furthermore, most teachers now probably agree that a more
modest and realistic goal is to enable learners to surpass the threshold
level so that their pronunciation will not detract from their ability to
communicate (Celce-Murcia et al., 1996, p. 8).
Although the general statements above may reect a broad consensus,
some complex questions still confront the classroom teacher: For any
given classroom of learners, what exactly is meant by a balanced view of
segmentals and suprasegmentals? What denes the pronunciation thresh-
old? What is comprehensible pronunciation, and what features of
pronunciation do and do not impede communication? What are the
priorities? In this article we attempt to begin to address these complex
issues.
We believe this research to be important for a number of reasons. The
study described here, which involved a 42-month longitudinal design
and multiple tasks, targets, and phonological environments, is the rst
we are aware of that investigated the relationship between a transferred
L1 segment and global foreign accent in one homogeneous EFL
population. In addition to 11 Japanese EFL speakers, the study involved
a control group of three native speakers of English and two trained L1
Japanese judges who identied transferred L1 segmentals. Finally, this
study was the third to examine both discrete and global aspects of the
same 11 Japanese speakers accents. We expect that the information
reported here will be useful in establishing valid priorities for what to
emphasize when teaching pronunciation to L2 learners.
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 713
BACKGROUND
Global Foreign Accent
The study reported here follows that of Anderson-Hsieh, Johnson,
and Koehler (1992) in investigating the effects of different aspects of
pronunciation on native speakers reactions (p. 532). Anderson-Hsieh
et al. investigated the relationship between impressionistic judgments of
global nonnative English pronunciation and selected areas of pronuncia-
tion in speakers from 11 language backgrounds. Dividing pronunciation
into three categories (prosody, syllable structure, and segmentals), they
found that the prosodic variable proved to have the strongest effect (p.
530). For each category, however, they found a signicant correlation
with global foreign accent (dened below). They called for more
research in this area because an understanding of the phonological
factors that weigh most heavily in native speaker reactions to nonnative
speech should be helpful in establishing valid priorities for teaching
pronunciation to second language learners (p. 549). More recently,
Macdonald, Yule, and Powers (1994) and Leather (1999) have both
suggested that research needs to provide more guidance to teachers
about what to teach in the L2 pronunciation curriculum. The principal
purpose of the research reported here is to contribute to that guidance.
Unlike Anderson-Hsieh et al. (1992), however, we do not attempt to
determine whether one category of pronunciation is more important
than another for a large, heterogeneous group of L1-L2 learners. We
assume that, for most L2 speakers, especially for older learners in the
early stages, the role of the L1 is prominent, and accents will derive from
L1 inuences and L1-L2 interactions in areas that cannot be so easily
teased apart: segmental, prosodic, and syllable structure processes. Here
we instead investigate the relationship between one type of segment and
global foreign accent in one particular group, Japanese learners of EFL.
Global foreign accent refers to the degree to which an L2 speakers
productions are perceived to differ from those of a native speaker.
Global foreign accent has been found to be related to a number of
variables, perhaps the most inuential of which is age at exposure to an
environment providing target language input (Flege, Munro, & MacKay,
1995), followed by L1 (Purcell & Suter, 1980).
Munro and Derwing (1995) have convincingly argued that heavy
accent and low intelligibility should not be confounded, and that a
strong foreign accent does not necessarily cause L2 speech to be low in
comprehensibility or intelligibility (p. 92). They state that the degree
to which a particular speakers speech is accented should be of minor
concern, and instruction should not focus on global accent reduction,
714 TESOL QUARTERLY
but only on those aspects of the learners speech that appear to interfere
with listeners understanding (p. 93). Although we agree that compre-
hensibility is vital, we do not agree that accented speech is only a minor
concern. Accents, both native and nonnative, may be entirely compre-
hensible yet subject to bias or unfavorable judgments (El-Dash & Tucker,
1975; Lambert, 1967). Despite decades of efforts on the part of
sociolinguists and educators, some members of the public continue to
view difference as decit or disorder (Wolfram & Christian, 1989, pp. 11,
103), and some ESL speakers feel they must make a great effort to
change their pronunciation (Acton, 1984). Furthermore, dedicated L2
students often expect their teachers to help them acquire the pronuncia-
tion norm in the target language as closely as possible. They know, for
example, that job applicants who speak in some acceptable and un-
marked form are probably more likely to get the job than those who do
notdespite the fact that the two applicants speech may be equally
comprehensible.
Although comprehensibility is intuitively important, we are unfortu-
nately unaware of any denitions or measures of comprehensibility that
may serve us here. Although we assume on the basis of anecdotal
evidence that the item focused on in this study, the Japanese ap, affects
the comprehensibility of Japanese EFL speakers, we do not attempt to
prove that. For the above reasons, we use as our available measure and
point of reference not comprehensible accent, but global foreign accent,
as explained below.
Our research follows that of Riney and Flege (1998) and Riney and
Takagi (1999) in investigating the relationship over time between global
and discrete measures of foreign accent among the same group of 11
speakers. Riney and Takagi (1999) used acoustic measurements of L1
Japanese EFL speakers and found a positive correlation between global
foreign accent and voice onset time, supporting an earlier claim by
Major (1987) that the two were related.
Riney and Flege (1998) assessed global foreign accent in sentences
that were read and the production of two English consonants (// and
/l/) in words that were read by 11 Japanese students during their rst
and fourth years of college (Time 1 and Time 2). In Experiment 1,
native-English-speaking listeners rated 5 sentences spoken by the Japa-
nese speakers and 5 native English control speakers. Experiments 2 and
3 examined 25 word onsets containing // and /l/; auditory evaluations
by native-English-speaking listeners were used to determine to what
extent the consonants produced could be identied as intended and to
what degree they were produced accurately at Time 1 and Time 2. In 42
months, only 3 Japanese speakers made signicant improvement in
global foreign accent. Some speakers improved in liquid identiability
and accuracy for //, /l/, or both in certain phonological environments.
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 715
What concerns us most here, however, is that there was no clear
relationship for the group between global foreign accent and the
identiability or accuracy of liquids.
For their experiments, Riney and Flege (1998) rst recorded speech
samples for 16 speakers (11 Japanese and 5 Americans) at Time 1 and
Time 2. For Experiment 1, they chose and digitized 5 sentences at Time
1 and Time 2 for each of the 16 speakers, for a total of 160 sentences.
Using a mouse and a notebook computer with external speakers, 5 L1
English listeners then rated the 5 sentences four times each in four
randomized sets for overall degree of foreign accent by clicking one of a
series of numbered buttons ranging from 1 (strong foreign accent) to 9 (no
foreign accent). The listeners were urged to use the whole scale, to rate
only pronunciation, and to ignore everything else. The nal three
judgments of each sentence by each listener were averaged, and then the
average ratings of the 5 listeners were averaged to obtain the rating of
each speakers accent. The results for the 14 speakers participating in the
current study (11 Japanese and 3 Americans)
1
are shown in Figure 1.
As expected, the sentences spoken by the 3 native English speakers
(E1E3) received the highest ratings, between 8.4 and 9.0. The sentences
spoken by the 11 native Japanese speakers received an average rating of
3.7 at Time 1 (range: 1.45.4) and 4.0 at Time 2 (range: 1.35.4).
Through a series of F-tests, Riney and Flege (1998) determined that the
ratings of 3 Japanese EFL speakers (J1, J2, and J4) were signicantly
higher at Time 2 than Time 1, indicating an overall better pronunciation
of English (p < .01). Two other speakers (J8 and J9) showed marginal
improvement (p = .09 and p = .10). The other 6 speakers showed no
change from Time 1 to Time 2.
More than any other factor considered, the amount of time spent
abroad in an English-speaking country appeared to be most closely
linked to accent improvement between Time 1 and Time 2. The two L1
Japanese speakers whose ratings improved the most over time, J2 and J4,
had spent the most time between Time 1 and Time 2 immersed in an
English-speaking environment. Speaker J11, whose accent rating was the
lowest at both Time 1 (1.40) and Time 2 (1.27), was the only L1 Japanese
speaker never to have traveled outside of Japan.
At a microlevel, Riney and Flege (1998) conducted two more experi-
ments that assessed the identiability and accuracy, respectively, of
English // and /l/ as singletons and as members of clusters. Two
different types of experiments (identication and paired-comparison)
1
Given the consistency of their performance, we felt three L1 English speakers were
sufcient to conrm that the English liquids were obligatory in the positions under investiga-
tion and that native English speakers do not substitute sounds for target English // and /l/
that native-Japanese-speaking judges might perceive to be Japanese-type aps.
716 TESOL QUARTERLY
using two different sets and types of listeners (3 trained listeners and 10
untrained listeners) produced convergent results. For the L1 Japanese
group, signicant improvement occurred between Time 1 and Time 2
for // or /l/ in one onset-type (/l/ in clusters) but not in the others
(/l/ singletons, // singletons, and // in clusters).
Of greatest concern in the studies of Riney and Flege (1998) and
Riney and Takagi (1999), however, is that improvement in liquids, voice
onset time, and global foreign accent did not proceed in parallel fashion
for all Japanese speakers. Changes in global foreign accent were appar-
ently related to other factors as wellperhaps suprasegmentals, segmentals
other than liquids, or other features or factors not measured. Individuals
commonly did well in one category but poorly in another. This variation
in performance across individuals has been reported in other studies. In
a study of Japanese production and perception of English liquids,
Bradlow, Pisoni, Akahane-Yamada, and Tokhura (1997) observed wide-
spread variation across individuals; they concluded that the processes of
learning in the two domains appear to be distinct within individual
subjects, and it is not the case that improvement in perception and
production proceeded in parallel within individual subjects (p. 2307).
FIGURE 1
Global Foreign Accent Ratings for 11 Japanese and 3 Americans
Note. Based on Riney and Flege (1998). E = native English speaker, J = Japanese EFL speaker; 1 =
heavy foreign accent, 9 = no foreign accent.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
E2 E1 E3 J3 J6 J9 J1 J8 J5 J4 J7 J10 J2 J11
G
l
o
b
a
l
f
o
r
e
i
g
n
a
c
c
e
n
t
Speaker
Time 1
Time 2
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 717
English and Japanese Liquids
In the pedagogical literature that addresses Japanese ESL pronuncia-
tion, the English and Japanese liquids have probably received more
attention than any other segments (Riney & Anderson-Hsieh, 1993).
Inside Japan, for example, one widely available EFL pronunciation text
(Seido Language Institute, 1974) refers to the Japanese inability to hear
the difference between /l/ and // as the classic example (p. v) of a
pronunciation problem and the principal one facing Japanese learners
of English. Another pronunciation text produced for the Japan market,
by Grate (1974), devotes its rst six lessons to // and /l/. More recently,
Lambacher (1999), whose pedagogy involves the use of computers and
electronic visual feedback, describes the English // and /l/ as infa-
mously difcult to pronounce (p. 142).
Outside of Japan, many teachers, teacher trainers, and textbook
authors also view the English liquids as a problem for Japanese speakers.
Kenworthy (1987) assigns only four English segmentals a high priority
status for Japanese speakers; two of these are // and /l/. Pennington
(1996) provides only one sample teaching unit but devotes it to teaching
English // and /l/ to Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans (p. 258). Celce-
Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin (1996) devote a sample lesson to the
teaching of // and /l/ in order to address the needs of speakers of
Asian languages, especially Japanese (p. 52).
Not only teachers but also researchers in second language acquisition
(SLA; e.g., Goto, 1971) have for some time recognized the difculty that
the English liquids pose for Japanese speakers. Some of the more recent
research literature, summarized by Riney and Flege (1998), includes that
by Bradlow et al. (1997), Flege, Takagi, and Mann (1995), Price (1981),
Sekiyama and Tohkura (1993), Takagi (1993), Yamada and Tohkura
(1992), and Yamada, Tohkura, and Kobayashi (1992).
In prevocalic position, American English /l/ is usually a voiced,
alveolar, lateral approximant; // is often described as a voiced retroex
approximant (Ladefoged, 1993). The Japanese liquid is an apico-
alveolar ap or tap that is transliterated in the roman alphabet as r. The
Japanese sound occurs only prevocalically and intervocalically and
contrasts with /d/ but not with any lateral or retroex phones (Price,
1981). The ap that occurs in American English, however, is widely
considered to be an allophonic variant not of // but of /t/ and /d/ (as
in kitty and kiddy). Thus, the phonological roles and distributions of the
Japanese and American aps are different.
Phonetically, however, if the Japanese ap has a counterpart in
American English, it is the intervocalic ap. Vance (1987) described the
Japanese ap as essentially the same sound (p. 27) as the intervocalic
ap in American English city. Thus, with regard to English and Japanese
718 TESOL QUARTERLY
liquids, at a phonetic level of analysis three different sounds are involved:
/l/, a lateral continuant that involves an alveolar contact; //, a retroex
continuant; and //, a ap, which is a type of stop (Ladefoged &
Maddieson, 1996).
Furthermore, Japanese perception and production of English // and
/l/ involve more than just the misidentication of // for /l/ and /l/
for //. In controlled experiments, American listeners have been found
to categorize the Japanese liquid (which Japanese can identify 100% of
the time) variably as /t/, /d/, /l/, //, //, and /dl/. Japanese
listeners have been found to categorize English // (which Americans
can identify 100% of the time) as not only // and /l/ but also /w/ and
//. Thus, the perceived interlingual relationship between the Japanese
and American liquids is more complex than some teachers might assume
(Bradlow et al., 1997; Mochizuki, 1981; Sheldon & Strange, 1982; Takagi,
1993).
Central Hypothesis and Related Questions
Given the attention devoted to the Japanese and English liquids in the
pedagogical and research literature summarized above, we suspected
that Japanese ap substitutions for English /l/ and // might contribute
to a Japanese EFL speakers global foreign accent and comprehensibility.
Although we had no measure for comprehensibility, we did have one for
global foreign accent, provided by Riney and Fleges (1998) study,
summarized above. These considerations motivated the following central
hypothesis of this investigation: There will be a negative correlation
between Japanese speakers ap substitution and the approximation of
their accent to the L1.
Additionally, on the basis of previous research (e.g., Beebe, 1980,
1987; L. Dickerson, 1974, 1975; W. Dickerson, 1976; Schmidt, 1977) and
our own observations, we suspected that Japanese ap substitutions
would be subject to social and phonological variation, and that docu-
menting this variation would give teachers valuable insights into the
possible patterns of their EFL students speech development. With this in
mind, we formulated the following four questions:
1. Will the frequency of Japanese ap substitutions in EFL vary over
time?
2. Will the ap substitutions vary according to the target English liquid?
3. Will they vary according to their phonological environment?
4. Will they vary according to task?
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 719
METHOD
The study involved recording 11 Japanese EFL speakers during their
rst and fourth years of college as they read words and sentences and
spoke spontaneously. Two L1 Japanese judges then identied the Japa-
nese aps that were substituted for target English // and /l/. We then
counted the aps and computed percentage scores (the number of ap
substitutions divided by the total number of attempts at // and /l/).
These percentage scores were then correlated with the global foreign
accent ratings, obtained from Riney and Flege (1998), of the same 11
Japanese speakers.
Although this study and that of Riney and Flege (1998) involved the
same 11 Japanese EFL speakers, there were major differences between
the two studies. First, in Riney and Fleges study, L1 English speakers
judged the identiability and the goodness of target English liquids //
and /l/; this project, however, involved L1 Japanese speakers observa-
tions regarding the presence versus absence of the ap for target English
// and /l/. Second, in Riney and Fleges study, observations of target
liquids were based on only one task, the reading of a word list (with 25
experimental words). This project involved observations based on that
task and two additional tasks: the reading of 15 sentences and a
paragraph (an additional 40 experimental words) and a spontaneous
task (an additional 2058 words, depending on the speaker).
Participants
The 11 Japanese EFL speakers (8 females, 3 males) participating in
this study were students at International Christian University (ICU) in
Tokyo, a university that uses two languages, Japanese and English, as
media of instruction. Most of the Japanese had begun their study of
English at about age 13 in Japanese middle schools. At Time 1 (spring
1992) the EFL speakers were rst-year college students aged 1820 years,
and at Time 2 (fall 1995) they were fourth-year students. They had
similar scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in
their rst year (range: 437497) and second year (range: 490567) but
differed in other respects, including preuniversity schooling.
2
In addition,
2
All 11 Japanese received about 18 hours of pronunciation instruction between 3 and 9
months after Time 1 (and about 30 months before Time 2) in the English Language Program
of ICU. This instruction involved communicative and task-based activities, various instructors,
and varying amounts of articulatory instruction in classes of 2030 students. Only 23 hours
were devoted to // and /l/. No student reported receiving any additional or special formal
pronunciation instruction between Time 1 and Time 2. In this 42-month longitudinal study, we
regard the effect of instruction as unknown.
720 TESOL QUARTERLY
between Time 1 and Time 2, the EFL speakers overseas experience and
exposure to English varied greatly; 2 of the 3 Japanese whose global
foreign accent signicantly improved between Time 1 and Time 2 had
spent a year in California. (The characteristics of all 11 Japanese speakers
are summarized in Riney & Flege, 1998, Table 1.)
We randomly picked 3 of the 5 L1 English speakers participating in
Riney and Fleges (1998) study to serve as our control group. (See Note
1.) The control group of 3 L1 English speakers (2 females and 1 male,
aged 2023) were born and raised in California, where they graduated
from high school as monolingual speakers of English. At the time of the
data collection (May 1996), they were studying Japanese at ICU as 1-year
exchange students from universities in California. Data were collected
from the L1 English speakers at Time 1 and Time 2 at an interval of
2 weeks.
Procedures
Except for the dates of Time 1 and Time 2, the 28 speech samples
collected (14 speakers 2 times) were recorded in an identical manner
in a soundproof room at ICU using a Sony TC-1290 monaural tape
recorder. Because context may affect L1 and L2 pronunciation, and
because English liquids vary across dialects and phonological environ-
ments, we investigated Japanese ap substitutions for // and /l/ in only
two phonological environments, both prevocalic: (a) word-initial single-
tons (e.g., in run and like) and (b) word-initial clusters (e.g., in spring and
cloth). We assessed ap production for target // and /l/ in these two
environments in two task types, reading and spontaneous, explained
below.
Reading Task
To test our central hypothesis and determine if heavy accent was
correlated with ap substitution, we needed measurements of both. The
global foreign accent ratings of the 14 speakers, obtained from Riney
and Flege (1998), discussed above, were based on a sentence reading
task, which was also part of the reading task that we used.
The reading task comprised three subtasks: a word list, a sentence list,
and a paragraph. The word list (see Riney & Flege, 1998) included 25
experimental words that occurred in a list of 84 words read in isolation.
Also read was a list of 15 independent sentences (5 of which were used by
Riney & Flege, 1998, for a global foreign accent rating) and a paragraph
comprising 11 sentences. These 26 sentences contained a total of 40
experimental words. The same reading task was used at Time 1 and Time
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 721
2, and the maximum number of observations per speaker per time was
65 (25 from the word list + 40 from the sentences and paragraph
combined).
Spontaneous Task
In addition, the speakers responded spontaneously to the Labovian
prompt: Tell me about one of the most dangerous or exciting moments
in your life. Because the number of tokens and observations depended
on each speaker and story, we established a method of choosing the
experimental words: First, typescripts were produced for each story. The
words that t any of six categories of word onsets (singleton // and /l/,
// and /l/ in #C_V clusters, and // and /l/ in #CC_V clusters) were
then underlined to help the judges identify these tokens. The rst ve
tokens for each category (if there were ve) were selected. Sixty
obligatory contexts (5 words 6 categories 2 times) were possible.
None of the speakers, however, Japanese or American, produced ve
tokens for every category.
3
Assessment of Samples
A number of studies of L2 pronunciation (see, e.g., Yavas, 1993) have
relied on judgments made by native speakers of the target language, who
rate how well formed target segments or clusters are. Eckmans work
(1977, 1991), for example, and subsequent studies testing Eckmans
hypotheses have typically involved judgments of whether or not a target
language cluster is well formed. Investigations by Flege and his associates
(see, e.g., Flege, 1995) also sometimes have involved native speakers of
the target language making such judgments.
In Riney and Fleges (1998) study, L1 English listeners assessed the
intelligibility of // and /l/ but not the phonetic identity of sounds
substituted for // and /l/. L1 English judges were asked to place
attempts at // and /l/ into one of only three categories: R, L, or neither.
In the current study, because we were not condent of our ability to
identify multiple phonetic variants and obtain the interrater reliability
that we believe is necessary (cf. Beebe, 1980; W. Dickerson, 1976), we
restricted our focus to the Japanese ap.
Three judges assessed the speech of the L1 English control group.
The L1 English judge (the rst author) determined whether the English
3
We chose to limit ourselves to ve tokens of each of the six types of phonological
environments because the spontaneous tasks involved stories that varied greatly in length. We
wanted to limit the inuence of any individuals stories on the results of the group.
722 TESOL QUARTERLY
liquids were indeed present and obligatory in the environments under
investigation. The two L1 Japanese judges (the second and third
authors) identied whether any Japanese-type ap substitutions had
occurred for English // and /l/. Both judges (at the time of the study,
students in a PhD program in linguistics at Georgetown University) were
L1 speakers of Tokyo Japanese with native or near-native competence in
American English. Only the two L1 Japanese judges assessed the Japa-
nese ap substitutions produced by the 11 Japanese EFL speakers.
All 14 speakers were assessed via headphones in a quiet room in each
judges home or ofce. The L1 English judge used a BM-76 Sony
Transcriber; one L1 Japanese judge used an AIWA PX530 stereo cassette
player, and the other used a RR-830 Panasonic Transcriber. All three
machines had replay functions, and judges listened as many times as was
necessary to make each judgment.
RESULTS
For the L1 English control group, the L1 English judge made 390
observations (65 words 3 speakers 2 times) of target liquids in the
reading tasks and 118 observations in the spontaneous tasks, involving
1625 observations for each of six stories (3 speakers 2 times). The L1
English judge observed no liquid deletions and assessed all target //s as
//s and all /l/s as /l/s. Of 780 observations (65 words 3 speakers
2 times 2 judges) in the reading tasks, the L1 Japanese judges observed
no aps and only // for // and /l/ for /l/, as did the L1 English
judge. Of the 236 observations (118 2 judges) in the spontaneous
tasks, one L1 Japanese judge observed 2 Japanese-type aps in the story
of one L1 English speaker. On this basisno deletions and only 2 of
1,016 (780 reading + 236 spontaneous) observations of aps in the
control groupwe assumed that the prevocalic environments under
investigation were obligatory ones for English // and /l/.
For the experimental group of 11 Japanese EFL speakers, the reading
tasks involved potentially 2,860 observations (65 words 11 speakers
2 times 2 judges), but 5 ( 2 judges = 10 observations) of the sentence
and paragraph tokens could not be used (because a speaker skipped
words, misread words, or coughed, or because the recording was poor),
leaving 2,850 observations. For the spontaneous tasks the two L1
Japanese judges made a total of 454 observations (158 from Time 1; 296
from Time 2). Here the number of observations ranged from 20 to 58
per speaker (Time 1 and Time 2 combined) due to the variation in
length and lexicon of the different stories told. The data from the two
judges were combined. Of the 3,304 observations (2,850 from the
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 723
reading tasks plus 454 from the spontaneous tasks), the two judges
agreed about the presence versus the absence of a Japanese ap in 86.9%
and disagreed in 13.1%. On this basis, interrater reliability was consid-
ered good.
The results of all observations, expressed as percentages, are shown in
Table 1 for each speaker across the four pairs of variables involving time,
target liquid, phonological environment, and task. For example, Speaker
J1 at Time 1 substituted the Japanese ap in 7% of all attempts. This
gure represents all Time 1 tokens and includes both types of target
liquid (// and /l/), both types of phonological environment, (single-
ton and cluster), and both types of task (reading and spontaneous).
The central hypothesis of this study was that there would be a negative
correlation between nativelike accent and ap substitution. A correla-
tion based on combined Time 1 and Time 2 observations found strong
support for this hypothesis (r = 0.805). Further examination, however,
revealed that the ap-accent relationship changed somewhat between
Time 1 and Time 2 (see Figures 2 and 3). Based on a scale from 1 (heavy
foreign accent) to 9 (no foreign accent),
4
all the L1 English speakers obtained
scores between 8.4 and 9.0. The 11 Japanese EFL speakers, on the other
hand, received a mean rating of 3.7 at Time 1 (range: 1.45.4) and 4.0 at
Time 2 (range: 1.35.4).
Each of the 11 data points in Figure 2 represents the intersection of
one Japanese EFL speakers global foreign accent rating and his or her
corresponding percentage of Japanese ap substitutions at Time 1.
There was a strong negative correlation between the two variables (r =
0.867, p < .002). Although the data point for one speaker, J11, who had
a very low accent rating and a very high percentage of ap substitutions,
was remote from the others, J11 conformed to the overall pattern. Even
without Speaker J11, the correlation remained moderate (r = 0.746,
p < .02). We interpret these results for Time 1 to be strong support for
our hypothesisthe higher the percentage of ap substitutions, the
lower (worse) the accent rating.
Figure 3, representing Time 2, is constructed in the same manner as
Figure 1. For Time 2 we found a slightly weaker negative correlation (r =
0.744, p < .01) relative to that of Time 1. A second statistical test showed
that without outlying Speaker J11, however, the ap-accent correlation at
Time 2 was only 0.141 (p < .05).
4
In Riney and Flege (1998), the explanation 1 = most native English, 9 = most strongly
accented English (p. 218, Figure 1) should have read 9 = most native English, 1 = most
strongly accented English.
724 TESOL QUARTERLY
T
A
B
L
E
1
J
a
p
a
n
e
s
e
F
l
a
p
S
u
b
s
t
i
t
u
t
i
o
n
s
A
c
r
o
s
s
F
o
u
r
V
a
r
i
a
b
l
e
s
(
%
)
S
p
e
a
k
e
r
V
a
r
i
a
b
l
e
J
1
J
2
J
3
J
4
J
5
J
6
J
7
J
8
J
9
J
1
0
J
1
1
A
l
l
T
i
m
e
1
a
7
.
0
3
7
.
0
7
.
1
2
0
.
0
8
.
7
1
9
.
3
2
1
.
9
0
.
8
3
.
4
3
2
.
6
8
1
.
7
2
1
.
7
2
b
4
.
3
2
1
.
0
6
.
2
8
.
2
5
.
1
1
4
.
2
2
5
.
0
0
.
0
2
3
.
4
5
.
8
7
4
.
0
1
6
.
7
T
a
r
g
e
t
l
i
q
u
i
d
/
l
/
9
.
4
3
3
.
8
1
0
.
0
2
2
.
0
6
.
8
2
5
.
0
2
7
.
5
0
.
0
1
8
.
9
2
5
.
8
8
9
.
7
2
4
.
5
/
/
2
.
8
2
2
.
9
4
.
1
8
.
1
6
.
9
1
0
.
0
2
0
.
4
0
.
6
9
.
5
1
2
.
4
6
8
.
5
1
4
.
9
P
h
o
n
o
l
o
g
i
c
a
l
e
n
v
i
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
S
i
n
g
l
e
t
o
n
c
6
.
9
2
6
.
0
1
2
.
7
2
0
.
4
1
2
.
8
2
6
.
9
4
4
.
4
0
.
8
2
5
.
4
2
9
.
1
8
4
.
0
2
6
.
2
C
l
u
s
t
e
r
d
4
.
7
2
9
.
7
1
.
8
8
.
1
1
.
3
8
.
2
6
.
4
0
.
0
5
.
6
9
.
4
7
2
.
4
1
3
.
3
T
a
s
k S
p
o
n
t
a
n
e
o
u
s
5
.
4
3
4
.
5
8
.
7
1
9
.
1
2
3
.
9
2
5
.
0
3
8
.
9
0
.
0
1
7
.
5
3
0
.
6
7
8
.
6
2
5
.
1
R
e
a
d
i
n
g
5
.
8
2
6
.
5
6
.
3
1
3
.
1
3
.
9
1
6
.
0
2
0
.
4
0
.
4
1
3
.
1
1
6
.
7
7
8
.
0
1
8
.
2
A
l
l
5
.
7
2
8
.
0
6
.
6
1
3
.
9
6
.
9
1
6
.
7
2
3
.
6
0
.
4
1
3
.
7
1
8
.
4
7
8
.
0
1
9
.
1
N
o
t
e
.
E
a
c
h
p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e
i
s
t
h
e
t
o
t
a
l
n
u
m
b
e
r
o
f
a
p
s
u
b
s
t
i
t
u
t
i
o
n
s
d
i
v
i
d
e
d
b
y
t
h
e
t
o
t
a
l
n
u
m
b
e
r
o
f
o
b
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n
s
.
A
l
l
p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e
s
h
a
v
e
b
e
e
n
r
o
u
n
d
e
d
t
o
t
h
e
n
e
a
r
e
s
t
1
0
t
h
.
I
n
r
e
s
u
l
t
s
f
o
r
e
a
c
h
v
a
r
i
a
b
l
e
,
a
l
l
o
t
h
e
r
v
a
r
i
a
b
l
e
s
a
r
e
c
o
l
l
a
p
s
e
d
.
a
B
a
s
e
d
o
n
1
3
2
1
5
2
o
b
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n
s
.
b
B
a
s
e
d
o
n
1
4
4
1
7
0
o
b
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n
s
.
c
W
o
r
d
-
i
n
i
t
i
a
l
s
i
n
g
l
e
t
o
n
e
n
v
i
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
s
(
#
_
V
)
.
d
W
o
r
d
-
i
n
i
t
i
a
l
c
l
u
s
t
e
r
e
n
v
i
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
s
(
#
C
_
V
a
n
d
#
C
C
_
V
)
.
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 725
Time 1 Versus Time 2
As shown in Table 1, Speaker J8 exhibited the fewest ap substitutions
at Time 1 and Time 2, with 0.8% and 0.0%, respectively; Speaker J11,
with 81.7% and 74.0%, exhibited the most. All speakers except Speakers
J7 and J9 produced more aps at Time 1 than at Time 2. A t -test
determined, however, that for the group of 11 speakers the difference
between Time 1 and Time 2 was not signicant at the .05 level; t (10 df ) =
2.22, p = 0.212.
Target // Versus /l/
Figure 4, derived from Table 1, shows ap substitutions for target //
and /l/. Each data point represents the percentage of ap substitutions
of one speaker for target English // or /l/. Speaker J8 had almost no
Japanese ap substitutions for // or /l/; Speaker J5 had very few and
exhibited about the same percentage for // and /l/. All other speakers
substituted more aps for /l/ than for //. A t-test determined that, for
FIGURE 2
Global Foreign Accent and Japanese Flap Substitution at Time 1
Note. J = Japanese EFL speaker; 1 = heavy foreign accent, 9 = no foreign accent. Figure excludes
three L1 English speakers and the accent range of 69.
J11
J2
J10
J7
J4
J6
J5
J8
J1
J9
J3
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Flap substitutions (%)
A
c
c
e
n
t
r
a
t
i
n
g
726 TESOL QUARTERLY
the group of 11 speakers, the difference in ap substitution for target /l/
and for // was signicant at the .05 level; t (10 df ) = 2.22, p = 0.001.
Singleton Versus Clusters
Figure 5, derived from Table 1, shows the percentage of ap substitu-
tions for singleton liquid onsets (#_V) and for liquids in cluster onsets
(#C_V, #CC_V). Because a preliminary analysis suggested that there was
no difference between the two cluster environments, the two were
collapsed into one cluster category. Speaker J8s ap substitutions
amounted to fewer than 1.0% in either environment. Speaker J2 had
slightly more in clusters (29.7%) than in singletons (26.0%). The
remaining 9 speakers exhibited more ap substitutions in singletons
than in clusters. A t -test determined that, for the group of 11 speakers,
the greater ap substitution in singletons relative to clusters was statisti-
cally signicant; t (10 df ) = 2.22, p = 0.004.
FIGURE 3
Global Foreign Accent and Japanese Flap Substitution at Time 2
Note. J = Japanese EFL speaker; 1 = heavy foreign accent, 9 = no foreign accent. Figure excludes
three L1 English speakers and the accent range of 69.
J11
J2
J10
J7
J4
J6
J5
J8
J1 J9
J3
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Flap substitutions (%)
A
c
c
e
n
t
r
a
t
i
n
g
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 727
Reading Task Versus Spontaneous Task
Figure 6, derived from Table 1, shows the percentage of ap substitu-
tions observed in the EFL speakers speech samples for the two task
types, reading and spontaneous. Because a preliminary analysis did not
reveal clear differences between the reading subtasks (word, sentence,
and paragraph), the subtasks were collapsed into one reading task.
Speaker J8 again produced the fewest ap substitutions.
5
Speakers J1 and
J11 exhibited about the same percentages of ap substitutions on both
task types. The other 8 Japanese EFL speakers produced more ap
FIGURE 4
Japanese Flap Substitution for Target /l/ and Target /r/
Note. J = Japanese EFL speaker. Each data point collapses the observations from both times, both
task types, and both phonological environments.
a
Based on 116148 observations.
b
Based on 160178 observations.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
J11 J2 J7 J10 J6 J4 J9 J3 J1 J5 J8
Speaker
F
l
a
p
s
u
b
s
t
i
t
u
t
i
o
n
(
%
)
For /l/
a
For //
b
5
We might have excluded Speaker J8 from the four t-tests above on the grounds that she was
performing like or nearly like an L1 English speaker at Time 1 (with less than 1% ap
substitution) and therefore could not improve or show any variation. Her global foreign accent
(4.0 at Time 1, 4.3 at Time 2), however, was assessed as being far below that of L1 English
speakers (8.49.0 at Time 1 and Time 2). Obviously, global foreign accent involves more than
any one segment.
728 TESOL QUARTERLY
substitutions in the spontaneous task than in the reading task. A t -test
determined that the greater ap substitution in the spontaneous task
relative to the reading task was signicant; t (10 df ) = 2.22, p = 0.006.
DISCUSSION
This research responds to the call by Anderson-Hsieh et al. (1992) for
researchers to contribute to establishing valid priorities for teaching
pronunciation to second language learners (p. 549). We have focused
on the Japanese ap because, on the basis of the pedagogical and
research literature reviewed above, we suspected that the transferred ap
might be related to the degree of global foreign accent perceived in
Japanese EFL speakers.
Our central hypothesis was supported. We found a strong negative
correlation (0.805, Time 1 and Time 2 combined) between the 11
Japanese EFL speakers global foreign accents and their percentages of
FIGURE 5
Japanese Flap Substitution for Singleton Liquids and Liquids in Clusters
Note. J = Japanese EFL speaker. Each data point collapses the observations from both times, both
target liquids, and both tasks.
a
Based on 122148 observations.
b
Based on 148178 observations.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
J11 J7 J10 J6 J2 J9 J4 J5 J3 J1 J8
F
l
a
p
s
u
b
s
t
i
t
u
t
i
o
n
(
%
)
Speaker
In singletons
a
In clusters
b
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 729
ap substitutions. The more the accent approximated the accent of an
L1 English speaker (dened by the native speaker group), the fewer the
Japanese ap substitutions; the less the accent approximated that of an
L1 English speaker, the more the Japanese ap substitutions. Although
correlation is not necessarily causation, this correlation suggests to us
that the transferred segmental, the Japanese ap, may be a contributor
to the global foreign accent of Japanese EFL speakers.
As we pointed out at the beginning of this article, for the past 1520
years pronunciation pedagogy in ESL publications and at TESOL
conventions has increasingly emphasized suprasegmentals. For Gilbert
(1984), practice with individual sounds is placed in a subordinate
position, after practice with intonation (p. 2). In a second edition,
Gilbert (1993) concentrates on rhythm, stress, and intonation because
improvement in these aspects of pronunciation can do the most good in
improving both listening comprehension and clarity of speech (p. vi).
In this second edition, however, Gilbert devotes more attention to
segmentals, and our ndings here provide support for a pedagogy that
FIGURE 6
Japanese Flap Substitution in Reading Task and Spontaneous Task
Note. J = Japanese EFL speaker. Each data point collapses the observations from both times, both
target liquids, and both phonological environments.
a
Based on 2058 observations.
b
Based on 256260 observations.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
J11 J7 J2 J10 J6 J5 J4 J9 J3 J1 J8
F
l
a
p
s
u
b
s
t
i
t
u
t
i
o
n
(
%
)
Speaker
Spontaneous task
a
Reading task
b
730 TESOL QUARTERLY
addresses segmentals to some degree. Moreover, our ndings directly
support the recommendations of pronunciation material writers and
trainers (e.g., Celce-Murcia et al., 1996; Kenworthy, 1987; Pennington,
1996) who have pointed to the need for Japanese EFL learners to focus
on // and /l/. We assume that a few other segments may also be related
to global foreign accent in Japanese EFL speech and that certain
segmental productions are related to the global foreign accent of EFL
speakers from L1 backgrounds other than Japanese. Thus we found
general support for a curriculum that seeks to identify the most
important aspects of both the segmentals and suprasegmentals, and
integrate them appropriately into a course that meet the needs of any
given group of learners (Celce-Murcia et al., 1996, p. 10).
6
Although we observed no systematic relationship between the appear-
ance of the ap and the variable of time for the group of 11 Japanese, we
found ap substitution to be systematically related to the other three
variables that we monitored: target liquid, phonological environment,
and task.
Time
This study builds upon that of Flege (1988) and Flege and Fletcher
(1992), who studied, respectively, L1 Chinese and L1 Spanish speakers of
English in the United States. When viewed together, the two studies
suggest that even speakers living in the target language environment may
take years to improve their accent. Riney and Flege, who studied the
same Japanese EFL speakers based in Japan as this study, found that over
a 42-month period, only 3 of 11 Japanese speakers (J1, J2, and J4 in
Figure 1) improved in global foreign accent. Two of these 3 were the only
participants of the 11 to have spent a year abroad in a native English-
speaking area, which suggests that prolonged naturalistic exposure,
although no guarantee, increases the likelihood of gradual accent
improvement. The study by Riney and Flege, however, did not reveal any
relationship between global foreign accent and the identiability of
English liquids // and /l/. Nor did it reveal the phonetic composition
of the forms Japanese speakers produce for target English liquids.
By focusing on the transferred Japanese ap (rather than intelligibil-
ity of // and /l/), we found a strong negative correlation between
global foreign accent and Japanese ap substitution for Time 1 and
Time 2 combined. We also found a strong negative correlation at Time 1
6
We recognize, however, that in linguistically homogenous classrooms, such as those in
Japan, this recommendation is easier to follow than in linguistically heterogenous classrooms,
such as those in the United States.
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 731
alone. At Time 2, 42 months later, however, the correlation was less
strong. Furthermore, between Time 1 and Time 2, the percentage of
aps diminished among 9 of the 11 speakers (Table 1), but the group as
a whole showed no signicant decrease. Thus, we found no clear
evidence of an early transfer stage (characterized by many transferred L1
items) followed by a later developmental stage (characterized by fewer
transferred items and more items produced through developmental
processes; cf. Major, 1987, 1994). If our study had been conducted in an
ESL setting rather than in an EFL setting in Japan, the speakers might
have had more naturalistic exposure to English, might have used English
more, and might have developed their accents over time, and a transfer
stage followed by a developmental stage might have been observed.
Based on our study, however, even in a bilingual university that uses
English (along with Japanese) as a medium of instruction, Japanese
students as a group apparently do not diminish their ap substitution for
// and /l/ over time.
// Versus /l/
A second nding was that although Japanese EFL speakers substituted
the Japanese ap for both target // and /l/, a signicantly higher
percentage of substitutions occurred for target /l/ than for target //.
Knowing this, teachers might want to point out to Japanese students that
they tend to substitute their Japanese r more often for /l/ than for //.
Teachers might well focus on teaching /l/ rst and reducing ap
substitution for it, and then work on // in a separate lesson if time
permits. Although eliminating the ap transfer will not guarantee that
the segments produced will be well-formed //s and /l/s, it will at least
alert the students to a substitution that is common for many of them.
Singletons Versus Clusters
A third nding was that whereas the Japanese EFL speakers substi-
tuted aps for both singleton liquids and liquids in clusters, more
substitutions occurred for singleton liquids. (One might think that this is
due to the deletion of liquids in clusters, but no deletions were
observed.) One explanation for this may reside in the phonotactics of
Japanese and English. In Japanese, no aps appear in onset clusters.
7
If
7
We are ignoring Japanese palatalized [j]; our focus here is liquids in the C2 position of
C1C2 clusters, not /C/.
732 TESOL QUARTERLY
Japanese aps and Japanese phonotactics transfer into the L2 English,
the aps might be expected to occur in contexts where aps are licensed
in the L1, that is, in singleton onsets, and to occur less often in a non-L1
context, that is, in onset clusters. Also, aps in American English (as in
Japanese) are conned primarily to singleton onset contexts (e.g., later,
ladder). Japanese EFL speakers are exposed to English clusters contain-
ing /l/ or //, but they never encounter onset clusters with a ap in the
L1 Japanese or the L2 English context. Perhaps Japanese EFL speakers
substitute more aps in singleton onsets because both English and
Japanese phonotactics license aps as singleton onsets, and neither
language licenses aps in cluster onsets.
Some EFL teachers and textbook writers (e.g., Grate, 1974, men-
tioned above) might assume that teaching English liquids in cluster
onsets is as important as teaching liquids in singleton onsets. Our
ndings here, however, suggest that this might not be the case, at least
not if the goal is to reduce ap transfer, which we found occurred less
frequently in cluster than in singleton onsets. We do not mean to say that
teaching clusters is not important, but if the pedagogical focus is on
reducing the ap transfer, it makes sense to focus on the singleton
environment, in which the transfer occurs more often.
Task
Murphy (1997) has pointed out that the research literature has
neglected the documentation of criteria for L2 pronunciation perform-
ance in settings of authentic language use (p. 756). One reason for this
neglect is that it is extremely difcult to measure authentic language use
in a controlled experimental setting. Much of the empirical research
reviewed earlier was based on the perception and production of liquids
in single words or sentences that were read from lists. For our study we
collected data by means of a spontaneous task as one part of a larger
study that also included controlled tasks in which participants read words
and sentences. Similarly to a number of earlier studies (e.g., Anderson-
Hsieh, Riney, & Koehler, 1994; Beebe, 1987; Schmidt, 1977), we found
that whereas Japanese ap substitutions occurred both in the reading
tasks and in the spontaneous tasks, a higher percentage of aps occurred
in the latter. These ndings suggest that transfer and other errors occur
more in informal and spontaneous speech, in which speakers have less
opportunity to prepare and monitor. They support the idea that after
providing students with structural practice, pronunciation classes should
allow for the use of authentic, spontaneous speech that will serve as a
bridge to communication outside the classroom.
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 733
CONCLUSION
The ndings reported here are based on a small sample and must be
interpreted with caution. Nonetheless, several of the ndings may be
relevant to foreign language researchers, textbook writers, and teachers.
For researchers, we call attention to three points. First, although
transfer cannot account for everything, L2 theory must account for
transfer, a process that this study and previous studies have shown to be
a major inuence on L2 phonology. Second, assessing transfer requires
the use of trained judges (perhaps native speakers of the L1) who can
identify L1 forms when they occur. Third, L2 research and theory must
deal with wide variation across speakers. In the current project, for
example, speaker J11 substituted aps 77.8% of the time, offering very
few data in support of theories that might predict phonetic variants
resulting from processes other than transfer. Clearly, support for any
particular theory of SLA or L2 pedagogy depends in part on the speakers
observed, and more studies assessing large numbers of speakers in
carefully dened conditions are needed.
Finally, for pronunciation materials writers, teachers, and teacher
trainers, we call attention to the following points. First, the Japanese ap,
a segmental, appears to be linked to Japanese speakers accent in
English. If the goal is to reduce the Japanese accent in English, then a
focus on reducing the transfer of this ap and improving accuracy in
pronouncing // and /l/ would be a sensible endeavor, especially if, as
was seen in this study, ap substitution does not diminish easily or
quickly over time. Second, because ap substitutions may vary widely
across speakers, and because individuals EFL speech develops in different
ways, pronunciation pedagogy may need to become more individualized.
If individualized instruction is impossible, a partial solution may reside in
self-access labs and increasingly effective computer software applications
that allow students to work independently on individual problems (see,
e.g., Lambacher, 1999, for the teaching of // and /l/ to Japanese).
Third, although it is unrealistic to expect most students to improve
quickly, teachers should recognize that at least some students manage to
reduce their L1-L2 transfer and improve their segmental production and
global foreign accent over time.
At the beginning of this article we posed several questions that we felt
had not been sufciently addressed by previous research: What is the
proper balance between segmentals and suprasegmentals in pronuncia-
tion pedagogy? What denes comprehensible pronunciation and the
pronunciation threshold? What are the pedagogical priorities for teach-
ers of pronunciation? We have attempted to address these questions by
considering a series of studies (Riney & Flege, 1998; Riney & Takagi,
734 TESOL QUARTERLY
1999; and the current study) that have focused on different aspects of
the pronunciation of the same 11 Japanese EFL speakers over a 42-
month interval. Although we did not directly address comprehensible
pronunciation because we were aware of no established measure for it,
we consider it likely that the substitution of one Japanese sound ([]) for
two contrasting English sounds (// and /l/) contributes to low compre-
hensibility and increased ambiguity of speech. It is the responsibility of
pronunciation instruction to try to minimize this. At a segmental level, at
the very least, EFL speakers should be able to make a distinction between
two separate phonemes instead of substituting one L1 phoneme for both
L2 phonemes.
Although the study reported here focused on segmentals, we support
the current trend in pronunciation pedagogy that emphasizes both
segmentals and suprasegmentals. We also hope that future studies will try
to pinpoint, for Japanese EFL speakers and for EFL speakers of other L1
backgrounds, what particular aspects of the suprasegmentals most con-
tribute to global foreign accent and problems in comprehensibility. Only
a pronunciation curriculum that is based on a careful identication of
learners needs can expect to articulate the proper balance between a
focus on suprasegmentals and a focus on segmentals.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Janet Anderson-Hsieh for suggesting the four tasks for this study, Jim Flege
for the measurement of global foreign accent, Randy Thrasher and Yuki Takagi for
statistical help and insight, Kyoko Okamura for clerical assistance and proofreading,
and Theo Bongaerts and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions on
an earlier draft of this article.
THE AUTHORS
Tim Riney is a professor of English and applied linguistics at International Christian
University. His papers addressing ESL pronunciation have appeared in JALT Journal,
Language Learning, and Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Those involving
sociolinguistics have appeared in Multilingua and Journal of Multilingual and Multi-
cultural Development.
Mari Takada is a PhD candidate at Georgetown University. She has taught EFL and
Japanese as a foreign language and is currently conducting a cross-linguistic study of
metaphors for sounds. Her main interests are interlanguage phonetics and cognitive
semantics.
Mitsuhiko Ota is a lecturer in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
at the University of Edinburgh. His main research interest is phonological acquisition.
SEGMENTALS AND GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT 735
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739 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2000
THE FORUM
TESOL Quarterly invites commentary on current trends or practices in the TESOL
profession. It also welcomes responses or rebuttals to any articles or remarks
published here in The Forum or elsewhere in the Quarterly.
Comments on Awad El Karim M. Ibrahims
Becoming Black: Rap and Hip-Hop,
Race, Gender, and Identity and the
Politics of ESL Learning
A Reader Reacts . . .
LYNN GOLDSTEIN
The Monterey Institute of International Studies
Monterey, California, United States
I
I was pleased to see the article Becoming Black: Rap and Hip-Hop,
Race, Gender, and Identity and the Politics of ESL Learning in TESOL
Quarterly (Vol. 33, No. 3, Autumn 1999), as Awad El Karim M. Ibrahim
addresses important issues about the role of identication in second
language acquisition and L2 use. Nevertheless, I am dismayed by how the
author has portrayed my work (Goldstein, 1987). I recognize that it is a
discourse tradition to carve out a research space for oneself by showing
what others work has not done and how ones work will ll in that gap.
It is clear that Ibrahim is doing just that in discussing my work, but he has
done so both by including factual inaccuracies and by misrepresenting
my studys purposes and research questions.
First, his description of my work contains two factual inaccuracies. He
states, For instance, Goldstein (1987) focuses on the linguistic features
of Black English as found in the speech of Puerto Rican youths in New
York City (p. 352). In fact, I described the learners as follows: William,
16 years old, and Paternoster, 18, were both students at the same high
school in the New York City metropolitan area. William had lived in
740 TESOL QUARTERLY
Jersey City for 5 years, Paternoster for 3. Both were born in Ecuador, and
both spoke Spanish as their rst language (Goldstein, 1987, p. 418). In
fact, my subjects were not Puerto Rican (elsewhere in my article I
referenced my subjects as Hispanic and speakers of Spanish), and they
were not all from New York City. Some, as I wrote in the above quotation
and elsewhere, were from Jersey City, New Jersey.
Of even greater concern is Ibrahims mischaracterization of my
research questions and results. He states,
Who do we as social subjects living within a social space desire to be or
become? And whom do we identify with, and what repercussions does our
identication have on how and what we learn? This question . . . . I have not yet
seen it raised, let alone incorporated seriously, in ESL and applied linguistics research
[italics added]. For instance, Goldstein (1987) focuses on the linguistic
features of Black English as found in the speech of Puerto Rican youths in
New York City. However, she does not address the issue of what it means for Puerto
Rican youths to learn Black English [italics added]. What investment do they
have in doing so? And what roles, if any, do race, desire, and identication have
in the process of learning [italics added]? Instead, Goldstein offers a very
meticulous syntactico-morphological analysis. (p. 352)
What I did goes far beyond a very meticulous syntactico-morphologi-
cal analysis (p. 352) and, contrary to the authors claims about what I
did not do, my article directly asked and addressed the question of the
role of identication in what individuals learn:
1. Yet almost no research to date has considered the possibility that
learners may choose among target language models. Therefore, one
goal of the study reported in this article was to demonstrate that
nonnative speakers of English have target language models other
than Standard English (Goldstein, 1987, p. 419).
2. The second goal of the study, therefore, was to explore the relative
effects of two factors (extent of contact and feelings of identication
with Black Americans) on nonnative speakers frequency of use of
selected features of Black English (Goldstein, 1987, p. 419).
I addressed and discussed the role of identication in my subjects
acquisition of Black English versus standard English in many other
places within the article. My ndings were that identication did not
correlate with the use of Black English whereas extent of contact did.
Importantly, however, I found that extent of contact was a necessary but
not sufcient condition for my Hispanic subjects acquisition of selected
features of Black English. I went on to state that I believed identication
did play a role in the process of learning and that my way of measuring
identication may have been responsible for a lack of correlation, and I
gave suggestions for how future research might address the issue of
THE FORUM 741
identication in other ways, including ways that, in fact, Ibrahim uses in
his own research.
In sum, the role of identication was something I centrally raised and,
contrary to Ibrahims claims, seriously incorporated in my research.
Contrary to Ibrahims claims, a central question of my research was And
what roles, if any, do[es] . . . identication have in the process of
learning? (Ibrahim, 1999, p. 352). I am therefore very uncomfortable
that, in an attempt to carve out a research space for himself, Ibrahim has
misrepresented my work. He could have easily shown how his work (e.g.,
his research methodologies and the linguistic items he examined)
differed from my mine without saying I did not do something that in fact
was a central part of my research.
REFERENCES
Goldstein, L. (1987). Standard English: The only target for nonnative speakers of
English? TESOL Quarterly, 21, 417438.
Identity or Identication? A Response to Some Objections
AWAD EL KARIM M. IBRAHIM
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
I
In his reply to those objecting to some postulations in his work,
Bourdieu (1990) wrote,
Most of the questions and objections which have been put to me reveal a high
degree of misapprehension, which can go as far as total incomprehension.
Some of the reasons for this are to be found on the consumption side, others
on the side of production. (p. 106)
I would not go as far as Bourdieu, but the consumption side should
certainly be thanked for giving me this opportunity to clarify and
elaborate on some of the issues I addressed in my article.
First, the misapprehension, if not total incomprehension, is not solely
of the centrality of identication but of its signication, on the one hand,
and its subjective work, on the other. That is, what does identication
actually mean, and what relation does it have with identity formation
processesprocesses that shape, if not govern, what one learns and how?
What roles, if any, do race and gender have in these processes, and how
are they materially performed, on the one hand, and cognitively per-
ceived, on the other? In other words, how are young Hispanic men and
742 TESOL QUARTERLY
women in Goldsteins (1987) work signifying, understanding, and narrat-
ing their moments of identication with African Americans? Plainly put,
how can we talk about Hispanic youths identifying with African Ameri-
cans and their language (and culture) without centralizing race? None
of these questions was clearly posed and addressed in Goldsteins article.
Instead, Goldstein (1987) offered a linguistic analysis showing how a
lengthy encounter, or contact, between Black Americans and Hispanic
youths was a necessary but not sufcient condition in learning selected
features of Black English. Besides the total absence of the everyday
texture of identication, what exactly does this contact entail in terms of
Spanish-speaking youths sense of self and the political choices they
make? If all choices are political, as feminists have argued (see, e.g.,
Butler, 1990), how then does one signify Hispanics identifyingor
choosing to identify through linguistic choiceswith African Ameri-
cans? This is another series of questions related to identication that
Goldstein did not address. Here, if one takes choosing a target language
model other than standard English when learning ESLthough a
brilliant research question in itselfas a denition for identication,
then we are talking about two completely different concepts, if not
conceptualizations.
My notion of identication is borrowed from and articulated better
within psychoanalysis (e.g., Woodward, 1997). There, identity, the sense
of self, or what Woodward has called subjectivity, is a collection and
recruitment of conscious and unconscious moments of identication
(Bhabha, 1994). We as individuals identify with that which speaks to us
and has particular signicance in our identity formation. Identity, as Hall
(1990) showed, is never full or complete; instead, it is an ongoing
product that is subject and is subjected to social conditions, where
language and culture give meaning to our experience of ourselves and
where we adopt an identity (Woodward, 1997, p. 39). This adoption of
an identity, the positions we then take up, and the collection of moments
of identication will eventually constitute our identities (p. 39).
Yet, in the midst of chaos and contradiction experienced every day, we
still long for a oneness and a unied sense of self, and it is this desire or
longing for oneness that produces the tendency to identify with
powerful and signicant gures outside [ourselves] (Woodward, 1997,
p. 45). These signicant gures also constitute part of the symbolic
systems with which we identify and in which language is so central.
There is thus an ongoing process of identication, where we seek some
unied sense of ourselves through symbolic systems and identify with the
ways in which we are seen by others. Having rst adopted an identity
from outside the self, Woodward goes on to explain, we go on to
identify with what we want [desire, or would like] to be (p. 45). If this is
so, how did Hispanic youths work through or work with their identica-
THE FORUM 743
tion with African Americans as part of their identity formation? Finally,
how did they negotiate and signify Blackness, and how did Blackness play
itself out as a symbolic system or site of identication?
Clearly, Goldstein and I are addressing two different conceptualizations
using the same signier: identication. Yet, one has to admit, Goldsteins
(1987) work was extremely helpful when I was conducting my research.
Indeed, it was the only research I could nd that addressed some of the
notions and the categories I was working with, including identication.
My critique, or I should say citing, of Goldsteins work was not to carve
out a research space for [myself] and it should certainly not be read this
way. It was meant to address the role(s) of race and gender in my
research subjects identication with African Americans, which in turn
affected their sense of self-identitywhich affected what and how they
learned. As I showed in my article, my research subjects picked up Black
ESL, which they accessed in and through hip-hop and rap.
I also critiqued Goldstein for absenting the obvious, by decentering
what I thought was the center of her research: race. How can we as
researchers conduct research on and about Hispanic youths who are
picking up and learning features of Black English in urban sites and not
centralize race? This question raises another signicant issue in TESOL
research paradigms that is waiting to be carved out as a research area: the
researcher, her or his (racial) subjectivity, the readings that get pro-
duced, and the research categories perceived as important. Put other-
wise, I strongly believe that the obscurity if not the omission of race is
related to what we as researchers read as important, which in turn is
related to our own subjectivities.
On the side of production, however, I stand corrected that having a
majority of Puerto Ricans as research subjects would not qualify all of
them to be Puerto Rican and that, apparently, the statement that the
subjects are from the New York metropolitan area would not mean that
they were all from New York City. Nonetheless, in conclusion, to claim
that identication, as dened above, was a central part of Goldsteins
work is only thata claim, which is undoubtedly open to contestation
and different readings.
REFERENCES
Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1990). In other words: Essays towards a reexive sociology. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York:
Routledge.
Goldstein, L. (1987). Standard English: The only target for nonnative speakers of
English? TESOL Quarterly, 21, 417438.
744 TESOL QUARTERLY
Hall, S. (1990). Cultural identity and diaspora. In J. Rutherford (Ed.) Identity,
community, culture, difference (pp. 222237). London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Woodward, K. (1997). Concepts of identity and difference. In K. Woodward (Ed.),
Identity and difference (pp. 761). London: Sage.
Comments on Dwight Atkinsons
TESOL and Culture
A Reader Reacts . . .
MERYL SIEGAL
Holy Names College
Oakland, California, United States
I
In TESOL and Culture (Vol. 33, No. 4, Winter 1999), Dwight
Atkinson proposes a view of culture for TESOL that is a way of looking
at the vexed notion of culture ecumenicallyof taking into account a
wide range of cultural understandings and critiques, and trying to show
that they do not necessarily need to be viewed as oppositional or
mutually exclusive (p. 649). Several points presented in the article call
for further exploration, and in this critique I examine two: the data set
Atkinson chooses to examine and the way Atkinsons conclusion follows
from the literature review.
THE DATA SET
Atkinson begins his article with the results of a search through the past
15 years of TESOL Quarterly articles for those with the word culture in the
title. Through this search he nds 10 articles, 6 carrying a somewhat
traditional received view of culture, 2 that question culture as a useful
concept, and 2 that express some reservations (p. 627) about the
traditional conception of culture (i.e., as a static, ahistorical, apolitical
entity). Convinced that conceptions of culture in TESOL are underde-
veloped from this survey, Atkinson then surveys conceptions of culture
in the social sciences and cultural studies (p. 631).
At this point, my question is twofold. First, in attempts to survey the
eld of culture in TESOL, why does Atkinson not thoroughly review
studies that examine specic conceptual components of poststructural,
postmodern, feminist approaches through the lens of learning English?
In the social sciences section of the article, Atkinson allows a discussion
of theories of subjectivity and identity, and Norton (1997) is footnoted
THE FORUM 745
(p. 629), but missing from this review is a complete discussion of the
works of Peirce (1995) and Anglil-Carter (1997). This omission consti-
tutes a large gap in Atkinsons search for culture in TESOL because what
Peirce and Anglil-Carter do in their research can be a model for what
culture means in TESOL. Peirce wrote her seminal 1995 article at a time
when most theories in language learning postulated a mechanical notion
of a learner disconnected from society (i.e., learners were viewed as
being immersed in input, and language acquisition was seen as learners
transformation of this input to intake). Within the theoretical paradigms
that dominated the eld at that time, it was difcult even to talk about
the pieces of what one might name the received view of culture that
Peirce points to as importantthat is, ideology, world view, who has the
power in a particular interaction, how this power changes, and how all
this affects language learning and teaching. Peirce species precisely
who the learners are, how they change over time, where they are
learning the language (Canada), what their relationship to Canada is,
what their social roles and positions in Canada are, and which pieces of
social (or, one might say, cultural) knowledge Canadians view as typical
(here I am thinking of Evas ignorance of Bart Simpson). Similarly,
Anglil-Carter, working within Bourdieus (1991) notions concerning
power and legitimacy, studies another part of what might be a received
view of culture, that is, discourse. She presents a complete historical and
political description of her study, which is set in South Africa and centers
on a Black student. Within this context, learning and using English are
political actions. Learning academic English is a different kind of
political action that leads Anglil-Carter and her student to a joint
exploration of discourse and identity. In neither of these articles is
culture a reied national entity; rather, both explore culture from
specic historical standpoints, thoroughly describe the contexts, and
examine language, which plays a role in constructing identities, as do
institutions. These concepts are exactly the kinds Atkinson outlines in
the principles of a revised view of culture that can inform TESOL
research and teaching (p. 641).
Second, applied linguists ideas about learning and teaching lan-
guages have always informed TESOL. Other journals, such as Applied
Linguistics, Modern Language Journal, and ELT Journal, have presented
works by Kramsch (e.g., 1993, 1995), von Hoene (e.g., 1996, 1999),
Kramsch and Sullivan (1996), Rampton (1999), and Lantolf (e.g., 1994),
among others who have worked to understand how notions of culture
(not particularly the received view) can inform language learning and
teaching, which of course includes TESOL. In an article intended for the
eld of TESOL, it does not make sense to ignore work done in the
teaching and learning of other languages or in other journals about the
teaching of English.
746 TESOL QUARTERLY
In sum, Atkinsons six principles as applied to TESOL seem to be new
neither to TESOL nor to language learning and teaching.
THE PRINCIPLES
Although Atkinson is thoroughly familiar with postmodern theories
and attempts to incorporate them into his work, his conclusion does not
really t with his literature review. For example, Principle 2, individual-
ity is also cultural (p. 642), is a structuralist notion of how culture ts
into the world and into individuals. Missing is any clear idea, say, from
discourse theory or language socialization theories, about how culture
and the individual interact. These ideas are included in the frameworks
behind the research of Peirce (1995) and Anglil-Carter (1997). Simi-
larly missing are notions of power and ideology. Atkinson writes,
Hovering above and pervading these rst three critiques of the notion of
culture is a fourth and nal point: the all-encompassing nature of power. . . .
a rough approximation might be that power is implicated in basically all
sociocultural phenomena. (p. 634)
However, this notion is absent from the conclusion of the paper.
Atkinson does include a principle stating that social group membership
is consequential (p. 645), but nowhere is the idea of social group tied to
any macro notions of power, identity, and hegemonic forces that lie at
the foundations of the literature review (pp. 631636). Perhaps these last
points can be part of what Kubota (1999) terms a large epistemological
disparity (p. 749). For example, Atkinson appropriates the notion of
subject, which has been highly developed in feminist theory (e.g.,
Weedon, 1987), in constructing Principle 3 but never alludes to the
larger ideological notions behind the notion itself. It is as if these ideas
never existed. And that is my main worrythat teachers and teacher
trainers will grab onto the six principles without moving toward a greater
understanding of what lies behind them.
REFERENCES
Anglil-Carter, S. (1997). Second language acquisition of spoken and written
English: Acquiring the skeptron. TESOL Quarterly, 31, 263287.
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press.
Kramsch, C. (1995). Redening the boundaries of language study. Boston: Heinle &
Heinle.
Kramsch, C., & Sullivan, P. (1996). Appropriate pedagogy. ELT Journal, 50, 199212.
Kubota, R. (1999). Comments on Ryuko Kubotas Japanese Culture Constructed by
THE FORUM 747
Discourses: Implications for Applied Linguistics Research and ELT: The author
responds. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 749758.
Lantolf, J. (1994). Sociocultural theory and second language learning: Introduction
to the special issue. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 418420.
Norton, B. (1997). Language, identity, and the ownership of English. TESOL
Quarterly, 31, 409429.
Peirce, B. N. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL
Quarterly, 30, 331337.
Rampton, B. (1999). Dichotomies, difference and ritual in second language learning
and teaching. Applied Linguistics, 20, 316340.
von Hoene, L. (1996). Subjects in process: Revisioning T.A. development through
psychoanalytic, feminist and postcolonial theory. In C. Kramsch (Ed.)., Redening
the boundaries of language study (pp. 139157). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
von Hoene, L. (1999). Imagining otherwise: Rethinking departments of foreign
languages and literatures as departments of cultural difference. ADFL Bulletin,
30(2), 2629.
Weedon, C. (1987). Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory. London: Blackwell.
Another Reader Reacts . . .
LISE M. SPARROW
School for International Training
Brattleboro, Vermont, United States
I
In TESOL and Culture (Vol. 33, No. 4, Winter 1999), Dwight
Atkinson invites examination of the concept of culture in TESOL. He
reviews articles from the journal over the past 15 years, the titles of which
include the term culture, and then draws upon work in cultural studies
and critical anthropology to propose a revised view of culture intended
to serve TESOL practitioners in the next century.
As a teacher educator involved in teaching courses in intercultural
communication and cultural identity for ESOL teachers, I would like to
offer an alternative view of culture and its past and future role in TESOL,
and propose that many of the views he draws from outside TESOL have
already been part of the currency of TESOL over that same span of time.
In fact, Atkinsons second sentence offers an important insight, declar-
ing that implicitly or explicitly, ESL teachers face it [culture] in
everything they do (p. 625). Unfortunately, having suggested himself
that there are intercultural dimensions to every aspect of TESOL, he
then proceeds to look only for articles explicitly using the word culture in
their titles and, ultimately, to suggest that the eld needs to embrace a
wide range of cultural understandings and critiques and that there is
no specic denition or theory of culture (p. 649).
It is of little help to teachers to know that cultures, in the abstract, are
constantly changing and reconceptualizing when groups of students with
748 TESOL QUARTERLY
specic expectations, abilities, and backgrounds enter their classrooms.
Just as teachers walk into specic buildings in specic neighborhoods,
work in specic institutions with specic goals and curricula, and teach
students with specic names and language backgrounds, teachers also
need to consider, specically, these same variables. Concomitantly, no
one teacher can teach in such an ecumenical way that the needs of all his
or her students are met. It must be recognized that every context is a
unique matrix of cultural, not to mention linguistic, variables.
Further, the eld cannot afford to see the cultural dimensions of
ESOL as haphazard and random, but rather needs an analytical view that
assertively acknowledges the many layers of culture represented in the
language itself, in texts and methodologies, in institutions and communi-
ties, and in the complex identities and belief systems of individual ESL
students, multicultural classes of students, and their unique teachers.
The eld needs to offer practitioners what is known about the specic
nature of this intercultural layering and provide them with the ability to
enter situations asking the right questions.
ESOL teachers must be self-reective and recognize the importance
of exploring the cultures of the classes, communities, and institutions in
which they take jobs. Furthermore, they must approach teaching with a
very specic and contextual view of their jobs. In 1996, Ricento and
Hornberger wrote an article entitled Unpeeling the Onion: Language
Planning and Policy and the ELT Professional, specically using not
culture but language policy as their focus:
What will I teach? how will I teach? and why do I teach? . . . . teachers have
daily opportunities to make small changes in their practices, from the topics
they choose for discussion, to how they structure the classroom, to the
interest they demonstrate in students problems.
Teachers send implicit messages in other ways, too. As individuals, mem-
bers of communities, and citizens of a country, ESL/EFL practitioners serve
as role models, informants, and advisors on a daily basis. They may reinforce
dominant cultural values . . . or they may question and even oppose these
values, thereby modeling possible alternative views of social reality. . . .
(p. 421)
Extending this view, and in line with Kumaravadivelus (1994)
postmethod suggestion that teachers can develop their own situation-
specic, need-based microstrategies (p. 32), all teachers need to ex-
plore three cultural domains in preparing to teach in specic contexts:
(a) the underlying cultural assumptions about language and learning in
the curriculum of instruction; (b) the students needs and goals (which
are inevitably culturally based); and (c) inevitably, the teachers own
assumptions and values, which arise naturally from their backgrounds
and previous intercultural and teaching experiences. Unfortunately,
THE FORUM 749
Atkinsons redenition focuses on culture as content to learn or learn
about, leaving students and teachers social identities as a peripheral
consideration and implicit values in teachers methodologies and institu-
tions unmentioned.
Looking at the same 15 years Atkinson uses as his period of explora-
tion, one nds two articles in one issue of TESOL Quarterly (Auerbach &
Burgess, 1985; Mohan & Lo, 1985) that critically examine what others in
the eld had received as knowledge. Auerbach and Burgesss seminal
article, The Hidden Curriculum of Survival ESL, suggests that texts
carry interpretations of immigrants realities and the extent to which
they shape that reality and questions whether they prepare students for
subservient social roles and reinforce hierarchical relations in the
classroom (p. 475). A few pages later is an article by Mohan and Lo that
highlights an issue not unlike those debated by Atkinson (1999) and
Kubota (1999) in TESOL Quarterly, debunking differences in Chinese
and Canadian rhetorical patterns as the basis for difculties with
organization in students compositions and pointing instead to differ-
ences in teaching practices. Fundamentally, these are both intercultural
issues and are thoroughly described as such in the articles themselves.
Auerbach and Burgess critique texts that dene acculturation as a one-
way process rather than as an interactive one (p. 488), and Mohan and
Lo report on research exploring whether differences in learning to
organize essays lie in the language and culture of the Chinese or in the
nature of English language instruction in Hong Kong as contrasted with
British Columbia, Canada. Although Auerbach and Burgess focus on
curriculum and Mohan and Lo on language acquisition, the frame they
use is explicitly contextual and cross-cultural as well as curricular (What
shall I teach?), even though neither title includes the word culture.
Looking, as Atkinson did, at articles in the TESOL Quarterly over the
past 15 years but extending the search to articles dealing with the
implicitly intercultural dimensions of ESOL instruction reveals an appre-
ciation for contextual dilemmas, whether or not the titles include the
word culture. As a way of casually demonstrating this ubiquitous phenom-
enon, I ipped through various issues of each years journal since 1984
and easily found articles (Weinstein, 1984; Carrell, 1985; Christison &
Krahnke, 1986; Reid, 1987; Spack, 1988; Hayes, 1989; Eastman, 1990;
Leki, 1991; Pearson & Lee, 1992; McKay & Weinstein-Shr, 1993; Peirce,
1995; Barkhuizen & Gough, 1996; Nayar, 1997; Borg, 1998) that demon-
strate the extent to which the eld has consistently grappled with the
intercultural and contextually relative nature of the TESOL profession.
One cannot simultaneously teach a competency-based and a problem-
posing curriculum to a group of refugees, just as one cannot have
language policies in California and South Africa that resemble each
other in any signicant way. Cultural beliefs and ways of being are
750 TESOL QUARTERLY
expressed in every aspect of the language learning experience, and
research and discussions concerning these intercultural issues have been
under debate since the professions inception.
The 15 articles I randomly identied clearly demonstrate this con-
tinual scrutiny. They can be thematically arranged as I indicated above:
cultural and sociopolitical issues imbedded in texts, curriculum, and
methodology (Barkhuizen & Gough, 1996; Eastman, 1990; McKay &
Weinstein-Shr, 1993; Nayar, 1997; Spack, 1988); the inuence of stu-
dents cultures on acquisition of language (Carrell, 1985; Christison &
Krahnke, 1986; Leki, 1991; Hayes, 1989; Peirce, 1995; Reid, 1987); and
the impact of teachers cultural backgrounds and belief systems on their
teaching (Borg, 1998; Kumaravadivelu, 1994; Pearson & Lee, 1992).
Teachers need to examine the extent to which cultural assumptions
affect their views of what their job is and look at their students, at what
language and curriculum will best serve those students, and at them-
selves critically if they are to effectively and appropriately do the work of
teaching language for specic contexts and purposes.
Atkinson asks that the eld take into account a wide range of cultural
understandings and critiques (p. 649) and view them as a middle-
ground approach (p. 640), as not necessarily oppositional or mutually
exclusive. Rather than standing on ecumenical or middle ground, it
would in fact make more sense, in line with Vygotskys (1978) zone of
proximal developmentthe site not only in which language is acquired but
also where macroscopic language policies are instantiated daily (Cummins,
1994)to step inside specic classrooms within specic institutions and
sociopolitical contexts and acknowledge and work with the skills and
belief systems of specic teachers and their students.
Framing those discussions is the next important step we as a eld need
to take. We need the multilingual, interculturally savvy and often well-
traveled professionals (p. 632) Atkinson wrote about, and these profes-
sionals must work fully and critically in specic situations, be radically
subjective, and ultimately be willing to ground themselves in the values
they hold for their students and communities. We need to recognize that
we do not serve students by creating the illusion that there can be a
middle ground when it comes to culture. Culture is embedded by
commission or omission in every institution and curriculum, in every
student and every teaching act. The prospect of looking at culture as
ecumenical (p. 649) is a contradiction in terms. We must assume that
the answers developed in students, teachers, and contexts will differ
radically, and we must have the moral fortitude as a profession to
recognize that our language policies and personal approaches to teach-
ing are rooted in cultural and moral landscapes. We should neither teach
received views of culture nor place our profession in the quicksands of
moral relativity as we enter a new millennium.
THE FORUM 751
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank Barbara Fujiwara and Piper McNulty for their helpful remarks on this
comment.
REFERENCES
Atkinson, D. (1999). Comments on Ryuko Kubotas Japanese Culture Constructed
by Discourses: Implications for Applied Linguistics Research and ELT: Another
reader reacts. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 745749.
Auerbach, E. R., & Burgess, D. (1985). The hidden curriculum of survival ESL.
TESOL Quarterly, 19, 475496.
Barkhuizen, G. P., & Gough, D. (1996). Language curriculum development in South
Africa: What place for English? TESOL Quarterly, 30, 453471.
Borg, S. (1998). Teachers pedagogical systems and grammar teaching: A qualitative
study. TESOL Quarterly, 32, 938.
Carrell, P. (1985). Facilitating text structure by teaching text structure. TESOL
Quarterly, 19, 727752.
Christison, M., & Krahnke, K. (1986). Student perceptions of academic study. TESOL
Quarterly, 20, 6181.
Cummins, J. (1994). Knowledge, power and identity in teaching English as a second
language. In F. Genesee (Ed.), Educating second language children: The whole child,
the whole curriculum. the whole community (pp. 3358). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Eastman, C. (1990). What is the role of language planning in postapartheid South
Africa? TESOL Quarterly, 24, 922.
Hayes, E. (1989). Hispanic adults and ESL programs: Barriers to participation.
TESOL Quarterly, 23, 4763.
Kobayashi, T. (1992). Native and non-native reactions to ESL compositions. TESOL
Quarterly, 26, 81112.
Kubota, R. (1999). Comments on Ryuko Kubotas Japanese Culture Constructed by
Discourses: Implications for Applied Linguistics Research and ELT: The author
responds. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 749758.
Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994). The postmethod condition: (E)merging strategies for
second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28, 2748.
Leki, I. (1991). Twenty-ve years of contrastive rhetoric: Text analysis and writing
pedagogies. TESOL Quarterly, 25, 123143.
McKay, S., & Weinstein-Shr, G. (1993). English literacy in the United States: National
policies, personal consequences. TESOL Quarterly, 27, 399420.
Mohan, B., & Lo, W. (1985). Academic writing and Chinese students: Transfer and
developmental factors. TESOL Quarterly, 19, 515534.
Nayar, P. (1997). ESL/EFL dichotomy today: Language politics or pragmatics?
TESOL Quarterly, 31, 938.
Pearson, B. A., & Lee, K. S. (1992). Discourse structure of direction giving: Effects of
native/nonnative speaker status and gender. TESOL Quarterly, 26, 113127.
Peirce, B. N. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL
Quarterly, 29, 932.
Reid, J. (1987). The learning style preferences of ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 21,
87112.
Ricento, T., & Hornberger, N. (1996). Unpeeling the onion: Language policy and
planning and the ELT professional. TESOL Quarterly, 30, 401428.
752 TESOL QUARTERLY
Spack, R. (1988). Initiating ESL students into the academic discourse community:
How far should we go? TESOL Quarterly, 22, 2952.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes
(M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Weinstein, G. (1984). Literacy and second language acquisition: Issues and perspec-
tives. TESOL Quarterly, 18, 471484.
The Author Responds . . .
DWIGHT ATKINSON
Temple University Japan
Tokyo, Japan
I
I appreciate this opportunity to respond to Meryl Siegals and Lise
Sparrows comments on my article. Culture is certainly a concept that has
preoccupied substantial parts of the (at least) Western academic world
in the past decade, as I tried to make clear in my article, and it certainly
deserves more direct consideration and wider debate also in TESOL.
Siegals and Sparrows major objections can best be addressed by rst
restating as clearly as possible what I was trying to do in the article. My
main purpose for writing was to explicitly develop the theoretical notion
of culture for a TESOL audience, on the principle that very little such
work had recently been done in the eld. Certainly, there has been much
written in TESOL Quarterly and other places that deals with cultural
concerns in ESL, as Sparrow and Siegal point out. I was not attempting to
review such work. Rather, I was interested in articles that examined the
very notion of culture itself in an explicit and sustained way. Except for
the short articles by Zamel (1997) and Spack (1997)and, in regard to
Japanese culture specically, Kubota (1999)I did not nd any in the
Quarterly.
Siegal takes me to task for not more directly considering the work of
Peirce (1995) on identity. While I admire her workand did include her
denition of identity in a footnoteI did not feel that it amounted to a
direct and explicit treatment of the notion of culture. Rather, like much
other work inuenced by postmodernism, it seemed to me at the time
that this work was part of a movement (or discourse, if you will) that
sought to limit or remove explicit notions of culture from the academic
landscape, whether or not that was her own intention. The general
intellectual trend in this direction has been well described (e.g., Clifford,
1986; Heath, 1997; Ramanathan & Atkinson, 1999; Shore, 1996; Strauss
& Quinn, 1997), and its consequences are generally acknowledged.
Heath (1997), for example, concludes her own description as follows:
THE FORUM 753
Though objections to culture differ in source, all those who would have social
science be rid of it agree that researchers can no longer see the concept as
viable in a world of volatile, situated, and overlapping social identities.
Apprehension about the term is evidenced by encasing it within quotation
marks or by lexical avoidance behavior that puts in its place terms such as
discourse, praxis, or habitus . . . . (p. 113)
Although this way of thinking has its attractions, I did not want to bury
the notion of culture per se in the ground before exploring with TESOL
Quarterlys readers what some of the debates swirling around it actually
were, and what could be made of it under the circumstances. This is what
I was attempting to do in my article.
In her critique, Sparrow seems to argue that we hardly need a theo-
retical notion of culture at allthat such a notion might even prove to
be misleading to ESL teachers. Among many other comments in this
vein, Sparrow writes,
It is of little help to teachers to know that cultures, in the abstract, are
constantly changing and reconceptualizing when groups of students with
specic expectations, abilities, and backgrounds enter their classrooms. Just
as teachers walk into specic buildings in specic neighborhoods, work in
specic institutions with specic goals and curricula, and teach students with
specic names and language backgrounds, so, too, do teachers need to
consider, specically, these same variables. Concomitantly, no one teacher
can teach in such an ecumenical way that the needs of all the students are
met. It must be recognized that every context is a unique matrix of cultural,
not to mention linguistic, variables.
I am troubled by certain implications here and elsewhere in Sparrows
response: (a) that Sparrow so unproblematically knows what ESL teach-
ers need (especially when she also takes pains to argue that all teacher
knowledge is radically local and contextual) and (b) that theoretical
understanding of culture is a useless thingsomething that ESL teach-
ers perhaps even need to be protected from. But how can we teach,
think, or talk about culture in an intelligent way without clear(er)
theoretical guidance, especially when the concept is undeniably such a
complex and multifaceted one? I do not mean to suggest that my own
article necessarily provides such guidance, but at least it was an attempt
to encourage debate and dialectic by reviewing others views and
proposing my own synthetic understandingactivities out of which it is
hoped such guidance could emerge. TESOL is lled with complex
concepts that impact our theory and practice in multiplex ways (e.g.,
native speaker, critical thinking, learner autonomy, voice, standard language),
and I do not think we can understand them by ignoring them, proscrib-
ing them, or simply accepting received views.
754 TESOL QUARTERLY
Here now are some lesser points on which I believe Siegals and
Sparrows comments to be inaccurate or misleading:
1. Siegal writes that I do not consider the notion of power in my six
principles, and cites Anglil-Carters (1997) TESOL Quarterly ar-
ticleand especially her use of the Foucaultian concept of dis-
courseas a model in this regard. Siegal is quite simply wrong here:
Like Anglil-Carter, I give a prominent place to the notion of
discourse (in the formulation of Gee, 1990) under Principle 3; I
discuss both the power of cultural descriptions to orientalize and
other and the conservative disciplinary role of social forces under
Principle 1; I quote Bourdieu (1991) on the symbolic power that
functions in the transmission of social practices, and introduce the
criticism that the unequal distribution of power and resources gets
left out of the picture or is understated (p. 645) in many cross-
cultural socialization studies, as well as referring to counterexample
studies which reveal how . . . social practices are used to disadvan-
tage their owners when they encounter social institutions like
schools (p. 645) under Principle 4; I briey reference methodologi-
cal treatments of critical ethnographya research approach that
gives power a central placein Principle 5; and I quote Lave and
Wenger (1991) on power relations (p. 98) in cultural practices of
learning, and discuss the issue of accommodation versus resistance
in the learning of hegemonic Western academic discourses in
Principle 6. All this is on top of an approximately one-page consider-
ation of various notions of power in my review of the literature in the
social sciences and cultural studies, and the prominent use of the
discourse concept in my own attempt to develop a middle-ground
approach to culture. Perhaps I did not concentrate on the notion of
power as much as Siegal would have liked, but she is simply wrong to
say I ignored it.
2. Sparrow suggests that I used a concept of culture that foregrounds
the haphazard and random qualities of the concept. Though this
may be a point made by some of the authors I review, in my own
conceptualization of culture I tried to emphasize both the centrifugal
(i.e., tending toward difference, heterogeneity, and disorganization)
and centripedal (tending toward normativity, homogeneity, conserva-
tion, and control) tensions in the concept. It is interesting in this
connection that Sparrow criticizes my use of the term ecumenical,
which I intended to capture the tension-based conceptualization of
culture I have just described. Perhaps she simply misunderstood my
usage (or else why would she have accused me of purveying culture
as haphazard and random?), attributing to me views I do not hold. In
fact, I take her concluding sentenceWe should neither teach
THE FORUM 755
received views of culture nor place our profession in the quicksands
of moral relativity as we enter a new millenniumto be an expres-
sion of an ecumenical, middle-ground approach to culture of the
sort I advocate, although hers differs in various ways from mine.
These are my main critical reactions to Siegals and Sparrows re-
sponses. In actuality, however, I think it likely that we agree more than
disagree in our views on culture and that an exploration of our
commonalities would also be useful and benecial. I hope in the future
we will have an opportunity to share in the endeavor of trying to
understand this enormously complex and enormously important concept.
REFERENCES
Anglil-Carter, S. (1997). Second language acquisition of spoken and written
English: Acquiring the skeptron. TESOL Quarterly, 31, 263287.
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer-
sity Press.
Clifford, J. (1986). Introduction: Partial truths. In J. Clifford & G. E. Marcus (Eds.),
Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography (pp. 122). Berkeley: University
of California Press.
Gee, J. P. (1990). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. London: Falmer
Press.
Heath, S. B. (1997). Culture: Contested realm in research on children and youth.
Applied Developmental Science, 1, 113123.
Kubota, R. (1999). Japanese culture constructed by discourses: Implications for
applied linguistics research and ELT. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 935.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peirce, B. N. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL
Quarterly, 29, 931.
Ramanathan, V., & Atkinson, D. (1999). Ethnographic approaches and methods in
L2 writing research: A critical guide and review. Applied Linguistics, 20, 4470.
Shore, B. (1996). Culture in mind: Cognition, culture, and the problem of meaning. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Spack, R. (1997). The rhetorical construction of multilingual students. TESOL
Quarterly, 31, 765774.
Strauss, C., & Quinn, N. (1997). A cognitive theory of cultural meaning. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Zamel, V. (1997). Toward a model of transculturation. TESOL Quarterly, 31, 341352.
757 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2000
RESEARCH ISSUES
TESOL Quarterly publishes brief commentaries on aspects of qualitative and quantita-
tive research. For this issue, we asked two researchers to discuss issues related to
interview research in TESOL.
Edited by PATRICIA A. DUFF
University of British Columbia
Interview Research in TESOL
Problematizing Interview Data:
Voices in the Minds Machine?
DAVID BLOCK
Institute of Education, University of London
London, United Kingdom
I
In recent years, there has been a noteworthy increase in the number of
language education researchers publishing work that might be dened
as ethnographically oriented. Although the questions being explored in
this research vary greatly, there is a common tendency to use interviews
as an important part of triangulated data collection, along with observa-
tion, diaries, letters, and questionnaires (e.g., recent TESOL Quarterly
articles by Cox & Assis-Peterson, 1999; Flowerdew, 2000; Harklau, 2000;
Ibrahim, 1999; Morita, 2000). When analyzing and discussing the data
resulting from interviews, these and other researchers tend to focus on
the content of the words produced by research participants, or as
Freeman (1996) suggests, to take research participants at their word.
The researchers relying on interviews for data are not oblivious to the
problems this stance entails. However, given the space restrictions in
journals and books, there is generally very little scope for discussion of
this issue. What most readers encounter, then, is presentation of data
plus content analysis, but no problematization of the data themselves or
the respective roles of interviewers and interviewees.
758 TESOL QUARTERLY
PERCEPTIONS OF INTERVIEW DATA
There is a long tradition in the social sciences whereby anthropolo-
gists, sociologists, sociolinguists, and educationists see interviews as
conversations and co-constructed discourse events (e.g., Briggs, 1986;
Burgess, 1984; Cicourel, 1964; Mishler, 1986) and therefore not as direct
windows on the minds of interviewees. More recently, Kvale (1996) has
contrasted two readings of interview data, the veridical and the symptom-
atic. In the former case, the accounts produced by research participants
during research interviews are seen as reliable (or as reliable as possible)
reports of events provided by well-meaning individuals. In the latter case,
the analyst deems these accounts to be more about the research
participants relationship to the topic and the interview context than
about the topic being discussed. Thus when Kvale interviewed Danish
secondary school students about grades, very often his participants
provided accounts that proved to be veridically suspect, or in any case,
contested (Kvale uses the term false) when compared and contrasted
with other accounts by means of triangulated interviews. For example,
students might state rmly that teachers gave better grades to students
who spoke the most, but comments of teachers and fellow students
might contradict this view. However, Kvale makes the point that the
discovery of such inconsistencies did not invalidate the data; rather, it led
him to see that the false (i.e., contested) accounts were symptomatic of
his research participants feelings about grades rather than representa-
tive of phenomena that had occurred. Thus, students giving contested
accounts of events were saying much more about their relationship with
their teachers, or even about how they viewed the interviewer as
someone to whom they could give negative information about their
teachers, than they were about their experiences with grades.
When I have analyzed interview data over the past decade or so, my
rst instinct has always been to take my research participants at their
word, that is, to believe that they were providing veridical descriptions
and evaluations of their lessons (Block, 1998). Despite this act of faith, I
wonder if I might not conceptualize the data produced by interviewees
in a different but complementary way, one that leans more towards the
symptomatic end of the continuum described by Kvale. Following
Freeman (1996), I might see interview data as representational of real
events or as presentational of the individuals speaking. Adopting the latter
stance means taking on some of the issues related to the presentation of
self, such as how the interviewee constructs the interviewer, their
relationship, and the purpose of the interview (see Block, 1995).
In addition, I might move from seeing interview data as reections of
research participants memories of events (in other words, a cognitive
phenomenon) to seeing them as reections of how research participants
RESEARCH ISSUES 759
relate to the interview context as actors in a particular context (a social
phenomenon). This means a rejection of the symbolicist perspective
(i.e., underlying mental models that generate actions) and the accept-
ance of an interactionist perspective (i.e., interview data as a product of
the interaction between interviewer and interviewee). Thus, interview
data are not seen as the production of an individual interviewee but as
the co-construction of interviewer and interviewee. These continua are
presented in Figure 1.
The conceptualization of interviews as co-constructions means that
interview data are seen not as reections of underlying memory but as
voices adopted by research participants in response to the researchers
prompts and questions. These voices might or might not truly represent
what the research participant thinks or would choose to say in another
context and on another occasion. However, at the same time, they must
conform to what is allowed in what Gee (1996) calls a Discourse, dened as
a socially accepted association among ways of using language, other symbolic
expressions, and artifacts, of thinking, feeling, believing, valuing, and acting
that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful
group or social network, or to signal [that one is playing] a socially
meaningful role. (p. 131)
Elsewhere, Lemke (1995) makes the point that
we speak with the voices of our communities, and to the extent that we have
individual voices, we fashion these out of the social voices already available to
us, appropriating the words of others to speak a word of our own. (pp. 2425)
In both Gees (1996) and Lemkes (1995) ideas there is, of course, a
link back to Bakhtins (1981) oft-cited concept of voice: the voices of
others inhabit individuals voices, which in turn inhabit the voices of
those with whom they participate in ongoing dialogue. What people say,
therefore, is both constituted by and constitutive of the words of those
with whom they share membership in a particular discourse community.
FIGURE 1
Perceptions of Interview Data
Veridical Symptomatic
Representational Presentational
Cognitive Social
Symbolicist Interactive
Individually constructed Co-constructed
760 TESOL QUARTERLY
Combining Gees, Lemkes, and Bakhtins ideas, one could see any
statement provided by a research participant as originating in a particu-
lar community that conforms to a particular Discourse and that may be
classied as the kind of thing one is allowed to say in that community and
within that Discourse. It is, therefore, data representative of that commu-
nity, a particular voice that a particular research participant has adopted
momentarily when providing an account.
Elsewhere, Holstein and Gubrium (1995) add a further element to
this conceptualization of interview data. They point out that during the
course of an interview, interviewees might adopt different roles in
response to their perception of being positioned in particular ways by
particular questions. Thus in the research context described by these
authorsindividuals describing the type of home care they provide for
their aging parentsinterviewees responded in different ways depend-
ing on the stock of knowledge (Holstein & Gubrium, 1995) they drew on:
Speaking as a daughter, the respondent is likely to frame her answer in terms
of the events and sentiments of the daughter and mothers interpersonal
history. Speaking as spouse, the experiential purview of the respondents
answers keys into relations with her husband and their domestic affairs.
(p. 31)
The point is that in the course of an interview the same research
participants might change voices depending on the way they situate
themselves vis--vis a particular question and the person asking it. What is
produced comes to be seen more as symptomatic of a particular state of
mind and even ephemeral, ongoing social interaction than as a reec-
tion of underlying memory or mental models of particular domains of
knowledge and experience.
A CASE IN POINT
To exemplify some of the points I have made here, I revisit an
interview I carried out with an adult learner of English in Barcelona,
Spain, several years ago as part of longitudinal study of adult EFL
learners evaluations of their teachers and their classes. During the
interview, I asked this learner (whom I shall call V ) questions about
inconsistencies in class attendance, a phenomenon she had cited as a
problem in earlier interviews. V responded to my questions, telling me
about uctuations in attendance, explaining how they played havoc with
the rhythm of classes and, ultimately, adversely affected classes. Suddenly,
however, in midsentence, her voice trailed off, she uttered a topic-closing
I dont know, and she said that she was ready to nish her English
course. Noting her fatigue, I asked her if she was tired of studying
RESEARCH ISSUES 761
English, and V proceeded to tell me about a trip she had made to
London during the previous week. She told me about her frustration at
not being able to communicate in an effective manner with the London-
ers she encountered, citing two episodes, one at a bar in a park and the
other at a hotel. After reporting her problems understanding service
personnel or being understood by them, she concluded by saying that
she was ready to give up her studies of English.
However, in Vs account of her London trip, I wondered if what she
had produced was a veridical account or something more symptomatic.
For example, when she went into detail about the frustrating experience
in the park, she in essence contradicted herself. After saying, When they
talked to us it was like they were speaking Chinese! and that the bar staff
didnt really try to understand me, she went on to say that she and her
friends had not even tried to order and therefore had not exchanged
words with the bar staff or anyone else present. One possible interpreta-
tion of this inconsistency is that V was simply making up her story as she
went along. However, another way to see these data is as performances of
plausible voices, in this case plausible learner accounts of interactions
with English. In Holstein and Gubriums (1995) conceptualization, V
draws on two distinct knowledge bases in the interview episodes of class
attendance and her experiences in London. In the former case, she is
giving voice to two widely held views among her language student peers
about optimal conditions for language classes: Smaller groups are better
than larger groups, and attendance should be consistent. Speaking as a
tourist in London, V adopts the voice of the student of English who goes
abroad and discovers, to her horror, that what she has learned in the
classroom does not help her in an English-speaking environment.
I do not wish to discredit V or call into question her honesty when
providing her account of events; rather, her accounts of events in
London may be taken as plausible stories, events that befall tourists and
might have happened to her, but not necessarily exactly as she explained
them. By the time this interview took place (late in her course), V was fed
up with a situation in which variable attendance had led to the teachers
losing control over the rhythm of the class, making class attendance less
attractive and leading to more absences among students. Adopting the
plausible voice of the inept tourist allowed her to express her frustration
with her own progress in learning English and, more importantly, her
discontent with her teacher, who ultimately was to blame for her lack of
progress.
Another consideration when examining this interview episode is Vs
construction of me as her interlocutor. In other words, who was I in Vs
mind? First, I was not Vs teacher, although I was a teacher in the school
where she studied. Although V might have taken the position that
anything she said might be relayed back to her teacher, she seems to have
762 TESOL QUARTERLY
taken almost the opposite tack, using me as a depository for her
expressions of frustration and discontent with her classes. More impor-
tantly, however, I think that V came to see me as a sympathetic ear, an
individual who had nothing to do with the situation that was so
frustrating to her but who understood the context and could speak to
her about it in Catalan, her L1. In this sense, for V our meetings must
have been more akin to therapy sessions than opportunities for informa-
tion exchange. Indeed, about a week after Vs course and our last
interview had concluded, she appeared at my ofce. When I told her that
the study was effectively over but that we could still talk if she wished, she
muttered something to the effect that it really did not matter and left.
Thus, in some sense, it seems that the research interview was relaxed and
unthreatening enough for V to want to come to talk about her classes
each week and unload her frustrations related to her teacher, her classes,
and the English language. In any case, it was more than just an infor-
mation exchange between interviewer and interviewee.
CONCLUSION
When researchers analyze interview data, they are not only studying
representational accounts of events and the views of individuals; they are
also confronting what is intelligible and plausible to say in a given
discourse community and how members of that community use shared
resources to construct a position in an interview. Interviews are therefore
complex social and sociolinguistic events. Although adopting this broader
view of interview data makes researchers interpretive task that much
more difcult, it also allows them to see phenomena that might
otherwise pass unnoticed were they to adopt a purely veridical view of
their data (see Block, 1995, 1999).
THE AUTHOR
David Block works at the Institute of Education, University of London. His main
interests are research methods, teacher education, second language acquisition
(SLA), and culture in language teaching and learning. He is coeditor (with Debbie
Cameron) of Globalization and Language Teaching (Routledge, in press) and is writing
a book on the state of SLA.
REFERENCES
Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin: University of Texas
Press.
Block, D. (1995). Social constraints on interviews. Prospect, 10, 3548.
Block, D. (1998). Tale of a language learner. Language Teaching Research, 2, 148176.
RESEARCH ISSUES 763
Block, D. (1999). Problematising interview data: What are they evidence of? Unpublished
manuscript, Institute of Education, University of London.
Briggs, C. (1986). Learning how to ask. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burgess, R. (1984). In the eld. London: Routledge.
Cicourel, A. (1964). Method and measurement in sociology. New York: Free Press.
Cox, M. I. P., & de Assis-Peterson, A. A. (1999). Critical pedagogy in ELT: Images of
Brazilian teachers of English. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 433452.
Flowerdew, J. (2000). Discourse community, legitimate peripheral participation, and
the nonnative-English-speaking scholar. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 127150.
Freeman, D. (1996). To take them at their word: Language data in the study of
teachers knowledge. Harvard Educational Review, 66, 732761.
Gee, J. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (2nd ed.). London:
Falmer Press.
Harklau, L. (2000). From the good kids to the worst: Representations of English
language learners across educational settings. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 3567.
Holstein, J. A., & Gubrium, J. F. (1995). The active interview. London: Sage.
Ibrahim, A. (1999). Becoming black: Rap and hip-hop, race, gender, identity, and
the politics of ESL learning. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 349369.
Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews. London: Sage.
Lemke, J. (1995). Textual politics: Discourse and social dynamics. London: Taylor &
Francis.
Mishler, E. (1986). Research interviewing: Context and narrative. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Morita, N. (2000). Discourse socialization through oral classroom activities in a TESL
graduate program. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 279310.
Conducting Individual and Focus Group Interviews
in Research in Albania
SILVANA DUSHKU
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, Illinois, United States
I
Interviewing is one of the most commonly used survey methods in
present-day qualitative research (Berg, 1998; Denzin & Lincoln, 1998;
Jones, 1985; Kvale, 1996; Mishler, 1986; Morgan, 1993). Used to elicit
qualitative data through a social interaction between the interviewer and
the interviewee(s), interviewing can provide information on reported
behavior, attitudes, and beliefs, and contribute to an in-depth under-
standing of research participants perspectives or experiences (Walker,
1985). However, interview research in developing countries, such as
Albania, can be complicated by economic, political, and social con-
straints on local contexts and on participants that result in increased
emigration, turnover, workloads, and overall instability. In this report, I
describe a study I conducted in Albania in 19951999 to evaluate English
764 TESOL QUARTERLY
language aid programs/projects at the university level in Tirana, admin-
istered by the British Council, the U.S. Information Agency, and Soros
Open Society Foundation during the previous decade. The research
involved both one-on-one and focus group interviews with program/
project coordinators, EFL aid ofcers, university teachers, and education
specialists. After providing a brief overview of the project, I describe the
aims of the interviews I conducted, the procedures employed, and some
practical issues that emerged doing research of this type in a context
characterized by high levels of uncertainty and change (Dushku, 2000).
Since the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, aid
for English language teaching (ELT) funded by foreign aid agencies has
promoted the introduction of new teaching methodologies and the
renovation of ELT programs. However, concerns have emerged related
to the appropriateness and sustainability of ELT aid projects, such as the
need for a context-sensitive approach by aid donors and the importance
of fostering synergy among ELT aid projects in these countries (Dushku,
1998a). My study involved a descriptive analysis of the aims and out-
comes of the various aid programs/projects and provided a comprehen-
sive overview of the scope, directions, and relevance of their implemen-
tation in the Albanian context.
The research methodology for this case study was constructivist-
interpretive, allowing me to construct an elaborate, experiential under-
standing of ELT aid in Albania and possibilities for improving aid
practices by involving research participants representing multiple per-
spectives. To this end, I sought maximum input through methodological
and data collection triangulation, and incorporated elements of both
quantitative and qualitative research methods. Information was collected
rst through paper-and-pencil questionnaires administered to university
teachers of English and others connected with ELT. These question-
naires provided data on the appropriateness of ELT aid, aid methodol-
ogy, and its effectiveness at the university level in Tirana. In addition, the
study relied heavily on the colllection of qualitative survey data and the
evaluation of primary documentation, mainly through individual and
group interviewing of ELT aid program/project participants.
INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS
I conducted one-on-one interviews to obtain the individual perspec-
tives of people in leading positions in both foreign aid-giving agencies
and Albanian aid-receiving institutions in 19921998. In-depth indi-
vidual interviews about programs and their effectiveness resulted in a
large and rich database. University teachers of English who were indi-
vidually interviewed also lled out a written questionnaire on ELT aid in
their respective language education institutions, providing further data
RESEARCH ISSUES 765
triangulation (Frey & Fontana, 1993). I used the same semistructured,
issue-oriented, one-on-one interview guide with aid donors and recipi-
ents across the three programs/projects under evaluation. After piloting
the interview guide and making modications for different sets of
interviewees, I conducted, recorded, and transcribed 9 hour-long inter-
views. The interviewees included former and current representatives of
the English departments in the respective universities, Albanian and
foreign representatives of the aid agencies under investigation, and
ofcials from the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of
Pedagogical Studies in Tirana. With seven other individuals involved in
the design, management, and implementation of the ELT aid who
agreed to be interviewed but not tape-recorded, I took extensive notes
during and after interviews. Because some of the ELT aid coordinators
and other program/project key personnel were abroad as a result of
recent waves of emigration, I interviewed another 14 participants by
e-mail and postal service. As a result, almost all of the 30 key individuals
involved in three programs/projects in Albania during the period 1991
1999 participated in individual interviews.
FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWS
I also employed focus group interviews. Because focus group inter-
viewing has not been discussed widely in TESOL research, I rst describe
it and then present some of its advantages and disadvantages before
explaining its use in my own research. I also refer to this approach as
group interviewing, a more general term and approach (i.e., some focus
group methodologists require 615 participants per group and strict
procedures). It is generally assumed that social investigation can be
enhanced by employing the group interview technique . . . [since it] will
provide data on group interaction, on realities as dened in a group
context, and on interpretations of events that reect group input (Frey
& Fontana, quoted in Morgan, 1993, pp. 2021). Building on such an
assumption, Denzin and Lincoln (1998) argue that group interviewing,
though not a substitute for one-on-one interviewing, constitutes an-
other level of data gathering perspective on the research problem (pp.
5354) that may not be accessible through individual interviewing.
Other researchers believe that group interviewing can help increase a
studys validity by raising the number of participants (Vaughn, Schumm,
& Sinagub, 1996). Similarly, Loand and Loand (1984) state that group
interviewing of participants who were individually surveyed before can
validate previously collected data. Furthermore, Hedges (1985) (cited in
Walker, 1985) highlights the lower cost and higher speed of obtaining
maximized information through group interviewing relative to indi-
vidual interviews. However, he argues that group interviewing can
766 TESOL QUARTERLY
present several disadvantages, such as biased or constrained participant
responses due to social pressure by other group members. Additionally,
group interviewing can be harder to organize because participants have
different schedules. With regard to the purposes of group interviews in
qualitative research, Frey and Fontana (1985) suggest that it can be used
in the initial stage of a research project to explore the realities of the
research context. It may also be used to pretest surveys, such as question-
naires, or to formulate a hypothesis, and can contribute to the triangula-
tion of data.
In my Albanian study, I conducted group interviews to reach a deeper
understanding of particular aspects of aid functioning in the local
context and to provide triangulation with data from written question-
naires and individual oral interviews. To this end, I selected university
teachers of English and project coordinators for group interviews. The
rst two interviews focused on attitudes toward aid, in-service training,
and curricular innovation at one university. In contrast, the third group
interview, at another university, was designed to provide a comparison
(and thus triangulation) with the other two, due to differences across
universities in English language aid. In total, 10 people took part in
group interviews. The interviewing formats employed were adapted from
Alderson and Scott (1992, Appendixes 110). I piloted the group
interview and then tailored it to the selected participants backgrounds.
For example, because of the amount of mobility in the English Depart-
ment at one of the major universities over the previous 6 years, the newly
hired teachers from other districts of Albania would not have been able
to talk about the continuity of ELT aid to the university for the entire
period under study. In addition, to avoid researcher bias, I trained a local
researcher to moderate the group interviews. Both individual and group
interview participants were informed about the goals of this research and
given assurances about the condentiality of the data.
PRACTICAL ISSUES IN CONDUCTING
INTERVIEW RESEARCH
The interview research described above was conducted in the midst of
economic, political, and social turmoil in Albania, aggravated by the civil
war in 1997 and the war in Kosovo in 1999 (see Biberaj, 1998). These
contextual factors posed difculties and constraints during data collec-
tion. One major constraint was that during the postcommunism transi-
tion period, increased population mobility and emigration brought
about constant change in Albanian ELT personnel at all levels (Dushku,
1998b), making it difcult to conduct interviews with Albanian ELT
ofcials who once were project coordinators or active participants.
RESEARCH ISSUES 767
Therefore, I located and contacted former ofcials now living in the
United States. Also, the composition of the English department at one
university had changed considerably over the previous 6 years. New
teaching assistants were being hired to cope with the brain drain in the
department, and not all of them were informed of the past ELT aid
developments.
Moreover, local political instability was reected in frequent changes
of the head of English department (ve different people had served in
this position since 1991). These developments increased the interview
research workload and caused information loss. Furthermore, because
this research was not funded, it depended heavily on the assistance and
predisposition of aid program/project participants and stakeholders.
Without any nancial incentives, I had to rely on good personal contacts
and the goodwill of participants to undertake the interviews and evalua-
tion. Thus, this research constitutes a unique case that cannot easily be
replicated in or generalized to another research context. However, issues
of high turnover among personnel, department restructuring, heavy
teaching loads, the lack of major research funding, and difculties
nding available and willing research participants may be factors that
other researchers must take into account in designing, implementing,
and interpreting interview-based research in other TESOL contexts.
These constraints induced several changes in my research. For in-
stance, attempts to ensure a larger number of participants in some group
interviews failed; therefore, I was unable to conduct the focus groups
exactly as planned. Some of the university teachers were reluctant to
participate in group interviews, as they were very busy working at two or
three different jobs in addition to their university teaching. I also found
it impossible to match the schedules of university teachers and those of
Albanian or foreign representatives of ELT aid agencies in Albania, and
each scheduled interview was canceled two or three times before being
completed. Nevertheless, the interview data helped me identify areas of
change needed in ELT aid development in that context in relation to the
approach, appropriateness, and management of aid, and evaluation
prior to, during, and after aid design and implementation.
In sum, conducting interview-based research in a developing country
such as Albania, in which many aspects of the context are uncertain, may
require more than enthusiasm, expertise, and professional commitment.
A thorough knowledge of research contexts and cultures, network-
building skills, appropriate funding, adaptability, and an awareness of
the potential risks of conducting research are also indispensable for the
successful completion of this kind of research.
768 TESOL QUARTERLY
THE AUTHOR
Silvana Dushku teaches in the Department of English as an International Language
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She taught ELT and English for
specic purposes at the University of Tirana, Albania, for 8 years. Her research
interests include education program/project development and evaluation, qualita-
tive research methodology, and academic discourse.
REFERENCES
Alderson, J. C., & Scott, M. (1992). Insiders, outsiders and participatory evaluation.
In J. Alderson & A. Beretta (Eds.), Evaluating second language education (pp. 2560,
306349). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Berg, L. B. (1998). Qualitative research methods. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Biberaj, E. (1998). Albania in transition: The rocky road to democracy (Nations of the
Modern World Series: Europe). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Denzin, K. N., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (1998). Collecting and interpreting qualitative
materials. London: Sage.
Dushku, S. (1998a). ELT in Albania: Program evaluation and change. System, 26,
369388.
Dushku, S. (1998b). English in Albania: Contacts and implications. World Englishes,
17, 369379.
Dushku, S. (2000). An evaluation of English language teaching aid: Albania case study.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Frey, J. H., & Fontana, A. (1993). The group interview in social research. In D. L.
Morgan (Ed.), Successful focus groups: Advancing the state of the art (pp. 2034).
Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Hedges, A. (1985). Group interviewing. In R. Walker (Ed.), Applied qualitative research
(pp. 7191). Brookeld, VT: Gower.
Jones, S. (1985). Depth interviewing. In R. Walker (Ed.), Applied qualitative research
(pp. 4555). Brookeld, VT: Gower.
Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews. London: Sage.
Loand, J., & Loand, L. (1984). Analyzing social settings (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
Mishler, E. (1986). Research interviewing: Context and narrative. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Morgan, D. L. (Ed.). (1993). Successful focus groups: Advancing the state of the art.
Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Walker, R. (Ed.). (1985). Applied qualitative research. Brookeld, VT: Gower.
Vaughn, S., Schumm, J. S., & Sinagub, J. (1996). Focus group interviews in education and
psychology. London: Sage.
769 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2000
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES
TESOL Quarterly invites readers to submit short reports and updates on their work.
These summaries may address any areas of interest to Quarterly readers. Authors
addresses are printed with these reports to enable interested readers to contact the
authors for more details.
Edited by ROD ELLIS
The University of Auckland
KAREN E. JOHNSON
Pennsylvania State University
Listening Strategies in ESL:
Do Age and L1 Make a Difference?
BIRGIT HARLEY
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I
How the age of the learner affects the acquisition of an L2 is an issue
that remains controversial (see, e.g., Birdsong, 1999; Harley & Wang,
1997; Singleton, 1997). Whereas most studies of this question have
focused on comparing the relative success of learners who began to learn
the L2 at different ages, the study reported here is concerned with
learning processes at different ages. Its goal is to gain a new understand-
ing of the listening strategies that younger and older L2 learners use to
comprehend spoken English.
Earlier research with native speakers of English (Harley, Howard, &
Hart, 1995; Read & Schreiber, 1982) had revealed that, when listening to
oral sentences in English, children 78 years old were most attentive to
prosodythat is, the information provided by the intonation and stress
patterns of the sentenceswhereas adolescent and adult native speakers
were more likely to attend to syntactic cues to sentence structure. Among
Cantonese-speaking learners of ESL, however, different ndings emerged
(Harley et al., 1995). Children in three different age groups (in Grades
2, 78, and 1112) all focused most heavily on the prosody of the English
sentences they were asked to listen to.
One interpretation of the study involving Cantonese speakers is that
the listening strategies used by L2 learners of English are the same
regardless of age. But it is also possible that the L1 of these learners made
770 TESOL QUARTERLY
all three age groups equally inclined to pay the most attention to prosody
in English (Cantonese being a tone language). I therefore conducted a
replication study with learners whose L1 is grammatically complex in
order to see whether this language background would produce an age
effect in listening strategies more like that found in the original study of
native speakers by Read and Schreiber (1982). Polish, a morphologically
complex language typologically different from Cantonese, and spoken as
an L1 by a substantial number of students in Toronto-area schools, was a
logical choice for the new study described below.
THE REPLICATION STUDY
As participants, I sought Polish-speaking students at three different
age levels who had lived in Canada for 14 years in two school boards
known to have a substantial number of students of that home language
background enrolled. This length of residence was a requirement for
participation in order to ensure comparability between the learners in
this study and the Chinese-speaking learners in Harley et al.s (1995)
study.
The residence requirement proved unexpectedly difcult to meet.
After approaching many schools in the two boards, I found 26 eligible
students in Grades 10, 11, and 12 and 9 students in Grades 7 and 8 who
agreed to participate in the study, with their parents providing the
necessary consent. Because I found only one student in Grade 2 who met
the length-of-residence requirement, I decided not to include a group of
Grade 2 students in the study. This was not a serious drawback, as both
preceding studies had indicated clearly that children at that age attend
to prosody and not to syntax in listening to English sentences even if they
are native speakers of English. It could therefore be safely assumed that
a similar nding would hold for young Polish-speaking learners of
English at the Grade 2 level.
Table 1 presents some of the characteristics of the Polish-speaking
participants in comparison to those of the Chinese- and native-English-
speaking participants in the earlier study. The Chinese-speaking sample
consisted of 13 students in Grade 2, 27 students in Grades 7 and 8, and
16 students in Grades 11 and 12. Ten native English speakers at each of
the three levels also took part in the study.
In the present study of students with Polish as an L1, each participant
had an individual appointment with a Polish-speaking research assistant
in a quiet room at school and performed the relevant task: They listened
to 30 audiotaped sentences in English and repeated a special part of
each sentence. For most of the sentences (e.g., Most of my friends like
school; The leaves on the maple tree are turning red), the part to be repeated
was unambiguously the subject of the sentence (i.e., Most of my friends,
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 771
The leaves on the maple tree). As in previous studies, all students were able
to do this very well following the interviewers demonstration with the
rst few sentences (see Table 2). In these unambiguous sentences,
prosodic and syntactic cues to the structure of the sentence were in
harmony.
Of key relevance to this study, however, were 10 interspersed ambigu-
ous sentences in which prosodic and syntactic cues to sentence struc-
ture were in conict. Following Read and Schreiber (1982), I con-
structed three kinds of ambiguous sentences by splicing together two
different sentences, as shown in Appendix A. For example, the student
heard the sentence The new teachers watch baseball on TV, in which The new
teachers is the grammatical subject of the sentence and watch is the verb.
The prosody of the sentence, however, was providing the student with
conicting information, as the part The new teachers watch had been taken
from another sentence (The new teachers watch has stopped). In the latter
sentence, watch is not a verb but is part of a noun phrase. A student who
was more attentive to prosodic than to syntactic cues to sentence
structure would be apt to repeat The new teachers watch rather than The
new teachers in reaction to the spliced stimulus sentence The new teachers
watch baseball on TV. It was the students reactions to the 10 ambiguous
sentences that were most relevant to the research question posed: Would
they be most strongly inuenced by prosodic or syntactic cues in
TABLE 1
Characteristics of Participants (%)
English training
before arriving
Gender Years in Canada in Canada
Grade and language
background N
1
Male Female < 2 < 3 34 Yes No
Grade 2
Chinese 13 69 31 23 31 46 38 62
Native speaker 10 40 60
Grades 78
Chinese 27 41 49 48 44 7 89 11
Polish 9 50 50 44 0 56 0 100
Native speaker 10 50 50
Grades 1012
Chinese 16 50 50 50 44 6 81 19
Polish 24 23 77 54 10 27 75 25
Native speaker 10 40 60
1
Total numbers of respondents to the questionnaire. Not all students responded to each
question.
772 TESOL QUARTERLY
T
A
B
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BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 773
repeating the special part of the sentence they heard? If older Polish-
speaking learners are more likely to attend to syntax in their L2, one
would expect to nd them performing differently from the students in
the previous study of Chinese-speaking learners, all of whom paid more
attention to prosody than to syntax.
Results showed that on the ambiguous sentences, the Polish-speaking
students in Grades 78 and 1012 performed comparably to the Chinese-
speaking students at similar grade levels and no differently from the
Grade 2 Chinese-speaking or native-English-speaking students (see
Table 3). In other words, these Polish-speaking learners of English were
just as likely as Chinese-speaking learners to attend to the prosody of the
sentence they heard rather than focus on grammatical cues to its
structure. They sometimes also adjusted the syntax to match the prosody.
Only the native English speakers at the higher grade levels in the
previous study were generally more attentive to grammatical than to
prosodic cues.
TABLE 3
Performance on Ambiguous Sentences
Language background
Chinese Polish Native speaker
Signicance
Strategy and levels and paired
grade level M SD N M SD N M SD N comparisons
1
Follows syntax
Grade 2 1.92 1.32 13 1.60 1.84 10
Grade 78 3.00 1.57 27 2.22 1.72 9 4.30 2.63 10 P < NS (.050)
Grade 1012 2.69 1.35 16 2.04 1.82 26 5.60 2.37 10 C < NS (.001)
P < NS (.000)
Follows prosody
Grade 2 5.23 2.42 13 5.70 1.77 10
Grade 78 5.52 1.76 27 5.67 2.00 9 4.40 3.17 10
Grade 1012 5.31 1.85 16 5.92 2.18 26 2.40 1.96 10 C > NS (.002)
P > NS (.000)
Follows prosody and adjusts syntax
Grade 2 5.84 2.19 13 6.30 1.89 10
Grade 78 5.70 1.68 27 6.22 1.99 9 4.70 3.23 10
Grade 1012 5.69 1.99 16 6.69 2.15 26 3.00 2.36 10 C > NS (.009)
P > NS (.000)
Other
Grade 2 2.00 1.63 13 1.80 1.03 10
Grade 78 1.07 1.27 27 1.56 1.01 9 0.80 0.79 10
Grade 1012 1.44 1.67 16 1.27 1.19 26 1.10 0.74 10
Note. Maximum score = 10.
1
Post hoc comparisons (Tukeys HSD). C = Chinese, P = Polish, NS = native speaker.
774 TESOL QUARTERLY
DISCUSSION
In relation to the earlier research with Chinese-speaking students, the
present study with Polish-speaking students suggests that prosodic cues
are of prime importance for listening comprehension in ESL. The
results of the study conrmed the relevance of such cues for the
comprehension of oral English not only across different age groups of
L2 learners but also across learners of very different L1 backgrounds.
Learners of a morphologically complex L1 background were just as likely
as other L2 learners to use a prosodic sentence-processing strategy when
listening to English. The ability to override prosodic cues and focus on
the syntax of the sentence appears to be a sophisticated skill that may
generally be available only to older native speakers of the language who
have considerable experience with written text. As shown in Table 3, in
this study even the Grade 1012 native speakers did not consistently
follow the syntax of the ambiguous sentences in their repetitions (about
56% of the time), and in Grades 78 they were still slightly more likely to
attend to the prosody than to the syntax.
Any practical implications drawn from these ndings should take into
account the limited number of participants from each L1 background.
Ideally, the study would have included more learners in each age group,
although the consistent pattern of results across the Chinese- and Polish-
speaking learner groups lends condence to the ndings. At the same
time, the task that the participants were asked to carry out clearly did not
involve natural language use. In the ambiguous sentences, the technique
used to study listening strategies relied on teasing apart linguistic cues
that normally act in concert and placing them in competition (see, e.g.,
MacWhinney, 1987). It is precisely because phonological and syntactic
cues to sentence structure are typically in harmony that I resorted to
such experimental means to nd out which cues were strongest for the
learners. Despite the evident divergence from natural use of language,
this kind of competition approach has proved revealing in a number of
other studies of L2 learners processing strategies, in which the focus has
been on the use of semantic versus syntactic cues in sentence interpreta-
tion (e.g., Heilenman & McDonald, 1993; Kilborn & Ito, 1989; Liu,
Bates, & Li, 1992; Sasaki, 1991).
Methodological limitations notwithstanding, the ndings of this study
point to the importance of helping students become familiar with
prosodic patterns in oral English (Brown, 1990; Rost, 1990), an aspect of
phonological competence that appears just as important as, if not more
important than, mastery of individual phonemes. The results are inter-
pretable, for example, in the light of Browns (1990) analysis of how oral
language is divided into tone groups (stretches of sound with pauses
between them), with the key function of marking off coherent syntactic
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 775
structures which the listener must process as units (p. 93). Brown shows
how the relevant stress and intonation patterns characterizing tone
groups in English are particularly clearly manifested in the initial
sentences of newscasts read by uent communicators. In these sen-
tences, as in the audiotaped sentence stimuli in the present study, the
listener is unable to rely top-down on previously mentioned information
for interpretation. Even when contextual information is more readily
available, phonological cues still provide a key linguistic foundation on
which learners can most successfully base top-down inferencing. Learn-
ers, according to Brown, need to learn to control the phonological code
of the language sufciently to be able to use the richness of cues at this
levelwith sufcient ease to provide a constrained input for the top-
down inference-driven interpretation to be constructed (p. 151). Such
cues, she notes, are available in the natural, meaningful use of language
but are obscured in the kind of carefully articulated listening material
that is sometimes prepared for the L2 classroom.
This observation clearly has implications for the kind of listening
material to which classroom learners of ESL should be exposed (see
Brown, 1990, pp. 159160, for some suggestions regarding the types of
recorded material designed for native speakers that is appropriate for
different ages and levels of L2 learners). At the same time, encouraging
learners to employ a strategy of paying attention to pause-bounded units
in oral language may be more helpful for listening comprehension than
expecting learners to seek out syntactic cues that are more crucial for
interpreting written language (cf. Brown & Yule, 1983).
CONCLUSION
In the present study, the learners of different ages and L1 back-
grounds all had sufcient natural exposure to spoken English to sensitize
them to key phonological cues to syntactic structure. Their comparable
preference for using such cues did not provide any evidence of age-
related differences in L2 listening strategies. Phonological advantages
for young children have nevertheless often been found in oral produc-
tion of an L2 (for a review, see, e.g., Harley & Wang, 1997). The place to
seek a processing explanation for age-related differences, if such a
difference exists, may therefore be in oral production processes rather
than in listening strategies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada (Grant No. 410 970 292). I am grateful to Iwona Woroniecka and Marion
Chang, graduate assistants responsible for administering and scoring the tasks in this
776 TESOL QUARTERLY
project; to Doug Hart for statistical analyses; and to the participating students for
their interest and cooperation. I also thank the principals and teachers for their
valuable help in contacting potential participants with Polish as an L1.
THE AUTHOR
Birgit Harley is a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
University of Toronto, where she teaches in the graduate program in second
language education. Her current research focuses on the L2 learning processes of
older and younger school-aged learners and on the integration of language and
content instruction in French immersion.
REFERENCES
Birdsong, D. (1999). Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis.
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Brown, G. (1990). Listening to spoken English (2nd ed.). London: Longman.
Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken language: An approach based on the
analysis of conversational English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harley, B., Howard, J., & Hart, D. (1995). Second language processing at different
ages: Do younger learners pay more attention to prosodic cues to sentence
structure? Language Learning, 45, 4371.
Harley, B., & Wang, W. (1997). The critical period hypothesis: Where are we now? In
A. M. B. de Groot & J. F. Kroll (Eds.), Tutorials in bilingualism: Psycholinguistic
perspectives (pp. 1951). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Heilenman, L. K., & McDonald, J. L. (1993). Processing strategies in L2 learners of
French: The role of transfer. Language Learning, 43, 507557.
Kilborn, K., & Ito, T. (1989). Sentence processing strategies in adult bilinguals. In
B. MacWhinney & E. Bates (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing (pp.
257291). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Liu, H., Bates, E., & Li, P. (1992). Sentence interpretation in bilingual speakers of
English and Chinese. Applied Psycholinguistics, 13, 451484.
MacWhinney, B. (1987). Applying the Competition Model to bilingualism. Applied
Psycholinguistics, 8, 315327.
Read, C., & Schreiber, P. (1982). Why short subjects are harder to nd than long
ones. In E. Wanner & L. R. Gleitman (Eds.), Language acquisition: The state of the art
(pp. 78101). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rost, M. (1990). Listening in language learning. London: Longman.
Sasaki, Y. (1991). English and Japanese interlanguage comprehension strategies: An
analysis based on the competition model. Applied Psycholinguistics, 12, 4773.
Singleton, D. (1997). Age and second language learning. In G. R. Tucker &
D. Corson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education: Vol. 4. Second language
education (pp. 4350). Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic.
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 777
APPENDIX A
Construction of Ambiguous Sentences
In each item, the italicized part of the rst sentence replaces the italicized part of the second
(stimulus) sentence. There were three Type 1, four Type 2, and three Type 3 ambiguous
sentences. (For a complete list of sentences, see Harley, Howard, & Hart, 1995.)
Type 1
The new teachers watch has stopped.
The new teachers watch baseball on TV.
Type 2
Our dogs bark at the neighborhood cats.
Our dogs bark sometimes frightens people.
Type 3
Almost all young children like to eat cake.
When they are young, children like to eat cake.
Seeing Through Listening
Comprehension Exam Anxiety
JANE ARNOLD
University of Seville
Seville, Spain
I
Several studies have been carried out in different contexts to show
experimentally what language teachers know intuitively: that students in
a foreign language classroom are often anxious and that this feeling
inhibits their performance in the foreign language (Horwitz, Horwitz, &
Cope, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a, 1991b; Phillips, 1992; Young,
1990, 1992, 1999). One of the conclusions of these studies is that anxiety
among foreign language students is not just a case of general classroom
anxiety being transferred to the foreign language learning but a distinct
complex of things related to the foreign language classroom learning
(Horwitz et al., 1986, p. 128).
What makes language classes so special in this negative sense? Unlike
classes in other subjects, foreign language classes that emphasize com-
municative skills require active participation and a high degree of risk
taking and self-exposure. Adolescent or adult learners of a foreign
language nd themselves in the uncomfortable position of trying to
express mature ideas in front of their peers in an obviously still immature
linguistic vehicle. Their self-esteem is reduced in this process, and this
778 TESOL QUARTERLY
disparity between the true self as known to the language learner and
the more limited self as can be presented at any given moment in the
foreign language would seem to distinguish foreign language anxiety
from other academic anxieties (Horwitz et al., 1986, p. 128).
Anxiety may originate in the early stages of language learning when
either existing trait anxiety or other factors in classroom learning
produce negative feelings about the class, which, if experienced repeat-
edly, may lead students to associate anxiety with language learning itself.
Particularly problematic are insensitive error correction procedures and
activities that require self-investment in front of others when a non-
threatening atmosphere has not been established. MacIntyre and Gardner
(1991b) explain that when negative experiences are repeated, the
student begins to expect to be nervous and perform poorly (p. 110),
and thus a form of self-fullling prophecy develops: What one expects to
occur does actually occur.
LISTENING COMPREHENSION AND ANXIETY
Dunkel (1986) asserts that the goal of communicative competence is
reached by putting the horse (listening comprehension) before the cart
(oral production). In other words, the key to achieving prociency in
speaking is developing prociency in listening comprehension (p. 100).
Numerous other studies (Dunkel, 1991; Long, 1985; Rost, 1990; Vogely,
1999) stress that listening is fundamental for language acquisition
because it provides the input that is the raw material necessary for the
process to occur.
Rubin (1994) has thoroughly analyzed the factors affecting listening
comprehension, classifying them according to the following characteris-
tics: text, interlocutor, task, listener, and process. Among the listener
characteristics are the affective factors in the learning context. She notes
that the role of affect in listening appears to be related to attention and
the functioning of memory (p. 208), two areas of mental activity that
have a close connection to language learning. Indeed, as neuroscientist
Damasio (1994) has pointed out, emotions have a primary role in ones
mental life and greatly inuence how the brains cognitive functions
operate. In a learning context, past emotional reactions will affect future
performance. Goleman (1995) reports that anxiety undermines the
intellect (p. 83); this can be explained neurobiologically because
anxiety can create neural static, sabotaging the ability of the prefrontal
lobe to maintain working memory (p. 27).
The oral aspects of language are generally seen to be most closely
associated with foreign language anxiety (Saito, Horwitz, & Garza, 1999).
In discussions of anxiety in classroom language learning, speaking is the
skill that has been most emphasized (Young, 1990); however, listening
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 779
comprehension can also be very stressful for learners. Listening is a
receptive skill, like reading, but it involves serious time constraints on
processing. These constraints, as well as possible difculties in hearing
resulting from learner impediments, acoustic inadequacies, and factors
related to the speaker (e.g., unfamiliar accent, lack of clarity and proper
enunciation), must be taken into account. Krashen has noted that
listening is highly anxiety provoking if [the discourse] is incomprehen-
sible (cited in Young, 1992, p. 168). Among the reasons that students
develop anxiety about listening are a negative self-concept with regard to
listening and low self-esteem regarding their ability in listening (Joiner,
1986).
In a test situation, this anxiety can be greatly exacerbated. Test anxiety
has two components: the cognitive, involving worry, which Eysenck
(1979) denes as concern about ones level of performance, negative
task expectations, and negative self-evaluation, and the emotional,
which includes the feelings of uneasiness, tension and nervousness (p.
364) that people experience as a result of worry. Both negatively affect
performance.
COPING WITH LANGUAGE ANXIETY
Language anxiety research to date has concentrated more on describ-
ing the problem than on exploring in detail ways to avoid it. The
avoidance or reduction of anxiety is vital because, as Neville (1989) states
dramatically, the anxious classroom is toxic (p. 244). Some solutions
are implied in the humanistic methods of language teaching developed
in the 1970s. In the Silent Way (Gattegno, 1972), Suggestopedia (Lozanov,
1979), and Community Language Learning (Curran, 1976), eliminating
or minimizing anxiety is an important issue, as it is in Total Physical
Response (Asher, 1977) and Krashens (1982) affective lter. As human-
istic psychologist and educator Rogers (1983) has pointed out, a support-
ive attitude on the part of the teacher is likely to reduce anxiety. Horwitz
et al. (1986) have suggested that teachers have two basic ways to deal with
anxiety: (a) help students learn to cope better in anxiety-provoking
situations or (b) make the learning situation less stressful (p. 131).
One way to reduce anxiety in forms as diverse as stage fright and snake
phobias is through systematic desensitization, which aims to eliminate or
reduce anxiety by repeated and controlled exposure to a potentially
anxiety-causing situation, generally in ones imagination, until the situa-
tion can be experienced without anxiety (Davis, 1986, pp. 8081).
Because individuals magnify feelings of anxiety by telling themselves that
they are not capable of carrying out the task at hand, another possible
solution is cognitive restructuring, used to deal with the tendency of
many people to self-verbalize and formulate negative statements about
780 TESOL QUARTERLY
their abilities. Because self-concept can greatly affect behavior, McCoy
(1979) recommends creating an awareness of these self-verbalizations,
convincing learners of their irrational nature, and substituting alterna-
tive, positive verbalizations. MacIntyre and Gardner (1991a) afrm that
while changing a persons self-perception is not easy, the benets of
improving the self-image of language students seem worthwhile (p. 303).
VISUALIZATION
A promising technique for dealing with anxiety is visualization. Stevick
(1986) has stressed the usefulness of work with imagery in language
teaching, and he denes image as a composite that we perceive (more or
less vividly) as a result of the interaction between what we have in storage
and what is going on at the moment (p. 16). Visualization generally
refers to mental images called up for some purpose. It is seeing with
what is sometimes called the minds eye (Arnold, 1999, p. 260). Images
are often most strongly associated with the visual but can be in any
sensory mode. In education, visualization can facilitate the interiorization
of knowledge by creating a more receptive state of awareness, permitting
the affective/creative functions of a more holistic nature to participate in
and strengthen the learning experience.
1
According to Neville (1989),
the fragmented, dispersed, chaotic energies of our organism are
aligned, harmonised and made purposive by the imagined experience,
just as they would be by a real one, possibly leading to important
changes in our self-image, attitude and behaviour (p. 95). The study
described below gives evidence of the usefulness of visualization in
bringing about these changes in the language learner.
2
Although anxiety has long been recognized as a debilitating factor in
language learning, particularly in general and listening comprehension
and in exam situations, any suggestions offered for alleviating this
anxiety have been vague and sweeping. The aim of the study reported
here was to gain quantitative and qualitative data on the use of one
concrete technique, visualization, as a means for reducing anxiety in
listening comprehension exams. The study addresses two questions:
1. Would learners who were exposed to visualization and relaxation
strategies and listening comprehension practice perform better on a
posttest than learners who had been exposed only to listening
comprehension practice?
1
For detailed examples of relaxation-visualization exercises in educational contexts, see
Murdock (1987).
2
A brief summary of the study was reported in Arnold (1994).
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 781
2. Would learners themselves consider that the visualization activities
had made signicant changes in their beliefs about their abilities to
understand spoken English and in their attitudes towards the listen-
ing exam situation?
METHOD
Subjects
The subjects in this study were two subgroups of 11 of the approxi-
mately 80 students allocated nonsystematically to each of two required,
advanced-level English language classes taken in the second year of the
degree course at the University of Seville in Spain. The students involved
had difculty with listening comprehension as measured by their failure
on this part of the standardized exam in their rst-year class. Because
passing the listening comprehension exam was a requirement for
passing the second-year course, test anxiety was a factor to be seriously
reckoned with. All students volunteered to participate in the experiment
and had been told that the purpose of the study was to help them cope
with exam anxiety.
Procedures
Before beginning the experiment, the experimental and control
groups completed a questionnaire that investigated students attitudes
towards listening comprehension exams. The responses showed that
81% of the students in each group felt they were more nervous with
listening comprehension tests than with other types; all indicated that
they considered their anxiety affected their exam results. When asked if
they used any strategies to help them on listening comprehension
exams, none indicated that they used visualization or relaxation
techniques.
The control group was given a series of eight listening comprehension
tests, one per week. The rst and last were a pretest and a posttest
selected for lexical and syntactic similarity and piloted with a student
who did not participate in the experiment. Both were composed of a text
of about 500 words and eight multiple-choice questions requiring both
factual recall and interpretation. The six practice tests were not graded
for difculty but were taken from material on a similar level. All tests
were of an academic nature; in each, the teacher-researcher read a
narrative or expository text twice. As the learners were very concerned
with being able to reduce their errors on exams, the pre- and posttests
were scored by counting the number of errors made. On the pretest,
both groups had the same mean error score, showing that they were
782 TESOL QUARTERLY
closely matched in listening ability. Members of the experimental group
also took the eight tests, but before all tests except for the pretest and
posttest, they completed a relaxation and visualization exercise, done in
the students mother tongue to enable them to process the information
more deeply. No other strategy instruction was given to either group.
The entire experiment took place outside the regular class schedule.
The experimental group engaged in the prelistening exercise, which
lasted about 10 minutes, immediately before the practice exam. The rst
part of each of these exercises was directed at producing a state of
greater relaxation. As Davis (1986) explains, it is important for those
suffering from anxiety to learn to relax, for in general, a state of
relaxation is incompatible with discomforting feelings of anxiety . . . . For
the test-anxious student the importance of achieving the relaxation
response cannot be overemphasized (pp. 70, 73). In this case, learners
were instructed to focus on their breathing and, as they breathed, to
imagine that they were breathing in a feeling of harmony and breathing
out all their stress and tension. As they breathed deeply, they were told to
relax the whole body progressively.
The second part of the prelistening treatment was designed to go
beyond teaching students how to relax in an exam situation. In a state of
relaxation, deeper attitudinal changes are possible because the power of
suggestion is much greater and self-constructed barriers can be lowered.
Once a relaxed state had been produced, activities of visualization or
guided imagery were used to help the students either learn to access
guidance from within the self or acquire a more positive opinion of
themselves and their abilities, and thus modify preconceived notions
about their inability to understand spoken English. In the rst session
the visualization exercise was designed merely to activate mental images,
and in the second, to help students learn to appreciate the brain and to
realize that one can access whatever is stored there; exercises for the
third and fourth sessions dealt with visualizing on the left and right sides
of the brain and with making friends with the brain. The fth exercise
was a visit to an inner world where a master teacher guided the learner
towards a greater mastery of the listening skill. In the nal session, the
students rst visualized placing all of their difculties with English in a
box that disappeared forever, and then they had another visit with the
master teacher. The visualization exercises progressed from those involv-
ing activation of students existing imagery to those designed to modify
learners conceptions of their limitations in listening comprehension.
After the posttest, the experimental group completed an anonymous
evaluative questionnaire designed to elicit qualitative information on the
experiment. In a series of open-ended questions, the participants were
asked to compare their reactions to listening comprehension exams
before and after the experiment, to examine the reasons for any
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 783
changes, and to comment on whether or not they liked the visualization
exercises and why.
RESULTS
The pretest scores of the experimental and control groups showed no
difference (see Table 1). In contrast, there was a statistically signicant
difference in the posttest scores at the .05 level (p = .018), with the
experimental group manifesting fewer errors in listening comprehen-
sion than the control group did. Also, the difference in the gain scores
for the two groups approached statistical signicance (p = .095). These
results indicate that the experimental group was able to complete the
nal listening comprehension test more accurately than the control
group was. The fact that the students in the control group not only failed
to improve with practice but actually scored lower in several cases might
indicate that practice does not always make perfect and that unmediated
repetition of an activity is not necessarily an effective tool for learning.
In this study, qualitative data from the nal evaluative questionnaire
completed by the experimental group brought out several interesting
points regarding the students opinions about the techniques learned.
The ndings reect a highly positive attitude towards the techniques.
According to the questionnaire responses, the students felt that these
exercises had a signicant effect on their levels of anxiety: I used to get
very nervous even thinking about the exam, but now I feel much calmer
and I dont worry as much as before . . . .
3
This reduction of anxiety was
seen to have a positive inuence on the students listening comprehen-
sion, perhaps by permitting them to channel processing energy much
3
Comments in Spanish have been translated into English by the author.
TABLE 1
Pretest and Posttest Scores
Group
Experimental (n = 11) Control (n = 11)
M SD M SD t-value (20 df )
Pretest 3.45 1.86 3.45 0.93
Posttest 2.72 1.19 4.09 1.30 2.56*
Difference 0.73 2.01 0.64 1.63 1.75
*p = .018.
784 TESOL QUARTERLY
more productively: I have learned to understand the whole text; I can
only do this if I am relaxed . . . . Now I have time to think. Both task-
specic and general self-condence was improved: I am much calmer
now and more condent about myself and about my ability to under-
stand English. The prelistening exercises were even considered more
useful than exam practice itself: Relaxation is fundamental, much more
than doing several exams . . . . I think being calm is very important
because the texts are accessible in terms of vocabulary and the rest; we
only have to recognize what we already know. Perhaps most indicative of
the students conviction of the usefulness of the exercises were their
reections on the need for more work of this type: I think these
exercises should be taught all year . . . . For me it is more useful than
going to any other class. In fact, the students were so convinced of the
benets of this new resource that they reported utilizing the techniques
learned in the experiment in other situations: I try doing these exercises
at home . . . . They are useful in any situation. One student in the
experimental group expressed doubt at being able to put what he had
learned into practice during an actual exam situation. But of the practice
exams, he said, Do I understand the texts now better than before? Of
course!
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Visualization-relaxation training might be useful for improving the
listening comprehension examination results of students who manifest
signicant exam anxiety. The question of attention is at the center of the
matter. The implication is that if students are worrying about not
understanding, they are not giving their full attention to the task at
hand. Training of this nature might help free energy previously used in
worrying for the much more productive cognitive operations of lan-
guage processing. Qualitative data from this study indicated that imagery
work can modify learners appreciations of their listening ability. In the
evaluative questionnaire, all the students in the experimental group
reported that they felt more relaxed and better able to understand
spoken English in an exam situation. This change in their attitudes and
beliefs is very important because beliefs about ones ability to do a task
will inuence such factors as the effort one is willing to put forth on the
task.
Neuroscience has emphasized the importance of imagery for think-
ing. Damasio (1994) has pointed out that knowledge is dependent on
image formation; he postulates that different types of images (e.g., visual,
auditory, somatosensory) are the basis of mind and that an essential
condition for mind is the ability to display images internally and to
order those images in a process called thought (pp. 8990). Although
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 785
work with imagery has been incorporated extensively in other areas of
education (Drake, 1986; Sheikh & Sheikh, 1985), very little research has
involved imagery in language learning and specically in anxiety reduc-
tion. Further studies need to be carried out with larger samples than was
possible here. It would be interesting, though conceivably much more
difcult, to extend research of this nature to investigate anxiety in
authentic listening beyond the exam situation. Another potential area of
study is the use of these techniques in other language learning contexts;
such research should take into consideration that the techniques might
be more effective with certain groups of students than with others and
should be introduced with some explanation of their benets.
Majoy (1993) predicts that visualization will become one of the most
powerful, effective, and necessary tools for teachers in the years to come
(p. 64). Imagery can be used in diverse aspects of language learning (see
Arnold, 1999), and studies such as this indicate that visualization might
constitute one way of dealing with anxiety. Teachers may wish to explore
the use of this technique in their own teaching.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Christin Abello and two anonymous TESOL Quarterly reviewers
for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
THE AUTHOR
Jane Arnold is an associate professor of English and applied linguistics at the
University of Seville. Her main research interests are in the area of affective aspects
of learning and teaching.
REFERENCES
Arnold, J. (1994). La ansiedad en la comprensin auditiva: Una posible solucin
[Listening comprehension anxiety: A possible solution]. In A. Bruton & J. Arnold
(Eds.), Lingstica aplicada al aprendizaje del ingls (pp. 109121). Alcal de
Guadaira, Spain: Centro de profesores.
Arnold, J. (1999). Visualization: Language learning with the minds eye. In J. Arnold
(Ed.), Affect in language learning (pp. 260278). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Asher, J. (1977). Learning another language through actions: The complete teachers
guidebook. Los Gatos, CA: Sky Oaks Productions.
Curran, C. (1976). Counseling-learning in second languages. Apple River, IL: Apple
River Press.
Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes error: Emotion, reason and the human brain. New York:
Avon Books.
Davis, D. (1986). Maximizing examination performance. London: Kogan Page.
Drake, S. (1986). Guided imagery in education: Theory, practice and experience.
Journal of Mental Imagery (Monographic issue), 156.
786 TESOL QUARTERLY
Dunkel, P. (1986). Developing listening uency in L2: Theoretical principles and
pedagogical considerations. Modern Language Journal, 70, 96106.
Dunkel, P. (1991). Listening in the native and second/foreign language: Toward an
integration of research and practice. TESOL Quarterly, 25, 431457.
Eysenck, M. (1979). Anxiety, learning and memory: A reconceptualization. Journal of
Research in Personality, 13, 363385.
Gattegno, C. (1972). Teaching foreign languages in schools: The Silent Way. New York:
Educational Solutions.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York: Basic Books.
Horwitz, E., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety.
Modern Language Journal, 70, 125132.
Joiner, E. (1986). Listening in the foreign language. In B. H. Wing (Ed.), Listening,
reading and writing: Analysis and application (pp. 4370). Middlebury, VT: North-
east Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practices of second language acquisition. New York:
Pergamon Press.
Long, M. (1985). Input and second language acquisition theory. In S. Gass &
C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 337393). Rowley, MA:
Newbury House.
Lozanov, G. (1979). Suggestology and outlines of Suggestopedy. New York: Gordon &
Breach.
MacIntyre, P., & Gardner, R. (1991a). Investigating language class anxiety using the
focused essay technique. Modern Language Journal, 75, 296304.
MacIntyre, P., & Gardner, R. (1991b). Methods and results in the study of anxiety
and language learning: A review of the literature. Language Learning, 41, 85117.
Majoy, P. (1993). Doorways to learning. Tucson, AZ: Zephyr Press.
McCoy, I. (1979). Means to overcome the anxieties of second language learners.
Foreign Language Annals, 12, 185189.
Murdock, M. (1987). Spinning inward. Boston: Shambhala.
Neville, B. (1989). Educating Psyche: Emotion, imagination and the unconscious in
learning. Victoria, Australia: Collins Dove.
Phillips, E. (1992). The effects of language anxiety on students oral test perform-
ance and attitudes. Modern Language Journal, 76, 1426.
Rogers, C. (1983). Freedom to learn for the 80s. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill.
Rost, M. (1990). Listening in language learning. New York: Longman.
Rubin, J. (1994). A review of second language listening comprehension research.
Modern Language Journal, 78, 199221.
Saito, Y., Horwitz, E., & Garza, T. (1999). Foreign language reading anxiety. Modern
Language Journal, 83, 202218.
Sheikh, A., & Sheikh, K. (1985). Imagery in education. Farmingdale, NY: Baywood.
Stevick, E. W. (1986). Images and options in the language classroom. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Vogely, A. (1999). Addressing listening comprehension anxiety. In D. J. Young (Ed.),
Affect in foreign language and second language learning: A practical guide to creating a
low-anxiety classroom atmosphere. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Young, D. J. (1990). An investigation of students perspectives on anxiety and
speaking. Foreign Language Annals, 23, 539553.
Young, D. J. (1992). Language anxiety from the foreign language specialists
perspective: Interviews with Krashen, Omaggio Hadley, Terrell, and Rardin.
Foreign Language Annals, 25, 157172.
Young, D. J (1999). Affect in foreign language and second language learning: A practical
guide to creating a low-anxiety classroom atmosphere. New York: McGraw-Hill.
787 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2000
REVIEWS
TESOL Quarterly welcomes evaluative reviews of publications relevant to TESOL
professionals.
Edited by DAN DOUGLAS
Iowa State University
Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English.
Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, and
Edward Finegan. Essex, England: Pearson Education, 1999.
Pp. xxviii + 1204.
I
Based on a corpus of over 40 million words of American and British
English text from conversation, ction, newspapers, academic prose,
nonconversational speech, and general prose, Longman Grammar of
Spoken and Written English (LGSWE) is a comprehensive reference de-
scribing and empirically analyzing language patterns in actual use.
Computational analysis of the corpus yielded quantitative results about
grammatical patterns, which were veried and functionally interpreted
by the linguists. The innovative, corpus-based approach of LGSWE adds a
new dimension to knowledge about English grammar as found in the
previous Longman reference, Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartviks
A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985).
This descriptive study of authentic language is presented in 14
chapters divided into ve thematic areas. Chapter 1 introduces the
methodology used to compile and analyze the corpus. Organized in a
bottom-up fashion, chapters 2 and 3 provide descriptions of basic
grammatical units (e.g., nouns, determiners, phrases or clauses) and an
overview of their patterns of use; in chapters 47, the authors give a
detailed account of how each of the basic grammatical units is used in
the corpus; chapters 810 deal with the use of complex structures, such
as complement clauses and adverbials; and chapters 1114 present issues
of grammar in context (i.e., grammatical choices used to optimize
communication). The analyses illustrate the interdependence of lan-
guage structure and use.
As a reference grammar, LGSWE contains theoretical denitions and
characterizations of grammatical features as well as copious examples
788 TESOL QUARTERLY
from the corpus. When a more detailed presentation of a feature is
necessary, sections detailing corpus ndings summarize grammatical
generalizations drawn from the corpus in bullet format. Interpretive
commentaries follow in sections.
The sections on ndings present contrasts in the occurrence of
grammatical features as well, such as the distribution of negative forms
by register. The interpretive commentaries highlight discourse character-
istics of communicative language in addition to grammatical differences
between speech and writing. Numerous tables and gures condense
quantitative information into an easily accessible form. A summary table
of contents, along with a more detailed listing of the books contents,
and lexical and topical indexes ease the readers burden in navigating
such a large reference work.
Although LGSWE is a descriptive rather than a prescriptive grammar,
variant forms are noted as nonstandard, and their existence in actual use
is attested in corpus examples. The examples illustrate that nonstandard
forms are intelligible and that their selection serves a valid communica-
tive purpose, such as proximity or notional concord based on meaning.
The greatest strength of the analyses in LGSWE is that they are based
on the performance of naturally occurring language rather than on the
linguistic competence illustrated by invented examples. These analyses
demonstrate register differences in structures but suggest that spoken
and written English are based on the same foundational grammar.
LGSWE is an extremely useful resource tool for teachers, students,
researchers, and writers of materials for teaching English as either an L1
or an L2. Areas for future investigation are proposedfor example,
corpus-based research into dialectal variationand the directions for
additional research are an important contribution of this already impres-
sive work. An extensive bibliography serves as a guide to more in-depth
study of the analyzed grammatical features.
REFERENCE
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of
the English language. London: Longman.
KATHLEEN M. BROUSSARD
University of St. Thomas
REVIEWS 789
Input, Interaction, and the Second Language Learner.
Susan Gass. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1997. Pp. vii + 189.
I
Input, Interaction, and the Second Language Learner is a comprehensive
review of recent second language acquisition (SLA) research with a
surprise ending. Gass provides detailed accounts of major SLA theories,
such as universal grammar (UG), Krashens monitor model, and Swains
comprehensible output, as a backdrop for an explanation of the intricate
relationship between interaction and language learning. In the end, she
employs these theories and research ndings to advocate task-based
language learning.
The rst chapter takes the reader back to inuential early models of
language learning, such as the work of Krashen and the innateness
debate, and provides detailed explanations of awareness, attention, and
noticing. Gass connects these theories to the language learning pro-
cesses of intake, integration, and output. Chapter 2 readdresses UG
within the context of the types of positive and negative evidence available
to learners in L1 and L2 situations. Chapter 3 includes a fuller descrip-
tion of input in L1 and L2 learning situations and a comparison of the
differences between Western and non-Western cultures regarding speech
modications and error correction in L1 acquisition. Chapter 4 includes
a deeper discussion of SLA theories and the role of input in these
theories, and in chapter 5 Gass analyzes miscommunication and the
negotiation of meaning that can follow, illustrating her points with
discourse examples from research. She also presents factors that can
affect negotiation, such as task type, background knowledge, status
differences, familiarity, and gender. In chapter 6, Gass makes a connec-
tion between comprehension, output, and L2 learning, and in the nal
chapter she addresses the issue of pedagogy and how language teachers
can apply what is known about input and interaction in an effective yet
practical manner through the use of task-based instruction (TBI).
Although she states that it was not her intent to address pedagogy,
Gass brings up the appropriateness of TBI as long as it is modied to
include a focus on form, which she sees as consistent with TBI. Gass
states, I do not agree that a lack of focus on form is a necessary part of
task-based learning (p. 153). Many proponents of TBI would agree with
this statement, and many have suggested that TBI curricula incorporate
attention to grammatical forms (see Candlin, 1987; Loschky & Bley-
Vroman, 1993; Skehan, 1998; Van Lier, 1996; Willis, 1996). Gasss dis-
cussion of TBI appears not to be fully informed and is an area of the
book that readers might like to see developed further.
Nevertheless, Gasss book is a clearly written, insightful account of how
input and interaction work together to develop language systems. She
790 TESOL QUARTERLY
stresses throughout that these two elements are not the only contributors
to language learning and that the role they play certainly needs to be
examined further.
REFERENCES
Candlin, C. (1987). Towards task-based language learning. In C. Candlin & D. Murphy
(Eds.), Language learning tasks (Lancaster Practical Papers in English Language
Education, Vol. 7, pp. 522). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Loschky, L., & Bley-Vroman, R. (1993). Grammar and task-based methodology. In
G. Crookes & S. Gass (Eds.), Tasks and language learning: Integrating theory and
practice (pp. 123167). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Skehan, P. (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Van Lier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language curriculum: Awareness, autonomy, and
authenticity. London: Longman.
Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. London: Longman.
PAULA GARCIA
Northern Arizona University
Affect in Language Learning.
Jane Arnold (Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Pp. xiv + 346.
I
Affect in Language Learning is an excellent introduction to recent
developments in a key area of educational linguistics. It identies the
affective factors of relevance to language learning and teaching and
highlights their inuence on the development of current language
teaching theories and practice. The collection of 18 chapters by different
teachers, researchers, and teacher trainers from many parts of the globe
is a useful guide for both researchers and practitioners as it succeeds in
linking theory and practice. It not only offers a broad review of research,
including naturalistic analysis of experiences, case studies, examples of
action research, and experimental studies, but also presents interesting
humanistic activities and many classroom implications.
The editor has divided the book into ve parts: (a) a holistic
introduction to affect in different learning contexts; (b) an analysis of
how the learners affective side inuences the language learning process;
(c) a reection on the teachers role and on how to make teaching more
effective; (d) a discussion of appropriate affective activities, materials,
and types of interaction; and (e) an epilogue that calls for more research
in this increasingly signicant area. Each of the main sections ends with
REVIEWS 791
questions and tasks that invite readers to reect on certain teaching
points and to personalize the information given by analysing their own
teaching practice.
Part A presents an excellent overview of the main affective factors
related to language learning. The authors of this part argue for a
balanced approach that considers not only the study of cognitive
processes but also the analysis of affective factors, such as self-esteem,
motivation or empathy, facilitation, and anxiety. Part B, Exploring the
Learners Space, deals with aspects such as the neural basis for affect;
the relationship among affect, learning, and memory; ways to diminish
language anxiety; the ego boundary preference as a learning style; and
the description of classroom research based on the enhancement of self-
esteem. Part C, Exploring the Teachers Space, focuses on aspects of
the teachers role in the language classroom. Considering the unique-
ness of each teaching situation, the main role of the teacher is seen to be
that of facilitating the language acquisition process by taking into
account the students overall needs.
Part D, Exploring the Interactional Space, presents a wide variety of
ways to incorporate affect in the target language classroom. Specialists in
neurolinguistic programming, suggestopedia, counseling learning, psy-
chodrama, cooperative learning, and others concerned with humanistic
language teaching offer interesting ideas for teachers, teacher educators,
curriculum designers, and material developers. The epilogue reminds
the reader that the systematic analysis of all students cognitive and
affective differences can help the teacher offer opportunities for success
to all students (p. 305).
Because of the variety of studies, references, and views illustrated in all
of the chapters, this book represents a valuable contribution to the eld
of applied linguistics. Both teachers and researchers will greatly benet
from the thorough treatment of the topic of affect in language learning.
CARMEN FONSECA MORA
University of Huelva
Foreign Language Learning: The Journey of a Lifetime.
Richard Donato and Robert M. Terry (Eds.). Lincolnwood, IL:
National Textbook, 1995. Pp. v + 194.
I
This book is part of the Foreign Language Education Series, published
by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. For this
volume, Donato and Terry asked several foreign language specialists to
share their opinions on the evolution of foreign language learning, the
792 TESOL QUARTERLY
ultimate goal being to give some insights into the future of the eld.
TESOL Quarterly readers will nd this book relevant because most of what
is written about foreign language learning is also valid for ESL learning.
In the rst of six chapters, Marcia Rosenbusch focuses on the past,
present, and future of early language learning in elementary schools.
She describes the past, hoping that the mistakes that were made (e.g.,
unrealistic goals, inappropriate methodologies, lack of qualied teach-
ers, lack of articulation and materials) will not be repeated. She
advocates early language instruction because, as research shows, students
who learn languages at an early age enjoy cognitive benets, better
academic achievement, and a better understanding of cultural diversity.
In the second chapter, Paul Garcia, Eileen Lorenz, and Robert
Robison reect on implementing middle school immersion programs in
order to achieve functional bilingualism. The common problem that
elementary school immersion programs face is the lack of continuation.
Although access to immersion programs is improving now, many middle
schools still do not offer such programs to students who participated in
them in elementary school. To try to remedy the situation, the authors
provide school districts interested in immersion with detailed guidelines
and suggestions aimed at helping them with planning, stafng, course
offerings, and policy issues. They argue that middle school immersion
programs cannot be successful without the unconditional commitment
of students, parents, teachers, and administrators.
Myriam Met argues in chapter 3 that middle school foreign language
instruction should take into account the changes that affect early
adolescents. Middle school is an entity of its own, argues Met, not a mere
continuation of elementary school, and the curriculum should offer
exploratory courses because exploration plays a key role in early adoles-
cence. She recommends the use of Total Physical Response activities and
the whole language approach.
In chapter 4, Richard Brecht and Ronald Walton discuss language
learning as a lifelong process. The authors argue that language learning,
a continual process that evolves through the various stages of ones life,
should not be limited to the classroom or to the traditional student
enrolled in a school. In chapter 5, Reinventing Second Language
Instruction, Ray Clifford briey examines the history of foreign lan-
guage education and its major inuences in the United States. In the
nal chapter, Paul Sandrock advocates the development of standards in
order to align all levels of education and orient them toward the same
goals.
This book provides a thoughtful overview of foreign language educa-
tion from the learners rst day of school through their retirement years.
This novel approach to foreign language learning allows the authors to
propose ideas that could breathe new life into foreign language class-
REVIEWS 793
rooms and curriculums. The accessible articles will be of interest to
foreign language and ESL teachers at all levels as well as to foreign
language students.
PHILIPPE RADELET
Louisiana State University and Donaldsonville High School
STANLEY BORDELON
Louisiana State University
Close to Home: Oral and Literate Practices in a
Transnational Mexicano Community.
Juan C. Guerra. New York: Teachers College Press, 1998. Pp. xii + 191.
I
Close to Home is the result of the 9 years researcher Guerra spent
chronicling the social, linguistic and rhetorical abilities (p. 153) of an
extended-family network whose members live in Chicago and rural
Mexico. The author challenges educators to build on what [Mexicano
students] know (p. 161). His rich description of Mexican immigrants
linguistic practices in social and historical context makes Close to Home a
good resource for teachers who want to meet this challenge.
As Guerra makes clear, language practices in the Chicago Mexicano
community are strongly inuenced by the economic and political forces
that affect immigrants perceptions of permanence in the United States.
Within this shifting context, he shows how Mexicano networks facilitate
ongoing immigration by helping members nd work and housing in the
United States while ensuring cash ow into impoverished Mexican
villages. In Guerras analysis, this importance of the network to mem-
bers social and economic lives has a strong effect on cultural practices,
especially in maintaining the key role of Spanish.
Much of the book details the networks use of both spoken and written
Spanish. In interviews, network members expressed great appreciation
for oral language in their community, generally agreeing that good
speakers possessed the qualities of gracia (grace or wit), labia (elo-
quence), sabor (avor), emocin (emotion), and sinceridad (sincerity) (p.
73). Although Guerra found network members initially reluctant to
share their written work, fearing criticism of their nonstandard Spanish,
he was eventually entrusted with a selection of personal correspondence
along with three autobiographical narratives written by young women. In
Guerras estimation, despite network members lack of condence, this
written work expresses the same qualities prized in oral discourse.
The linguistic and cultural detail provided by Guerra should be of
794 TESOL QUARTERLY
value to a wide variety of educators with ties to the Mexican immigrant
community. On the other hand, readers whose primary interest lies in
nding appropriate educational strategies may be frustrated by a lack of
practical suggestions, despite the authors obvious concern for this issue.
Guerra emphasizes theory over practice, not always successfully. The
book at times has a patched-together feel, and some readers may nd
themselves skipping over certain sections, such as the chapter in which
the author lists and explains metaphors for literacy without relating
them in any detail to the practices of the network.
In spite of Guerras conicting agendas, however, ESL professionals
will nd Close to Home well worth reading. The authors insights could
have helped me avoid many of the errors I made as a novice teacher
working with Mexicano students while only gradually becoming aware of
the ongoing economic and social importance of Spanish in their lives.
Guerras difculties in gaining access to letters, for example, could have
given me a better understanding of learners anxiety about being judged
on their written production. Finally, Guerras analysis of the rhetorical
values involved in Mexicano discourse would have challenged me to help
my students nd ways to exemplify gracia, labia, sabor, emocin, and
sinceridad in English as well as Spanish.
JULIA MENARD-WARWICK
University of California, Berkeley
On Becoming a Language Educator: Personal Essays on
Professional Development.
Christine Pearson Casanave and Sandra R. Schechter (Eds.).
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1997. Pp. xi + 243.
I
On Becoming a Language Educator is a collection of rst-person narra-
tives by 18 L2 educators from the United States and Canadaindividuals
who have found as their lifes work the exploration of language and
language learning across the elds of ESL, EFL, bilingual education,
foreign language education, and deaf education. The editors describe
the collection as one in which language educators from a variety of
professional backgrounds situate themselves in the eld: how the issues
affect them; what underlies their beliefs about language education; and
how their professional identities have come to be constructed through
study, experience, and reection. The editors challenged contributors to
write about yourself in a way that demonstrates how you wrestled with an
issue that may be commonplace in our professional lives but that does
not get discussed in the literature (p. 205). In describing how the
REVIEWS 795
contributors struggled with the task, the editors speak of the difculty
that seasoned professionals nd in becoming more personally reective
and less teacherly and researchy (p. 205).
The volume is divided into ve parts: Evolving a Philosophy,
Identity Dilemmas, Lessons From Teachings and Learnings, Reec-
tions on the Profession, and Conversations, each containing from
three to ve contributions. Each section ends with Exploration, a series
of thought-provoking questions that encourage the reader to examine
more closely the ideas presented by each author.
In examining this volume, I asked two questions: What has each of
these educators sought during his or her professional years? What has
each person learned? The answers to these questions, though sometimes
revealed through the authors professional writings, were more person-
ally and eloquently explored in their contributions to this book. Whether
through work with kindergartners, service in the Peace Corps, the
teaching of immigrants, study in ethnic communities, or struggles with
an academic professional identity, each author has a connection with
bilingualism, issues of ethnicity, and issues of identity through his or her
own teaching experiences.
One can criticize the book for unevenness: Some authors seem to
write for themselves whereas others imagine an audience of university
faculty. Some contributors describe the complex dilemmas facing re-
searchers as theory meets the reality of human experience whereas
others describe L2 learners experiences with great insight and sensitiv-
ity. We all learned things about ourselvesabout how we are prone to
take refuge in the safety zone that conventional professional discourse
allows us to build, and how rarely we emerge from this safety zone to
examine in detail our beliefs and behaviors (p. 206).
However, this unevenness is the value of this volume: It gets beyond
the usual professional writing, offering insights into what teachers and
researchers in language education bring to their work, and in doing so
gives thoughts about language, culture, and learning that are personal
and even private. While feminist theory and critical theory have opened
the door for a more personalized dimension to the study of issues, L2
education is long overdue for a step away from the formal and toward the
personal. Language learning is, after all, a most personal experience.
CONSTANCE L. WALKER
University of Minnesota
797 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2000
BOOK NOTICES
TESOL Quarterly prints brief book notices of 100 words or less announcing books of
interest to readers. Book Notices are intended to inform readers about selected
books that publishers have sent to TESOL and are descriptive rather than evaluative.
They are solicited by the Book Review Editor.
Puerto Rican Students in U.S. Schools.
Sonia Nieto (Ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2000. Pp. xvi + 354.
I
One of the few books to chronicle the experiences of Puerto Rican
students in U.S. schools, this volume contains 12 scholarly chapters and
8 essays covering the historical and political context, educational leader-
ship and change, classroom and school studies, and identity in terms of
culture, race, language, gender, social activism, and community involve-
ment. The editor provides an introduction and an afterword exploring
directions for the future. Most of the authors are Puerto Rican scholars,
writers, administrators, educators, and activists. Readers will nd much
information and thought-provoking discussion about this important
group of learners in North American schools.
Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching.
Diane Larsen-Freeman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Pp. xv + 189.
I
This is a revised and updated edition of an earlier book in the Oxford
series Teaching Techniques in English as a Second Language. In this
edition, Larsen-Freeman interprets 11 teaching methods and approaches
in light of what is now known about the learning process, comparing and
contrasting their ways of dealing with culture, language learning, and
teaching techniques. The result is a survey of the recent history of
language teaching up to current thinking on content- and task-based
approaches, cooperative learning, and multiple intelligences. It should
be useful in teacher education programs as well as for experienced
teachers interested in exploring current ideas in teaching and learning.
798 TESOL QUARTERLY
Sustained Content Teaching in Academic ESL/EFL:
A Practical Approach.
Marcia Pally (Ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifin, 2000. Pp. xvi + 247.
I
Containing 12 chapters, each written by an experienced practitioner,
this book offers a wide variety of approaches and principles for the
teaching of English for academic purposes in collaboration with content
instruction at the secondary, vocational, and tertiary levels. The key
principle, that of sustained content-based instruction, involves classes in
which learners practice the language as they study one subject area,
usually over an entire semester. Among the topics covered are a corpus-
based grammar-reading course, critical thinking and academic writing
for engineering students, exam writing in U.S. history, health content,
and assessment in a content-based curriculum.
Assessing Success in Family Literacy and Adult ESL.
Daniel D. Holt and Carol H. Van Duzer (Eds.). Washington, DC:
Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems, 2000. Pp. viii + 136.
I
Responding to increasing demands for accountability in meeting
program and learner goals in family, workplace, and general adult
English language teaching, this book focuses on alternative assessment
techniques, including surveys, interviews, portfolios, and performance
assessment. The six contributors, all experienced educators, provide
practical information on approaches to assessment and evaluation, the
integration of evaluation into program planning, initial assessment,
progress assessment, and the analysis and reporting of alternative
assessment results. The book includes a useful glossary and list of
additional resources.
INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS 799
INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS
TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2000
EDITORIAL POLICY
TESOL Quarterly, a professional, refereed journal, encourages submission of
previously unpublished articles on topics of signicance to individuals
concerned with the teaching of English as a second or foreign language and
of standard English as a second dialect. As a publication that represents a
variety of cross-disciplinary interests, both theoretical and practical, the
Quarterly invites manuscripts on a wide range of topics, especially in the
following areas:
1. psychology and sociology of language 3. testing and evaluation
learning and teaching; issues in research 4. professional
and research methodology preparation
2. curriculum design and development; 5. language planning
instructional methods, materials, and 6. professional standards
techniques
Because the Quarterly is committed to publishing manuscripts that contrib-
ute to bridging theory and practice in our profession, it particularly
welcomes submissions drawing on relevant research (e.g., in anthropology,
applied and theoretical linguistics, communication, education, English
education [including reading and writing theory], psycholinguistics, psy-
chology, rst and second language acquisition, sociolinguistics, and sociol-
ogy) and addressing implications and applications of this research to issues
in our profession. The Quarterly prefers that all submissions be written so
that their content is accessible to a broad readership, including those
individuals who may not have familiarity with the subject matter addressed.
TESOL Quarterly is an international journal. It welcomes submissions from
English language contexts around the world.
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS
Submission Categories
TESOL Quarterly invites submissions in ve categories:
Full-length articles. Contributors are strongly encouraged to submit manu-
scripts of no more than 2025 double-spaced pages or 8,500 words (includ-
ing references, notes, and tables). Submit three copies plus three copies of
an informative abstract of not more than 200 words. If possible, indicate the
number of words at the end of the article. To facilitate the blind review
process, authors names should appear only on a cover sheet, not on the title
page; do not use running heads. Submit manuscripts to the Editor of TESOL
Quarterly:
800 TESOL QUARTERLY
Carol A. Chapelle
Department of English
203 Ross Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1201 USA
The following factors are considered when evaluating the suitability of a
manuscript for publication in TESOL Quarterly:
The manuscript appeals to the general interests of TESOL Quarterlys
readership.
The manuscript strengthens the relationship between theory and prac-
tice: Practical articles must be anchored in theory, and theoretical articles
and reports of research must contain a discussion of implications or
applications for practice.
The content of the manuscript is accessible to the broad readership of the
Quarterly, not only to specialists in the area addressed.
The manuscript offers a new, original insight or interpretation and not
just a restatement of others ideas and views.
The manuscript makes a signicant (practical, useful, plausible) contri-
bution to the eld.
The manuscript is likely to arouse readers interest.
The manuscript reects sound scholarship and research design with
appropriate, correctly interpreted references to other authors and works.
The manuscript is well written and organized and conforms to the
specications of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Associ-
ation (4th ed.).
Reviews. TESOL Quarterly invites succinct, evaluative reviews of professional
books. Reviews should provide a descriptive and evaluative summary and a
brief discussion of the signicance of the work in the context of current
theory and practice. Submissions should generally be no longer than 500
words. Submit two copies of the review to the Review Editor:
Dan Douglas
Department of English
203 Ross Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1201 USA
Review Articles. TESOL Quarterly also welcomes occasional review articles,
that is, comparative discussions of several publications that fall into a topical
category (e.g., pronunciation, literacy training, teaching methodology).
Review articles should provide a description and evaluative comparison of
the materials and discuss the relative signicance of the works in the context
of current theory and practice. Submissions should generally be no longer
than 1,500 words. Submit two copies of the review article to the Review
Editor at the address given above.
INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS 801
Brief Reports and Summaries. TESOL Quarterly also invites short reports on
any aspect of theory and practice in our profession. We encourage manu-
scripts that either present preliminary ndings or focus on some aspect of a
larger study. In all cases, the discussion of issues should be supported by
empirical evidence, collected through qualitative or quantitative investiga-
tions. Reports or summaries should present key concepts and results in a
manner that will make the research accessible to our diverse readership.
Submissions to this section should be 710 double-spaced pages, or 3,400
words (including references, notes, and tables). If possible, indicate the
number of words at the end of the report. Longer articles do not appear in this
section and should be submitted to the Editor of TESOL Quarterly for review. Send
one copy of the manuscript to each of the Editors of the Brief Reports and
Summaries section:
Rod Ellis Karen E. Johnson
Institute of Language 305 Sparks Building
Teaching and Learning Pennsylvania State University
Private Bag 92019 University Park, PA 16802 USA
Auckland, New Zealand
The Forum. TESOL Quarterly welcomes comments and reactions from
readers regarding specic aspects or practices of our profession. Responses
to published articles and reviews are also welcome; unfortunately, we are not
able to publish responses to previous exchanges. Contributions to The
Forum should generally be no longer than 710 double-spaced pages or
3,400 words. If possible, indicate the number of words at the end of the
contribution. Submit three copies to the Editor of TESOL Quarterly at the
address given above.
Brief discussions of qualitative and quantitative Research Issues and of
Teaching Issues are also published in The Forum. Although these contri-
butions are typically solicited, readers may send topic suggestions or make
known their availability as contributors by writing directly to the Editors of
these subsections.
Research Issues: Teaching Issues:
Patricia A. Duff Bonny Norton
Department of Department of
Language Education Language Education
University of British Columbia University of British Columbia
2125 Main Mall 2125 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Canada Canada
Special-Topic Issues. Typically, one issue per volume will be devoted to a
special topic. Topics are approved by the Editorial Advisory Board of the
Quarterly. Those wishing to suggest topics or make known their availability as
guest editors should contact the Editor of TESOL Quarterly. Issues will
generally contain both invited articles designed to survey and illuminate
central themes as well as articles solicited through a call for papers.
802 TESOL QUARTERLY
General Submission Guidelines
1. All submissions to the Quarterly should conform to the requirements of
the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.),
which can be obtained from the American Psychological Association,
Book Order Department, Dept. KK, P.O. Box 92984, Washington, DC
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the Middle East should be sent to American Psychological Association,
Dept. KK, 3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8LU,
England. For more information, e-mail order@apa.org or consult http://
www.apa.org/books/ordering.html.
2. All submissions to TESOL Quarterly should be accompanied by a cover
letter that includes a full mailing address and both a daytime and an
evening telephone number. Where available, authors should include an
electronic mail address and fax number.
3. Authors of full-length articles, Brief Reports and Summaries, and Forum
contributions should include two copies of a very brief biographical
statement (in sentence form, maximum 50 words), plus any special
notations or acknowledgments that they would like to have included.
Double spacing should be used throughout.
4. TESOL Quarterly provides 25 free reprints of published full-length
articles and 10 reprints of material published in the Reviews, Brief
Reports and Summaries, and The Forum sections.
5. Manuscripts submitted to TESOL Quarterly cannot be returned to
authors. Authors should be sure to keep a copy for themselves.
6. It is understood that manuscripts submitted to TESOL Quarterly have not
been previously published and are not under consideration for publica-
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7. It is the responsibility of the author(s) of a manuscript submitted to
TESOL Quarterly to indicate to the Editor the existence of any work
already published (or under consideration for publication elsewhere)
by the author(s) that is similar in content to that of the manuscript.
8. The Editor of TESOL Quarterly reserves the right to make editorial
changes in any manuscript accepted for publication to enhance clarity
or style. The author will be consulted only if the editing has been
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9. The views expressed by contributors to TESOL Quarterly do not necessar-
ily reect those of the Editor, the Editorial Advisory Board, or TESOL.
Material published in the Quarterly should not be construed to have the
endorsement of TESOL.
Informed Consent Guidelines
TESOL Quarterly expects authors to adhere to ethical and legal standards for
work with human subjects. Although we are aware that such standards vary
among institutions and countries, we require authors and contributors to
INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS 803
meet, as a minimum, the conditions detailed below before submitting a
manuscript for review. TESOL recognizes that some institutions may require
research proposals to satisfy additional requirements. If you wish to discuss
whether or how your study met these guidelines, you may e-mail the
managing editor of TESOL publications at tq@tesol.org or call 703-535-7852.
As an author, you will be asked to sign a statement indicating that you have
complied with Option A or Option B before TESOL will publish your work.
A. You have followed the human subjects review procedure established by
your institution.
B. If you are not bound by an institutional review process, or if it does not
meet the requirements outlined below, you have complied with the
following conditions.
Participation in the Research
1. You have informed participants in your study, sample, class, group, or
program that you will be conducting research in which they will be the
participants or that you would like to write about them for publication.
2. You have given each participant a clear statement of the purpose of your
research or the basic outline of what you would like to explore in
writing, making it clear that research and writing are dynamic activities
that may shift in focus as they occur.
3. You have explained the procedure you will follow in the research project
or the types of information you will be collecting for your writing.
4. You have explained that participation is voluntary, that there is no
penalty for refusing to participate, and that the participants may
withdraw at any time without penalty.
5. You have explained to participants if and how their condentiality will
be protected.
6. You have given participants sufcient contact information that they can
reach you for answers to questions regarding the research.
7. You have explained to participants any foreseeable risks and discomforts
involved in agreeing to cooperate (e.g., seeing work with errors in
print).
8. You have explained to participants any possible direct benets of
participating (e.g., receiving a copy of the article or chapter).
9. You have obtained from each participant (or from the participants
parent or guardian) a signed consent form that sets out the terms of
your agreement with the participants and have kept these forms on le
(TESOL will not ask to see them).
Consent to Publish Student Work
10. If you will be collecting samples of student work with the intention of
publishing them, either anonymously or with attribution, you have
made that clear to the participants in writing.
804 TESOL QUARTERLY
11. If the sample of student work (e.g., a signed drawing or signed piece of
writing) will be published with the students real name visible, you have
obtained a signed consent form and will include that form when you
submit your manuscript for review and editing.
12. If your research or writing involves minors (persons under age 18), you
have supplied and obtained signed separate informed consent forms
from the parent or guardian and from the minor, if he or she is old
enough to read, understand, and sign the form.
13. If you are working with participants who do not speak English well or are
intellectually disabled, you have written the consent forms in a language
that the participant or the participants guardian can understand.
Statistical Guidelines
Because of the educational role the Quarterly plays modeling research in the
eld, it is of particular concern that published research articles meet high
statistical standards. In order to support this goal, the following guidelines
are provided.
Reporting the study. Studies submitted to the Quarterly should be explained
clearly and in enough detail that it would be possible to replicate the design
of the study on the basis of the information provided in the article. Likewise,
the study should include sufcient information to allow readers to evaluate
the claims made by the author. In order to accommodate both of these
requirements, authors of statistical studies should present the following.
1. a clear statement of the research questions and the hypotheses that are
being examined;
2. descriptive statistics, including the means, standard deviations, and
sample sizes, necessary for the reader to correctly interpret and evaluate
any inferential statistics;
3. appropriate types of reliability and validity of any tests, ratings, ques-
tionnaires, and so on;
4. graphs and charts that help explain the results;
5. clear and careful descriptions of the instruments used and the types of
intervention employed in the study;
6. explicit identications of dependent, independent, moderator, inter-
vening, and control variables;
7. complete source tables for statistical tests;
8. discussions of how the assumptions underlying the research design were
met, assumptions such as random selection and assignment of subjects
and sufciently large sample sizes so that the results are stable;
9. tests of the assumptions of any statistical tests, when appropriate; and
10. realistic interpretations of the statistical signicance of the results
keeping in mind that the meaningfulness of the results is a separate and
important issue, especially for correlation.
INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS 805
Conducting the analyses. Quantitative studies submitted to TESOL Quarterly
should reect a concern for controlling Type I and Type II error. Thus,
studies should avoid multiple t tests, multiple ANOVAs, and so on. However,
in the very few instances in which multiple tests might be employed, the
author should explain the effects of such use on the probability values in the
results. In reporting the statistical analyses, authors should choose one
signicance level (usually .05) and report all results in terms of that level.
Likewise, studies should report effect size through such strength of associa-
tion measures as omega-squared or eta-squared along with beta (the
possibility of Type II error) whenever this may be important to interpreting
the signicance of the results.
Interpreting the results. The results should be explained clearly and the
implications discussed such that readers without extensive training in the
use of statistics can understand them. Care should be taken in making causal
inferences from statistical results, and these should be avoided with correla-
tional studies. Results of the study should not be overinterpreted or
overgeneralized. Finally, alternative explanations of the results should be
discussed.
Qualitative Research Guidelines
To ensure that Quarterly articles model rigorous qualitative research, the
following guidelines are provided.
Conducting the study. Studies submitted to the Quarterly should exhibit an
in-depth understanding of the philosophical perspectives and research
methodologies inherent in conducting qualitative research. Utilizing these
perspectives and methods in the course of conducting research helps to
ensure that studies are credible, valid, and dependable rather than impres-
sionistic and supercial. Reports of qualitative research should meet the
following criteria.
1. Data collection (as well as analyses and reporting) is aimed at uncovering
an emic perspective. In other words, the study focuses on research
participants perspectives and interpretations of behavior, events, and
situations rather than etic (outsider-imposed) categories, models, and
viewpoints.
2. Data collection strategies include prolonged engagement, persistent
observation, and triangulation. Researchers should conduct ongoing
observations over a sufcient period of time so as to build trust with
respondents, learn the culture (e.g., classroom, school, or community),
and check for misinformation introduced by both the researcher and
the researched. Triangulation involves the use of multiple methods and
sources such as participant-observation, informal and formal interviewing,
and collection of relevant or available documents.
Analyzing the data. Data analysis is also guided by the philosophy and
methods underlying qualitative research studies. The researcher should
engage in comprehensive data treatment in which data from all relevant
806 TESOL QUARTERLY
sources are analyzed. In addition, many qualitative studies demand an
analytic inductive approach involving a cyclical process of data collection,
analysis (taking an emic perspective and utilizing the descriptive language
the respondents themselves use), creation of hypotheses, and testing of
hypotheses in further data collection.
Reporting the data. The researcher should generally provide thick descrip-
tion with sufcient detail to allow the reader to determine whether transfer
to other situations can be considered. Reports also should include the
following.
1. a description of the theoretical or conceptual framework that guides
research questions and interpretations;
2. a clear statement of the research questions;
3. a description of the research site, participants, procedures for ensuring
participant anonymity, and data collection strategies, and a description
of the roles of the researcher(s);
4. a description of a clear and salient organization of patterns found
through data analysisreports of patterns should include representative
examples, not anecdotal information;
5. interpretations that exhibit a holistic perspective in which the author
traces the meaning of patterns across all the theoretically salient or
descriptively relevant micro- and macrocontexts in which they are
embedded;
6. interpretations and conclusions that provide evidence of grounded
theory and discussion of how this theory relates to current research/
theory in the eld, including relevant citationsin other words, the
article should focus on the issues or behaviors that are salient to
participants and that not only reveal an in-depth understanding of the
situation studied but also suggest how it connects to current related
theories.
CUMULATIVE INDEX 807
CUMULATIVE INDEX
TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2000
TESOL Quarterly, Volumes 3334 (19992000)
Author Index
Arnold, Jane, Seeing Through Listen-
ing Comprehension Exam Anxiety,
Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 777786.
Atkinson, Dwight, Comments on
TESOL and Culture: The Author
Responds, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 752
755.
Atkinson, Dwight, Comments on
Japanese Culture Constructed by
Discourses: Implications for Applied
Linguistics Research and ELT:
Another Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 33,
No. 4, pp. 745749.
Atkinson, Dwight, TESOL and Culture,
Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 625654.
Benesch, Sarah, Thinking Critically,
Thinking Dialogically, Vol. 33, No.
3, pp. 573580.
Bigelow, Martha, and Izumi, Shinichi,
Does Output Promote Noticing and
Second Language Acquisition?, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 239278.
Block, David, Research Issues: Prob-
lematizing Interview Data: Voices in
the Minds Machine?, Vol. 34, No.
4, pp. 757763.
Bordelon, Stanley, and Radelet,
Philippe, Review of Foreign Language
Learning: The Journey of a Lifetime
(Richard Donato and Robert M.
Terry), Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 791793.
Broussard, Kathleen M., Review of
Errors in Language Learning and Use:
Exploring Error Analysis (Carl James),
Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 154155.
Broussard, Kathleen M., Review of
Longman Grammar of Spoken and
Written English (Douglas Biber, Stig
Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan
Conrad, and Edward Finegan), Vol.
34, No. 4, pp. 787788.
Brown, James Dean, and Hudson,
Thom, Comments on The Alterna-
tives in Language Assessment: The
Authors Respond . . ., Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 734735.
Brown, Kimberley, Review of The
Politics of Indians English (N.
Krishnaswamy and Archana S.
Burde), Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 162164.
Bruton, Anthony, Comments on The
Alternatives in Language Assess-
ment: A Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 33,
No. 4, pp. 729734.
Brutt-Grifer, Janina, and Samimy,
Keiko K., Revisiting the Colonial in
the Postcolonial: Critical Praxis for
Nonnative-English-Speaking
Teachers in a TESOL Program, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 413431.
Carbonaro, Michael, Derwing,
Tracey M., and Munro, Murray J.,
Does Popular Speech Recognition
Software Work With ESL Speech?,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 592602.
Chamberlin, Carla R., TESL Degree
Candidates Perceptions of Trust in
Supervisors, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 653
674.
Christie, Frances, Teaching Issues:
Genre Theory and ESL Teaching: A
Systemic Functional Perspective,
Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 759763.
808 TESOL QUARTERLY
Clapham, Caroline, Review of Measur-
ing Second Language Performance
(Tim McNamara), Vol. 34, No. 2,
pp. 376377.
Collins, Laura, Halter, Randall H.,
Lightbown, Patsy M., and Spada,
Nina, Time and the Distribution of
Time in L2 Instruction, Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 655680.
Conrad, Susan, Will Corpus Linguistics
Revolutionize Grammar Teaching
in the 21st Century?, Vol. 34, No. 3,
pp. 548560.
Cook, Vivian, Comments on Going
Beyond the Native Speaker in
Language Teaching: The Author
Responds . . ., Vol. 34, No. 2, pp.
329332.
Cook, Vivian, Going Beyond the Native
Speaker in Language Teaching,
Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 185209.
Cooper, Thomas C., Processing of
Idioms by L2 Learners of English,
Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 233262.
Cox, Maria Ins Pagliarini, and de
Assis-Peterson, Ana Antnia, Critical
Pedagogy in ELT: Images of
Brazilian Teachers of English, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 433452.
Coxhead, Averil, A New Academic
Word List, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 213
238.
Cribb, Michael, Machine Translation:
The Alternative for the 21st Cen-
tury?, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 560569.
Crookes, Graham, Comments on
Aspects of Process in an ESL
Critical Pedagogy Teacher Educa-
tion Course: An Author Re-
sponds . . ., Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 279
285.
Csomay, Eniko, Review of Text, Role,
and Context: Developing Academic
Literacies (Ann Johns), Vol. 34, No.
2, pp. 375376.
Cummins, Jim, Academic Language
Learning, Transformative Pedagogy,
and Information Technology:
Towards a Critical Balance, Vol. 34,
No. 3, pp. 537548.
Darwin, Clayton M., and Gray,
Loretta S., Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication:
The Authors Respond . . ., Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 165173.
Darwin, Clayton M., and Gray, Loretta
S., Going After the Phrasal Verb:
An Alternative Approach to
Classication, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp.
6583.
Day, Richard, Review of Exploring
Second Language Reading: Issues and
Strategies (Neil Anderson), Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 184185.
de Assis-Peterson, Ana Antnia, and
Cox, Maria Ins Pagliarini, Critical
Pedagogy in ELT: Images of
Brazilian Teachers of English, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 433452.
De Guerrero, Mara C. M., and
Villamil, Olga S., Exploring ESL
Teachers Roles Through Metaphor
Analysis, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 341
351.
Derwing, Tracey M., Munro, Murray J.,
and Carbonaro, Michael, Does
Popular Speech Recognition
Software Work With ESL Speech?,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 592602.
Dushku, Silvana, Research Issues:
Conducting Individual and Focus
Group Interviews in Research in
Albania, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 763
768.
Eignor, Daniel, Taylor, Carol, and
Jamieson, Joan, Trends in Com-
puter Use Among International
Students, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 575
585.
Ewald, Jennifer D., Comments on
Aspects of Process in an ESL
Critical Pedagogy Teacher Educa-
tion Course: A Plan for Published
Reports on the Application of a
Critical Pedagogy to Language
Study Proper, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp.
275279.
Flowerdew, John, Discourse Commu-
nity, Legitimate Peripheral Partici-
CUMULATIVE INDEX 809
pation, and the Nonnative-English-
Speaking Scholar, Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 127150.
Flowerdew, John, Teaching Issues: The
Practicum in L2 Teacher Educa-
tion: A Hong Kong Case Study, Vol.
33, No. 1, pp. 141145.
Freedman, Aviva, Teaching Issues:
Beyond the Text: Towards Under-
standing the Teaching and Learn-
ing of Genres, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.
764767.
Frye, Dana, Participatory Education as
a Critical Framework for an
Immigrant Womens ESL Class, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 501512.
Gao, Carl Zhonggang, Review of The
Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teachers
Course (2nd ed.) (Marianne Celce-
Murcia and Diane Larsen-
Freeman), Vol. 34, No. 2, pp.
372373.
Garcia, Paula, Review of A Cognitive
Approach to Language Learning (Peter
Skehan), Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 769
770.
Garcia, Paula, Review of Input,
Interaction, and the Second Language
Learner (Susan Gass), Vol. 34, No. 4,
pp. 789790.
Gebhard, Meg, Debates in SLA
Studies: Redening Classroom SLA
as an Institutional Phenomenon,
Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 544557.
Genishi, Celia, Research Issues:
Between Psychology and Poststruc-
turalism: Where Is L2 Learning
Located?, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 287
291.
Glick, Lynn Marie, Comments on Dat
teacher be hollin at us--What Is
Ebonics?: A Reader Reacts . . ., Vol.
33, No. 1, pp. 136137.
Godoy-Ramos, Yvonne, Review of
Revisualizing Boundaries: A Plurilin-
gual Ethos (Lachman N. Khubchan-
dani), Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 303304.
Goldstein, Lynn, Comments on
Becoming Black: Rap and Hip-
Hop, Race, Gender, and Identity
and the Politics of ESL Learning:
A Reader Reacts, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp.
739741.
Goldstein, Tara, Accents, Ebonics, and
Crossing: Thinking About Lan-
guage, Race Relations, and Dis-
crimination: Review of English With
an Accent: Language, Ideology and
Discrimination in the United States
(Rosina Lippi-Green), The Real
Ebonics Debate: Power, Language and
the Education of African-American
Children (Theresa Perry and Lisa
Delpit, Eds.), and Crossing: Language
and Ethnicity Among Adolescents (Ben
Rampton), Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 597
604.
Gorsuch, Greta J., EFL Educational
Policies and Educational Cultures:
Inuences on Teachers Approval
of Communicative Activities, Vol.
34, No. 4, pp. 675710.
Govardhan, Anam K., Nayar, Bhas-
karan, and Sheorey, Ravi, Do U.S.
MATESOL Programs Prepare
Students to Teach Abroad?, Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 114125.
Gray, Loretta S., and Darwin,
Clayton M., Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication:
The Authors Respond . . ., Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 165173.
Gray, Loretta S., and Darwin,
Clayton M., Going After the Phrasal
Verb: An Alternative Approach to
Classication, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp.
6583.
Hafernik, Johnnie Johnson, Language,
Literacy, Politics, and Access:
Review of Literacy, Access, and
Libraries Among the Language Minority
Population (Rebecca Constantino,
Ed.), Language and Politics in the
United States and Canada: Myths and
Realities (Thomas Ricento and
Barbara Burnaby, Eds.), and Dialects
in Schools and Communities (Walt
Wolfram, Carolyn Temple Adger,
and Donna Christian), Vol. 34, No.
3, pp. 625629.
810 TESOL QUARTERLY
Halter, Randall H., Collins, Laura,
Lightbown, Patsy M., and Spada,
Nina, Time and the Distribution of
Time in L2 Instruction, Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 655680.
Hammond, Jennifer, and Macken-
Horarik, Mary, Critical Literacy:
Challenges and Questions for ESL
Classrooms, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 528
544.
Hamp-Lyons, Liz, Comments on
Ethical Test Preparation Practice:
The Case of the TOEFL: The
Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33, No.
2, pp. 270274.
Hardman, Joel, Review of Bilingual and
ESL Classrooms: Teaching in Multi-
cultural Contexts (2nd ed.) (Carlos J.
Ovando and Virginia P. Collier),
Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 187188.
Harklau, Linda, From the Good Kids
to the Worst: Representations of
English Language Learners Across
Educational Settings, Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 3567.
Harley, Birgit, Listening Strategies in
ESL: Do Age and L1 Make a
Difference?, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp.
769777.
Hilke, Robert, and Wadden, Paul,
Comments on Ethical Test
Preparation Practice: The Case of
the TOEFL: Polemic Gone Astray:
A Corrective to Recent Criticism of
TOEFL Preparation, Vol. 33, No. 2,
pp. 263270.
Hudson, Thom, and Brown, James
Dean, Comments on The Alterna-
tives in Language Assessment: The
Authors Respond . . ., Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 734735.
Humphries, Stephanie, Review of
Reading Workout (Jann Huizenga
and Maria Thomas-Ruzic), Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 166167.
Ibrahim, Awad El Karim M., Becoming
Black: Rap and Hip-Hop, Race,
Gender, Identity, and the Politics of
ESL Learning, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp.
349369.
Ibrahim, Awad El Karim M., Com-
ments on Becoming Black: Rap
and Hip-Hop, Race, Gender,
Identity, and the Politics of ESL
Learning: Identity or Identica-
tion? A Response to Some Objec-
tions, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 741744.
Izumi, Shinichi, and Bigelow, Martha,
Does Output Promote Noticing and
Second Language Acquisition?, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 239278.
Jabbour, Georgette N., Review of
English for Academic Purposes: A Guide
and Resource Book for Teachers (R. R.
Jordan), Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 770
771.
Jamieson, Joan, Taylor, Carol, and
Eignor, Daniel, Trends in Com-
puter Use Among International
Students, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 575
585.
Johnston, Bill, Putting Critical Peda-
gogy in Its Place: A Personal
Account, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 557
565.
Kamhi-Stein, La D., Looking to the
Future of TESOL Teacher Educa-
tion: Web-Based Bulletin Board
Discussions in a Methods Course,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 423455.
Kanno, Yasuko, Comments on Break-
ing Them Up, Taking Them Away:
ESL Students in Grade 1: The Use
of the Community-of-Practice
Perspective in Language Minority
Research, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 126
132.
Klingner, Janette K., and Vaughn,
Sharon, The Helping Behaviors of
Fifth Graders While Using Collabo-
rative Strategic Reading During ESL
Content Classes, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp.
6998.
Kouritzin, Sandra G., A Mothers
Tongue, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 311
324.
Kress, Gunther, Teaching Issues:
Multimodality: Challenges to
Thinking About Language, Vol. 34,
No. 2, pp. 337340.
CUMULATIVE INDEX 811
Kubota, Ryuko, Comments on Japa-
nese Culture Constructed by
Discourses: Implications for Applied
Linguistics Research and ELT: The
Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 749758.
Kubota, Ryuko, Japanese Culture
Constructed by Discourses: Implica-
tions for Applied Linguistics
Research and ELT, Vol. 33, No. 1,
pp. 935.
Kubota, Ryuko, Review of English and
the Discourses of Colonialism (Alistair
Pennycook), Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.
771773.
Kuehn, Kimberly, and Tarone, Elaine,
Negotiating the Social Services Oral
Intake Interview: Communicative
Needs of Nonnative Speakers of
English, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 99150.
Kumaravadivelu, B., Critical Classroom
Discourse Analysis, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 453484.
Lam, Wan Shun Eva, L2 Literacy and
the Design of the Self: A Case Study
of a Teenager Writing on the
Internet, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 457
482.
Lang, Yong, Review of Theory and
Practice of Writing: An Applied
Linguistic Perspective (William Grabe
and Robert Kaplan), Vol. 33, No. 2,
pp. 302303.
Layzer, Carolyn, and Sharkey, Judy,
Whose Denition of Success?
Identifying Factors That Affect
English Language Learners Access
to Academic Success and Resources,
Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 352368.
Lazaraton, Anne, Research Issues:
Current Trends in Research
Methodology and Statistics in
Applied Linguistics, Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 175181.
Levis, John M., Intonation in Theory
and Practice, Revisited, Vol. 33, No.
1, pp. 3763.
Lewkowicz, Jo A., and Nunan, David,
The Limits of Collaborative Eval-
uation, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 681700.
Lightbown, Patsy M., Collins, Laura,
Halter, Randall H., and Spada,
Nina, Time and the Distribution of
Time in L2 Instruction, Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 655680.
Lin, Angel M. Y., Doing-English-
Lessons in the Reproduction or
Transformation of Social Worlds?,
Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 393412.
Liu, Jun, Nonnative-English-Speaking
Professionals in TESOL, Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 85102.
Low, Marylin, Research Issues:
Exploring Cross-Cultural Inscrip-
tions and Difference: The Effects of
Researchers Positionalities on
Inquiry Practices, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp.
292298.
Lvovich, Natasha, Review of Non-Native
Educators in English Language
Teaching (George Braine, Ed.), Vol.
33, No. 4, pp. 773774.
Lvovich, Natasha, Review of Onna
Rashiku (Like a Woman): The Diary of
a Language Learner in Japan (Karen
Ogulnick), Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 304
306.
Macken-Horarik, Mary, and Ham-
mond, Jennifer, Critical Literacy:
Challenges and Questions for ESL
Classrooms, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 528
544.
Mackie, Ardiss, Possibilities for
Feminism in ESL Education and
Research, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 566
573.
Marinova-Todd, Stefka H., Marshall, D.
Bradford, and Snow, Catherine E.,
Three Misconceptions About Age
and L2 Learning, Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 934.
Markee, Numa, Some Thoughts on
Globalization: A Response to
Warschauer, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp.
569574.
Marshall, D. Bradford, Marinova-Todd,
Stefka H., and Snow, Catherine E.,
Three Misconceptions About Age
and L2 Learning, Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 934.
812 TESOL QUARTERLY
Mattix, Micah, Comments on Going
Beyond the Native Speaker in
Language Teaching: Going
Further Beyond the Native Speaker
Model: A Remark Concerning
Language Models, Vol. 34, No. 2,
pp. 328329.
McCarthy, Luke Gibson, Review of
Morning Edition: Mastering Reading
and Language Skills With the Newspa-
per (Ethel Tiersky and Robert
Hughes), Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 164
165.
Menard-Warwick, Julia, Review of Close
to Home: Oral and Literate Practices in
a Transnational Mexicano Community
(Juan C. Guerra), Vol. 34, No. 4,
pp. 793794.
Meskill, Carla, and Mossop, Jonathan,
Electronic Texts in ESOL Class-
rooms, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 585592.
Milambiling, Joyce, Comments on
Going Beyond the Native Speaker
in Language Teaching: How
Nonnative Speakers as Teachers Fit
Into the Equation, Vol. 34, No. 2,
pp. 324328.
Mills, Douglas, Web-Based Technology
as a Resource for Form-Focused
Language Learning, Vol. 34, No. 3,
pp. 603615.
Mora, Carmen Fonseca, Review of
Affect in Language Learning (Jane
Arnold, Ed.), Vol. 34, No. 4, pp.
790791.
Morita, Naoko, Discourse Socialization
Through Oral Classroom Activities
in a TESL Graduate Program, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 279310.
Mossop, Jonathan, and Meskill, Carla,
Electronic Texts in ESOL Class-
rooms, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 585592.
Munro, Murray J., Derwing, Tracey M.,
and Carbonaro, Michael, Does
Popular Speech Recognition
Software Work With ESL Speech?,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 592602.
Murray, Denise, Protean Communica-
tion: The Language of Computer-
Mediated Communication, Vol. 34,
No. 3, pp. 397421.
Nayar, Bhaskaran, Govardhan,
Anam K., and Sheorey, Ravi, Do
U.S. MATESOL Programs Prepare
Students to Teach Abroad?, Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 114125.
Nelson, Cynthia, Sexual Identities in
ESL: Queer Theory and Classroom
Inquiry, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 371
391.
Nero, Shondel J., The Changing Faces
of English: A Caribbean Perspective,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 483510.
Norton, Bonny, Review of The ESL
Classroom: Teaching, Critical Practice,
and Community Development (Brian
Morgan), Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 605
607.
Nunan, David, and Lewkowicz, Jo A.,
The Limits of Collaborative Eval-
uation, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 681700.
Ota, Mitsuhiko, Riney, Timothy J., and
Takada, Mari, Segmentals and
Global Foreign Accent: The
Japanese Flap in EFL, Vol. 34, No.
4, pp. 711737.
Pakir, Anne, Connecting With English
in the Context of Internationali-
sation, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 103114.
Pardo, Daro Barrera, Review of Second
Language Phonology (John Archi-
bald), Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 373374.
Pennycook, Alastair, Introduction:
Critical Approaches to TESOL, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 329348.
Peyton, Joy Kreeft, Review of Conversa-
tions of the Mind: The Uses of Journal
Writing for Second-Language Writers
(Rebecca Williams Mlynarczyk),
Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 299300.
Plito, Fernando, Review of Productive
Instructional Practices for English-
Language Learners: Guiding Principles
and Examples From Research-Based
Practice (Russell Gersten, Scott K.
Baker, and Susan Unok Marks),
Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 306307.
CUMULATIVE INDEX 813
Price, Steve, Critical Discourse
Analysis: Discourse Acquisition and
Discourse Practices, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 581595.
Radelet, Philippe, and Bordelon,
Stanley, Review of Foreign Language
Learning: The Journey of a Lifetime
(Richard Donato and Robert M.
Terry), Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 791793.
Ramanathan, Vai, English Is Here to
Stay: A Critical Look at Institu-
tional and Educational Practices in
India, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 211231.
Riney, Timothy J., Takada, Mari, and
Ota, Mitsuhiko, Segmentals and
Global Foreign Accent: The
Japanese Flap in EFL, Vol. 34, No.
4, pp. 711737.
Rivera, Klaudia M., Popular Research
and Social Transformation: A
Community-Based Approach to
Critical Pedagogy, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 485500.
Rubdy, Rani, Review of Psychology for
Language Teachers (Marion Williams
and Robert L. Burden), Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 156157.
Samimy, Keiko K., and Brutt-Grifer,
Janina, Revisiting the Colonial in
the Postcolonial: Critical Praxis for
Nonnative-English-Speaking
Teachers in a TESOL Program, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 413431.
Sawyer, Joan H., Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication: A
Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 151159.
Scovel, Thomas, Review of Encyclopedia
of Language and Education (David
Corson, Ed.), Vol. 33, No. 1, pp.
161162.
Sharkey, Judy, and Layzer, Carolyn,
Whose Denition of Success?
Identifying Factors That Affect
English Language Learners Access
to Academic Success and Resources,
Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 352368.
Sheen, Ron, Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication: A
Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 160164.
Shen, Li, Review of Rhetorical Implica-
tions of Linguistic Relativity: Theory
and Application to Chinese and
Taiwanese Interlanguages (Kristopher
H. Kowal), Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 370
372.
Sheorey, Ravi, Govardhan, Anam K.,
and Nayar, Bhaskaran, Do U.S.
MATESOL Programs Prepare
Students to Teach Abroad?, Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 114125.
Shi, Ling, Review of Second Language
Teaching and Learning (David
Nunan), Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 369
370.
Shih, May, Review of Culture, Literacy,
and Learning English: Voices From the
Chinese Classroom (Kate Parry with
Su Xiaojun, Eds.), Vol. 33, No. 1,
pp. 159161.
Siegal, Meryl, Comments on TESOL
and Culture: A Reader Reacts, Vol.
34, No. 4, pp. 744747.
Siegel, Jeff, Stigmatized and Standard-
ized Varieties in the Classroom:
Interference or Separation?, Vol.
33, No. 4, pp. 701728.
Smitherman, Geneva Napoleon,
Comments on Dat teacher be
hollin at us--What Is Ebonics?: The
Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33, No.
1, pp. 138139.
Snow, Catherine E., Marinova-Todd,
Stefka H., and Marshall, D. Brad-
ford, Three Misconceptions About
Age and L2 Learning, Vol. 34, No.
1, pp. 934.
Sower, Craig, Comments on Japanese
Culture Constructed by Discourses:
Implications for Applied Linguistics
Research and ELT: Postmodern
Applied Linguistics: Problems and
Contradictions, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.
736745.
Spada, Nina, Collins, Laura, Halter,
Randall H., and Lightbown,
Patsy M., Time and the Distribution
814 TESOL QUARTERLY
of Time in L2 Instruction, Vol. 33,
No. 4, pp. 655680.
Sparrow, Lise, Comments on TESOL
and Culture: Another Reader
Reacts, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 747752.
Stein, Pippa, Teaching Issues: Rethink-
ing Resources: Multimodal Peda-
gogies in the ESL Classroom, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 333336.
Stoynoff, Stephen, Teaching Issues:
The TESOL Practicum: An Inte-
grated Model in the U.S., Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 145151.
Suttles, Joseph E., Review of Linguistic
Minorities in Central and Eastern
Europe (Christina Bratt Paulston and
Donald Peckham, Eds.), Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 189190.
Takada, Mari, Riney, Timothy J., and
Ota, Mitsuhiko, Segmentals and
Global Foreign Accent: The
Japanese Flap in EFL, Vol. 34, No.
4, pp. 711737.
Tarone, Elaine, and Kuehn, Kimberly,
Negotiating the Social Services Oral
Intake Interview: Communicative
Needs of Nonnative Speakers of
English, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 99150.
Taylor, Carol, Jamieson, Joan, and
Eignor, Daniel, Trends in Com-
puter Use Among International
Students, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 575
585.
Toohey, Kelleen, Comments on
Breaking Them Up, Taking Them
Away: ESL Students in Grade 1:
The Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 132136.
Ullman, Char, Between Discourse and
Practice: Immigrant Rights, Cur-
riculum Development, and ESL
Teacher Education, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 513528.
van Lier, Leo, Computers and Peda-
gogy: Review of New Ways of Using
Computers in Language Teaching (Tim
Boswood, Ed.), CALL: Media, Design
and Applications (Keith Cameron,
Ed.), WorldCALL: Global Perspectives
on Computer-Assisted Language
Learning (Robert Debski and Mike
Levy, Eds.), CALL Environments:
Research, Practice, and Critical Issues
(Joy Egbert and Elizabeth Hanson-
Smith, Eds.), Computer-Assisted
Language Learning: Context and
Conceptualization (Mike Levy),
Network-Based Language Teaching:
Concepts and Practice (Mark War-
schauer and Richard Kern, Eds.),
and Computers and Talk in the
Primary Classroom (Rupert Wegerif
and Peter Scrimshaw, Eds.), Vol. 34,
No. 3, pp. 617625.
Vandrick, Stephanie, Review of
Narration as Knowledge: Tales of the
Teaching Life (Joseph Trimmer,
Ed.), Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 153154.
Vandrick, Stephanie, Review of
Negotiating Academic Literacies:
Teaching and Learning (Vivian Zamel
and Ruth Spack, Eds.), Vol. 34, No.
1, pp. 183184.
Vaughn, Sharon, and Klingner,
Janette K., The Helping Behaviors
of Fifth Graders While Using
Collaborative Strategic Reading
During ESL Content Classes, Vol.
34, No. 1, pp. 6998.
Villamil, Olga S., and de Guerrero,
Mara C. M., Exploring ESL
Teachers Roles Through Metaphor
Analysis, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 341
351.
Wadden, Paul, and Hilke, Robert,
Comments on Ethical Test
Preparation Practice: The Case of
the TOEFL: Polemic Gone Astray:
A Corrective to Recent Criticism of
TOEFL Preparation, Vol. 33, No. 2,
pp. 263270.
Walker, Constance L., Review of
Immersion Education: International
Perspectives (Robert K. Johnson and
Merrill Swain, Eds.), Vol. 33, No. 2,
pp. 300302.
Walker, Constance L., Review of On
Becoming a Language Educator:
Personal Essays on Professional
Development (Christine Pearson
CUMULATIVE INDEX 815
Casanave and Sandra R. Schechter,
Eds.), Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 794795.
Warschauer, Mark, The Changing
Global Economy and the Future of
English Teaching, Vol. 34, No. 3,
pp. 511535.
Yuan, Fangyuan, Review of A Framework
for Task-Based Learning (Jane Willis),
Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 157158.
Zamel, Vivian, Review of Time to Know
Them: A Longitudinal Study of Writing
and Learning at the College Level
(Marilyn Sternglass), Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 186187.
Topic Index
BILINGUALISM/BILINGUAL
EDUCATION
Kouritzin, Sandra G., A Mothers
Tongue, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 311
324.
CLASSROOM-CENTERED RESEARCH
(CLASSROOM PROCESSES)
Block, David, Research Issues: Prob-
lematizing Interview Data: Voices in
the Minds Machine?, Vol. 34, No.
4, pp. 757763.
Collins, Laura, Halter, Randall H.,
Lightbown, Patsy M., and Spada,
Nina, Time and the Distribution of
Time in L2 Instruction, Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 655680.
Ewald, Jennifer D., Comments on
Aspects of Process in an ESL
Critical Pedagogy Teacher Educa-
tion Course: A Plan for Published
Reports on the Application of a
Critical Pedagogy to Language
Study Proper, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp.
275279.
Genishi, Celia, Research Issues:
Between Psychology and Poststruc-
turalism: Where Is L2 Learning
Located?, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 287
291.
Izumi, Shinichi, and Bigelow, Martha,
Does Output Promote Noticing and
Second Language Acquisition?, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 239278.
Kanno, Yasuko, Comments on Break-
ing Them Up, Taking Them Away:
ESL Students in Grade 1: The Use
of the Community-of-Practice
Perspective in Language Minority
Research, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 126
132.
Klingner, Janette K., and Vaughn,
Sharon, The Helping Behaviors of
Fifth Graders While Using Collabo-
rative Strategic Reading During ESL
Content Classes, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp.
6998.
Kress, Gunther, Teaching Issues:
Multimodality: Challenges to
Thinking About Language, Vol. 34,
No. 2, pp. 337340.
Kumaravadivelu, B., Critical Classroom
Discourse Analysis, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 453484.
Lin, Angel M. Y., Doing-English-
Lessons in the Reproduction or
Transformation of Social Worlds?,
Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 393412.
Low, Marylin, Research Issues:
Exploring Cross-Cultural Inscrip-
tions and Difference: The Effects of
Researchers Positionalities on
Inquiry Practices, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp.
292298.
Meskill, Carla, and Mossop, Jonathan,
Electronic Texts in ESOL Class-
rooms, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 585592.
Morita, Naoko, Discourse Socialization
Through Oral Classroom Activities
in a TESL Graduate Program, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 279310.
Nelson, Cynthia, Sexual Identities in
ESL: Queer Theory and Classroom
816 TESOL QUARTERLY
Inquiry, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 371
391.
Sharkey, Judy, and Layzer, Carolyn,
Whose Denition of Success?
Identifying Factors That Affect
English Language Learners Access
to Academic Success and Resources,
Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 352368.
Stein, Pippa, Teaching Issues: Rethink-
ing Resources: Multimodal Peda-
gogies in the ESL Classroom, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 333336.
Toohey, Kelleen, Comments on
Breaking Them Up, Taking Them
Away: ESL Students in Grade 1:
The Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 132136.
COMPUTER-ASSISTED
LANGUAGE LEARNING
Conrad, Susan, Will Corpus Linguistics
Revolutionize Grammar Teaching
in the 21st Century?, Vol. 34, No. 3,
pp. 548560.
Cummins, Jim, Academic Language
Learning, Transformative Pedagogy,
and Information Technology:
Towards a Critical Balance, Vol. 34,
No. 3, pp. 537548.
Derwing, Tracey M., Munro, Murray J.,
and Carbonaro, Michael, Does
Popular Speech Recognition
Software Work With ESL Speech?,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 592602.
Kamhi-Stein, La D., Looking to the
Future of TESOL Teacher Educa-
tion: Web-Based Bulletin Board
Discussions in a Methods Course,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 423455.
Meskill, Carla, and Mossop, Jonathan,
Electronic Texts in ESOL Class-
rooms, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 585592.
Mills, Douglas, Web-Based Technology
as a Resource for Form-Focused
Language Learning, Vol. 34, No. 3,
pp. 603615.
Murray, Denise, Protean Communica-
tion: The Language of Computer-
Mediated Communication, Vol. 34,
No. 3, pp. 397421.
Taylor, Carol, Jamieson, Joan, and
Eignor, Daniel, Trends in Com-
puter Use Among International
Students, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 575
585.
Warschauer, Mark, The Changing
Global Economy and the Future of
English Teaching, Vol. 34, No. 3,
pp. 511535.
CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
Atkinson, Dwight, Comments on
Japanese Culture Constructed by
Discourses: Implications for Applied
Linguistics Research and ELT:
Another Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 33,
No. 4, pp. 745749.
Benesch, Sarah, Thinking Critically,
Thinking Dialogically, Vol. 33, No.
3, pp. 573580.
Brutt-Grifer, Janina, and Samimy,
Keiko K., Revisiting the Colonial in
the Postcolonial: Critical Praxis for
Nonnative-English-Speaking
Teachers in a TESOL Program, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 413431.
Christie, Frances, Teaching Issues:
Genre Theory and ESL Teaching: A
Systemic Functional Perspective,
Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 759763.
Cox, Maria Ins Pagliarini, and de
Assis-Peterson, Ana Antnia, Critical
Pedagogy in ELT: Images of
Brazilian Teachers of English, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 433452.
Freedman, Aviva, Teaching Issues:
Beyond the Text: Towards Under-
standing the Teaching and Learn-
ing of Genres, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.
764767.
Frye, Dana, Participatory Education as
a Critical Framework for an
Immigrant Womens ESL Class, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 501512.
Gebhard, Meg, Debates in SLA
Studies: Redening Classroom SLA
as an Institutional Phenomenon,
Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 544557.
Hammond, Jennifer, and Macken-
Horarik, Mary, Critical Literacy:
Challenges and Questions for ESL
CUMULATIVE INDEX 817
Classrooms, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 528
544.
Ibrahim, Awad El Karim M., Becoming
Black: Rap and Hip-Hop, Race,
Gender, Identity, and the Politics of
ESL Learning, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp.
349369.
Johnston, Bill, Putting Critical Peda-
gogy in Its Place: A Personal
Account, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 557
565.
Kubota, Ryuko, Comments on Japa-
nese Culture Constructed by
Discourses: Implications for Applied
Linguistics Research and ELT: The
Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 749758.
Kubota, Ryuko, Japanese Culture
Constructed by Discourses: Implica-
tions for Applied Linguistics
Research and ELT, Vol. 33, No. 1,
pp. 935.
Lin, Angel M. Y., Doing-English-
Lessons in the Reproduction or
Transformation of Social Worlds?,
Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 393412.
Mackie, Ardiss, Possibilities for
Feminism in ESL Education and
Research, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 566
573.
Murray, Denise, Protean Communica-
tion: The Language of Computer-
Mediated Communication, Vol. 34,
No. 3, pp. 397421.
Nelson, Cynthia, Sexual Identities in
ESL: Queer Theory and Classroom
Inquiry, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 371
391.
Pennycook, Alastair, Introduction:
Critical Approaches to TESOL, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 329348.
Price, Steve, Critical Discourse
Analysis: Discourse Acquisition and
Discourse Practices, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 581595.
Rivera, Klaudia M., Popular Research
and Social Transformation: A
Community-Based Approach to
Critical Pedagogy, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 485500.
Sower, Craig, Comments on Japanese
Culture Constructed by Discourses:
Implications for Applied Linguistics
Research and ELT: Postmodern
Applied Linguistics: Problems and
Contradictions, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.
736745.
CURRICULUM/SYLLABUS DESIGN
Benesch, Sarah, Thinking Critically,
Thinking Dialogically, Vol. 33, No.
3, pp. 573580.
Ullman, Char, Between Discourse and
Practice: Immigrant Rights, Cur-
riculum Development, and ESL
Teacher Education, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 513528.
DISCOURSE/PRAGMATICS
Christie, Frances, Teaching Issues:
Genre Theory and ESL Teaching: A
Systemic Functional Perspective,
Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 759763.
Cox, Maria Ins Pagliarini, and de
Assis-Peterson, Ana Antnia, Critical
Pedagogy in ELT: Images of
Brazilian Teachers of English, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 433452.
Freedman, Aviva, Teaching Issues:
Beyond the Text: Towards Under-
standing the Teaching and Learn-
ing of Genres, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.
764767.
Harklau, Linda, From the Good Kids
to the Worst: Representations of
English Language Learners Across
Educational Settings, Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 3567.
Klingner, Janette K., and Vaughn,
Sharon, The Helping Behaviors of
Fifth Graders While Using Collabo-
rative Strategic Reading During ESL
Content Classes, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp.
6998.
Kumaravadivelu, B., Critical Classroom
Discourse Analysis, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 453484.
Morita, Naoko, Discourse Socialization
Through Oral Classroom Activities
in a TESL Graduate Program, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 279310.
818 TESOL QUARTERLY
Price, Steve, Critical Discourse
Analysis: Discourse Acquisition and
Discourse Practices, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 581595.
Siegal, Meryl, Comments on TESOL
and Culture: A Reader Reacts, Vol.
34, No. 4, pp. 744747.
Tarone, Elaine, and Kuehn, Kimberly,
Negotiating the Social Services Oral
Intake Interview: Communicative
Needs of Nonnative Speakers of
English, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 99150.
ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC
PURPOSES/ENGLISH FOR
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY/
TECHNICAL WRITING
Coxhead, Averil, A New Academic
Word List, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 213
238.
Flowerdew, John, Discourse Commu-
nity, Legitimate Peripheral Partici-
pation, and the Nonnative-English-
Speaking Scholar, Vol. 34, No. 1,
127150.
Tarone, Elaine, and Kuehn, Kimberly,
Negotiating the Social Services Oral
Intake Interview: Communicative
Needs of Nonnative Speakers of
English, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 99150.
LANGUAGE POLICY/
LANGUAGE PLANNING
Cribb, Michael, Machine Translation:
The Alternative for the 21st Cen-
tury?, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 560569.
Gorsuch, Greta J., EFL Educational
Policies and Educational Cultures:
Inuences on Teachers Approval
of Communicative Activities, Vol.
34, No. 4, pp. 675710.
Markee, Numa, Some Thoughts on
Globalization: A Response to
Warschauer, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp.
569574.
LEXICON/VOCABULARY USAGE
AND TEACHING
Coxhead, Averil, A New Academic
Word List, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 213
238.
Darwin, Clayton M., and Gray,
Loretta S., Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication:
The Authors Respond . . ., Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 165173.
Darwin, Clayton M., and Gray,
Loretta S., Going After the Phrasal
Verb: An Alternative Approach to
Classication, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp.
6583.
Sawyer, Joan H., Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication: A
Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 151159.
Sheen, Ron, Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication:
Another Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 160164.
LISTENING
Arnold, Jane, Seeing Through Listen-
ing Comprehension Exam Anxiety,
Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 777786.
Harley, Birgit, Listening Strategies in
ESL: Do Age and L1 Make a
Difference?, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp.
769777.
LITERACY
Frye, Dana, Participatory Education as
a Critical Framework for an Immi-
grant Womens ESL Class, Vol. 33,
No. 3, pp. 501512.
Hammond, Jennifer, and Macken-
Horarik, Mary, Critical Literacy:
Challenges and Questions for ESL
Classrooms, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 528
544.
Ibrahim, Awad El Karim M., Becoming
Black: Rap and Hip-Hop, Race,
Gender, Identity, and the Politics of
ESL Learning, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp.
349369.
Kress, Gunther, Teaching Issues:
Multimodality: Challenges to
Thinking About Language, Vol. 34,
No. 2, pp. 337340.
CUMULATIVE INDEX 819
Lam, Wan Shun Eva, L2 Literacy and
the Design of the Self: A Case Study
of a Teenager Writing on the
Internet, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 457
482.
Ramanathan, Vai, English Is Here to
Stay: A Critical Look at Institu-
tional and Educational Practices in
India, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 211231.
Rivera, Klaudia M., Popular Research
and Social Transformation: A
Community-Based Approach to
Critical Pedagogy, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 485500.
Stein, Pippa, Teaching Issues: Rethink-
ing Resources: Multimodal Peda-
gogies in the ESL Classroom, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 333336.
METHODS/MATERIALS
Cook, Vivian, Comments on Going
Beyond the Native Speaker in
Language Teaching: The Author
Responds . . ., Vol. 34, No. 2, pp.
329332.
Cook, Vivian, Going Beyond the Native
Speaker in Language Teaching,
Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 185209.
Levis, John M., Intonation in Theory
and Practice, Revisited, Vol. 33, No.
1, pp. 3763.
Mattix, Micah, Comments on Going
Beyond the Native Speaker in
Language Teaching: Going
Further Beyond the Native Speaker
Model: A Remark Concerning
Language Models, Vol. 34, No. 2,
pp. 328329.
Milambiling, Joyce, Comments on
Going Beyond the Native Speaker
in Language Teaching: How
Nonnative Speakers as Teachers Fit
Into the Equation, Vol. 34, No. 2,
pp. 324328.
Wadden, Paul, and Hilke, Robert,
Comments on Ethical Test
Preparation Practice: The Case of
the TOEFL: Polemic Gone Astray:
A Corrective to Recent Criticism of
TOEFL Preparation, Vol. 33, No. 2,
pp. 263270.
PHONOLOGY/PRONUNCIATION
TEACHING
Levis, John M., Intonation in Theory
and Practice, Revisited, Vol. 33, No.
1, pp. 3763.
Riney, Timothy J., Takada, Mari, and
Ota, Mitsuhiko, Segmentals and
Global Foreign Accent: The
Japanese Flap in EFL, Vol. 34, No.
4, pp. 711737.
PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
AND CONCERNS
Brown, James Dean, and Hudson,
Thom, Comments on The Alterna-
tives in Language Assessment: The
Authors Respond . . ., Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 734735.
Bruton, Anthony, Comments on The
Alternatives in Language Assess-
ment: A Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 33,
No. 4, pp. 729734.
Glick, Lynn Marie, Comments on Dat
teacher be hollin at us--What Is
Ebonics?: A Reader Reacts . . ., Vol.
33, No. 1, pp. 136137.
Gorsuch, Greta J., EFL Educational
Policies and Educational Cultures:
Inuences on Teachers Approval
of Communicative Activities, Vol.
34, No. 4, pp. 675710.
Govardhan, Anam K., Nayar, Bhas-
karan, and Sheorey, Ravi, Do U.S.
MATESOL Programs Prepare
Students to Teach Abroad?, Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 114125.
Lazaraton, Anne, Research Issues:
Current Trends in Research
Methodology and Statistics in
Applied Linguistics, Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 175181.
Liu, Jun, Nonnative-English-Speaking
Professionals in TESOL, Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 85102.
Pakir, Anne, Connecting With English
in the Context of Internationalisa-
tion, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 103114.
Smitherman, Geneva Napoleon,
Comments on Dat teacher be
hollin at us--What Is Ebonics?: The
820 TESOL QUARTERLY
Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33, No.
1, pp. 138139.
PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION
AND EVALUATION
Collins, Laura, Halter, Randall H.,
Lightbown, Patsy M., and Spada,
Nina, Time and the Distribution of
Time in L2 Instruction, Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 655680.
Dushku, Silvana, Research Issues:
Conducting Individual and Focus
Group Interviews in Research in
Albania, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 763
768.
Lewkowicz, Jo A., and Nunan, David,
The Limits of Collaborative Eval-
uation, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 681700.
Mackie, Ardiss, Possibilities for
Feminism in ESL Education and
Research, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 566
573.
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Arnold, Jane, Seeing Through Listen-
ing Comprehension Exam Anxiety,
Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 777786.
Cook, Vivian, Comments on Going
Beyond the Native Speaker in
Language Teaching: The Author
Responds . . ., Vol. 34, No. 2, pp.
329332.
Cook, Vivian, Going Beyond the Native
Speaker in Language Teaching,
Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 185209.
Cooper, Thomas C., Processing of
Idioms by L2 Learners of English,
Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 233262.
Cummins, Jim, Academic Language
Learning, Transformative Pedagogy,
and Information Technology:
Towards a Critical Balance, Vol. 34,
No. 3, pp. 537548.
de Guerrero, Mara C. M., and
Villamil, Olga S., Exploring ESL
Teachers Roles Through Metaphor
Analysis, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 341
351.
Gebhard, Meg, Debates in SLA
Studies: Redening Classroom SLA
as an Institutional Phenomenon,
Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 544557.
Genishi, Celia, Between Psychology
and Poststructuralism: Where Is L2
Learning Located?, Vol. 33, No. 2,
pp. 287291.
Goldstein, Lynn, Comments on
Becoming Black: Rap and Hip-
Hop, Race, Gender, and Identity
and the Politics of ESL Learning:
A Reader Reacts, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp.
739741.
Harley, Birgit, Listening Strategies in
ESL: Do Age and L1 Make a
Difference?, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp.
769777.
Ibrahim, Awad El Karim M., Com-
ments on Becoming Black: Rap
and Hip-Hop, Race, Gender,
Identity, and the Politics of ESL
Learning: Identity or Identica-
tion? A Response to Some Objec-
tions, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 741744.
Izumi, Shinichi, and Bigelow, Martha,
Does Output Promote Noticing and
Second Language Acquisition?, Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 239278.
Lam, Wan Shun Eva, L2 Literacy and
the Design of the Self: A Case Study
of a Teenager Writing on the
Internet, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 457
482.
Marinova-Todd, Stefka H., Marshall,
D. Bradford, and Snow, Catherine E.,
Three Misconceptions About Age
and L2 Learning, Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 934.
Mattix, Micah, Comments on Going
Beyond the Native Speaker in
Language Teaching: Going
Further Beyond the Native Speaker
Model: A Remark Concerning
Language Models, Vol. 34, No. 2,
pp. 328329.
Milambiling, Joyce, Comments on
Going Beyond the Native Speaker
in Language Teaching: How
Nonnative Speakers as Teachers Fit
Into the Equation, Vol. 34, No. 2,
pp. 324328.
CUMULATIVE INDEX 821
Mills, Douglas, Web-Based Technology
as a Resource for Form-Focused
Language Learning, Vol. 34, No. 3,
pp. 603615.
Riney, Timothy J., Takada, Mari, and
Ota, Mitsuhiko, Segmentals and
Global Foreign Accent: The
Japanese Flap in EFL, Vol. 34, No.
4, pp. 711737.
Sharkey, Judy, and Layzer, Carolyn,
Whose Denition of Success?
Identifying Factors That Affect
English Language Learners Access
to Academic Success and Resources,
Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 352368.
SOCIOLINGUISTICS/CULTURE
Atkinson, Dwight, Comments on
Japanese Culture Constructed by
Discourses: Implications for Applied
Linguistics Research and ELT:
Another Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 33,
No. 4, pp. 745749.
Atkinson, Dwight, Comments on
TESOL and Culture: The Author
Responds, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 752
755.
Atkinson, Dwight, TESOL and Culture,
Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 625654.
Block, David, Research Issues: Prob-
lematizing Interview Data: Voices in
the Minds Machine?, Vol. 34, No.
4, pp. 757763.
Cribb, Michael, Machine Translation:
The Alternative for the 21st Cen-
tury?, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 560569.
Goldstein, Lynn, Comments on
Becoming Black: Rap and Hip-
Hop, Race, Gender, and Identity
and the Politics of ESL Learning:
A Reader Reacts, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp.
739741.
Harklau, Linda, From the Good Kids
to the Worst: Representations of
English Language Learners Across
Educational Settings, Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 3567.
Ibrahim, Awad El Karim M., Com-
ments on Becoming Black: Rap
and Hip-Hop, Race, Gender,
Identity, and the Politics of ESL
Learning: Identity or Identica-
tion? A Response to Some Objec-
tions, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 741744.
Kanno, Yasuko, Comments on Break-
ing Them Up, Taking Them Away:
ESL Students in Grade 1: The Use
of the Community-of-Practice
Perspective in Language Minority
Research, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 126
132.
Kouritzin, Sandra G., A Mothers
Tongue, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 311
324.
Kubota, Ryuko, Comments on Japa-
nese Culture Constructed by
Discourses: Implications for Applied
Linguistics Research and ELT: The
Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 749758.
Kubota, Ryuko, Japanese Culture
Constructed by Discourses: Implica-
tions for Applied Linguistics
Research and ELT, Vol. 33, No. 1,
pp. 935.
Liu, Jun, Nonnative-English-Speaking
Professionals in TESOL, Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 85102.
Markee, Numa, Some Thoughts on
Globalization: A Response to
Warschauer, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp.
569574.
Nero, Shondel J., The Changing Faces
of English: A Caribbean Perspective,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 483510.
Pakir, Anne, Connecting With English
in the Context of Internationalisa-
tion, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 103114.
Ramanathan, Vai, English Is Here to
Stay: A Critical Look at Institu-
tional and Educational Practices in
India, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 211231.
Siegal, Meryl, Comments on TESOL
and Culture: A Reader Reacts, Vol.
34, No. 4, pp. 744747.
Siegel, Jeff, Stigmatized and Standard-
ized Varieties in the Classroom:
Interference or Separation?, Vol.
33, No. 4, pp. 701728.
Sower, Craig, Comments on Japanese
Culture Constructed by Discourses:
822 TESOL QUARTERLY
Implications for Applied Linguistics
Research and ELT: Postmodern
Applied Linguistics: Problems and
Contradictions, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.
736745.
Sparrow, Lise, Comments on TESOL
and Culture: Another Reader
Reacts, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 747752.
Toohey, Kelleen, Comments on
Breaking Them Up, Taking Them
Away: ESL Students in Grade 1:
The Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 132136.
STANDARD ENGLISH AS A
SECOND DIALECT
Glick, Lynn Marie, Comments on Dat
teacher be hollin at us--What Is
Ebonics?: A Reader Reacts . . ., Vol.
33, No. 1, pp. 136137.
Nero, Shondel J., The Changing Faces
of English: A Caribbean Perspective,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 483510.
Siegel, Jeff, Stigmatized and Standard-
ized Varieties in the Classroom:
Interference or Separation?, Vol.
33, No. 4, pp. 701728.
Smitherman, Geneva Napoleon,
Comments on Dat teacher be
hollin at us--What Is Ebonics?: The
Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33, No.
1, pp. 138139.
SYNTAX/GRAMMAR TEACHING
Conrad, Susan, Will Corpus Linguistics
Revolutionize Grammar Teaching
in the 21st Century?, Vol. 34, No. 3,
pp. 548560.
Darwin, Clayton M., and Gray,
Loretta S., Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication:
The Authors Respond . . ., Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 165173.
Darwin, Clayton M., and Gray,
Loretta S., Going After the Phrasal
Verb: An Alternative Approach to
Classication, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp.
6583.
Sawyer, Joan H., Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication: A
Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 151159.
Sheen, Ron, Comments on Going
After the Phrasal Verb: An Alterna-
tive Approach to Classication:
Another Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 160164.
TEACHER PREPARATION
Brutt-Grifer, Janina, and Samimy,
Keiko K., Revisiting the Colonial in
the Postcolonial: Critical Praxis for
Nonnative-English-Speaking
Teachers in a TESOL Program, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 413431.
Chamberlin, Carla R., TESL Degree
Candidates Perceptions of Trust in
Supervisors, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 653
674.
Crookes, Graham, Comments on
Aspects of Process in an ESL Crit-
ical Pedagogy Teacher Education
Course: An Author Responds . . .,
Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 279285.
de Guerrero, Mara C. M., and
Villamil, Olga S., Exploring ESL
Teachers Roles Through Metaphor
Analysis, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 341
351.
Ewald, Jennifer D., Comments on
Aspects of Process in an ESL
Critical Pedagogy Teacher Educa-
tion Course: A Plan for Published
Reports on the Application of a
Critical Pedagogy to Language
Study Proper, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp.
275279.
Flowerdew, John, Teaching Issues: The
Practicum in L2 Teacher Educa-
tion: A Hong Kong Case Study, Vol.
33, No. 1, pp. 141145.
Govardhan, Anam K., Nayar, Bhas-
karan, and Sheorey, Ravi, Do U.S.
MATESOL Programs Prepare
Students to Teach Abroad?, Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 114125.
Johnston, Bill, Putting Critical Peda-
gogy in Its Place: A Personal
Account, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 557
565.
CUMULATIVE INDEX 823
Kamhi-Stein, La D., Looking to the
Future of TESOL Teacher Educa-
tion: Web-Based Bulletin Board
Discussions in a Methods Course,
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 423455.
Pennycook, Alastair, Introduction:
Critical Approaches to TESOL, Vol.
33, No. 3, pp. 329348.
Stoynoff, Stephen, Teaching Issues:
The TESOL Practicum: An Inte-
grated Model in the U.S., Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 145151.
Ullman, Char, Between Discourse and
Practice: Immigrant Rights,
Curriculum Development, and ESL
Teacher Education, Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 513528.
TESTING
Brown, James Dean, and Hudson,
Thom, Comments on The Alterna-
tives in Language Assessment: The
Authors Respond . . ., Vol. 33, No.
4, pp. 734735.
Bruton, Anthony, Comments on The
Alternatives in Language Assess-
ment: A Reader Reacts . . ., Vol. 33,
No. 4, pp. 729734.
Hamp-Lyons, Liz, Comments on
Ethical Test Preparation Practice:
The Case of the TOEFL: The
Author Responds . . ., Vol. 33, No.
2, pp. 270274.
Taylor, Carol, Jamieson, Joan, and
Eignor, Daniel, Trends in Com-
puter Use Among International
Students, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 575
585.
Wadden, Paul, and Hilke, Robert,
Comments on Ethical Test
Preparation Practice: The Case of
the TOEFL: Polemic Gone Astray:
A Corrective to Recent Criticism of
TOEFL Preparation, Vol. 33, No. 2,
pp. 263270.
WRITING
Low, Marylin, Exploring Cross-Cultural
Inscriptions and Difference: The
Effects of Researchers Positionali-
ties on Inquiry Practices, Vol. 33,
No. 2, pp. 292298.
Index of Books Reviewed
Anderson, Neil, Exploring Second
Language Reading: Issues and
Strategies (Richard Day), Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 184185.
Archibald, John, Second Language
Phonology (Daro Barrera Pardo),
Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 373374.
Arnold, Jane (Ed.), Affect in Language
Learning (Carmen Fonseca Mora),
Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 790791.
Biber, Douglas, Johansson, Stig, Leech,
Geoffrey, Conrad, Susan, and
Finegan, Edward, Longman Grammar
of Spoken and Written English
(Kathleen M. Broussard), Vol. 34,
No. 4, pp. 787788.
Boswood, Tim (Ed.), New Ways of Using
Computers in Language Teaching (Leo
van Lier), Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 617
625.
Braine, George (Ed.), Non-Native
Educators in English Language
Teaching (Natasha Lvovich), Vol. 33,
No. 4, pp. 773774.
Cameron, Keith (Ed.), CALL: Media,
Design and Applications (Leo van
Lier), Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 617625.
Casanave, Christine Pearson, and
Schechter, Sandra R. (Eds.), On
Becoming a Language Educator:
Personal Essays on Professional
Development (Constance L. Walker),
Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 794795.
Celce-Murcia, Marianne, and Larsen-
Freeman, Diane, The Grammar Book:
An ESL/EFL Teachers Course (2nd
ed.) (Carl Zhonggang Gao), Vol.
34, No. 2, pp. 372373.
Constantino, Rebecca (Ed.), Literacy,
Access, and Libraries Among the
824 TESOL QUARTERLY
Language Minority Population
(Johnnie Johnson Hafernik), Vol.
34, No. 3, pp. 625629.
Corson, David (Ed.), Encyclopedia of
Language and Education (Thomas
Scovel), Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 161
162.
Debski, Robert, and Levy, Mike (Eds.),
WorldCALL: Global Perspectives on
Computer-Assisted Language Learning
(Leo van Lier), Vol. 34, No. 3, pp.
617625.
Donato, Richard, and Terry,
Robert M., Foreign Language
Learning: The Journey of a Lifetime
(Philippe Radelet and Stanley
Bordelon), Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 791
793.
Egbert, Joy, and Hanson-Smith,
Elizabeth (Eds.), CALL Environ-
ments: Research, Practice, and Critical
Issues (Leo van Lier), Vol. 34, No. 3,
pp. 617625.
Gass, Susan, Input, Interaction, and the
Second Language Learner (Paula
Garcia), Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 789
790.
Gersten, Russell, Baker, Scott K., and
Marks, Susan Unok, Productive
Instructional Practices for English-
Language Learners: Guiding Principles
and Examples From Research-Based
Practice (Fernando Plito), Vol. 33,
No. 2, pp. 306307.
Grabe, William, and Kaplan, Robert,
Theory and Practice of Writing: An
Applied Linguistic Perspective (Yong
Lang), Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 302303.
Guerra, Juan C., Close to Home: Oral and
Literate Practices in a Transnational
Mexicano Community (Julia Menard-
Warwick), Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 793
794.
Huizenga, Jann, and Thomas-Ruzic,
Maria, Reading Workout (Stephanie
Humphries), Vol. 33, No. 1, pp.
166167.
James, Carl, Errors in Language Learning
and Use: Exploring Error Analysis
(Kathleen M. Broussard), Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 154155.
Johns, Ann, Text, Role, and Context:
Developing Academic Literacies (Eniko
Csomay), Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 375
376.
Johnson, Robert K., and Swain, Merrill
(Eds.), Immersion Education: Interna-
tional Perspectives (Constance L.
Walker), Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 300
302.
Jordan, R. R., English for Academic
Purposes: A Guide and Resource Book
for Teachers (Georgette N. Jabbour),
Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 770771.
Khubchandani, Lachman N., Revis-
ualizing Boundaries: A Plurilingual
Ethos (Yvonne Godoy-Ramos), Vol.
33, No. 2, pp. 303304.
Kowal, Kristopher H., Rhetorical
Implications of Linguistic Relativity:
Theory and Application to Chinese and
Taiwanese Interlanguages (Li Shen),
Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 370372.
Krishnaswamy, N., and Burde,
Archana S., The Politics of Indians
English (Kimberley Brown), Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 162164.
Levy, Mike, Computer-Assisted Language
Learning: Context and Conceptual-
ization (Leo van Lier), Vol. 34, No.
3, pp. 617625.
Lippi-Green, Rosina, English With an
Accent: Language, Ideology and
Discrimination in the United States
(Tara Goldstein), Vol. 33, No. 3,
pp. 597604.
McNamara, Tim, Measuring Second
Language Performance (Caroline
Clapham), Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 376
377.
Mlynarczyk, Rebecca Williams,
Conversations of the Mind: The Uses of
Journal Writing for Second-Language
Writers (Joy Kreeft Peyton), Vol. 33,
No. 2, pp. 299300.
Morgan, Brian, The ESL Classroom:
Teaching, Critical Practice, and
Community Development (Bonny
Norton), Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 605
607.
CUMULATIVE INDEX 825
Nunan, David, Second Language
Teaching and Learning (Ling Shi),
Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 369370.
Ogulnick, Karen, Onna Rashiku (Like a
Woman): The Diary of a Language
Learner in Japan (Natasha Lvovich),
Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 304306.
Ovando, Carlos J., and Collier,
Virginia P., Bilingual and ESL
Classrooms: Teaching in Multicultural
Contexts (2nd ed.) (Joel Hardman),
Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 187188.
Parry, Kate, with Su Xiaojun (Eds.),
Culture, Literacy, and Learning
English: Voices From the Chinese
Classroom (May Shih), Vol. 33, No.
1, pp. 159161.
Paulston, Christina Bratt, and Peck-
ham, Donald (Eds.), Linguistic
Minorities in Central and Eastern
Europe (Joseph E. Suttles), Vol. 34,
No. 1, pp. 189190.
Pennycook, Alistair, English and the
Discourses of Colonialism (Ryuko
Kubota), Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 771
773.
Perry, Theresa, and Delpit, Lisa (Eds.),
The Real Ebonics Debate: Power,
Language and the Education of
African-American Children (Tara
Goldstein), Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 597
604.
Rampton, Ben, Crossing: Language and
Ethnicity Among Adolescents (Tara
Goldstein), Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 597
604.
Ricento, Thomas, and Burnaby,
Barbara (Eds.), Language and Politics
in the United States and Canada:
Myths and Realities (Johnnie Johnson
Hafernik), Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 625
629.
Skehan, Peter, A Cognitive Approach to
Language Learning (Paula Garcia),
Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 769770.
Sternglass, Marilyn, Time to Know Them:
A Longitudinal Study of Writing and
Learning at the College Level (Vivian
Zamel), Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 186187.
Tiersky, Ethel, and Hughes, Robert,
Morning Edition: Mastering Reading
and Language Skills With the Newspa-
per (Luke Gibson McCarthy), Vol.
33, No. 1, pp. 164165.
Trimmer, Joseph (Ed.), Narration as
Knowledge: Tales of the Teaching Life
(Stephanie Vandrick), Vol. 33, No.
1, pp. 153154.
Warschauer, Mark, and Kern, Richard,
Network-Based Language Teaching:
Concepts and Practice (Leo van Lier),
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 617625.
Wegerif, Rupert, and Scrimshaw, Peter
(Eds.), Computers and Talk in the
Primary Classroom (Leo van Lier),
Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 617625.
Williams, Marion, and Burden,
Robert L., Psychology for Language
Teachers (Rani Rubdy), Vol. 33, No.
1, pp. 156157.
Willis, Jane, A Framework for Task-Based
Learning (Fangyuan Yuan), Vol. 33,
No. 1, pp. 157158.
Wolfram, Walt, Adger, Carolyn
Temple, and Christian, Donna,
Dialects in Schools and Communities
(Johnnie Johnson Hafernik), Vol.
34, No. 3, pp. 625629.
Zamel, Vivian, and Spack, Ruth (Eds.),
Negotiating Academic Literacies:
Teaching and Learning (Stephanie
Vandrick), Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 183
184.