Multisensory Structured Metacognitive Instruction: An Approach to Teaching a Foreign Language to At-Risk Students.

Theorie und Vermittlung der Sprache Series by Elke Schneider Review by: Paul A. Garca The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 84, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000), pp. 453-454 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/330579 . Accessed: 08/03/2012 17:48
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Reviews tion as a communicative tool. Their research suggests that learners do not easily acquire circumlocution strategies in a natural environment; hence they questioned whether explicit instruction plus practice, or practice alone, would lead to gains in the ability to use circumlocution strategies. Indeed, they found that practice, and instruction plus practice, did improve learners' ability to circumlocute. Moreover, the learners in the study tended to establish a context to help situate the listener. Both groups used less-specific superordinates, such as chose(thing) instead of meuble(furniture), for example. The researchers suggest that practicing circumlocution strategies is a natural way to incorporate FonF into the classroom: The contexts provide situations similar to those that learners will encounter in the target culture. The article by Roth studied incidental word acquisition through reading. With the admitted importance of reading as a source of input and acquisition, the study provides us with important data on strategies learners use to understand and process what they read. She found that readers generally noticed the target word, were able to infer some of its forms, but were not able to reproduce any of the forms 2 weeks later. The results underscore the importance of repeated exposure to lexical items in a variety of different contexts. Comprehension of the item is not sufficient for acquisition. Finally, Fraser reports on a study involving students of German and their ability to identify anaphoric referents within a written text. Her findings affirm that readers find the personal pronouns easier to detect and interpret than those that have a meaningless referent (e.g., it occurred to me). She is encouraged, however, that in general students are willing to make formmeaning connections. The volume presents an interesting variety of theoretical, position-based, review, application, and research findings. Although the editors' characterization of the typical foreign language classroom may be too sweeping in its generalizations, the volume, overall, provides a fine overview of issues that are important for learners and teachers, especially the emphasis on language in meaningful and authentic contexts. The articles underscore the continuum from implicit to instructed language acquisition, which, we hope, characterizes many classrooms. SUSAN M. BACON University Cincinnati of

453 Structured MetaSCHNEIDER, ELKE. Multisensory Instruction:An Approachto Teachinga Forcognitive eign Language to At-RiskStudents. Theorieund Vermittlung der Sprache Series. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang, 1999. Pp. xvii, 305. $51.95, cloth.

The book under review is a published dissertation (University of Eichstatt, Germany, with research conducted at Miami University of Ohio). It apund Vermittlung Sprader pears in the series Theorie che.Lenore Ganschow's name is among individuals acknowledged by the author. It was, therefore, with interest that this reader undertook to learn what a student of a recognized authority in language research on nontraditional language learners had undertaken. In the style of a dissertation, the book is a detailed project that provides chapters, subchapters, and historical perspectives, as well as 42 pages of tables and an extensive bibliography. From its table of contents, the book promised to be a slow read. It became, unfortunately, more of an obligation for this reviewer than a pleasant, reflective read. This does not gainsay the scholarly effort and acumen of the author, who is to be commended on tackling the issues surrounding dyslexia in the classroom. The style and the structure were dismaying, especially when one recognizes that there are worthwhile observations that are determinedly obscured by leaf upon leaf of the word-forest presented. The author's dissertation style is unwieldy and filled with jargon. Major surgery and proofreading by the editors are in order before this book should be offered in a second printing. It is excessively repetitious and is awkwardly written (e.g., "dyslexia in Germany suffered a paralysis from which it has not yet recovered," p. 27). In addition, it is overreferenced as well as occasionally underresearched or even misleading. For example, one minor citation from a two-page article on learning disabilities in Colombia (p. 13), hardly an exhaustive or representative review of research literature, serves as the basis of generalizations to all of Latin America. The misspellings are perplexing in places. In a sample reading text offered for illustration of the project (p. 107), the word Dasch occurs. There is no such word in German; the closest possible word is Dash, a Procter & Gamble detergent that appeared in Germany about 1963. This error occurs in the same section where Bade die Nase, Herr Hase! is found. Did the writer mean Baden Sie die Nase, HerrHase! or did she mean Ich badedie Nase, Herr Hase?The

454 perplexed student who has been taught that Herr demands a formal verb ending (-en/n) should not be an individual whose threshold of ambiguity is low. We do learn something about the multisensory structured metacognitive instruction that the author proposes, but by the time we become interested in the presented information we are weary of the presentation style. The teacher who does not have the option of offering sustained one-on-one student instruction or remediation will feel that the scant six-page summary in the conclusion falls far short of the author's assertion that "MSML[multisensory structured metacognitive language] instruction could be applied to classroom settings"(p. 217). Indeed, this is precisely the place where the reader would welcome a chapter of informational strategies or an expansion of existing sections to illustrate the author's views and findings and apply them concretely. In summary, the book is a questionable purchase. The important message that it seeks to bring to the reader is lost in contradictory or imprecise sentences, missing and misnumbered sections, and an overreliance on the reader to be patient until the point is made. The minor quibbles on matters of style become major to the reader who wishes to spend precious time on a topic of importance for the profession. As Ganschow, Sparks, and other colleagues have demonstrated in their work, we who promise to teach all students have much to learn. Lamentably, this book will not aid in continuing the dialogue on learner-centered teaching. PAUL A. GARCIA of University Kansas

TheModernLanguageJournal 84 (2000) issues of testing (reliability, construct validity, authenticity, and interactiveness). The introduction pays special attention to authenticity (LPIs as interviews, institutional discourse, and crosscultural encounters) and interactional competence, and these emerge as two dominant themes of the volume. In addition, the introduction provides an orientation to different approaches to discourse analysis; namely, conversational analysis/ethnomethodology, ethnography of speaking, speech acts, and Gricean principles. The book is an interdisciplinary account of LPIs that brings together analysis of tests with analysis of talk. Some of the authors are testers, some are discourse analysts, and some are both. The volume is divided into four parts. Part 1, "Language Proficiency Interviews and Conversations," includes "Re-analyzing the OPI: How Much Does it Look like Natural Conversation?" (Johnson & Tyler), "Evaluating Learner Interactional Skills: Conversation at the Micro Level" (Riggenbach), and "What Happens When There's No One to Talk To? Spanish Foreign Language Discourse in Simulated Oral Proficiency Interviews" (Koike). Part 2, 'Turns and Sequences in Language Proficiency Interviews," consists of "Answering Questions in LPIs: A Case Study" (He), "Framing the Language Proficiency Interview as a Speech Event: Native and Non-Native Speakers' Questions" (Moder & Halleck), and "Miscommunication in Language Proficiency Interviews of First-YearGerman Students: A Comparison with Natural Conversation" (Egbert). Part 3, "Knowledge and Communication in Language Proficiency Interviews," offers "Knowledge Structures in Oral Proficiency Interviews for International Teaching Assistants" (Mohan), "The Use of Communication Strategies in Language Proficiency Interviews" (Yoshida-Morise), and "Meaning Negotiation in the Hungarian Oral Proficiency Examination of English (Katona). Part 4, "Language Proficiency Interviews as Cross-Cultural Encounters," presents "Maintaining American Face in the Korean Oral Exam: Reflections on the Power of Cross-Cultural Context" (Davies), "Confirmation Sequences as Interactional Resources in Korean Language Proficiency Interviews" (Kim & Suh), "Divergent Frame Interpretations in Oral Proficiency Interview Interaction" (Ross), and "'Let Them Eat Cake!' or How to Avoid Losing your Head in Cross-Cultural Conversations" (Young & Halleck). The number of interviews analyzed in the chapters ranges from a single interview to 20. The chapters investigate different types of oral texts, including the ACTFL oral proficiency interview

YOUNG, RICHARD, & AGNES WEIYUN HE. to Discourse (Eds.). Talkingand Testing: Approaches theAssessment OralProficiency. Philadelphia: Benof jamins, 1998. Pp. x, 395. $69.00, cloth. This volume brings together 12 studies of the discourse of oral language proficiency interviews (LPIs). The book begins with an introductory chapter, "Language Proficiency Interviews: A Discourse Approach," by He and Young that anchors the collection. He and Young orient readers to the construct of interactional competence (rhetorical scripts, specific lexis and syntactic structures, strategies for managing turns, management of topics, and signaling boundaries) and