Book review

Applied linguistics in language education

S. McDonough; Arnold, London, 2002, 178pp.

Applied linguistics is well known to be a slippery object, being seen by some as‘linguistics applied’, by others as the theorising of language learning, and, in itswidest and perhaps most accepted form currently, as the academic discipline con-cerned with investigating, describing and explaining real world problems in whichlanguage plays a central role. In this book, Steven McDonough takes second lan-guage learning as his central concern and explores what applied linguistics in itsvarious guises might have to offer.He begins by critically addressing the issue of how the discipline of linguistics can

provide theories and descriptions of language, at sentence and at text level. The nextsection of the book considers language learning and covers the key areas of inter-language, second language acquisition, individual differences, strategy research, andlearner styles. The last section moves into the classroom and teacher education, withan interesting discussion of the interface with education, and a chapter on assess-ment. For each area, key concepts and empirical studies are outlined, evaluated andplaced in their historical context. The reader will thus find an accessible account ofdevelopments in the theory, research and practice of language education, both suc-cesses and failures. Particularly strong are the sections dealing with the writer’s ownresearch area of strategies.Inevitably in a relatively short book that deals with a lot of content, each area

receives only brief attention and the reader may be left with unanswered questions.In addition, some areas that seem likely to emerge as important in coming years arementioned only scantily, if at all—for example, the impact of corpus linguistic workon our views of language as driven by lexis as well as, or even instead of, grammar;the role of formulaic language in language learning; the effects and side-effects ofglobalisation on language education.The writer takes a somewhat confrontational and sceptical approach to the more

academic aspects of applied linguistics, although it has to be said that there is oftenreasonable justification for such a reaction. More positively, he does a good job ofreviewing those areas where academic research and theorising have intersected morehelpfully with language education. The case is made for more interaction with edu-cational theory and research to supplement the influence of linguistics, SLA andsociology, and there is a strong steer towards classroom-based research methods.The descriptions of the historical contexts of areas of language education are

rather variable. It will be useful for readers to know, for example, about the place of

System 32 (2004) 121–131

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contrastive analysis and error analysis in the history of applied linguistics and lan-guage education. It might also have been helpful to make more of the differences inresearch traditions between the UK and the US, which have led to distinct approa-ches to task-based learning and SLA. A further small point is the (over)use of theterm ‘recent’ to describe publications, even papers published as long ago as 1995,seven years before publication of this volume. Another ‘recent’ development descri-bed in the book is that of guidelines for a teacher education framework through thenow defunct organisations BIELT and BATQI. Books like this will date less quicklyif writers take care to avoid relative temporal references.This will be a useful book for those beginning or continuing professional devel-

opment in language education. As well as being largely appropriate for the targetaudience described on the back of the book (trainee teachers, undergraduate stu-dents of TEFL, Certificate and Diploma candidates), it will also prove helpful forstudents on Masters’ courses who are looking for an introductory overview to areasof theory or research such as information processing approaches to language learn-ing, strategy research, motivation, method, syllabus types and assessment. Theselatter students will, however, need to seek out a much wider range of references thanthose included in the book.McDonough uses his final chapter to review the scope and purpose of applied

linguistics, or at least of what he calls ‘‘the applied linguistics of second languagelearning’’. He re-emphasises the problem of collaboration between academics andlanguage teachers, finds a particular role for applied linguistics in evaluation ratherthan innovation, points to the need for responsiveness across sub-areas of appliedlinguistics and sets out future research goals in understanding more about ‘theteaching-learning process’ in language classrooms. Those of us involved in languageeducation would find it hard to disagree.

Lynne CameronSchool of Education, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

E-mail address: l.j.cameron@education.leeds.ac.uk

doi:10.1016/j.system.2003.11.002

Psycholinguistics: A Resource Book for Students

J. Field; Routledge, London, 2003, xviii+231 pages

Psycholinguistics is a really hard subject to teach. At one level, it consists of a setof subject areas which most linguists take for granted: the differences between ani-mal communication and human languages; the localisation of language in the brain;lexical storage and lexical access; speech perception; speech production; reading andwriting; and language disorders. Each of these areas is associated with one or twoclassic studies, which have become part of the canon of psycholinguistics classes,and which students are expected to be familiar with. Psycholinguistics textbooksusually cover this canon well, if rather superficially, and it is possible for good stu-

122 Book reviews / System 32 (2004) 121–131