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DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 403 733 FL 021 134

AUTHOR Bailey, Tandy, Ed.TITLE Crosscurrents: An International Journal of Language

Teaching and Intercultural Communication, Volume 19,Number 2, Winter 1992.

INSTITUTION Language Inst. of Japan, Odawara.REPORT NO ISSN-0289-1239PUB DATE 92

NOTE 96p.PUB TYPE Collected Works Serials (022)JOURNAL CIT Crosscurrents; v19 n2 1992

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Class Activities; *Classroom Communication; Classroom

Techniques; Cultural Awareness; Cultural Differences;*English (Second Language); English for AcademicPurposes; Error Correction; Foreign Countries; HigherEducation; Humor; Independent Study; InstructionalMaterials; *International Education; Japanese;*Language Proficiency; Literature Appreciation;Native Speakers; Plagiarism; Science Experiments;Secondary Education; Second Language Instruction;Second Language Learning; Stereotypes; StudentEvaluation; Vocabulary Development

IDENTIFIERS China; *Content Area Teaching; Japan

ABSTRACTArticles on various aspects of second language

teaching include: "Global Education Language Teaching Activities"(Kip A. Cates); "Classroom Management in Japanese Colleges andUniversities: Some Practical Approaches" (Paul Wadden, SeanMcGovern); "Control: An Independent Learning Model" (Don Maybin, LynnBergschneider); "Differences in Native and Non-Native Teachers'Evaluation of Japanese Students' English Speaking Ability" (YujiNakamura); "Countering Language Plagiarism: A Materials Approach"(Paul Fanning); "Generativism and Behaviorism Reconciled: APerspective into EFL Teaching in China" (Han Jie); "VocabularyCaruta" (Alice Svendson); "Activities for the Pre- UniversityContent-Based Classroom" (Al Liebman); "Literature and Furniture:Teaching Literature by Analogy" (Wisam Mansour); "Raising Awarenessof Stereotypes" (R. Ken Fujioka); "Errors, Humor, Depth, andCorrection in the Eisakubun' Class" (Robert W. Norris); and "ScienceExperiments in English Class?" (R. Ken Fujioka, Laurie Tellis).Additional book reviews, publications notices, and professionalannouncements are included. (MSE)

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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be madefrom the original document.

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ISSN 0289-1239

SE EVOL. XIX

NO. 21992

AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OFLANGUAGE TEACHING AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

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CROSSCURRENTS

An International Journal ofLanguage Teaching and Intercultural Communication

Volume XIX, Number 2, Winter 1992

Inc IIla'

i!Ini11111,1014

EDITOR

Tandy Bailey

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Lynn BergschneiderAldona Shumway

BUSINESS MANAGER

Fumiko Iwabuchi

Cross CurrentsMli-fik ©LANGUAGE INSTITUTE OF JAPANRITA i!AiR fit* d5250 141341111ktd,9iKIllikiiL4-14-1 13(0465)23-1677F0t1115fi- 7`a .Z >:;=-77: 15162 V.:YeAMiiil00031-115 -44:iiiii4Vitieit.,4 302

4

ABOUT

Cross CurrentsVol. XIX, No. 2

Winter 1992Page 130

Cross Currents is a biannual publication of theLanguage Institute of Japan (LIOJ) which pro-vides a forum for the interdisciplinary ex-change of ideas within the areas of interculturalcommunication, language skill acquisition, andlanguage skill instruction.

Areas of Interest. At Cross Currents, weare particularly interested in issues concernedwith both theoretical and practical aspects ofESL/EFL acquisition and instruction,intercultural training and learning, internationalEnglish language teaching with special em-phasis on Japan, and English as an Interna-tional Language.

Submissions. All submissions to CrossCurrents should conform to the PublicationManual of the American Psychological Asso-ciation (Third Edition) and should be submit-ted in duplicate. Please include a brief abstractof the article, a short biographical sketch, anda cover letter with author's address and tele-phone and fax numbers. Manuscripts may besubmitted on MacWrite or MS Word (Macin-tosh software), or on clean white paper. (SomeMS/DOS files can be accepted.) Please avoiddot matrix. All submissions will be acknowl-edged. Manuscripts with SASE will be re-turned. Authors of published material will re-ceive 20 reprints. Authors will retain the rightto use material in future publications providedthat Cross Currents is acknowledged as theoriginal publisher. Authors are expected torefer all requests to republish their work toCross Currents. Cross Currents will not givepermission to reproduce any work publishedhere without consent of the author.

Articles. Submissions should be 3000 to6000 words in length and should address someissue relevant to our areas of interest. CrossCurrents appreciates scholarship in a varietyof forms, and the publication of clear, insight-

ful, and thought-provoking writing is our pri-mary goal. In the past, we have publishedarticles ranging in style from personal, authori-tative opinions, to reviews of published litera-ture in particular TESOL fields, to academicresearch studies. All submissions should beaccessible to a diverse audience.

Bright Ideas. Submissions should be fiveto ten pages in length and should discuss prac-tical English language classroom successesand ideas clearly and simply for the benefit ofinterested language teachers.

Book Reviews. Cross Currents welcomesreviews of recently published literature rele-vant to our areas of interest. Please consult the .editor if you are interested in writing a review.

Letters to the Editor. Cross Currentswelcomes comments from readers on issuesrelated to published articles or to our generalareas of interest. Letters will be printed whenpossible.

The Editor of Cross Currents reserves theright to make editing changes on submittedmaterials in order to increase clarity and equal-ize style. Authors will be consulted only ifediting changes are substantial.

The views contained in articles printed inCross Cut-rents do not necessarily representthe opinions of the Editor or the EditorialBoard.

In keeping with our recognition of Englishas an International Language, Cross Currentsaccepts and publishes manuscripts in whicheither American or British spelling conven-tions are used.

Please send submissions and letters to:General EditorCross Currents

Language Institute of Japan4-14-1 Shiroyama, Odawara, 250 Japan

TABLE OF CONTENTS

7=11111111111W


Winter 1992Page 131

ABOUT THIS ISSUE 133

ARTICLESGlobal Education Language Teaching Activities

Kip A .Cates 135Classroom Management in Japanese Colleges and Universities: Some PracticalApproaches

Paul Wadden & Sean McGovern 143Control: An Independent Learning Model

Don Mayhin & Lynn Bergschneider 149Differences in Native and Non-Native Teachers' Evaluation of Japanese Students'English Speaking Ability

Yuji Nakamura 161

Countering Language Plagiarism: A Materials ApproachPaul Fanning 167

Generativism and Behaviorism Reconciled: A Perspective into EFL Teachingin China

Han J ie 175

BRIGHT IDEASVocabulary Caruta

Alice Svendson 183Activities for the Pre-University Content-Based Classroom

Al Leibman 185

Literature and Furniture: Teaching Literature by AnalogyWisam Manson 186

Raising Awareness of StereotypesR. Ken Fujioka 188

Errors, Humor, Depth, and Correction in the "Eisakubun" ClassRobert W. Norris 192

continued on overleaf

132 CROSS CURRENTS 19, WINTER 1992

Science Experiments in English Class?R. Ken Fujioka &LaurieTellis 195

BOOK REVIEWSBraj B. Kachru (Ed.), The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures (Second Edition)

Timothy Riney 201

Jacek Fisiak (Ed.), Historical Linguistics and PhilologyAlan S. Kaye 205

Tim Murphey, Teaching One to OneN. McBeath 207

Rob Nolasco, WOW! Window On The WorldJulie Evans 208

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED 213

ANNOUNCEMENTS 215

Indexed/Abstracted in:ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages & Linguistics (ERIC /CLL)Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)

7

In our lead article, "Global Education Lan-guage Teaching Activities," on page 135, KipA. Cates provides teachers with a sampling oflanguage-teaching activities that promote stu-dent awareness of global issues. He shows ushow, with a little imagination, we can add aglobal perspective to some of the activities wecommonly use in our classes. A list of globaleducation resources is also provided at the endof his article.

In our second article, "Classroom Manage-ment in Japanese Colleges and Universities:Some Practical Approaches," page 143, PaulWadden and Sean McGovern present a num-ber of tips on how to better manage large-sizeclasses. They encourage teachers to experi-ment with different techniques and also toinvolve the students in the day-to-day runningof classes.

Our third article, "Control: An IndependentLearning Model," page 149, by Don Maybinand Lynn Bergschneider, provides a model forempowering our students by giving them theskills to effectively control a conversation.

In his article, "Differences in Native andNon-Native Teachers' Evaluation of JapaneseStudents' Speaking Ability," page 161, YujiNakamura presents the results of his researchon evaluating English speaking ability. Hisfindings are timely, for as Japanese universi-ties implement more communicative testing,they will have to carefully consider the criteriathey use to rate speakers.

In our next article, "Countering LanguagePlagiarism: A Materials Approach," page 167,Paul Fanning looks at the causes of plagiarismand provides some activities that help studentsdevelop the necessary skills to avoid it.

Our last article is "Generativism and Behav-iorism Reconciled: A Perspective into EFL

ABOUTTHIS ISSUE

Cross CurrentsVol. XIX, No. 2Winter 1992

Page 133

Teaching in China," page 175, by Han Jie. Hereviews the approaches used to teach Englishin China and looks at how two theories,generativism and behaviorism, can be appliedto teaching EFL in this setting.

In this issue, we present a number of interest-ing articles in our Bright Ideas section. Theyare, in order: Vocabulary Caruta, by AliceSvendson; Activities for the Pre-UniversityContent-Based Classroom, by Al Leibman;Literature and Furniture: Teaching Literatureby Analogy, by Wisam Mansour; RaisingAwareness of Stereotypes, by R. Ken Fujioka;Errors, Humor, Depth and Correction in the"Eisakubun" Class, by Robert W. Norris; andScience Experiments in English Class?, by R.Ken Fujioka and Laurie Tellis. We hope youenjoy these ideas, and that they make yourclassrooms a little brighter.

Four books are reviewed in our Book Re-view section: Braj B. Kachru's second editionof The Other Tongue: English Across Culturesis reviewed by Timothy Riney; Alan S. Kayereports on Jacek Fisiak's Historical Linguis-tics and Philology; Tim Murphey's book Teach-ing One to One is reviewed by N. McBeath;and Julie Evans gives us her views on Wow!Window on the World, by Rob Nolasco.

Finally, a note to our readers. Cross Currentswill not print a Summer 1993 issue. Instead, wewill print only one issue at the end of the year.We apologize for any inconvenience this maycause.

Book 2 Available Now.A complete course for adult and young adult learners

* Learner Training activities* Exposure to international varieties of English

Systematic and integrated practice in the skills

* Balance between structures and functions

Supplementary video, Prime Time

lyingolours

Students' Book 2

Judy Gurtott-Sprenger

For inspection copies please contact:

Vaughan Jones, Heinemann International, Shin Nichibo Bldg.,1-2-1 Sarugaku -cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101

Tel: 03 3294-0791 Fax: 03 3294-0792

Global Education LanguageTeaching ActivitiesKip A. Cates


Winter 1992Page 135

In today's world, we are bombarded daily byinternational problems. Because of the inter-connected nature of our global village, it isimpossible to ignore these issues. We live in aworld where "a distant political struggle is aluggage search for plane passengers at a localairport, an upheaval in Iran is a lowered ther-mostat in Buenos Aires, an assassination inIndia sparks off demonstrations in South Lon-don" (Pike & Selby, 1988a:6).

Despite this situation, many concerned edu-cators feel that our young people are not beingadequately prepared to cope with these prob-lems. This concern has been expressed byinternational figures such as Edwin Reischauer,who states:

we need a profound reshaping of education ...humanity is facing grave difficulties that canonly be solved on a global scale. Education isnot moving rapidly enough to provide theknowledge about the outside world and theattitudes toward other people that may beessential for human survival. (1973:4)

Global education is an exciting new fieldwhich addresses this concern. It has been de-fined as "education which promotes the knowl-edge, attitudes and skills relevant to livingresponsibly in a multicultural and interdepen-dent world" (Fisher & Hicks, 1985:8). In for-eign language teaching, the goal of globaleducation is to empower students with theknowledge, skills, and commitment requiredto solve global problems, while at the sametime helping them acquire a foreign language.

Global education helps students develop aglobal awareness of our interconnected worldand its peoples. Although a growing number oflanguage teachers are interested in teachingabout world problems and adding an interna-

tional perspective to their classes, many areunsure of how to go about this. In this article,therefore, I would like to briefly describe anumber of practical language teaching activi-ties which integrate a global perspective intothe classroom while promoting the study ofglobal issues such as peace, the environment,human rights and development.

Global Awareness ActivitiesIntegrating a global perspective into class-

room language teaching activities can be donein a number of ways. Saeki (1991), for ex-ample, demonstrates how beginning languagelearners can learn the names of colors, shapesand simple commands in English through study-ing the flags of countries of the world. Using aTotal Physical Response approach with self-designed world flag flash cards, she soon hasstudents responding to directions such as "Pickup the white flag with the red circle in themiddle." "What country is it?" "Put it on themap by Japan." While practicing basic lan-guage skills, then, students are also learningabout foreign countries, their flags and theirlocations on the world map.

A common introductory game for many com-municative language classes is the game "Findsomeone who...," in which students interviewclassmates to find someone who can play thepiano or who has a pet. The purpose is both topractice Yes/No questions ("Can you play the

Kip A. Cates has an M.A. in Applied Linguisticsfrom the University of Reading, England and nowteaches English at Tottori National University, Ja-pan. He coordinates the Global Issues in LanguageEducation Interest Group of the Japan Associationof Language Teachers and is a member of Educa-tors for Social Responsibility.

136

piano?" "Do you have a pet?") and to get toknow classmates better. A variation of thisgame (Pike & Selby, 1988a:114) can add aglobal perspective to the interview questions.Sample items might include:

Find someone who.. .

-is wearing something made in another coun-try

-has a pen pal in another country-can name a famous sports star from anothercountry

-learned something about another country onTV recently-has a relative in a foreign country-has talked to someone who has lived in a for-eign country

In addition to being a lively language practicegame, this version allows you, the teacher, tolearn new facts about your class.

Short written passages, another commonfeature of many language lessons, can be usedfor tasks ranging from vocabulary and gram-mar presentation to dictation and reading com-prehension. With a proper text, a short passagecan be used to stimulate students' global aware-ness as well as to practice language skills. Takethe paragraph below about "A Day in the Lifeof George Randall" adapted from an exerciseby Pike & Selby (1988a).

My name is George Randall. I'm British andlive in England. Yesterday was a typical dayfor me. My alarm clock woke me at 7:00 a.m.As usual, I put on my tracksuit, went out of thehouse and went jogging for 20 minutes. Aftergetting back home, I took a shower, shavedand got dressed. Then, I read the newspaperwhile eating breakfast. Shortly before 8:30, Igot in my car and left for work. On my way tothe office, I stopped at a nearby petrol stationto buy petrol, then drove past the local coal-fired power station and arrived at my desk at9:00. (p. 287-289)

This passage could be used to practice timeexpressions (after...ing, shortly before, on myway to), irregular verb forms (wake-woke, go-went), past tense story narration, or a number

CROSS CURRENTS 19, WINTER 1992

of other language items. In my universityclasses, I use the passage for intensive oral pairpractice of tag questions and contrastive wordstress, an area many of my students have troublewith ("His name is Bob Randall, isn't it ?" "No,it isn't. His name is George Randall.").

Once students have gone through the pas-sage as a language lesson, ask them to lookmore closely at the story. On the surface, itlooks like a dry description of a rather uninter-esting morning of a British office workergetting up, going for a jog, reading the paper,driving to work. And yet, if all the talk we hearabout the "global village" and the "age ofinternationalization" is in fact true, then evenin this boring account of an Englishman'smorning routine, we should be able to find anumber of international connections to globalissues and to the world outside England. Stopfor a minute and go back to the passage to seewhat international connections you can thinkof, then check your answers at the end of thearticle.

Most students are quite surprised at howmany international connections George Randallhasconnections to peoples and countries,human rights problems, and environmentalpollution. In fact, these global connectionsexist for all of us; we are just usually notconscious of them. After this exercise, lan-guage learners often experience a new sense ofglobal awareness. As a follow-up, ask yourstudents to write about the global connectionsthey have in their own daily livesyou will besurprised at the variety of links they come upwith.

Environmental Education ActivitiesThere are a variety of ways to integrate the

study of environmental problems and solu-tions into language classes. A number of excit-ing initiatives focus on language-teaching ac-tivities such as role-plays, simulations andproject work involving the four skills of read-ing, writing, speaking and listening.

Sargent (1991), for example, presents a role-play in which students take on the role of an

GLOBAL EDUCATION ACTIVITIES

endangered species. After researching infor-mation about themselves, they make a presen-tation in the foreign language about what ani-mals they are, where they live, how many ofthem are left and why humans are killing them,followed by an appeal about what people cando to protect them.

A more ambitious simulation on the topic oftropical rain forest destruction is described byUshimaru (1990) whose EFL students formgroups representing South East Asian govern-ments, tribal rain forest people, Japanese log-ging companies, and environmentalists. Thegroups study their respective positions andthen meet to find a principled solution to theproblem.

The award-winning global education video"Spaceship Earth: Our Global Environment"(Worldl ink, 1990), now being used in a grow-ing number of language classes around theworld, presents a good example of an environ-mental problem-solving activity. Students arepresented with three images:

(I) a girl in Los Angeles eating a hamburger(2) a tribal family in the Amazon(3) a woman in India suffering from hepatitis

In groups, students try to find the connec-tions between these three seemingly disparatethings. Can you? After students present theirideas to the class, they watch the video for theanswers. It shows how rain forests populatedby tribal people in Central and South Americaare being destroyed to create cattle ranches thatsell beef to the North American hamburgermarket. This involves the destruction of rarerain forest plants which may contain possiblecures for hepatitis and even AIDS.

Many language teachers also use out-of-class project work centred around environ-mental issues to involve their students in effec-tive language learning. Some of these projectsinvolve taking local opinion polls on environ-mental awareness, or surveys of recycling orenergy use in the students' own homes.

A more ambitious program has been de-

137

signed by well-known language educator H.D. Brown (1991). He describes an 8-day inte-grated environmental ESL unit taught at theAmerican Language Institute of San FranciscoState University. In this unit, students readabout environmental problems, practice "tele-phone English" (in preparation for doing envi-ronmental research in the community), andcollect and analyse local garbage. Finally, stu-dents give oral and written class presentationsin English on their findings.

Peace Education ActivitiesBefore we can create a peaceful world, we

have to be able to visualize what peace mightlook like. A popular resource for languageteachers involved in peace education is JohnLennon's song "Imagine." One innovative les-son using this song is suggested by Gouat(1989). After giving some background aboutJohn Lennon's pacifism and idealism, he usescloze listening, vocabulary, and grammar ex-ercises to explore the language and ideas of"Imagine" with the class. His students thenrewrite the song with their own ideas ("Imag-ine there's no racism, it's easy if you try")which they present to the class to explain theirvisions of a peaceful world.

Another peace education activity involvesvisual imagery and creative writing on imagin-ing a peaceful future. First, students close theireyes and imagine they are in the year 2020.They are told that by this year all war andviolence have been eliminated. They are in-structed, still with eyes closed, to look aroundthis imaginary future and note what they see("What are people doing? What sights can yousee? What do the newspaper headlines say?What expressions do you see on people'sfaces?"). After several minutes in silence, stu-dents are "brought back" to the present. Theyopen their eyes and describe to a partner whatimages they saw. These images often includeflowers, fields, children of different races play-ing together, and contented faces in a societyfree of stress.

Students are then asked to write a "history of

138

the future." To do this, they have to look at theunpeaceful situation of our present world of1993, think of their image of a peaceful worldin the year 2020, and then create a scenarioexplaining, as realistically as possible, how wegot there from here. The final step is for stu-dents to explain what we have to do today,tomorrow, next year, and the next decade tomake their imaginary peaceful futures cometrue.

Values clarification exercises have been usedin language classes for some time. One peaceeducation activity, entitled "Which Way toWorld Peace?" (Fisher & Hicks, 1985), pro-motes foreign language discussions which helpstudents clarify their images of peace and so-cial justice. In this activity, students readthrough a list of "peace candidates," each ofwhom has a different idea about how to makea peaceful world:

Joseph Franco: he advocates dropping bombs onanyone who starts fightingVespa Ranto: she'll teach everyone the same lan-guage so all people will understand each otherMehdi Teshun: he'll train people to think and pray sothat they begin to stop quarrelling and fighting intheir everyday livesJohn Bull: he'll make sure everyone in the world hasthe same government and values as in BritainSitnvidFishix: she'll make teachers teach about warand peaceRevell Lenning: he'll organize guerilla armies toforce governments to make society more fair andpeaceful

After going through the vocabulary and an-swering comprehension questions about thesecandidates, students choose the three peoplefrom the list they feel could best ensure worldpeace and discuss their choices with a partner.While providing students with abundant op-portunity to practice language skills, such asreading and oral expression, this activity alsohelps them clarify their own ideas about thebest way to world peace.

Development Education ActivitiesDevelopment education concern the teach-


ing of development problems like world pov-erty, hunger, and health, as well as interna-tional issues such as foreign aid, Third Worlddebt, and North-South inequality.

World hunger may seem like a daunting anddepressing topic to introduce into a languagecourse, but with skillful teaching it can be bothan empowering topic and an occasion for in-tensive practice in foreign language skills. Agood way to start is by pre-teaching relevantvocabulary and then doing a "Myths aboutHunger" quiz (Cooke, 1985:9). For the quiz,students form groups and answer true or falsequestions about food and hunger:

(1) There is enough food in the world to feedeveryone.(2) Food shortages occur in countries with highpopulation densities.(3) In 1981, the U.S. burned or dumped into theocean 8 million tons of grain.

Students are usually surprised at the an-swers: (1) TRUE--each day the world pro-duces 2 pounds per person of grain alone,enough to provide each person in the worldwith 3,000 calories a day; (2) FALSE--Hol-land, with 326 people per square kilometer, hasno famine while Bolivia, with 5 people persquare kilometer, does; (3) TRUE--the grainwas dumped to keep prices high on the interna-tional market. An example of a complete one-semester college EFL course built around thetheme of world hunger is given by Matsuda(1992).

Learning facts about issues such as worldhunger is one goal of development education.Developing empathy with people in "develop-ing" countries is another. One activity forachieving this is a role-play called "Living InThe Third World: What Would You Do?"(Franz, 1987:15), in which students take on theroles of a farmer in Africa or a slum dweller inBrazil. A further activity that combines lan-guage learning and development education ismentioned by Jaques (1989), whose EFL stu-dents select, research, and make class reports

13

GLOBAL EDUCATION ACTIVITIES

on socially-conscious organizations such asUNICEF and Save The Children.

Human Rights ActivitiesBecause human rights often seem abstract

and difficult for many learners, human rightseducators have devised a number of activities

139

to make this topic more accessible and interest-ing. One teacher's handbook (Shiman,1988:101), begins with a TV game-style activ-ity called "Human Rights Squares," which iseasily adaptable for language teaching. Ingroups, students fill out 20 squares, each ofwhich must be completed with a human rights

HUMAN RIGHTS SQUARES Write the name of a ...

movie that deals withhuman rights

group that was persecutedin the past

organization that fights forhuman rights

group that wants to denyhuman rights to others

person who is a champion ofhuman rights

song about human rights

fact. They then report and explain their an-swers to the whole class.

A second activity students enjoy is evaluat-ing their own countries' human rights situa-tion. The World HumanRightsGuide (Humana,1991) surveys 160 countries of the world againsta forty-point human rights checklist, givingeach a percentage score to show how well theyrespect human rights. Using the checklist, stu-dents work in groups to decide whether or nottheir countries guarantee freedom of speech,freedom of religion, sexual equality, protec-tion of minorities, and so on. After discussingtheir opinions, students check their own evalu-ations with the World Human Rights Guide,and lastly, compare their countries' ratingswith those of other countries around the world.This activity usually produces a great amountof curiosity, energy, and meaningful languageuse as students work together in the foreignlanguage to consider human rights in theircountries and around the world.

ConclusionFor the growing number of instructors inter-

ested in teaching language skills through mean-ingful content in a communicative classroom,global education offers a rich source of teach-ing techniques and ideas. As we have seen,global education activities can stimulate activelanguage use, promote effective language learn-ing, and still be challenging, thought-provok-ing, and enjoyable to do. They can also helpteachers and learners develop a greater aware-ness of our global village and a commitment towork for a better word.

George Randall Story AnswersALARM CLOCK: George Randall's clock isa product of the Sony corporation of Japan. Itwas assembled in a Sony plant in Brazil fromcomponent parts produced in Japan, Mexicoand Germany. It was then shipped to the U.K.in a Greek-owned ship manufactured in Swe-den, licensed in Liberia and staffed by a Portu-guese crew.

4

140

TRACKSUIT: George's tracksuit was madein the Philippines by women working in facto-ries which directly contravene Article 23 of theU.N. Declaration of Human Rights: the right tojust and favourable conditions of work.SOAP: The soap George used for his showerwas made from palm oil grown in Zaire byUnilever, a transnational corporation ownedjointly in the Netherlands and the U.K.CLOTHES: George's clothes are similarlybrimming with global connections. His shirtwas made from cotton grown in the U.S., hisunderpants were made in Israel and his socksmanufactured in Taiwan from wool grown inAustralia.NEWSPAPER: The newspaper is filled withnews from around the world obtained fromtransnational information agencies such asUnited Press, Reuters and Tass, while the pa-per on which the news is printed comes fromtrees grown in Finland.CAR: George's car is a Renault, a product of alarge French-based transnational corporation,and contains raw materials coming from morethan 70 nations.PETROL: George bought his gasoline fromShell, an Anglo-Dutch multinational company.The oil itself comes from the Middle East andthe price he paid for it is influenced by oil-producing countries belonging to OPEC.POWER STATION: The burning of fossilfuels at George's nearby power plant contrib-utes significantly to the pollution of the earth'satmosphere. The smoke from the plant mayfall as acid rain in Scandinavia while the ever-increasing demand for energy by consumersocieties such as George's is causing a seriousdepletion of the earth's non-renewable re-sources.

Global Education ResourcesThere are numerous resources available for

language teachers interested in learning moreabout global education. For basic informationabout world problems and global issues, goodprimers include: New State of the World Atlas(Kidron & Segal, 1991); The World Affairs


Companion (Segal, 1991); State of the World(Brown et al.; annual): and Catching Up Witha Changing World-A Primer on World Affairs(Kenworthy, n.d.).

To learn more about the field of globaleducation itself, a number of excellent booksare now in print. Among the best resources are:Global Teacher, Global Learner (Pike & Selby,I 988a); World Studies 8-13 (Fisher & Hicks,1985); Internationalizing Your School(Rosengren et al., 1983); and Next Steps inGlobal Education (Kniep, 1987).

For a look at the exciting range of globaleducation teaching packs, textbooks, videos,computer software and other teaching materi-als available, get a copy of the free GlobalEducation catalog, available from Social Stud-ies School Service (10200 Jefferson Blvd.,Room Y, Culver City, CA. 90232-0802,U.S.A.).

A variety of textbooks exist for languageteachers interested in exploring further thefour main sub-fields of global education. Forpeace education, key books include: Educa-tion for Peace (Hicks, 1988); ComprehensivePeace Education (Reardon, 1988); LearningThe Skills of Peacemaking (Drew, 1987); andPeace and War (Leeds, 1987).

Two of the best books for human rightseducation are Teaching About Human Rights(Shiman, 1987), and Human Rights ActivityFile (Pike & Selby, 1988b).

For environmental education, seeEarthrights: Education As If The Planet ReallyMattered (Greig, '1987); Teaching Green(Randle, 1989); and Green Teacher Magazine(95 Robert Street, Toronto, Canada M5S 2K5).

Two key books for development educationare The Development Puzzle (Fyson, 1984),and Teaching Development Issues (Cooke,1985).

Finally, those wishing to learn more abouthow language teachers worldwide are inte-grating global education and the teaching ofglobal issues into their classes are invited tosubscribe to the quarterly Global Issues inLanguage Education Newsletter (c/o Kip Cates,

GLOBAL EDUCATION ACTIVITIES 141

Tottori University, Tottori, Japan 680).

ReferencesBrown, H.D. (1991). What in the world are you do-

ing? Presentation at 1991 Japan Association ofLanguage Teachers Conference, Kobe, Japan.

Brown, L. (annual). State of the world. New York:W.W. Norton.

Cooke, D. et al. (1985). Teaching development is-

sues. U.K.: Manchester Development EducationProject.

Drew, N. (1987). Learning the skills of peacemak-

ing. California: Jalmar Press.Fisher, S. & Hicks, D. (1985). World studies 8-13.

Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.Franz, D. (1987). Exploring the Third World. New

York: American Forum.Fyson, N. (1984). The development puzzle. London:

Hodder & Stoughton.Gouat, J. (1989). "Imagine..." Practical English

Teaching, 10(1), 21.Greig, S. et al. (Eds.). (1987). Earthrights: Educa-

tion as if the planet really mattered. London:World Wildlife Federation.

Hicks, D. (Ed.). (1988). Education for peace. Lon-

don: Routledge.Humana, C. (1991). World human rights guide.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.Jaques, C. (1989). Getting our students socially

conscious. Presentation at 1989 Japan Associa-tion of Language Teachers Conference, Okaya-ma, Japan.

Kenworthy, L. (n d.). Catching up with a changingworld-A primer on world affairs. World AffairsMaterials, Box 726, Kennett Square, Pennsylva-

ST COPY AVAILABi.E

nia 19348, U.S.A.Kidron, M. & Segal, R. (1991). New state of the

world atlas, 4th Ed. London: Simon & Schuster.Kniep, W. (1987). Next steps in global education.

New York: The American Forum.Leeds, C. (1987). Peace and war. Cheltenham:

Stanley Thornes.Matsuda, M. (1992). Global education EFL course

design. Presentation at 1992 Japan Association ofLanguage Teachers Conference, Kawagoe, Ja-pan.

Pike, G. & Selby, D. (1988a). Global teacher, glo-bal learner. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Pike, G. & Selby, D. (1988b). Human rights activity

file. London: Mary Glasgow Publications.Randle, D. (1989). Teaching green. London: Green

Print.Reardon, B. (1988). Comprehensive peace educa-

tion. New York: Teachers College.Reischauer, E. (1973). Toward the 21st century:

Education for a changing world. New York:Knopf.

Rosengren, F. et al. (1983). Internationalizing yourschool. New York: NCFLIS.

Saeki, M. (1991). Global awareness activities forEFL students. Presentation at 1991 Japan Asso-ciation of Language Teachers Conference, Kobe,Japan.

Sargent, D. (1991). Heal the earth. Nara: DawnPress.

Segal, G. (1991). The world affairs companion.London: Simon & Schuster.

Shiman, D. (1988). Teaching about human rights.Denver, U.S.A.: CTIR.

Ushimaru, A. (.1990). Where have all the rain forestsgone?, The Language Teacher 4(5), 19.

Worldlink. (1990). Spaceship earth: Our globalenvironment (video). Los Angeles: Worldlink.

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TEACHERTRAIN-TA R

A practical journal mainly for modern language teacher trainers

It comes out three times a year. It is a unique forum for theexchange of information, ideas and opinions on teacher training.It contains articles by authors on why they've written their books,from training centres around the world on the work they're doing,by trainers in other parallel fields, as well as book reviews, practicalideas for teacher observation and feedback, Ideas on livening upinput sessions, letters, cartoons, jokes and much more

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If you're interested in contributing or subscribing please contact:-Tessa WoodwardEditor8 Vernon PlaceCanterburyKent CT1 3HGEngland

Classroom Management in JapaneseColleges and. Universities: SomePractical ApproachesPaul Wadden


Winter 1992Page 143

Sean McGovern

Foreign English teachers who begin teachingat a Japanese university at the start of a newschool year are in for a number of concretechallenges in classroom managemenb How tolearn the names of a great many students in alarge number of classes; how to keep accurateand detailed attendance and grading records;how to correct scores of tests and homeworkassignments; how to draft exams and deter-mine final grades (Markham, 1987; Wright,1987; Lindsay, 1990).

Working within the unusual curriculum struc-ture of Japanese higher education, the typicalEnglish instructor teaches between ten andsixteen courses, each of which meets once aweek. For the small minority of teachers that isfull-time, the course load is somewhat lighter.If the average class size is 40, and the averageteaching load approximately twelve courses, atypical instructor may face nearly 500 studentsa week (LoCastro, 1988; Wadden & McGovern,1989).' Promoting the learning of so manystudents, while at the same time fulfilling theday-to-day administrative responsibilities ex-pected by the university, calls for a good dealof organizational skills. In this context, per-haps to an even greater degree than in otherEFL settings, competence in classroom man-agement is almost a prerequisite to being agood teacher, accounting in part "for the dif-ferences," in the words of Jack Richards, "be-tween effective and ineffective instruction"(1987:217).

With the aim of helping teachers to stream-line organizational and administrative tasks sothat they have more time and energy to devoteto their students' learning, we suggest somepractical approaches to managing a universityclass, focusing particularly on methods to effi-ciently and accurately identify students, keep

attendance records, and compile and deter-mine grades. We also emphasize the collabora-tive nature of the university language class andthe importance of trial-and-error learning inrefining organizational and administrativeskills.

Knowing Who is WhoOne of the immediate challenges in the Japa-

nese college classroom is to memorize thestudents' namesor at least to be able todistinguish who is who during class. Espe-cially for courses with large enrollments, somesystem for identifying class members is essen-tial. Name tags pinned to clothing or foldingname cards propped up on desks are but twopossibilities. Another is to use index cardsone filled out by each student on the first day ofclasslisting students' names, ID numbers,and some information about hometowns orpersonal interests that can serve as a first stepin getting to know the class members. Smallstudent photos cut out from snapshots or pho-tocopied from student IDs can be pasted ontoeach card to help associate names with faces.

Seating charts are also effective for identify-ing students. On the first or second day, stu-dents can be asked to choose the seats they willsit in for the rest of the year, then sign an empty

Paul Wadden teaches at International ChristianUniversity in Tokyo. He is the editor ofHandbookfor Teaching English at Japanese Colleges andUniversities, Oxford University Press, 1993.

Sean McGovern is an assistant professor in theFaculty of International Language and Culture atSetsunan University in Osaka. His articles haveappeared in a variety of language-teaching publi-cations, including ELT Journal and TESL Reporter.

144

seating chart passed from row to row. Largespreadsheet charts that provide room for stu-dent photos and space around their names forabbreviated attendance and grade notationsare especially useful.2

Whatever system a teacher selectsconsid-ering his or her own teaching style and thepersonality of the classwill have advantagesand drawbacks (McGreal, 1989). For example,name tags and desk placards, while allowingfree seating and permitting .students to mixnaturally, can be hard to read in large classesand are easily lost or forgotten by students.Index cards do not indicate who is sittingwhere, but they help a teacher reshuffle studentgroups, call on students randomly, and makesure that each individual has had a turn tospeak. Seating charts, by contrast, will tell theinstructor who is sitting at each desk, but theycan hinder variety in pair work or group activi-ties since they require, at least at the start ofclass, that students sit in fixed locations.' Formega-classes, asking students to sit in theorder in which their names appear in the rollbook may be the most efficient. Pre-deter-mined seating of this kind is not nearly asdraconian as it sounds; throughout much oftheir schooling Japanese students sit in alpha-betical order (White, 1987; Rohlen,1983).

With only about twenty-four class meetingsto help students improve their language skills,it is crucial for instructors to make the most ofwhat class time there is.4 Before each classbegins, a teacher can write on the chalkboardinstructions for group activities, key informa-tion for the lesson, and the homework assign-ment. Contemporary Japanese culture is ex-tremely visual and an easy-to-see chalkboardreference will save lengthy explanations andprevent many misunderstandings. Rather thanusing class time to distribute hand-out sheets,they can be left near the door for students topick up as they enter. To collect homework orquizzes, a technique widely used in manyJapanese secondary and elementary schoolsworks well: the last student in each row quicklywalks forward and collects the papers in order.


Attendance-TakingMost college administrations require teach-

ers to keep attendance records. When using aroll book or index cards to take attendance,calling out only first names or only familynames gets through the roll more quickly.'Rather than using the mechanical repetition of"here" or "present," it is possible for a teacherto make attendance-taking itself part of thelesson by using a response related to the day'slanguage-learning activities, such as new vo-cabulary, names of characters in a dialogueused later in the class, or even common wordsor contractions that the students find difficultto pronounce. For teachers who use a seatingchart in class, there is no need to take class timefor attendance at all: they can simply glancearound the room while students are involved inlanguage activities and record who is missingby jotting down the date in the space below thestudents' names. Most universities provideinstructors with record books for keeping roll;instructors who use a seating chart or indexcards need to have the actual date of absence inthe event that controversy arises over failing astudent for poor attendance.

Student tardiness is often an irritant for for-eign university teachers, especially since in theWest such lack of punctuality is often taken asa sign of rudeness, and students who come inlate tend to disrupt the activities of a languageclass.' At the beginning of the year, studentsought to be explicitly informed whether or notclass will begin on time, for at many Japanesecolleges it is conventional to start classes fiveto ten minutes late. (One can check the stan-dard practice at a university by observing atwhat time instructors leave the teachers'lounge.) It is also helpful to tell the studentshow they should enter when class is already inprogress (e.g., quietly, and from the back door).If students begin to get in the habit of amblinginto class late, they can be required to pick upsmall slips of paper left on a desk near the door,fill in their name, time of arrival, and reason forlateness (their previous class may have beenheld overtime or located on the other side of the

i9

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT 145

campus), and turn in the slips at the end ofclass. Failure to turn in a slip will mean, ofcourse, that their attendance goes unrecorded.

One of the best ways to encourage studentsto attend regularly and arrive on time is toadopt a well-explained grading policy in whichthese factors are significant in the earning ofhigher grades. For example, those who missfewer than three classes in a year could receiveA's for the attendance component of theirgrade, those missing between three and sixclasses B's, and so on, with two late arrivals theequivalent of one absence.

GradingWith large numbers of students and classes,

it is also important to carefully manage thetime spent outside the classroom on paper-work: correcting a mountain of tests, papers,and homework assignments each week candivert valuable time from course preparationand interaction with students outside of class.Instead, a teacher can use selective correction,grading only the most important quizzes andassignments, or a statistical sample of the stu-dents' total work in the course (Stanford, 1979).

Peer correction can also play a valuable roleby cutting down class paperwork, in additionto giving students immediate feedback. Whenincluding the marks from peer-corrected as-signments and quizzes in cumulative grades, itis a good idea to have students use pens ratherthan pencils as they correct their classmates'papers, signing their names at the bottom for-accountability. This practice provides more re-liability and fairness for students and teachers.

In large classes, the very recording of gradesis a daunting task. For teachers who use aseating chart, however, the process is muchsimplified. Students can pass inby rowtheir tests, quizzes, and assignments, one sheetplaced on top of the other. In this order, thegrades can be conveniently written down onthe seating chart itself without searching outeach student's name in a separate grade book(obviously, space needs to be reserved forthese notations). Seating charts also permit

easy recording of grades for class participationand oral quizzes since the students' grades canimmediately be written down on the chartitself.' Given the time it takes to collect anddistribute student work in class, having stu-dents keep their own assignment portfoliosand compile their own grade records can be agood approach to grade-keeping. It is evenpossible to distribute grade summary sheets tothe class and have the students calculate theirown grades, attaching the sheets to their port-folios at the end of the year when they handthem in (Robb, 1989).

Trial and ErrorSkilled class management, like good teach-

ing, requires a willingness to make adjust-ments and learn from trial and error (Tanaka,1979). From time to time, teachers shouldexperiment with new methods to refine classadministration in the same way that they try outnew class materials, activities, and groupings.For instance, students could be given personalclass numbers, such as M234 (Monday, sec-ond period, third row, fourth seat), which al-low a teacher to identify immediately a studentwhen reading his or her written work. In keep-ing attendance records, notations used to indi-cate absence can be easily converted to onesdesignating tardiness. A single downwardstroke (1) could, when a student walks in late,be made into an L (for Late), or a slash (/)changed to an (X). Color coding roll books andinstructional materials helps a teacher quicklyselect what is needed on a particular day or ata particular time.

Most of all, instructors need to rememberthat a language class is a collaborative venture.Teachers should not hesitate to ask the stu-dents' advice and to enlist them in a wide rangeof classroom matters, such as deciding classpolicy, choosing which of several class activi-.ties they prefer on a particular day, re-arrang-ing seats for group work and erasing boards.Helping out with manual tasks will not belooked at as inappropriate by the students, forin the Japanese educational system students

146

assume the responsibility for the cleaning andcare of their classrooms throughout elemen-tary and secondary school (White, 1987;Iwama, 1989; Rohlen, 1989). An instructorcan even recruit "student assistants" to coordi-nate group activities and offer clarification toclassmates who do not understand an assign-ment but may be too shy to ask the teacherdirectly for further explanation. Involving stu-dents as much as possible in the day-to-dayworkings of the classroom gives a teachermore time and energy to devote to languagetasks and activities.

ConclusionIn the field of language teaching, practical

classroom management skills are frequentlyoverlooked, even in teacher-training programs.Particularly in contexts such as the Japaneseuniversity classroom, however, such skills arevirtually indispensable for teachers to simulta-neously maintain an environment conduciveto language learning and fulfill the in-classadministrative duties expected by the univer-sity. While attempts to address practical as-pects of classroom management, such as thelinking of good attendance to the receiving ofhigher grades, have sometimes resulted incharges of "teacher control and domination"(Peters, 1990), consideration of such matters isintegral to skillful teaching. As Richards putsit, "In a well-managed class, discipline prob-lems are few, and learners are actively engagedin learning tasks and activities; this contributesto the motivational level and expectations forsuccess which the teacher creates in the class"(1987:218).

AcknowledgmentThis article is based upon a portion of the authors'chapter "A User's Guide to Classroom Manage-ment." In P. Wadden (Ed.), Handbook forTeachingEnglish at Japanese Colleges and Universities.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.


Footnotes1. It is not an ideal world for the student, either.Japanese college students carry loads of betweenfourteen and eighteen courseseach with a differ-ent teacher, textbook, and set of exams. Those withhigher aspirations, such as the goal of becoming ateacher, must take even more classes. Simply bring-ing the right books to class and preparing the righthomework on the right day requires considerableorganization and energy.

2. A teacher must also consider whether to addressstudents by their family names or given names, andwhether to attach the English prefix Mr. and Ms. orthe Japanese suffix kun and san (Redfield, 1984).Use of personal names often creates a greater feel-ing of intimacy in the classroom, and, dependingupon the nationality of the teacher, models the targetculture. Moreover, homestay opportunities are be-coming more commonplace and use of first namesmay give students a feel for the way they will likelybe addressed in the countries they visit. On the otherhand, presumptions of intimacy or informality canat times make students uncomfortable, for in Japanpersonal names are typically used only betweenfamily members and the closest of friends.

An alternative to surnames and personal names isto have students adopt English names in the class-roomnot for imperialistic reasons, but becausestudents seem to enjoy using them, and such namessometimes help students assume an English-speak-ing identity. These and other matters an instructorcan discuss with a class, solicit the students' reac-tions, and take a quick vote to decide.

3. See Wright (1987) and Szymczak (1990) forinquiries into the link between the organization ofclassroom seating and the teacher-student relation-ship.

4. See Richards (1987) for a general discussion ofclassroom management, time on task, and theirrelationship to effective teaching. See Wadden(1989) for a close look at practical aspects of timemanagement in the classroom.

5. Occasionally, students in large classes may out offriendship and duty try to cover up classmates'absences by answering for them during roll call.When a teacher suspects this is happening, a simplecount of the number of students present will quicklyreveal whether or not it matches the recorded roll.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

6. Neustupny (1987), in describing Japanese con-cepts of punctuality, states that "the temporal andspatial map for communication tends to be drawn inmuch less detail and is characterized by consider-able fluidity."

7. At the end of the term, universities provideinstructors with official grading sheets for cumula-tive grades. It is`probably easiest to calculate finalgrades on the seating chart and to transfer them. Nomatter what system an instructor uses, a final sepa-rate recording of official grades will be necessary.

ReferencesIwama, H.F. (1989). Japan's group orientation in

secondary schools. In J.J. Shields Jr. (Ed.), Japa-nese schooling: Patterns of socialization, equal-ity, and political control (pp. 73-84). UniversityPark & London: Pennsylvania State UniversityPress.

Lindsay, A. (1990). Teacher stress: butterflies, lem-mings and stunned mullets. The LanguageTeacher, 14(4), 17-2 I .

LoCastro, V. (1988). Research on large-size classes:A progress report. The Language Teacher, 12(12),7-11.

Markham, P. (1987). Classroom management in thesecondary school foreign language class. System,15(2), 217-220.

McGreal, R. (1989). Coping with large classes.English Teaching Forum, 27(2), 17-19.

Neustupny, J. (1987). Communicating with the.lapa-nese. Tokyo: The Japan Times.

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Peters, M. (1990). Streamlining EFL class adminis-tration and organization: A response. The Lan-guage Teacher, 14(1), 46-49.

Redfield, M. (1984). Terms of address: A problemin the Japanese classroom. The Language Teacher,8(5), 14-15.

Richards, J. (1987). The dilemma of teacher educa-tion in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 21(2), 209-226.

Robb, T. (1989). Homework: How to get them to doit. The Language Teacher, 13(8), 15-16.

Rohlen, T. (1983). Japan's high schools. Berkeley:University of California Press.

Rohlen, T. (1989). Order in Japanese society: At-tachment, authority and routine. Journal ofJapa-nese Studies, 15(1), 5-40.

Stanford, G. (Ed.). (1979). How to handle the paperload. Urbana Ill.: National Council of Teachers ofEnglish.

Szymczak, M. (1990). An analysis of selected class-room spatial arrangements. System, 18(2), 245-256.

Tanaka, J. (1979). Classroom management. Spring-field Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.

Wadden, P. (1989). Teaching all you can teach: Aprimer for evaluating time use in the languageclassroom. Guidelines, 11(2), 99-103.

Wadden, P., & McGovern, S. (1989). StreamliningEFL class administration and organization: Auser's guide for university instructors in Japan.The Language Teacher, 13(10), 11-13.

White, M. (1987). The Japanese educational chal-lenge: A commitment to children. New York:Free Press.

Wright, T. (1987). Roles of teachers and learners.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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TEXT

mouton de gruyterBerlin New York

an interdisciplinary journal for the study of discourseEditor: Teun A. van Dijk, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

TEXT was founded as an international and truly interdisciplinary forum for thepublication of papers on discourse (texts, conversation, messages, communica-tive events, etc.). An editorial board and a board of advisors, composed of leadingspecialists in the respective subdomains of disciplines of discourse studies, assistthe editor.TEXT aims to promote the development of the cross-discipline of discourse stud-ies and to establish practical research contacts among scholars from different dis-ciplines. Preference is given to genuinely interdisciplinary topics and problems.Papers should be of general interest and not be limited to phenomena that areonly relevant to a specific discipline. Special emphasis is placed on interdiscipli-nary theory formation and the development of methods of analysis. Descriptionsof discourse genres or of specific properties of discourse should have an explicittheoretical basis, be systematic, non-ad hoc, and satisfy the usual methodologicalrequirements. Papers which adequately deal with the most pressing social issuesof our time and for which discourse analysis is shown to be a relevant approachare particularly welcome.TEXT is published in one volume of four issues per year, each volume consistingof approximately 600 pages.Subscription rates for Volume 13 (1993):

Institutions/libraries DM 308.00 (plus postage)Individuals (prepaid only*) DM 120.80 (includes postage)Single issues DM 84.00

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For North America:Walter de Gruyter, Inc.200 Saw Mill River RoadHawthorne, NY 10532USA

For all other countries:Walter de Gruyter & Co.Postfach 11 02 40D-1000 Berlin 11Federal Republic of Germany

2.3

Control: An Independent.Learning Model.Don Maybin


Winter 1992Page 149

Lynn Bergschneider

Given the interactional nature of communica-tion, two major types of strategies are needed:those for "expressing" the learner's meaning,termed "productive" strategies by Corder(Faerch and Kasper, 1983:15), and those usedto "decode" meaning, referred to as "recep-tive" strategies. Accepting the notion that com-prehension precedes production (Dulay, Burtand Krashen, 1982), the importance of recep-tive strategies to the learner in the developmentof his* interlanguage seems crucial. Thesereceptive strategies, and their potential forapplication in and outside ofthe ESL/EFL class-room, are the focus of this article.

A BASIC MODEL FOR RECEPTIVESTRATEGIES

In an effort to increase learners' receptivestrategies, the following model is proposed. Itis comprised of four stages:

Stage IThe learner realizes that he does not under-

stand and can take three possible courses ofaction: (1) interrupt, (2) remain silent or pre-tend to understand by nodding or making sym-pathy noises, or (3) abandon the conversationaltogether.

Stage 2If the learner chooses to interrupt, he then

may attempt to clarify the meaning by askingfor repetition, slower delivery speed, defini-tion of unknown words, spelling, and so on.Once again, three possible courses of actionemerge: (1) continued requests for clarifica-tion until comprehension is achieved, (2)feigned comprehension ("I understand") in the

* For ease of reading, "he" is used to refer to thelearner and "she" to the trainer, throughout.

hope that he will eventually understand as theconversation progresses, or (3) abandonmentof the conversation.

Stage 3Assuming the learner has continued requests

for clarification (the first option in stage 2), hecan do one of two things once he feels heunderstands: (1) declare that he understands,though this may not be the case, and continuethe conversation, or (2) reiterate what he feelsthe meaning to be with different words orgestures (i.e., paraphrase).

Stage 4If the learner paraphrases and the meaning is

satisfactory, the conversation continues. If theinterpretation is incorrect, the other party willmost likely attempt to assist the learner byrephrasing.

Our goal in designing this model (see Dia-gram I on the following page) was to create anew mental reference frame of behaviour forlearners to use in their efforts to acquire a targetlanguage. Specific strategies and language wereidentified for each stage with the particularneeds of Japanese learners of English in mind.Considering the heavy emphasis onmemorisation of grammar and vocabulary inlanguage education in Asia, we believed thatlearners in this part of the world would be able

Don Maybin is the director of the Language Insti-tute of Japan in Odawara. He has been teaching inJapan for over ten years, and has an M.A. in AppliedLinguistics from Essex University, England.

Lynn Bergschneider is an instructor at theLangauage Institute of Japan in Odawara. She is acandidate for the M.A.T. in TESOL from the Schoolfor International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.

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CONTROL INDEPENDENT LEARNING MODEL

to memorise and apply this type of behaviourmodel. The following is the receptive modelwhich was developed for learners to use inorder to better comprehend when interacting inEnglish. This model is now being used in avariety of classes at the Language Institute ofJapan (LIOJ) and has also been used with otherlanguages such as Thai, Tagalog, and German.

THE CONTROL MODELThere are three phases in this model for

manipulating or "controlling" a conversation.

1. ComprehensionIt is important for a learner to realize that if

he does not comprehend another person's mean-ing, he must interrupt linguistically (e.g., "Ex-cuse me") and/or paralinguistically (a puzzledlook, slight raising of the hand, and so on).

2. ClarificationNormally, the learner requests repetition in

order to isolate the barrier to comprehension(e.g., "Could you repeat that?"). In fact, thelanguage used in Stage 1 to interrupt the otherperson sometimes serves the same function ofeliciting a repetition (cf. "Pardon me?";"Sorry?"; "What?").

It is important for the learner to identify thereason why he is unable to understand and takespecific, remedial action. For example, theother person's conversational speed may beidentified as the reason for comprehensiondifficulty, especially where the latter is a na-tive speaker or discussion is taking place in agroup. In this case, the learner should requestslower delivery ("Could you speak slower,please?"). The learner may attempt to isolatethose words which are unfamiliar ("What's theword before/after ?"; What's the first/lastword?"), and/or request clarification ("Whatdoes that mean?").

Most of the formal English language educa-tion of adult Japanese learners has been text-based with non-native speaker instructors.Therefore, learners often do not recognise wordsin the vernacular, even though these words

151

have been previously studied. By requestingthe spelling ("How do you spell that?"), how-ever, certain words may become recognisable.On the other hand, this strategy would be oflittle use to elementary learners with no previ-ous background in the target language (TL), orthose learners who cannot understand the scriptof the TL.

3. ConfirmationThe learner linguistically or paralinguistically

paraphrases what he ultimately perceives to bethe other person's meaning ("Do youmean...?"). Paraphrasing forms might includeapproximation, word coinage, circumlocution,literal translation, language switch, and mime.

The above behavioural model definesmetacognitive receptive strategies and pos-sible linguistic terminology for each stage. Wewill now examine the specific needs of Japa-nese learners and how we consciously attemptto teach learners a set of specific strategies.

CONTROL TRAININGThough there are obvious conditions under

which a learner may feel more comfortable inproducing the language necessary to completea task (see "Communicative Stress" in Brownand Yule, 1983), ensuring that such conditionsare constantly present in the EFL classroomdoes not always prepare learners for discoursein the real world. Asian learners in general, andJapanese in particular, are known for theirapparent shyness in the classroom. Given cul-turally-based differences in language use andacceptable behaviour, it is sometimes neces-sary to employ somewhat radical measures toovercome these barriers to effective communi-cation. It is considered rude, for example, inspoken Japanese discourse to interrupt a con-versation and say you do not understand, asthis suggests that the other party is at fault(Mizutani, 1982). This is particularly true in aclassroom context. Stopping an instructor witha deceptively simple "Pardon me?" can be amajor, almost insurmountable language task

27

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for certain learners. Given these strong, cultur-ally-based behaviour patterns, stress-inducingtactics may be justified in order to introducemore effective learner behaviour. For example,the trainer can have the learners stand as agroup and allow each to sit (a tangible rewardfor taking some action) only after they haveapplied the vital strategy of interrupting an"exchange" which is clearly one-sided andincomprehensible.

According to Domoto (1987), "Japaneselearners place great value on belonging to agroup, taking part in group activities, and re-maining as inconspicuous as possible as indi-viduals." Our own experience seems to con-firm this and suggests that it is more efficient todesign language tasks which call upon indi-viduals to perform on behalf of a group or"team" instead of solely for themselves. Hav-ing learners stand or sit as a group or performa language task with team representatives fo-cuses upon this group aspect; however, theinstructor should design activities and rotatelearners within and among groups so that lackof success in an activity is not identified as the"fault" of any one particular person. Pedagogicpressures such as teams, points, and time lim-its, can be misinterpreted as unproductive in anESL/EFL classroom context by instructors whoadvocate a purely unstressful instructional ap-proach (e.g., Suggestopedia, Community Lan-guage Learning). A Japanese businessman,however, who has been trained to convey spe-cific information within a set time while seatedback-to-back with his partner is more likely toperform effectively when faced with the realpressures of a long-distance call from an iratecustomer in Los Angeles. By applying pres-sures, the trainer encourages learners to over-come insecurity, take risks and use receptivestrategies.

INTRODUCTION TO CONTROLAn extended training session was developed

to overcome learners' shyness and fear ofmistakes as well as to take advantage of theirpreference for group work. Pedegogic consid-


erations, including the application of variouspsychological pressures are incorporated inthe training. We will first describe the initialactivity which is used to introduce learners tothe control strategies. The introduction hasthree parts: STOP; UNDERSTAND; andCHECK. Later, we will outline various activi-ties in which learners can apply and practicethese new strategies.

STOPSubjects are seated in a semi-circle facing

the board. The the trainer writes CONTROLon the board and explains that one must "con-trol" the conversation when speaking withsomeone in a foreign language, in this caseEnglish.

Five individuals are asked to come to thefront and stand facing the rest of the class. Thetrainer is seated in front of the five with herback to the class (see Diagram 2) and beginstelling a story with a fast delivery speed. Com-plicated words and slang are also included.

Diagram 2: IntroductionActivity Seating Arrangement

> < <> < <> < < <> < <> < <

When it is clear to everyone that the gist ofthe story is not being understood by thosestanding at the front, the trainer stops and asksthe entire group, "Do you understand?" Inconversations with native English speakers,Japanese learners tend to answer, "Yes, I un-derstand," nodding their heads in agreement,despite the fact that the conversation may bequite incomprehensible. As mentioned above,admitting a lack of understanding implies acriticism of the other party in the exchange. In


this exaggerated context, however, it is obvi-ous what the trainer is trying to emphasize andlearners usually answer in the negative.

The trainer then queries, "If you do notunderstand a conversation, what should youdo?" While asking this question, the trainermakes an abrupt gesture' with the arm thrustforward, palm up and out similar to that of apolice officer halting traffic. This should elicitthe idea of interrupting when one does notunderstand a conversation. The trainer thenwrites the word STOP on the board and elicitsthe language used to "stop" a conversation.

Once the trainer has elicited the key phrases("Excuse me?" and "Pardon me?"), she writesthem on the board and recommences the story.When a learner attempts to stop the trainer byapplying a key phrase, the learner is allowed tosit and is replaced by another person.

During this activity, the trainer is seated sothat the learners are placed in a physically andpsychologically superior position. Though theymay feel uncomfortable standing, subjects lookdown on the trainer and, therefore, should findit easier to interrupt the latter's speech, whichis basically a difficult monologue. Having thefive at the front face the rest of the class whilethe trainer is seated with her back to them,relegates the trainer to a secondary position asthe learners at the front become the focus ofattention. This effectively provides a model forthose learners who will subsequently be askedto come forward. For this reason, learners whoare obviously more confident should be calledupon to perform first.

When eliciting key language, variations areacceptable (e.g., "I beg your pardon?" wheninterrupting). The need for politeness, how-ever, must be emphasized ("What?" vs."Sorry?") and modifications made where ap-propriate ("Just a minute, please." vs. "Just aminute.").

After they have interrupted, learners are al-lowed to sit and are replaced by a classmate. Byrotating the individuals at the front, everyoneapplies the new conversation strategies. In asmall class, the entire group may come to the

153

front, and as confident members apply thestrategy and are seated, less outgoing learnersare usually motivated to perform with the im-pending threat of being the last left standing atthe front. (But never leave only one learner asthis can undermine what little confidence hehas. Instead, have the remaining two or threeparticipants sit en masse as you state, "Nomore time left.").

At this stage, it is not necessary for learnersto comprehend as they interrupt and requestrepetition. Applying the strategy is enoughand understanding will be dealt with in subse-quent stages. For many learners it is sufficient,and often a major personal, psychological ac-complishment, to interrupt an interlocutor whois regarded as being in a socially superiorposition (in this case, a teacher).

UNDERSTANDOnce several learners have had the opportu-

nity to apply the strategy and sit, the class isasked, "Why don't you understand?" Typi-cally, the speed of the trainer's speech is iden-tified as the main obstacle to greater compre-hension (the instructor deliberately speaks rap-idly) and learners are asked what they mightsay to overcome this difficulty (e.g., "Couldyou speak slower/more slowly, please?"). Thelanguage is noted on the board and the "con-trol-and-sit" activity continues with learnersallowed to sit if they interrupt or ask the trainerto speak slower.

As the trainer speaks more slowly, the keywords which are causing comprehension diffi-culty become apparent (usually signified bylearners trying to repeat the word with a risingintonation). At this point the question "Whatdoes that mean?" is elicited and written on theboard as well. Where time is limited or thedesired question is not forthcoming, four blankscan be drawn on the board and the controlquestion repeated until learners identify andfill in the missing words.

The trainer repeats the above question sev-eral times, occasionally inserting the wordwhich learners have previously identified as

154

causing comprehension difficulty ("What doesthat mean?" "What does hectic mean?"), andthen gestures a writing motion with her hands(left hand as paper, right hand holding "pen")to elicit "How do you spell that?" which is alsowritten on the board. As mentioned earlier, byrequesting the spelling, certain words maybecome recognisable'.

The trainer, at this time, reviews the firststage by saying, "If you don't understand, stopthe conversation with 'Excuse me' or 'Pardonme ?" Learners then review the key questionsfrom the second stage ("Could you speakslower, please ?" "What does that mean ?" "Howdo you spell that?") and are asked the purposeof these key questions. Usually learners willrespond with "understand," but if not, the trainercan prompt learners by asking, "What are you


trying to do by asking these questions? Youwant to ...?" Once elicited, UNDERSTAND isplaced as the heading for the key phrases of thesecond stage. At this point, the language for theSTOP and UNDERSTAND stages is brieflydrilled for more fluent delivery.

CHECKThe trainer now introduces the third and

final stage by saying "First, if you don't under-stand, you must stop the conversation. Second,you try to understand. Finally, when you thinkyou understand, what should you always do?"This question should help learners recognizethe need to confirm or "check" their under-standing. The trainer now writes CHECK onthe board and elicits language such as "Youmean...?" on the board. Variations should be

Diagram 3: Blackboard Arrangement of Control

(b) 1. STOP

(c) Excuse me?

(d) Paxdon me?

(a) CONTROL

(h) 2. UNDERSTAND

(e) Could you speakslowex please?

(f) What does that mean?(g) How do you spell that?

(a) herding /es andel alitreses9th b.697

(i) 3. CHECK

(1) Youmean...?

encouraged (e.g., "Are you saying...?", "Inother words..."), but "You mean..." is easier toproduce and is used with high frequency innative speaker speech (Faerch and Kasper,1983).

By paraphrasing, learners demonstratewhether or not they have understood what theother person has been trying to communicate.Whereas a simple "I get it" or "Oh, yeah" maysuffice in exchanges between native speakers,for Japanese EFL learners comprehension isoften far from complete and, in extreme cases,totally incorrect. Learners should be encour-

aged to verbalize their interpretation of theother person's meaning.

To reinforce paraphrasing with the use of"Do you mean...?", the traineror selected learn-ers mime items based on a theme (e.g., "I'mshopping. What do I want to buy?"), as the restof the class guesses ("You mean apples?").The words should be familiar to the learnerssince the goal is to have them use "Do youmean...?", rather than to test their knowledgeof vocabulary. As an added incentive to volun-teer answers, the class can be divided intoteams with points given for correct answers.


After the presentation of this final section,the CONTROL reference frame is complete(for final blackboard arrangement, see Dia-gram 3). A handout detailing the above stepsand language is given out and the learners areinvited to make comments or ask questionsbefore moving on to activities in which themodel can be applied. In the following section,five such activities are given in detail.

APPLICATIONS FOR CONTROLClass & TrainerProcedure: Trainer relates story, learners ap-

ply receptive strategies and sit.Pressures: Learners sit only after strategies areapplied.

As in the introductory stage when the vari-ous control steps and language were elicited,five learners stand and control the trainer as shetalks on a prepared subject. Learners are al-lowed to take a seat, and choose someone elseto replace them only after they have applied thenew strategies. Given a story which is reason-ably interesting, learners usually cooperate.More confident, assertive individuals gener-ally apply the strategies immediately and pro-vide a behavioural model for the others. If,however, a learner is obviously having diffi-culty or has become flustered, he is incon-spicuously allowed to sit. For example, if onelearner asks for spelling, the entire group at thefront can write the word and sit as a group.

Initial introduction to this type of activity iscomparatively time-consuming. In a regularlanguage course of some duration, however, itcan be shortened (3-5 minutes) and used at thebeginning of each lesson to review the strate-gies and introduce key words or syntax fromthat day's material.

Group & GroupProcedure: Information exchange between fourgroups.Pressures: Distance, time limit, "test", groupresponsibility.

The class is divided into four teams, eachlocated in a corner of the room. Each team is

155

given a different card containing personal in-formation about someone (at LIOJ we use"Mystery Teacher" cardssee Diagram 4).Each card contains words which are unfamil-

Diagram 4: Mystery Teacher Card

My stery teacher *1 is from theCity of Brotherly Love. She'scheerful and has tons of energy .She's a certified scuba freak andspends her holidays with tanksstrapped on her back.

iar, or used in a sense not within the learners'command of the language ("a scuba freak"),semantically different from meanings previ-ously encountered ("tons of energy"), and ofsome intrinsic interest value ("City of Broth-erly Love"). The trainer circulates and as learn-ers encounter difficulties, they request assis-tance, such as explanations (that is, receptivestrategies applied to a written language source).

When assisting, the trainer distances herselfphysically from the group, thus forcing themembers to speak up while applying the strat-egies. The trainer should also apply strategieswhen necessary to serve as a model (asking"How do you spell that?" if pronunciation isunclear).

Once all the information is understood, theinformation cards are collected and the teamsreunited in one circle. Each group is expectedto summarize the information concerning their"mystery teacher" ("Our teacher is a scubafreak and...") for the other groups. A two-minute time limit is set for each group and theclass is told there will be a "quiz" afterwards sothey must understand the information from allfour groups. This provides learners with aspecific reason for efficiently applying thestrategies. Team members are seated oppositeeach other in a "mixed" circle (see Diagram 5).This guarantees cooperative retelling of eachstory and encourages eye contact which leads

156

to peer assistance with control strategies, suchas interruption.

Once the information from the cards hasbeen exchanged, the original groups are re-formed and quizzed about the details given by


another group. This quiz could take manyforms, such as learners asking each other or thetrainer asking each team in turn. Whatever theform, this "quiz" should be simple and enjoy-able.

Diagram 5: Seating Position of Mixed Circle

AA BBA

T

C DCC DD

TB

AD

C DAB

CD

C A

B BA C

Learner 1 & Learner 2Procedure: Information exchange between in-dividuals.Pressures: Back-to-back seating arrangement,noise level, pair responsibility, completed pairsstand.

Essentially, this activity consists of a pairwork information-gap activity, in this casegiving basic information (name and number)over the "telephone." To simulate a telephone-like situation, learners are positioned back-to-back, thus depriving them of visual, non-ver-bal, culture-specific cues (such as the slighttilting of head accompanied by a sharp intakeof breath to indicate a lack of understanding inJapanese). Also, as pairs perform simulta-neously in rows (see Diagram 6), they mustspeak up in order to be heard and complete thetask correctly.

Once finished, the pairs stand and the trainerchecks the results. Because the completed pairsstand, the others are aware of how far behindthey are. This provides an impetus to workfaster so as not to be the last group left sitting.When the majority of learners are finished, thetrainer can say there is no more time so as notto make the last pair conspicuous.

Learner] & GroupProcedure: One learner applies strategies toelicit and clarify information from a group,then arranges the learners in order so that theirinformation forms a logical story.Pressures: Time limit, group responsibility,noise level.

Diagram 6: Pair Seating

< PAIR 1 >

< PAIR 2 >

< PAIR 3 >

< PAIR 4 >< PAIR 5 >In this activity, students are divided into

small groups or teams with one student, theteam captain (Si), from each group, separatedfrom the groupideally in another room. Eachteam member, except Sl, is given one sentenceof a story (all the team members' sentencestogether form a complete story). The sentencesare designed to meet the aims of the training


task and each contains words which requireclarification. In the story sample given below,for example, cognates are replaced by a lexicalalternative [ "bucket" ("baketsu") >"pair].Items which are taught at an elementary levelin the Japanese education system are also re-placed by a more complicated word ("flower">"fuchsia"), while others are combined withcomplex modifiers ("bread knife" > "ser-rated knife") to force learners to apply thespecific strategies to complete the task. Thereshould also be clear sequencing clues (e.g., aproper name followed by a pronoun, use of"next" and "finally"), and lastly, the storyitself should be flexible enough so that onesentence can be removed to accomodate odd-sized groups without interfering with mean-ing.

Once each student has clarified his sentencewith the trainer and understands it completely,the sentence papers are collected and the cap-tains, Sls, are asked to join their teams. Eachteam member then tells his sentence to Sl, whouses the control strategies to clarify details hedoes not understand. (Team members takeover the trainer's role.) The team captain, notthe team members, arranges everyone in alogical order to form a story and the group sits.Once all the groups are seated, students telltheir stories and compare results.

Sample storySusan took some flowers out of a pail of water.Next, she used a serrated knife to cut the stems.Finally, she put the fuchsias in a vase.

BENEFITSIt is important that learners be "informed"

learners. In discussing learner strategies,Wenden states that, "informed training tellsstudents that a strategy can be helpful and why. . . Such training has been proven to be moreeffective. Students use the learned strategymore frequently and more effectively"(1986:316). With this in mind, learners areasked, at the end of the application phase, toidentify the possible advantages of "control-

157

ling" a conversation. Ideally, several benefitscan be elicited from the group, including thoselisted below.

LexisThe trainer asks learners to identify what

they have learned in the training activities.Normally, they will mention new vocabulary.It can be pointed out that by controlling con-versations one is able to acquire the vocabularyappropriate to that particular situation, an im-portant consideration for those who will usethe TL in a specific work or academic context.Another important point is that not all vocabu-lary items are in the dictionary and so bycontrolling, learners' acquisition of vocabu-lary will become more contextualized and ef-ficient, without the limitations a dictionary-dependent learner has.

PronunciationThe learners are next asked to identify the

words they did not understand. Initially, theyshould identify which words they have previ-ously studied but did not recognize. Ideally,learners should, realize that it is often the pro-nunciation which makes supposedly familiarwords incomprehensible when heard in speech.By extension, this highlights the potential fordeveloping a more sophisticated awareness ofEnglish as it is spoken and perhaps provides away to improve one's own pronunciation in theTL. The trainer may also wish to emphasizethat English is used internationally and anyspeaker of the TL can ultimately be under-stood, regardless of their particular pronuncia-tion, if the learner uses control strategies.

Interlocutor AssistanceLearners are asked to speculate about the

behaviour of the person they are talking with ifthey do not control effectively. If, for example,they rod their heads and pretend to understand,the conversation could become progressivelymore difficult. They are then asked to considerthe other person's speech behaviour if learners"control." In the latter situation, the other per-

158

son may adjust her speech accordingly if pro-vided with a more precise idea of the learner'slinguistic ability.

ConfidenceLearners are asked how they felt when first

called upon to stand in front of the class andcontrol the instructor's monologue (probablyuncomfortable and nervous). Then, they areasked to describe how they felt after returningto the front several times. Typically, they willdescribe the experience as less painful andtheir own behaviour as more confident. Throughcontinued use, the process should become morecomfortable and natural in the classroom, andideally, transfer to situations in the real world.

Learner IndependenceLearners are now asked where they could

possibly apply such receptive strategies in thereal world. The trainer should point out thatone need not be in the classroom with aninstructor or even with native speakers in orderto learn and improve one's skills in the TL. Aslong as the TL is being used, such strategiescan be applied anywhere with anyone.

SyntaxThough not obvious in the activities, appli-

cation of the various strategies inside and out-side the classroom can help learners develop amore comprehensive understanding of English,including syntax. When asked, for example, ifthey were "taking the test" (the present con-tinuous tense), a group of engineers assumedthey were to be given an exam during thatlesson. The instructor was actually referring toa test which was to be given the followingweek. By asking for clarification (i.e., control-ling), the use of the present continuous forreferring to future events was learned.

FINAL APPLICATIONAfter the above benefits of applying control

strategies have been covered, a final activitycan be used for reinforcement.Procedure: General knowledge quiz with learn-

34


ers in teams.Pressures: Specific team responsibility (an-swer card), time limit, points.

Once learners have identified the variousbenefits to be had from applying receptivestrategies, one final opportunity is provided fortheir application. The trainer divides the learn-ers into groups and gives each group a cardwith the team number on it. The trainer asks aseries of trivia-type questions and only theteam member holding the card may answer forhis group, though assistance in the form ofwhispered consultations is allowed. The trainerasks the questions quickly and, of course, learn-ers must apply the receptive strategies in orderto understand and answer correctly. Each timea strategy is applied or an answer attempted thecard is passed to another team member, evenwhen the guess is incorrect. In other words,there is no penalty for incorrect answers.(Should the individual holding the card remainsilent, however, he is subject to peer pressurein the form of verbal encouragement, prod-ding, or glares.) If an answer is correct, theteam is allotted a point on the board. The firstteam to reach five points is declared the win-ner.

CONCLUSIONThere is a need to give more attention to the

process of learning in order to better equipindividuals for conversational exchanges andto create a more self-sufficient language learner.Although classroom discussion of and com-ment on specific strategies may be of some use,it would seem more productive to have indi-viduals identify such strategies as they occur inwell-integrated classroom training which in-cludes "application or practice [incorporated]into a particular set of language training activi-ties" (Wenden, 1986:318).

With regard to these activities, there is aclear need to take into consideration the cul-tural backgrounds, basic underlying behavioursand "types" of learners (cf. Tarone's "HighInput" and "Low Input Generators" in Faerchand Kasper, 1983). In the control training ac-


tivities various pedagogic pressures, such astime limits and points, were applied to provideimmediate identifiable goals to improve moti-vation and overcome culturally-imposed bar-riers to communication. The stress inherent inthe pedagogy is relative to the instructor'sapplication of it; she must apply such a meth-odology with sensitivity and skill to encouragelearners and not undermine their sometimeslimited confidence. Moreover, recognition forindividual and group success (e.g., praise fromthe instructor or applause from the class) canprovide learners with a strong motivation forusing the language (Gardner, 1985).

The potential exists to train learners in theapplication of various receptive and produc-tion strategies in the ESL/EFL classroom, ei-ther as separate components of a lesson orprogram, or integrated into the course. Differ-ent classroom methodologies and proficiencylevels can also allow for such training; elemen-tary learners in a Total Physical Response-style class (Stern, 1983) request repetitions("Pardon me?") when they miss a command,and advanced learners reiterate an instructor'sdirections or comments in the classroom usingparaphrase strategies ("You mean...").

If language learners are able to efficientlyapply a range of receptive and productionstrategies in the classroom, they will be betterprepared to creatively engage in and exploit tofull advantage every exchange in the targetlanguage.

NoteA videotape of the initial components of the

above training procedure being applied with Japa-nese business people is available (NTSC format,VHS or BETA). Please send a blank videotape, self-

159

addressed envelope, and international postal orderto cover mailing costs to:

Language Institute of JapanAsia Center, 4-14-1 ShiroyamaOdawara-shi, Kanagawa-ken 250 Japan

Footnotes1. Gestures are employed throughout to present thekey stages, strategies and language. They are laterused as cues to elicit the above.

2. In fact, though useful in the classroom, learnersdid not apply this question outside the classroom ina study carried out by Maybin with Japanese learn-ers studying at Essex University in the U.K.

ReferencesBrown, G., & Yule, G. (1963). Teaching the spoken

language. Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press.Domoto, A. (1987). Student Returnees, Student

Misfits. Japan Quarterly, 34(1).Du lay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S. (1982). Lan-

guage two. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Faerch, C., & Kasper, G. (1983). Strategies in inter-

language communication. U.K.: Longman.Gardner, R.C..(1985). Social psychology and sec-

ond language learning-The role of attitudes andmotivation. New York: Arnold.

Mizutani, N. (1982). Nihongo Notes 2. Tokyo:Japan Times Press.

Stern, H.H. (1983). Fundamental concepts of lan-guage teaching. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.

Wenden, A.L. (1986). Incorporating learner train-ing in the classroom. Systems, 14(3), 315-325.

35

Journal of MULTILINGUAL andMULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

Editor Derrick Sharp Review Editor Colin WilliamsAssociate Editor John Edwards

This journal, with its truly international editorial board, has done much to further the courseof multilingual and multicultural studies in the thirteen years since it was first published.

Volume 13 No. 1 & 2CODES WITCHING

A Special Double Issue Edited by Carol M. EastmanCodeswitching as an Urban Language-contact Phenomenon; Cm / M Eastman.

Part 1: Codeswitching Theory and Examples - AfricaComparing Codeswitching and Borrowing; Carol Myers-Scotton.French in Urban Lubumbashi Swahili; MagaeM Gysels.Codeswitching and the Exclusivity of Social Identities: Some Data from CampusKiswahili; Jan Blommaert.Codeswitching in Bukavu; Dio'ier L. Goyvaerts.

The Insiders' View and the Description of Codeswitching in Dakar; Leigh Swigart.Socializing Multilingualism: Codeswitching in Kenyan Primary Schools; MarilynMerritt with Ailk Cleghom, fated Abagi and Grace Bakny.

Part 2: Codeswitching Theory and Examples - Canada and BelgiumThe Politics of Codeswitching and Language Choice; Monica Heller.

French-Dutch Codeswitching in Brussels: Social Factors Explaining its Disappearence;JeankeTheffers-Daller.

Part 3: Codeswitching in Contexts of Language Learning, Dialect & Style Shift.Codeswitching: Black English and Standard Englishin the African-American LinguisticRepertoire; Charles E. Debose.Codeswitching, Convergence and Compliance; Meredith Burt.Chinese Preschool Codeswitching; Catherine S FarrisCodeswitching for Humor and Ethnic Identitys; Marianne Stolen.

ISSN 0143-4632 6 x p a. Library/Institution Individual/School StudentCI 1 year train Vol 13 1992 £ 73 00 US$150 00 £25 00 US$ 52 00 £14 00 US$30.00

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714 Clevedon, Avon, England BS21 7SJ

Differences in N/NN Teachers'Evaluation of Japanese Students'English Speaking Ability.Yuji Nakamura


Winter 1992Page 161

INTRODUCTIONSince the emergence of the notion of com-

municative competence, the role of oral profi-ciency has become more central in languageteaching than it was in the era of structuralism.In response to this phenomenon, tests of speak-ing ability have also changed. In such tests thecrucial element is the rating of students' per-formance. A few problems arise, however,when testing English speaking ability. First,the definition of speaking ability may not beclearly established. Second, the meaning ofcategories used to rate speaking ability, includ-ing newer ones derived from communicativecompetence, may not be understood in thesame way by both Japanese English teachersand native English teachers. Third, these crite-ria may not be considered equally important byboth groups of teachers in evaluating the En-glish speaking ability of Japanese students.

A primary goal of foreign language teachingis to enable students to communicate withnative speakers. Thus, in foreign languagetests, especially speaking tests, native speakerevaluation standards are crucial when ratingcategories are decided. Following is a look athow Japanese English teachers and native En-glish teachers evaluate the speaking ability ofJapanese students.

HYPOTHESES1. In some criteria there may be significant

differences in the rating standards of nativeand Japanese English teachers.

2. When there are no significant differencesbetween the two groups of evaluators, somecriteria will be rated higher by both Japaneseand native teachers while both groups of teach-ers will give lower points to other criteria.

SUBJECTSSeventy-six college English teachers--32

Japanese English teachers and 44 native En-glish teachers--were chosen as subjects. Allsubjects had been teaching English at the col-lege level for at least two years.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENTA 59-item questionnaire (see Appendix) was

used as the research instrument. All items wererated on a 1-5 scale ( I =not important, 5=im-portant). These 59 items consisted of 11 maincategories and 48 sub-categories which wereselected mainly from the following foursources: informal interviews with the subjects;Richards' (1990) notion of conversation strat-egies; Nakamura's (1990) previous work withnative speaker evaluation points; Bachman's(1990) linguistic theory of CommunicativeLanguage Ability.

To arrive at the 59 items, pilot tests wereconducted with three groups: native Englishteachers, Japanese English teachers, and na-tive speakers who were not teachers. This wasto ensure that in the final questionnaire, allsubjects would clearly understand the mean-ing of each item.

PROCEDURE1. Two hundred college English teachers at

four conferences were asked to answer andmail in questionnaires. A total of 76 completedquestionnaires were returned.

2. The mean score and the standard deviation

Yuji Nakamura is an assistant professor of Englishat Chofu Gakuen Women' s Junior College. He is inthe doctoral program in English Teaching at Inter-national Christian University.

162

of each group (Japanese English teachers andnative English teachers) were computed. T-tests were conducted to elicit any significantdifferences between the mean scores of bothgroups.

FINDINGSTable 1:

Two main categories, Fluency and Discoursefactors show significant differences in the meanscores between the two groups. The Japaneseand native English teachers also differed on the


order of importance of some categories (seeMean). Native English teachers ranked Flu-ency the most important, followed by Dis-course factors and Content. In contrast, Japa-nese teachers ranked Content as the most im-portant category, followed by Pronunciation(suprasegmental), and Vocabulary use. Flu-ency was ranked as least important.

Thus, in the 11 main categories, there aredifferences in the order of importance of cat-egories as well as in the differences of the meanscores between the two subject groups.

Table 1

Mean S D t

Japanese Native Japanese Native

1. Grammatical accuracy 3.09 3.09 .73 .80 .022. Vocabulary use 3.53 3.73 .80 .66 1.173. Pronunciation (segmental features) 3.44 3.11 .95 .95 1.474. Pronunciation (suprasegmental features) 3.59 3.30 .95 .82 1.465. Fluency 2.87 3.97 .69 .84 5.65***

6. Discourse factors (cohesion and coherence) 3.25 3.89 .72 .84 3.46***7. Content 3.84 3.82 1.02 1.00 .11

8. Level of speaker's confidence 3.34 3.43 1.13 1.07 .359. Sociolinguistic competence 3.28 3.36 .85 .84 .4210. Strategic competence 3.34 3.68 .94 .93 1.5611. Illocutionary competence 3.19 3.43 .82 1.02 1.12

..* p <.001, two-tailedN.B. Japanese Teachers (n=32), Native Teachers (n=44)

Table 2:There are no significant differences in the

Fluency sub-categories in Table 2, even thoughFluency, as one of the main categories, hadsignificant differences within the scope of the11 main categories. Table 2 also shows that

Frequency of uncompleted sentences and Cor-rect speed of speech, generally regarded as animportant factor of "fluency," are rated as lessimportant by both groups of teachers, whileEase of speaking is rated as highly importantby both groups.

Table 2

Mean SD

Fluency Japanese Native Japanese Native

1. Proper use of pauses 3.25 3.14 .76 .88 .59

2. Frequency of uncompleted sentences 2.94 2.86 .72 1.09 .33

3. Correct speed of speech 3.03 2.98 .93 .88 .26

4. Smoothness of the expansion of the topic 3.38 3.36 .87 .99 .05

5. Ease of speaking 3.47 3.91 1.05 .96 1.90

38BEST COPY AVA1LA LE

is

DIFFERENCES IN N/NN TEACHERS' EVALUATIONS

Table 3:None of the Discourse factors subcategories

showed any significant differences in Table 3,although the main category Discourse factorsshowed significant differences within the

163

framework of the 11 main categories. Table 3does indicate that Logical combination of sen-tences and Flow of ideas are rather highlyevaluated by the native teachers of English.

Table 3

Discourse factors (cohesion and coherence)

Mean

Japanese Native

SD

Japanese Native

1. Logical combination of sentences 3.72 4.05 .99 .81 1.582. Skills in paragraph development 3.44 3.16 1.08 1.33 .983. Flow of ideas 3.69 4.00 1.03 .94 1.37

Table 4:Although there were significant differences

in only two of the main categories, Table 4shows that significant differences exist withinsome of the subcategories of the remainingnine main categories. Some noteworthy ex-amples are: Use of grammatically correct wordorder is more highly evaluated by JapaneseEnglish teachers; the scores for Proper use of

articles are very low in both groups, thoughthere is a slight significant difference; nativeEnglish teachers rate Proper use of tone veryhighly, indicating a dislike for monotonal sen-tences; native teachers also put more stress onAbility to start and finish a conversation, Abil-ity to repair trouble spots in conversations,and Ability to manage the utterance act.

Table 4

Mean S D t


Grammatical accuracy- Use of grammatically correct word order 4.00 3.52 .86 .79 2.34*- Length of utterances 2.60 3.09 .84 .83 2.57*- Correct use of noun-verb agreement 2.81 3.41 1.03 1.10 2.39*- Ability to use plural forms of nouns 2.88 3.36 .98 1.04 2.08*- Proper use of articles 2.50 2.84 .76 .99 1.63***

Pronunciation- Proper use of tone 3.31 3.86 .74 .96 2.73**

Level of speaker's confidence- Speaker's sureness of phonological accuracy 3.16 2.64 .72 .84 2.83**

Strategic competence- Ability to start and finish a conversation 3.41 3.98 .88 .93 2.71**- Ability to repair trouble spots in conversation 3.41 4.11 .98 .84 3.38**- Ability to use conversational routines 3.09 3.52 .69 .79 2.46*

Illocutionary competence- Ability to manage the utterance act 3.50 3.93 .92 .87 2.09*Ability to manage the propositional act 3.19 3.66 .64 .86 2.61*

- Abilty to manage the illocutionary act 3.34 3.66 .79 .86 1.63***

* p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .10, two-tailed

BEST_COPY AVAILABLE

164

DISCUSSIONThe results presented in Table 1 support the

first hypothesis that there may be significantdifferences between native and Japanese En-glish rating standards in some criteria. How-ever, none of the sub-categories of Fluencyand Discourse factors showed any significantdifferences. This may be because the scores ofFluency and Discourse factors in Table 1 arenot the summed total of individual sub-cat-egory scores of Tables 2 and 3. That is, in Table1, the raters evaluated Fluency and Discourse

factors holistically without paying special at-tention to the details of each category, and thescores of each category were computed andanalysed within the scope of the 11 main cat-egories. In contrast, as Tables 2 and 3 show,raters gave points to each subcategory and thescores were computed and analysed individu-ally. Perhaps the raters' evaluation of the twocategories, Fluency and Discourse factors, is


different, depending on whether they are evalu-ating the two categories within the overallframework of the 11 main categories or fromseparate sub-categories of each.

Furthermore, while only two main catego-ries out of 1 I showed any significant differ-ences, sub-categories of the remaining ninemain categories did show significant differ-ences. There may be two reasons for this dis-crepancy. First, as mentioned earlier, the scoresof the main categories are not the summed totalof the scores of the sub-categories. Second, theraters could evaluate sub-categories in detail,while they could only evaluate the main cat-egories from the wide, overall perspective.

The results in Table 5 support the secondhypothesis that when there are not significantdifferences between the two groups of evalua-tors, some criteria will be rated higher by bothgroups of subjects, while both groups will givelower points to other criteria.

Table 5

Mean S D t


Items which were given lower points

Frequency of uncompleted sentences 2.94 2.86 .72 1.09 .33

- How the speaker produces semi-vowels 3.00 2.86 .86 1.09 .60

Items which were given higher points

- Content 3.84 3.82 1.02 1.00 .11

Stress 3.88 3.89 .91 .84 .06

Rhythm 3.94 3.89 .80 .78 .28

- Intonation 3.97 3.82 .74 .82 .83

CONCLUSIONThe profiles of rating standards of both Japa-

nese English teachers and native English teach-ers in evaluating Japanese students' Englishspeaking ability have been described. Partialsupport for the two hypotheses was also found.However, the deviation of the scores betweenthe main and the sub-categories still exists.Therefore, in future research, the construct

4.0

validity and the content validity of both maincategories and sub-categories must be deter-mined. This will be of great value for consid-ering rating criteria for tests of English speak-ing ability.

AcknowledgmentThis paper is based on a presentation at the 30th AnnualConvention of the Japan Association of CollegeEnglishTeachers (JACET), Hokkaido University, 1991.

DIFFERENCES IN N/NN TEACHERS' EVALUATIONS

ReferencesBachman, L.F. (1990). Fundamental consider-

ations in language testing. Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press.

Nakamura, Y. (1990). Varieties of native speak-

165

ers' evaluation of non-native speakers' spokenEnglish. The Bulletin of the Society of JuniorCollege English and Literature, 19, 71-84.

Richards, J. (1990). The language teaching matrix.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

AppendixPart IDirections: When you evaluate Japanese students'English speaking ability in class, how much weightdo you put on each category below?Please circle one choice for each category. See theexample below.

notimportant important

EXAMPLE 1 2 3 4 5

Grammatical accuracyVocabulary usePronunciation (segmentalfeatures)

N.B. If you are not sure of the definition of the elevencategories below, please refer to the following pageswhere you can find some specific items in eachcategory. not

important important1. Grammatical accuracy 1 2 3 4 52. Vocabulary use3. Pronunciation (segmental features)4. Pronunciation (suprasegmental features)5. Fluency6. Discourse (cohesion & coherence factors)7. Content8. Level of speaker's confidence9. Sociolinguistic competence10. Strategic competence11. Illocutionary competence

Part IIIn Part II, each category of Part I will be analysedin detail. Please circle one choice for each itemas in Part I.

notimportant

Grammatical accuracy 1 212. Use of grammatically correct word order13. Level of sentence complexity14. Length of utterances15. Correct use of noun-verb agreement16. Correct use of tense/aspect form17. Ability to use plural forms of nouns18. Proper use of articles19. Proper use of personal pronouns20. Proper use of prepositions21. Use of complete sentencesVocabulary use22. Recognition of nuances23. Variety of words24. Choice of idiomsPronunciation (segmental features)25. How the speaker produces vowels26. How the speaker produces consonants27. How the speaker produces semivowels28. How the speaker produces diphthongs29. How the speaker produces clusters of sounds

BEST COPY AVALABLE

important3 4 5

notimportant important

Pronunciation (suprasegmental features) 1 2 3 4 530. The naturalness of stress31. The naturalness of the intonation32. The naturalness of the rhythm33. The level of the tone34. Proper use of tone (i.e., not monotonicpronunciation)Fluency35. Proper use of pauses36. Frequency of uncompleted sentences37. Correct speed of speech38. Smoothness of the expansion of the topic39. Ease of speakingDiscourse (cohesion & coherence factors)40. Logical combination of sentences41. Skills in paragraph development42. Flow of ideasContent43. The creativity or the imaginativenessof the speechLevel of speaker's confidence44. Speaker's certainty of the grammaticalaccuracy45. Speaker's sureness of the phonologicalaccuracy46. Speaker's confidence in the choice ofwordsSociolinguistic competence (difference inregister or difference in variation inlanguage use)47. Ability to handle the field of discourse(the appropriate language use in thelanguage context)48. Ability to handle the mode of discourse(the ability to attest to the differencesbetween written and spoken variation inlanguage use)49. Ability to handle the tenor of discourse(the use of appropriate style among theparticipants in certain language use contexts)Strategic competence (in the case ofinterview or role-play)50. Ability to manage turn-taking (taking aturn, holding a turn and relinquishing a turn)51. Ability to start and finish a conversation52. Ability to initiate and respond to remarkson a broad range of topics53. Ability to develop and continue speakingon topics54. Ability to repair trouble spots in conver-sation (communication breakdown or comp-rehension problems)55. Ability to use conversational fillers andsmall talk56. Ability to use conversational routinesIllocutionary competence (in the case ofinterview or role-play)57. Ability to manage the utterance act (theutterance act: the act of saying something58. Ability to manage the propositional act(a propositional act: referring to something,or expressing a predication about something)59. Ability to manage the illocutionary act(the illocutionary act: the function (e.g.,assertion, warning, request) performed insaying something)

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Countering Language Plagiarism:A. Materials ApproachPaul Fanning


Page 167

The term plagiarism is used here to meancopying sections of a published text verbatiminto a piece of academic writing, and thenpresenting them as if the language (not prima-rily the ideas) were one's own. The particularinterest of this article is plagiarism by ESL andEFL students in English-medium institutes ofhigher education. In this context, plagiarismgenerally goes against the established normsand is frowned upon. With some students pla-giarism proves to be remarkably persistent, sothat it quickly becomes familiar to most teach-ers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP).

Despite the prevalence of plagiarism, thereare few published EAP materials aimed atcombating it. It is arguable, however, that astubborn problem like plagiarism might ben-efit from lots of such materials.

The causes of plagiarism that are specific tonon-native speaker (NNS) students are of threetypes: a different cultural outlook, poor lan-guage proficiency, and ignorance of suitableprocedures. The remedies will involve not justconditioning (or deconditioning) but also thepresentation of the cultural attitudes that makeplagiarism so unacceptable. It will be taken forgranted that the students' instructors in othersubjects actively proscribe plagiarism; other-wise attempting to eradicate it is almost certainto fail.

Culture in general may be seen as knowl-edge available from other people rather thanthrough one's own senses (Goodenough, 1957).This general cultural knowledge takes the formof underlying concepts, attitudes, expectations,perceptions, and also familiarity with resultantbehaviours. There are two sorts of culturaldemands made on the EAP learner: linguisticand procedural. Linguistic cultural demandsare the need to be familiar with the superficial

language behaviours most important in EAPand, also, to appreciate their underlying con-cepts, attitudes, and so on. Procedural culturaldemands, on the other hand, are the need toacquire both the non-linguistic behaviours andthe underlying knowledge.

If this analysis is correct, culture is actuallya major part, though not all, of the knowledgerequired for both linguistic and establishedprocedural behaviours. Discussions of culturalfactors in language learning concentrate on theunderlying knowledge, particularly knowledgewhich varies from one language community toanother, rather than on the observablebehaviours. Henceforth, this narrower concep-tion of culture will be referred to as socio-cultural knowledge. It is the cultural learningmost likely to be overlooked in attempts todiscourage plagiarism. These two types ofdual-level cultural knowledgelinguistic andproceduralare readily exemplified withinEAP. Kaplan's (1966) socio-cultural norms ofdiscoursal crganization, and Clyne's (1987)linearity vs. digressiveness in, respectively,English and German essay styles, are examplesof varying linguistic practices based on differ-ent international or ethnic cultural outlooks.

Procedural knowledge in EAP often meansstudy skills. We might here refer to Ballard's(1984) comparison of Western and Japaneseattitudes to argumentative essays, or Hassan's(1988) discussion of how different spatial per-ceptions can result in different representationalprocedures.

Paul Fanning has been a lecturer in EAP atMiddlesex University since 1986. He teaches En-glish for Business and Economics to Europeanstudents and manages insessional EAP support forstudents from the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.

168

Turning away from international variation,Swales (1988) writes of "discourse communi-ties" which have "discoursal expectations,"the latter influencing the linguistic output ofthe community. This is cultural variation withinor across traditional "cultures" and impliesthat even members of the wider community inwhich a discourse community operates willlack some of the necessary knowledge. Theavoidance of plagiarism is similarly held hereto involve both narrower and wider culturalknowledge, thus explaining why even nativespeakers of English (NS) often have difficultywith it, too.

Analysis of PlagiarismThe following are basic requirements for avoid-ing plagiarism:1. A firm decision not to plagiarise2. Reading comprehension3. Note-taking skills (for lengthy data)4. Summary/paraphrase skills5. Quotation skills6. RecontextualisationThe first requirement is perhaps the most obvi-ously dependent on procedural knowledge.There appear to be two main socio-culturalbeliefs underlying Western rejection of plagia-rism:

(a) The West holds the ability to think inde-pendently as one of its most sacred learningobjectives. Textbook copying, I ike rote-learn-ing, is felt to minimise practice in this skill andpossibly to obstruct its acquisition.(b) Great store is placed by the idea of copy-right, incorporating as it does concepts ofcredit for and ownership of ideas and modes ofexpression. Plagiarism is clearly a breach ofcopyright.

Naturally, if students do not, for culturalreasons, hold the same underlying beliefs, thenthey will not understand what all the fuss isabout over plagiarism. These beliefs need to beexplained to them. Indications that a differentattitude to independent thinking (as manifestedby the use of rote-learning) may be quite ac-

44


ceptable in some cultures can be found in, forexample, Osterloh (1986) and Maley (1986).

By itself, however, the above socio-culturalknowledge will often not be enough to encour-age NNS to avoid plagiarism. A requisiteamount of linguistic skill is also needed; other-wise students may find plagiarism their onjyalternative (Swales, 1977). They will be facedwith the dilemma of either not plagiarising andfailing an assessment task, or plagiarising andat least having a chance to pass.

The next two basic requirements, readingcomprehension and note-taking, are generallanguage and study skills with as much appli-cation elsewhere as to the avoidance of plagia-rism. If, however, learners have been allowedto plagiarise in their home cultures, they maynot be used to persevering to understand par-ticularly difficult parts of source texts. Theywill have always been able to sidestep a prob-lem by copying the troublesome piece of textblindly or learning it off pat. (Such blind copy-ing might explain some of the ungrammaticallinkage of plagiarised and non-plagiarised lan-guage so often seen in partly-plagiarised es-says.) The special anti-plagiarism learning pointfor such learners, then, is to appreciate anddevelop the true level of perseverance thatproper comprehension of academic texts de-mands. Likewise, if learners have always re-lied on plagiarising, they are likely to viewnote-taking from books as only a means ofachieving easier revision for examinations.They will, therefore, need to understand thevalue of taking notes for essay writing. Morewill be said later about how notes can helpcombat plagiarism.

The fourth requirement is summary/para-phrase skills. Special attention is given here toparaphrase, as summary is again less specificto the avoidance of plagiarism. Students writ-ing an essay need to know when paraphrasingis required and how to do it. The content andthe length of a source text can make paraphras-ing the obvious strategy. Anatomical descrip-tions, for example, are hard to summarise andobviously call for paraphrase, and it may be the

COUNTERING LANGUAGE PLAGIARISM 169

only option when the text is a single sentence.There are two aspects of knowing how to

paraphrase. One is the question ofwhat sort ofparaphrase to employ. Although technically aparaphrase might be defined as a retention ofmeaning despite alteration of at least one word(in position or identity), a satisfactory avoid-ance of plagiarism ought to involve more thanmere synonym-substitution ("near copy" inthe words of Campbell 1990), even on a grandscale. An example of a much more radicalparaphrase might be the rendering of "Freshmarkets must be sought" as "A quest for freshmarkets is essential."

There are at least two dangers associatedwith synonym-substitution: it can lead to oddand even unintelligible English, and it is lessindicative of the true understanding that isneeded for independent thinking. One does nothave to understand a sentence to change one ortwo words, but retaining a meaning whileradically altering the surface structure of asentence does suggest that the learner iscognitively processing something more thanjust words (Bransford & Franks, 1971).Although using the right sort of paraphrase isan example of study skill behaviour that nativespeakers also need to master, there can be asocio-cultural dimension as well. Some non-native speakers seem to find it more difficult toget away from synonym-substitution. It is truethat this might simply be a reflection of re-stricted linguistic knowledge, but plausiblesocio-cultural factors can also be easily pos-ited. If a learner's culture gives special respectto written texts and a less elevated status toindependent thinking, then synonym-substitu-tion might be preferred as a means of mini-mally lacerating the venerable original. Forsuch a learner, the independent thinking thatradical paraphrase ensures will not be seen asvirtuous. Thus, the effort required to para-phrase will seem pointless. Socio-cultural learn-ing requires a change in the learner's attitudeto written texts, and a greater appreciation ofthe Western esteem for independent thinking.

Radical paraphrasing (involving restructur-

ing) also entails attention to special linguisticfactors. Students need to develop sufficientlinguistic flexibility to be able to rephrasewhatever they encounter in texts. This sug-gests a more systematic look than is normal inEAP at the different ways of saying things.Normally EAP is concerned with providingthe minimum means of communicating suc-cessfully, with alternative ways of saying thesame thing only being considered secondarilyand in a rather random fashion. The moresystematic approach might begin by identify-ing the most recurrent sorts of academic state-ments (in discoursal/rhetorical terms), plus themost usual alternative ways in which they areexpressed.

The second aspect of how to paraphrase isthe means of achieving radical paraphrase.One main strategy for all but the shortest text isto write without the source text open. Thereshould be an initial reading of the text, and thena reliance on memory and/or notes (factualinaccuracies can be smoothed out by referenceto the source after the main write-up). Theadvantage of this procedure is that, without theopportunity for memorization, the effort ofrecall will force students to concentrate solelyon the meaning. This automatically ensuresthat the re-expression of the message in writingcalls out the student's "own words," thesebeing, in all statistical probability, very differ-ent from those in the original text.

There are two central points that learnershave to appreciate in the above procedure: notto look at the source when paraphrasing, and touse notes if needed. Knowledge about this useof notes is a procedural socio-cultural point, asit would never be necessary in a culture accept-ing plagiarism. The same is probably true forthe importance of not looking at the source textduring paraphrase.

The next requirement for avoiding plagia-rism is the ability to quote from texts. Constitu-ent skills here include knowing what and whento quote, handling punctuation and quotationsof varying length and syntactic complexity,and using textual and bibliographical refer-

i45

170

ences. Some of these skills give some troubleto NS, but they are all standard topics in studyskills course books for NNS (Wallace, 1980).If the student does not have a well-developedcopyright concept then special attention to theimportance of citing references alongside anyquotations (procedural knowledge) will beneeded.

Recontextualisation, the last requirement forcombating plagiarism, is the need to adapt thediscoursal language of a textbook passage (e.g.,logical connectors and references to parts ofthe source text not being transferred to theessay) so that the relation of the textbookcontent to the rest of the essay is clear. Failureto recontextualise is a frequently-observed give-away of plagiarism. Surprisingly, perhaps, nospecial teaching is advocated here. If the stu-


dent learns the various points associated withthe other requirements for avoiding plagia-rism, then s/he will automatically try torecontextualise.

In summary, the learning points of particularrelevance are concerned with reading compre-hension (importance of full comprehensionbased on maximum effort) and paraphrasingtechniques (use of memory and notes). On thelinguistic side we may identify a need fordiscoursal language, but this will anyway bedealt with in the main part of an EAP course,and would not need much attention in thecontext of avoiding plagiarism.

With the list of anti-plagiarism requirementsnow analysed in detail, it might be helpful tosee the various conclusions summarised in theform of a table.

Anti-Plagiarism Learning Points

Requirements

1. Acceptance thatplagiarism should beavoided

2. Reading comprehension

3. Note-taking

4. Summary/Paraphrase

5. Quotation skills

6. Recontextualization

Socio-Cultural Learning(procedural unless stated)

(a) Value of independentthinking, based on reducedrespect for the written word(b) Copyright concepts

(a) General linguisticrequirements(b) Importance of effort at fullcomprehension*

Value of notes for essay-writing*

(a) No synonym-substitution*(b) Removal of source text whenparaphrasing (> note-taking)*

(a) Possibility of quotation*(b) Importance of citation*(c) Linguistic knowledge of directand indirect reporting practices*

Follows naturally from goodreading & paraphrasing

Linguistic andProcedural Factors

Adequate basic language

General requirements(structures, vocabulary,etc.)

General requirements(abbreviations, etc.)

(a) Difference betweensynonym-substitution &radical paraphrase(b) Systematic coverageof linguistic alternatives

General features ofquotation (e.g.punctuation, citationlanguage)

Discoursal language

* = secondary learning dependent on appreciating points I (a) and I (b)

46

COUNTERING LANGUAGE PLAGIARISM 171

The table shows the breadth of learning thatmay be needed by some NNS for the successfulavoidance of plagiarism. No wonder the prob-lem is sometimes so hard to eradicate!

Pedagogical StrategiesFollowing are some sample exercises to deal

with aspects of plagiarism identified above.

Sentence ComparisonStudents decide which given sentences are

acceptable paraphrases of a model.

Model:Good town planning prevents traffic chaos.Sentences:(a) Traffic chaos will not occur if town plan-ning is effective.(b) Town planning should be good. This pre-vents traffic chaos.(c) One result of good town planning is theminimisation of traffic chaos.(d) Smooth traffic flow depends on good townplanning.

Both this exercise and the next could becriticised for suggesting absolute semanticequivalence of different linguistic realisations.But the most obvious value of the above exer-cise is its exemplification of alternatives tosynonym-substitution. If students are incredu-lous that such alternatives even exist, then hereis the antidote.

Another value is in emphasising the impor-tance of full reading comprehension. Numer-ous subtleties of meaning (e.g., the ambiguityof "prevent" between "minimise" and "elimi-nate") quickly become the subject of heateddiscussion, hopefully sowing doubts in thestudents' minds about the adequacy of theircomprehension ability in general. Thirdly, thestudents are exposed to patterns and structuresthat perhaps they themselves would not use toexpress a particular sort of statement. Andfinally, the exercise makes the socio-culturalpoint that the message is the essence, not themedium.

47:4

Guided Sentence ParaphraseStudents are given the beginnings of para-

phrase sentences and must complete each sothat it says the same as the model.

Model:Spending can be controlled by means of eithertaxes or interest rates.Sentences:(a) Either taxes...(b) Two...(c) The control...(d) If either...

This sort of exercise is particularly valuablefor showing how synonym-substitution maybe avoided during small-scale paraphrase (re-moval of the source text works more for larger-scale paraphrase). Each of the paraphrase sen-tences above begins in a completely differentfashion. Concentrating on rewording the startof a sentence all but guarantees a radical para-phrase of the whole. Other strong points of theexercise are that it forces students to practiceuseful structures that they might not normallythink of while trying to paraphrase, and it againbreaks down excessive respect for the printedword.

Cloze ParaphraseStudents are given two paragraphs, the sec-

ond being a gapped paraphrase of the first. Thisis a more contextualised version of the previ-ous exercise type and forces the students towork hard at reading comprehension as anadditional benefit. Students must understandthe original in detail in order to find the missingwords. They will possibly be motivated towork at this because it assists the otherwisedreary task of an ordinary doze test.

Read-Note-WriteStudents receive a text for controlled note-

taking. These notes will later form some or allof the input for a writing task. Students com-pare what they wrote with the original onlyafter their first draft has been seen by the

172

instructor. This obviously aims to bring homethe main means of writing a paraphrase. Inaddition, it demonstrates the possibility of learn-ing other than by rote and can even be adaptedto require the inclusion of quotations and ref-erences. It also serves, incidentally, as a usefulmeans of exposing reading comprehensionfailure, as the students' rephrasing tends tomake misunderstandings explicit.

One text that I have frequently used for thistask is a description of Marxist unemploymenttheory. The theory is a series of causes andeffects which lends itself to noting by means ofnumbered steps. The numbers in the notesstand for cause-effect language in the originaland are the stimulus for similar though notidentical language from the student.

Proposition OutlinesSince we wish our students to recall propo-

sitions rather than utterances during paraphrase,it is useful to demonstrate something of thedistinction. I make use of the meta-languagefor classifying propositions, terms familiar inlanguage teaching from the notional/functional/rhetorical movement, such as "definition of x,""explanation of y" or "apology for z." Thefollowing procedure has been somewhat suc-cessful:(a) Instructor takes a text and lists its sequenceof proposition types.(b) Instructor jumbles the sequence of proposi-tion types.(c) Students try to unjumble the list, using theirown understanding of the way English orderspropositions in texts.(d) Students compare their sorted list with theoriginal text (better than with the original list ofproposition types).(e) Students take either the original list ofproposition types or their own, and producecorresponding utterances, relying solely ontheir memory for the original details (i.e., nolooking at the original text).

ConclusionPerhaps the central point of this paper is that


the elimination of plagiarism is not a simpleteaching point requiring only a prohibition andbasic hints about alternatives. EAP instructorsneed to make a whole series of pointsproce-dural, linguistic, and socio-culturaland touse numerous different exercises in the pro-cess. Although NS may also experience diffi-culty with avoiding plagiarism, what givesparticular problems to NNS is not just thelinguistic requirements but also the varioussocio-cultural ones. It should also be noted thatspecial work on avoiding plagiarism is notworth attempting with NNS who are below acertain level of linguistic attainment.

The basic socio-cultural determinants of pla-giarism are not very numerous, but they resultin a wide range of learning points that wouldnot need to be made to the same extent to NSstudents. Perhaps the most important basicsocio-cultural determinant of plagiarism is adeeply-ingrained respect for the written word.The other main determinants are a less reveredconcept of copyright in some cultures anddifferent attitudes to ways of recording andreporting other people's speech.

AcknowledgmentAn earlier version of this paper was presented at the1989 Conference of the British Association of Lec-turers in EAP (BALEAP), held at the University ofLeeds in April, 1989.

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Bransford, & Franks, J.J. (1971). The abstrac-tion of linguistic ideas. Cognitive Psychology, 2,331-350.

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Clyne, M. (1987). Cultural differences in the organi-sation of academic texts: English and German.Journal of Pragmatics, 11(2), 211-247.

Goodenough, W.H. (1957). Cultural anthropology

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age and Linguistics (pp. 167-173). WashingtonD.C.: Georgetown University Press.

Hassan, El Tayeb El Mansour (1988). Right-to-left/Left-to-right thinking revisited. ESPMENA Bul-

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Swales, J. (1977). Preparation and marking of a Bo-tany essay. ESPMENA Bulletin, 6, 28-31.

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Wallace, M.J. (1980). Study skills in English. Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press.

RELC.J 0UR ALA JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

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Generativism and BehaviorismReconciled: A Perspective into EFLTeaching in ChinaHan lie


Page 175

The Chomskian generative approach (I use theterm "generativism" as used by Lyons, 1983)claims that language systems are productive,capable of producing an infinite number ofutterances that have never previously occurredin the experiences of any of their users. This isbecause the human mind is rule-governed.When grammar rules are instilled, an innatemechanism in the brain is capable of generat-ing utterances.

Behaviorism, at the other end of the scale,involves the traditional stimulus-response (S-R) hypothesis, as represented by the Skinnerianschool of language conditioning. Richards andRodgers explain that

to the behaviorist, the human being is anorganism capable of a wide repertoire ofbehaviors. The occurrence of these be-haviors is dependent upon three crucialelements in learning: a stimulus, whichserves to elicit behavior; a response trig-gered by a stimulus; and reinforcement,which serves to mark the response asbeing appropriate (or inappropriate) andencourages the repetition (or suppression)of the response in the future. (1986:50)

Can these two theories, generativism andbehaviorism, be reconciled in their applicationto the teaching of English as a foreign languagein China? This article presents some perspec-tives regarding this possibility.

The Way We Have ComeAs early as the 1950s, the grammar-transla-

tion method and the reading method for teach-ing foreign languages began to gain momen-tum in China. It was widely accepted thatlearners could manipulate a foreign language

once they had learned (or internalized) itsgrammar and rules and an adequate vocabu-lary. Even now, many learners and teachers ofEnglish in China continue to use the grammar-translation method. This method appears toworks well with the hard-working learner; ithas produced a number of linguistically com-petent, though not always proficient, readersof English. In actual use of the language, someof these learners are able to produce an indefi-nite number of grammatically correct (thoughsometimes unidiomatic) utterances.. It is fair,however, to say that the failures produced bythe use of the grammar-translation methodgreatly outnumber the successes.

Some began to question whether there mightbe something wrong with the traditional gram-mar-translation method and open-minded peda-gogues turned to the direct and audiolingualmethods which were introduced into China inthe 1970s. Since then, new approaches havebeen interwoven with the traditional approach,leading to experiments with the communica-tive approach in the 1980s. This co-existencehas made it possible for more earnest EFLteachers to analyze and synthesize the variousapproaches and methods, and has helped themgain insights into how to better guide EFLlearners in China.

Native language, Second Language, or For-eign Language

It is worth noting that foreign language teach-ing in China is practiced in settings entirely

Han Jie is a Professor of English and the AssociateChair of EFL Studies at Nanjing Aeronautical Insti-tute. He has been teaching English for over 30years, and has also translated literary works fromEnglish into Chinese.

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different from those of ESL programs in theUnited States. Many speakers of other lan-guages learn and acquire English in English-speaking settings, while learners of English inChina face the disadvantage of being in aChinese-speaking environment.

If cultural background is considered, an evengreater difficulty enters the picture. China hasa unique and deep-rooted culture and civiliza-tion. Since language and culture are so closelyinterconnected, and since Chinafor years iso-lated itself from the rest of the world, thehandicaps confronting China's learners ofEnglish are quite formidable. In China, forinstance, a good student sits quietly and listensobediently to the teacher's instruction. Thislearning style remains a profound influence onclassroom dynamics in China.

There are other differences between the learn-ing of English by native Chinese speakers andby speakers of Indo-European languages.Awareness of essential distinctions, such asthe learner's mother tongue and the actualsetting in which learning takes place, are im-portant variables in the examination of theimplications of generativism and behaviorismfor foreign language teaching in China. That isto say, it is necessary to consider the specificcircumstances when seeking to apply ESLtheory to foreign language teaching in China.

According to Chomsky's (1965) notion ofgenerative grammar, a child masters the rulesgoverning the structure of a language (althoughwithout an apparent understanding of theserules), generates utterances, and understandsthe utterances of others. This is made possibleby the language acquisition device (LAD), aninnate mechanism in the human brain. It iscommonly accepted that a child's native lan-guage acquisition is integrated into the generalprocess of knowledge acquisition, for as Lyonsasserts, "that part of the acquisition of one'snative language which consists in learning themeaning of words has seemed to many to be anintegral part of the acquisition of all other kindsof knowledge" (1983:245).

During first language (L1) internalization


and assimilation, the LAD functions as anintegrator of words, their meanings, and ourperceptions of reality. These components, com-bined with image, affection, cultural and eth-nic implications, and preference are graduallyintegrated into the child's acquisition of knowl-edge.

In the early stages of language acquisition,the child needs to imitate, respond to, and evenmemorize language input (stimuli). Behavior-ists call this stimulus-response. But what ac-counts for the ability to produce sounds, words,and utterances that are apparently original, orfor our ability to associate meanings with highlyabstract concepts? There must be some innatemechanism (the LAD) in the child's brainwhich is capable of identifying, distinguish-ing, analyzing and synthesizing phonemes,morphemes, words and phrases. According toKlein, "this cannot be accounted for in theframework of behavioristic learning theoriesof the kind postulated by Skinner for verbalbehavior" (1986:7).

For the EFL teacher, both theories,generativism and behaviorism, are significantto teaching and learning. Ways in which thesetheories can be better understood and effec-tively applied in language teaching and learn-ing are issues which have yet to be addressed.

Generativism: Implication and ApplicationBefore going further, a distinction should be

made between LI and L2 (second language)acquisition. As Lyons admonishes, "we mustbe cautious . . . in drawing conclusions ofgeneral import from the investigation of themonolingual child's acquisition of his nativelanguage in normal circumstances and apply-ing them to the problems of foreign-languageteaching" (1983:253). The mental operationsinvolved in L2 learning differ essentially fromthose in L I acquisition. In the case of the latter,the child acquires knowledge of the outsideworld together with words and their meanings.As Klein notes:

one difference between first and second

EFL TEACHING IN CHINA 177

language acquisition is that the former isan intrinsic component of a child's over-all cognitive and social development,whereas in second language acquisitionthis development has already been moreor less completed. . . . A child mustacquire the respective words of the targetlanguage. (1986:24)

Beginning EFL students in China learn En-glish entirely through the medium of Chinese.The mental operations to internalize the lin-guistic rules of English involve a restructuringof the order already established in the brain bythe LAD. Some English words have Chineseequivalents, but other words, especially par-ticles and a large number of verbs and phrasalverbs, have none. Many EFL learners becomeconfused regarding correct use of the lan-guage. The sentences "When did you get there?"and "When did you arrive there?" mean ex-actly the same thing. The beginner finds itdifficult, however, to conceptualize the mean-ing of "get" because there is no Chinese equiva-lent for "get" in this sense. According toEdelhoff, "All second language learning . . .

relies on experience and knowledge of theworld and on the way learners have acquiredtheir mother tongue.... They base their foreignlanguage learning on this knowledge"(1985:126). This holds true for EFL learners inChina and is essential knowledge for ChineseEnglish teachers.

Teachers should keep in mind the followingprinciples:

1. In the elementary stage of learning, teach-ers should do everything possible to help learn-ers restructure linguistic rules. Because learn-ers' experiences of the world are associatedwith their mother tongue, the task of restruc-turing is arduous. The learners have acquiredtheir perceptions of the world in Chinese andtake them for granted.

2. Since adolescent and adult learners havetheir own knowledge of the world and ways of

interpreting and understanding it, the underly-ing principles and rules involved in learningEnglish should be explained. This helps learn-ers conceptualize the learning process, andaids them in adjusting their thinking when theyare faced with particular language difficulties.Teachers should help learners appreciate class-room procedures and activities, so that teach-ing and learning are coordinated. Studentsshould also be alerted to learning strategies,such as listening for key works, inferring andguessing in reading.

3. It should not be assumed that the LADfunctions merely as a passive receptor duringthe elementary stage of learning, much like acomputer being programmed. The EFL teacheris not a computer programmer, but rather afacilitator helping learners restructure theirrule-governed systems. With proper languageinput, learners mature and develop in duecourse. On-going cognitive operations such asconceptualization, generalization, comparison,contrast, analysis, synthesis, and the associa-tion of words with their meanings are con-stantly being internalized and assimilated.

Learning English grammar rules, however,does not necessarily guarantee that one cangenerate coherent utterances in English. Thesituation is not analogous to that of a pro-grammed computer; the learner needs confi-dence and encouragement which requires theteacher's unending efforts in organizing lan-guage-learning activities. It is not the teacher'srole to feed the learner one linguistic rule afteranother as is done in most English classroomsin China.

An example of this linguistic rule-crammingis the way that the difference between the pastdefinite tense and the past perfect tense isusually illustrated, using example sentencesfollowed by a few precisely defined rules.After completing a few related grammar exer-cises, the learner is supposed to have learnedwhat was presented. Is such a learner nottreated as a computer? So many highly abstractrules are compressed into one lesson that the

178

student might forget them before they can beinternalized. Rather, the teacher should stimu-late learner use of the language data. Theclassroom can be transformed into a setting forinteractions such as situational dialogues, role-plays, and storytelling.

4. During L1 acquisition, a child frequentlymakes hypotheses about the language, thoughthis is not done consciously. These hypothesesare continuously tested in the actual use of thelanguage and are matched with the new lin-guistic input (Els, et al., 1984). In the case ofEFL learning, the learner undergoes a similarbut more complex process with learners won-dering more about the whys and wherefores ofthe language, and the teacher should be suffi-ciently prepared to cope with such questions.

5. Communicative proficiency is the onlyverification of the learner's actual ability tomanipulate the language. Learners should neverbe evaluated based on their performances onindividual grammar exercises. Achieving com-municative competence is a very long process,during which occurrences of interlanguagephenomena should definitely be tolerated.

These five principles for EFL teaching arederived from the generative theory of languagelearning. They should permeate the entire pro-cess of EFL learning and teaching, and then,they will naturally come to the fore when trulyeffective teaching methods and techniques arebeing designed and adopted.

Behaviorism Manifested in EFL Teachingand Learning

A child acquires a native language uncon-sciously. At school, L1 competence is devel-oped as the child gains increased exposure tothe spoken and written language. In EFL class-rooms, learning is more analytic and deliber-ate, and the learner becomes self-monitoring(Krashen, 1982). The distinction between un-conscious acquisition and conscious learningis important to the language teacher. This is

54


also the area in which generativism and behav-iorism appears to be irreconcilable: Consciouslearning may facilitate unconscious acquisi-tion while unconscious acquisition may pro-mote conscious learning. It is difficult to drawa distinction between the two states of mind,and the EFL teacher should be aware of this.

Generativists and behaviorists stress differ-ent phases or profiles of the learning process.Generativists concentrate on such internal fac-tors as language formation itself whereas thelatter emphasize external factors such as lan-guage skills. What Els says is quite enlighten-ing:

The debate between behaviorists and men-talists [generativists] about whether theability to learn languages is innate orlearned has. in fact been a fruitless one,mainly concerned with a mutual belittlingof assumptions. Where behaviorists ig-nored the contribution of the child itself inthe learning process, mentalists have prac-tically denied that linguistic input andenvironment play a role in the process,and have generally paid very scant atten-tion indeed to the actual course languagedevelopment takes. (Els, et al., 1984:31)

The behaviorist theory suggests that in bothL1 and L2 development, the growth of theLAD is facilitated by communicative use ofthe language. For the EFL teacher, the learningprocess should be of primary importance, withthe teacher determining how learning can bestbe affected utilizing the interplay of both inter-nal and external factors. Unfortunately, in Chinathe teacher is often neither interested in howthe learner progresses nor conscious of the rolethe teacher should play. Teachers are too oftenunconcerned with the interplay of the internaland external factors effecting learning. What,then, does the teacher teach and how should itbe taught? Too often the teacher's answer tothis question is simply to explain the textbookand to assign exercises from it. This is typicalof teacher-centered classrooms where the hard-


to-motivate learner is treated like a receptivemachine.

The learner-centered approach, however,emphasizes a learning process in which thelearner's behavior is the focus of attention. Theteacher's primary role is to motivate the learnerand provide conditions conducive to learning.Such conditions should include carefully cho-sen and well-organized linguistic input. Stimu-lating activities will provide opportunities forcommunication in the target language (TL)and maximum learner involvement. One ex-ample of a learner-centered activity is the teach-ing of English diphthongs and consonant clus-ters, an obstacle for Chinese students, throughsinging.

English particles, articles, adverbs, andprepositions, as in the following sentences,also present barriers for Chinese students:-I'll be waiting at the corner-The gas station is just on the corner-The broom is in the cornerAlmost all learners of English in China com-plain about the dreadful English prepositions.In order to help the learner build conceptualframes for these prepositions, a teacher shouldnot only explain the differences in contextualmeanings, but should also provide examples inwhich the same prepositions are used. Later,the learner should be tested on the use ofdifferent prepositions. In the meantime, thelearner should use the prepositions in mean-ingful communication. This procedure of rec-ognition, response, repetition, and reinforce-ment (the 4Rs) is quite familiar to EFL teachersin China.

Whether input language is viewed as stimu-lus (behavior) to the learner's brain, or as a setof rules governing the learner's mind(generativism), the learner's brain operates asfollows:

a) recognition of the word formb) assimilation of the semantic meaningc) integration of new information with pastknowledged) formation of new concepts about what has

been learnedBut learning does not stop there. Studentsshould be encouraged to think of situationsrelated to personal experiences in which use ofthe target prepositions would be appropriate.This motivates the learners to apply the lan-guage input. Throughout this process, LI in-terference gradually diminishes while the brainincreasingly operates in a manner governed bythe rules of the target language. Here thelearner's monitoring system is called in to play(Skehan, 1989:78).

Take syntactic structure, for example. ForChinese learners of English, sentences like "Iam a student" and "I learn English" have Chi-nese equivalents in the same syntactic order(except for the indefinite article) and, there-fore, can be internalized with little effort. Sen-tences having no syntactic equivalents in Chi-nese, however, will be problematic as thelearner's LAD attempts to restructure rules.For example, "I am wrong" might become "Iwrong," and "He doesn't learn English" mightbecome "He not learn English." This phenom-enon of the learner's LI interference is onlynatural because the LAD does not give up itsoriginal set of rules even after the Englishsentence patterns have been encountered.

How The LAD WorksAs this point, we might ask whether the

learner's innate mechanism, the LAD, is actu-ally setting up an entirely new system of thetarget language or whether it is merely restruc-turing the LI system. Based on my studies, Iassume that it is the former, especially whenone considers the effects of culture and societyon language learning/acquisition. But the newsystem is associated with the old one if thelinguistic rules of the TL are similar to those ofthe native language. Assuming that a new setof linguistic rules is developed during the courseof foreign language learning/acquisition, andis interwoven with the system governing theuse of the native language, the learner's innatemechanism might work in the following fash-ion (see model, next page):

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INTERNAL


Native LanguageRules

Foreign LanguageInput Stimulus

EXTERNAL

Model: The Development of Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

<> General KnowledgeAssociated withNative Language Rules

Foreign Language Rule-Building and InternalizationProcess

Response:Right orWrong

Repetition:Right

I

Rei nforcement

<

Foreign Language RulesAssociated withGeneral Knowledge

Use ofForeign Language

This model illustrates the foreign languagelearning /acquisition process. It takes into con-sideration both the generativist and behavior-ist theories, acknowledging that the processinvolves both internal and external factors.

Assuming the human brain is rule-governed,the foreign language rule-building and inter-nalization process must be a gradual one inwhich the mechanism grows in response toforeign language input. The foreign languageinput (stimulus) triggers either a positive or anegative response by the learner. This is whereactive learning takes place. When a positiveresponse occurs, it does not necessarily meanthat the learner has internalized the rule. Onlythrough actual use of the TL can the learnerinternalize the rules into the LAD. Even Skin-ner admits that, "to say that behavior is nothingbut a response to stimuli is oversimplified"(1976:253).

The rules governing the native language(which are associated with general knowl-edge) interfere to some extent with foreignlanguage input, adversely affecting perfor-mance. The teacher should understand and

tolerate such interference. With the develop-ment of the new rules in the LAD, correctresponses should occur more frequently, andgeneral knowledge will be increasingly asso-ciated with the foreign language rules. As aresult, in the model above, the foreign lan-guage rules associated with general knowl-edge will rise along the dotted line, indicatingthe extent to which these rules are associatedwith general knowledge.

Thus, we may assume that L I rules and L2rules work separately. We do know that thetask of rebuilding and internalizing the foreignlanguage is very difficult, and that learnerswith superior native language skills achieveproficiency more easily than learners with lesserones. As Skehan's research has shown, "thereare clear connections between syntactic as-pects of foreign language development and thelanguage analytic aspect of foreign languageaptitude" (1989:137). It is also possible thatlearners' native language mechanisms mightfacilitate rather than hinder their foreign lan-guage learning during the advanced stage. Like-wise, foreign language mastery will promote


more refined and subtle use of the native lan-guage. Many bilingual speakers can manipu-late the two languages at ease. This phenom-enon might support Chomsky's hypothesis ofa Universal Grammar.

It should be emphasized that the languagelearning process is, to the learner, not merely areceptive one. The learner's performance dem-onstrates the extent to which the language hasbeen learned/acquired. The teacher's role isone of managing and regulating input andfacilitating and encouraging learners in theirrule-building efforts. The teacher should havea philosophy "which gives learners the oppor-tunity to become experimenters and negotia-tors rather than input receivers of linguistictopic inputs" (Edelhoff, 1985:126). Teachersshould help learners acquire the TL, and learn-ers should take the initiative to monitor thelearning process for themselves.

ConclusionIt should be noted that there are significant

differences between L I , L2 and foreign lan-guage learning/acquisition. Understandingthese differences affords a perspective on thepossible applications of the theories ofgenerativism and behaviorism to foreign lan-guage teaching in China. Both theories areapplicable to teaching practice, although theyapproach the question of language learning/acquisition from different directions. The lan-guage teacher should be concerned with dis-covering ways that these two theories can beintegrated and reconciled in the application of

second language acquisition principles to teach-ing practice. The EFL learning model pre-sented here is tentative, but assumes that therecan be an integration of the two theories. Sucha model might provide a clearer insight into thenature of EFL teaching and learning in China,and will hopefully stimulate further study inthis area.

ReferencesChomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syn-

tax. Boston, MA.: M.I.T. Press.Edelhoff, C. (1985). A view from teacher in-service

education and training. In R. Quirk & H.G. Wid-dowson (Eds.), English in the world: Teachingand learning the language and literatures. Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press in associa-tion with the British Council.

Els, T.v. et al. (1984). Applied linguistics and thelearning and teaching offoreign languages. Lon-don: Edward Arnold.

Klein, W. (1986). Second language acquisition.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Krashen, S.D. (1982). Principles and practice insecond language acquisition. Oxford: PergamonPress.

Lyons, J. (1983). Language and linguistics. Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J.C., & Rodgers, T.S. (1986).Approachesand methods in language teaching. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Skehan, P. (1989). Individual differences in secondlanguage learning. London: Edward Arnold.

Skinner, B.F. (1976). About behaviorism. New York:Vintage Books.

57

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BRIGHT IDEASCross CurrentsVol. XIX, No. 2

Winter 1992Page 183

Vocabulary Caruta

Alice Svendson

The topic of how to integrate new vocabularyinto an English as a Foreign Language courseis a familiar one for teachers, with discussionoften leading to less than satisfactory results.This article presents two main activities whichteach relevant vocabulary and at the same timetake advantage of two factors that increasestudent motivation: student choice and thedevelopment of learning strategies.

The first activity, peer-teaching, is designedto teach vocabulary. Evolved over many yearsof classroom experimentation, I call the activ-ity "Vocabulary Caruta," which, for Japanesestudents, immediately recalls a familiar cardgame. Vocabulary Caruta moves from the fa-miliar (card game) to the less familiar (newvocabulary), an approach which increases stu-dent confidence and creates a relaxed atmo-sphere. The game takes about thirty minutes ofclassroom time and can become a regular, on-going activity.

Materials and PreparationStudents bring to class five to ten vocabulary

words written separately on small index cards.The vocabulary should be new words encoun-tered during the week in English class, movies,songs, conversations, or from other sources.Initially, students might be encouraged to usea monolingual dictionary to help them under-stand the meaning of the words. Teachersshould stress, however, that students mustchoose words they have found in their Englishenvironment and not in their dictionaries!

Students write their words in two places, onthe index cards and on a separate list, along

with definitions and sample sentences. (Theselists will be used for reference during theCaruta game and will be needed by the teacherfor the test-making activity.)

Classroom ProceduresDivide students into groups of three or four.

One student begins by teaching her/ his wordsto the group using clear definitions and sen-tences to illustrate usage, the source of thewords may also be mentioned. Remind stu-dents to make their information accessible bygiving clear, homemade sentences and defini-tions they understand. Encourage questionsfrom the group and help the student-teacherswith pronunciation.

After the first student's new words havebeen introduced, the group plays Caruta. Theword cards are spread out and turned face-up.The student-teacher gives the definition of oneword and the first student to find the matchingword card picks it up, saying the word. Thegame continues until all the cards have beenpicked up. The student with the most cardswins. The next student then introduces her/hiswords and conducts the Caruta game.

Allow at least ten minutes per student for theexplanation of the new words and the gameitself. If there are three students in the group,the total time should be thirty to forty minutes,but keep the pace brisk. This simple and effec-tive activity gives each student the opportunityto teach new vocabulary and to expose groupmembers to useful new words; real communi-cation begins to take place.

Alice Svendson has been teaching in Japan for sixyears and is presently teaching at Jumonji JuniorCollege in Saitama. Before coming to Japan, shetaught in the U.S. and Mexico.

mt007c,

184

ExpansionOne variation is to have students keep the

same groups for two or three consecutive Carutasessions. Then, each lesson could begin with areview of the previous week's words beforethe new words are introduced. The review isconducted in the same way as the game. Tomake the game more interesting, students couldplay with two or three weeks' worth of cards,and instead of calling out definitions, studentscould give only sentences, leaving blanks forthe words which the group must fill with thecorrect Caruta cards.

Vocabulary Caruta is simple and fun in andof itself, but the game can be carried a stepfurther with this second activity--individual-ized vocabulary tests. Since students have col-lected different sets of words for the Carutagames, each student would require a test tai-lored to her/his vocabulary list. Naturally,making up individual tests for each student isvery time-consuming. If, however, it is turnedinto a project for students, test-making be-comes not only feasible, but also providesstudents an insight into learning strategies.

Test MakingAt the beginning of the test-making activity,

explain that each student w'll make a test foranother student to take. It will include only thewords which the test-taker has collected for theCaruta game. It should be stressed that stu-dents are not tested on words they have learnedfrom their group, only on their own collection.Each student receives another student's list ofwords, definitions, and sentencesall the datanecessary to make up a test. Students couldreceive two grades; one for the test they createand one for the test they take.

Decide on the type of test to be used. Myclass agrees on the number of test items, sec-tions, and items per section. A test might, forexample, contain a total of 20 items from threesections: Matching, Fill-in-the-Blanks, andDefinitions (with 6, 6, and 8 items per section,respectively). If students have collected tenwords per session, after four classes there will

GO


be forty words from which to choose whenmaking up the test.

Once students understand the procedure, dis-tribute the word lists with the definitions andsentences. I have found it works better if stu-dents do not know whose test they are makingso they will be less tempted to give away anytest secrets (test-making can be kept anony-mous with a code number system). To keep thetest-makers from choosing only the easiestwords from the list or from repeating the samewords in different sections, remind studentsthat a good test is challenging. I also havestudents sign the tests they make so they canget a grade for them. In my class, the test-making activity takes nearly seventy minutes.

When the tests are made, they are collectedand reviewed by the teacher. Tests do not needto be seen again by their makers; in the nextclass they will be given to the students who willtake them.

ConclusionThis activity works smoothly, without the

chaos I had originally anticipated. Students getinvolved and work hard at it. They like the ideaof individualized tests and gain insight into thestudy process by being a test-maker as well asa test-taker.

It is worth emphasizing that I have beenusing these activities for several years, im-proving them as I go along. They are notcomplicated and can be easily adapted. What-ever form the play and test-making take, stu-dents will learn the rules quickly and increasetheir vocabulary while becoming more adeptat learning how to learn.

AcknowledgmentThe inspiration for this student-generated test activ-ity came mainly from Paul Davis and MarioRinvolucri's The Confidence Book. Essex, En-gland: Longman Group U.K. Limited, 1990.

BRIGHT IDEAS 185

Activities for the Pre-University Content-Based Classroom

Al Leibman

Content-based learning in the ESL/EFL class-room is growing in popularity both in theUnited States and worldwide. At the pre-uni-versity level, the practice of integrating lan-guage and content serves three critical pur-poses. First, it helps students acquire the studyand learning skills necessary for academicsuccess. Secondly, through the use of content,specific language objectives, which often in-clude integrating the four major skills, can beachieved. Thirdly, it helps students adjust tothe intellectual demands of academic classes.All three objectives are inseparable and occursimultaneously.

As an EFL content teacher at the pre-univer-sity level, I find that while the selection ofcontent books is sometimes overwhelming,there are scant resource materials availablethat help EFL students work with the contentmaterial. Although I have regularly adaptedmaterial designed to help college freshmenimprove their study skills, I have not foundmaterial specifically designed to meet theunique study and learning needs of pre-univer-sity ESL/EFL students.

While teaching a psychology content courseat Temple University Japan, I have utilizedseveral activities to help pre-university ESL/EFL students with particular skills in the aca-demic classroom. Some of these activities mayor may not look familiar, and some may needmajor modification to suit your needs.

Activity 1: The Mini LectureSkills Focus: Listening and Note-taking

This activity is especially useful for studentswho have had little experience with academicEnglish. It is very structured and its goal is

reasonably easy to achieve. On consecutivedays, I thoroughly go over two handouts withthe class. One handout suggests effective lis-tening strategies that encourage students tofocus closely on semantic cues (key phrasesand words) and visual cues (material writtenon the board, gestures used for emphasis). Theother handout contains note-taking strategies(eg., leave space in the left hand margin forpersonalized comments, such as: ? = I don'tunderstand; ** = material that was emphasizedby the lecturer; T = know for test; or perhaps anote to a concerned neighbor: "Pass me abullet!"). This latter handout also containsrequests that the students can make of thelecturer, including: "Can you please slow downa bit?", "Can you repeat that?", "Can you giveus an example?"

Now that the students have some guidelinesto work with, they will take notes on a 20 to 30minute "mini lecture." The topic is often basedon an assigned reading, but occasionally it isone that students are unfamiliar with, as pro-fessors are prone to lecture about subjects notcovered in the textbook. After the lecture,questtons meant to elicit the most importantpoints of the lecture are written on the board.Students are encouraged to look at each other'snotes in order to share their note-taking strate-gies and ideas before writing short answers tothe questions. After going over the answerstogether, I often collect their notes to see howmuch the students understood and what furtherwork is needed.

Activity 2: Group PresentationsSkills Focus: Building Vocabulary & Presen-tation Skills

The class is split into groups of about fourand a different question based on a readingdone for homework is assigned to each one.

Al Leihman is an instructor and computer coordina-tor at Temple University Japan. He has an M.A. inTESOL from the University of Arizona, Tucson.

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Each group must work together to present itsanswer in front of the class. This often involvesdefining key words which will help make thepresentation more understandable. Each pre-sentation lasts about five minutes and the classis invited to ask questions. At the end of eachpresentation, I will often clarify a point andoffer additional information.

The main value of the group presentation,like so many activities, is not in the executionbut in the preparation. The groups usuallywork well together to give an effective presen-tation, which means that they read closely formeaning, discuss their answers and strategiesfor the presentations, and make use of theirEnglish/English dictionaries for vocabularybuilding. I also get an immediate sense of howmuch of the material the students have under-stood. Furthermore, this activity allows me toloosen the teacher-centered grip I seem to haveacquired since I have been teaching content.

Activity 3: Student PresentationsSkills Focus: Listening and Note-taking

Twice during the semester, each student isrequired to give a five minute oral presentation


to the class. In order to keep the other studentsactive, everyone, including myself, must takenotes during the presentation. After each pre-sentation, I ask the note-takers questions thatcover the presentation's important points. Ifrequently call on students who do not volun-teer, thereby making everyone accountable forattentive listening and good note-taking.

This activity encourages the presenter toconsider the proficiency level of the audience,which usually results in a presentation under-standable to everyone. The speakers often de-fine unfamiliar terms and key words in aneffort to help the other students better under-stand their presentations. This activity requirestight cooperation among the students.

ConclusionI have found that these types of structured

activities help focus the class on language andskill objectives. Because it is often a tempta-tion to place too much emphasis on content,which may be more enjoyable to teach, weoften need to remind ourselves that "content"is only a vehicle to help students meet pre-determined language and skill objectives.

Literature andFurniture: TeachingLiterature by Analogy

Wisam Mansour

Most non-native speakers of English who studyEnglish Literature find it difficult, even ex-tremely difficult, to cope with abstractions inthe language of the field. This adversely af-fects both students' perception and teacher'sinput. From my experience in teaching EnglishLiterature to university students, I find it veryconvenient to teach certain concepts and termsby using concrete analogies. In this article, I

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want to point out how some abstract concepts,such as "literature and literary genres" and"objective and subjective criticism," may betaught by means of concrete analogy.

A teacher should set the task of teaching theterm "literature" (its meanings, types, and con-ventions) in one session. The purpose of thissession is to make students come to terms withliterature and, therefore, prepare the groundfor them to learn the meaning of and the differ-ence between objective criticism and subjec-tive criticism, two terms that are likely to keeprecurring all through their studies. Besides, a

Wisam Mansour is an Assistant Professor of En-glish Literature at the Eastern Mediterranean Uni-versity in North Cyprus. Previously, he worked asan English language supervisor for the Ministry ofEducation in Jordan.

BRIGHT IDEAS 187

basic knowledge of these terms will help shapethe students' way of thinking and writing aboutany given literary text.

Literary GenresNeedless to say, there are hundreds of defi-

nitions of literature, and all of them are rela-tively true to some extent. Thus, there is noneed for the teacher to dwell on a definition ofliterature. It is preferable, in the process ofteaching, to extract information from studentsand lead them to find their own definitions.

The teacher should start by talking aboutdifferent kinds, or genres, of literature. Thefollowing short dialogue is an approximateexample of how the teaching session proceeds:

Teacher: (after some sort of introduction) Whatkinds of literature are there?Students: Drama . . . Poetry . . . Romance . . .

Novel . . . Short stories . . Tales . . .

T: Fine.... Now, let us talk about the conven-tions of each type of literature.S: What is convention? What does it mean?T: Rules. . . Rules that govern a work of art.These rules exist as part of a mutual agreementbetween the artist and the audience, be it reader,listener or viewer.S: Still, this doesn't make sense. . .

T: Fine . . . Let us compare literature withfurniture.

Literature and FurnitureThe teacher writes both terms on the board,

and together the teacher and students list, atrandom, some items that pertain to each cat-egory (or genus):

Literature FurnitureDrama ChairPoetry TableRomance BedNovel DoorStory Carpetetc.

Teacher: Literature and furniture are, in asense, similar. Each term represents a group of

specific types. A chair is a specific type offurniture, and drama is a specific type of litera-ture. Now, let us examine the term "chair." Theteacher sketches different kinds of chairs onthe board. There are round chairs, low chairs,plain chairs, decorated chairs, and so on. Then,the teacher shows the features that a chair hasin common with other chairs. The commondetails, such as the shape, design and purpose,are the conventions that govern any chair-maker as well as any chair-user.

The teacher proceeds to show that each typeof furniture has certain features form , shape,style, content, or materialwhich distinguishit from another type within the genus. There-fore, a chair is different from a table becausethe conventions or rules that apply to the mak-ing of the first are different from those thatapply to the making of the second. By extend-ing the same process, we find that what appliesto chairs would apply to, for example, drama,and what applies to tables or carpets wouldapply to poetry or a novel. The teacher pro-ceeds to elicit information from the students asto the conventions or rules that apply to eachgenre.

Drama, for instance, includes dialogues, char-acters, acts and scenes, and stage directions,just as a chair has a sitting part, a back, legs,angles, and curves. The teacher then points outthat the various genres of literature do havemany things in common. There is almost al-ways a plot, some sort of characterisation, anda setting in all genres of literature. But then, itis a matter of degree determined by function.Tables, beds, and chairs have many commonfeatureslegs, surfaces, and anglesbut theyare totally distinct from each other because oftheir individual functions.

Therefore, what distinguishes one genre fromanother is its unique innate features that areinherent in itself: A chair, though it has manythings in common with a table, is used mainlyfor sitting purposes, and not for serving foodon. Similarly, drama, though it has many thingsin common with a novel, is mainly for perfor-mance on stage, and not for leisure reading. By

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the same process, the teacher could list thevarious features. functions, and characteris-tics of each literary genre.

Subjective and Objective CriticismWhen the teacher is convinced that the stu-

dents have grasped the first point, the secondpoint, subjective and objective criticism, canbe introduced. It should be explained that anycommentary remark on a work of art is consid-ered criticism. Such remarks, however, arederived mainly from different sources: thesubjective remark is derived from the immedi-ate impressions, feelings, and emotions of theperceiver. Thus, by looking at a certain table orchair, you may like it (or not) on the groundsthat it appeals (or does not appeal) to your ownpersonal sense of aesthetics. You may like it(or not) on the grounds that it fits (or does notfit) with the rest of the furniture you have. Thesame thing happens when you read a novel, apoem, or see a play. You may not like it on thegrounds that you personally could not identifywith it, or because it is too serious, or too silly,or because some character died or escapedpunishment. So, it must be pointed out thatsubjective criticism is mainly based on per-sonal identification with the work of art.

On the other hand, objective criticism stemsmainly from our knowledge of the conventions


of the thing or the genre being criticised. Ifchairs are square, with four legs of a certainheight, and a back support of certain dimen-sions, then what is a chair which is round, withfour short legs and no back support? To like itor not like it is subjective and belongs to thefirst type of criticism. But to talk about the newchair by placing it in the tradition of chair-making, and to try to understand the value andthe function of the new chair, or to try and seewhether the maker of the new chair brings newtechniques in form and style to the tradition ofchair-making, all of this is objective criticism.A poem, drama, or novel should be viewed inthe same spirit. Without knowing the conven-tions of dramathe three unities of Aristotle,for instanceone will not be able to writeobjectively about a play which does not adhereto the three unities.

ConclusionThe more flexible and versatile the teacher is

in teaching English Literature, the greater thebenefit to the students. Not only do concreteanalogies serve as stimuli for the junior stu-dent, but they also validate the abstract knowl-edge of the subject taught. By bringing in suchdown-to-earth, concrete examples, the teachercan attract student attention while ensuringthat the subject is viewed in a realistic way.

Raising Awareness ofStereotypes

R. Ken Fujioka

According to the Japanese Ministry of Healthand Welfare, there were 1,218,891 foreignresidents registered in Japan in 1991, a 13percent increase from the previous year. Thisrapid influx of foreign visitors has created arange of problems both in daily life and the

64

workplace. Foreigners in Japan are often viewedin a negative light, given their salient appear-ance, conduct, and lack of communicative pro-ficiency in Japanese. While foreigners bringwith them rich cultures, histories, and lifestyles,these unique gifts are often nullified by theexploitation of negative traits. The perpetua-tion of these traits, whether substantiated ornot, may result in creating negative stereotypesof foreigners. The host nationals, when meet-

R. Ken Fujioka teaches at the Language Institute ofJapan in Odawara. He has lived in seven countries,including Japan, and is interested in cross-culturalcommunication.

BRIGHT IDEAS

ing foreign visitors for the first time, mayharbor some misconceptions which result inmisunderstandings and weakened relationships.

Everybody has first impressions of peoplethat are based on previous contacts and otherexperiences. Some impressions, based on verylimited information "affect not only how peopleperceive others, but also how they behavetoward them" (Robinson, 1985:54). When littleinformation about people from another coun-try is held, and the little knowledge that isavailable is accepted without much scrutiny,the potential for developing stereotypes is great.

Stereotypes DefinedThe word "stereotype" originates from the

Greek stereos, meaning "solid," and tupos,meaning "type," used to describe the processof printing. The Oxford Dictionary defines theoriginal term as "A solid plate of type metal,. . taken from the surface of a forme of type, .. . used for printing from instead of the formeitself." The efficiency of a stereotype wasimmeasurable as the process was "constantlyrepeated without change to fix or perpetuate inan unchanging form" (1971:926). So, stereo-types are inflexible, unchanging impressionsof people whose common features and charac-teristics are exaggerated, perpetuated and rein-forced. New information which does not fitthese impressions is discarded.

Described below are several activities that Ihave used to help develop student awareness ofsome common stereotypes. These activitiescan also be used to help students discover howstereotypes are perpetuated.

Raising Awareness of Stereotypes'I usually start with an activity which encour-

ages students to discuss their stereotypes ofpeople from other countries. I might beginwith the question "What is a stereotype?" Stu-dents at an intermediate or advanced levelmight be able to give a definition, but if stu-dents do not have an answer, the teacher canhold the question until the end of the activity.

The following table (Cooke, 1984:11) should

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be put on the board before class:

Describe theirappearance.

Chinese Italian German N. American

How do theydress?

What are theirhomes like?What do theyeat?

What workdo they do?What sports

do they play?

Divide students into small groups or pairs,depending on the size of the class, and assigneach pair a specific nationality. Distribute alarge piece of poster paper to each group andhave them list only their answers on it. It isimportant that the students not dwell too muchon minute details, relying instead on theirimpressions.

Each group assigns a spokesperson to presentits findings. After all answers are given, theteacher may address the following questions toeach group:-Are these statements true for all German/North American/Chinese people?Where do these perceptions come from?How can our perceptions of others be changed?What is our impressions of foreigners visiting

our country? (e.g., Indians, Iranians, Spanish)What does "stereotype" mean?

If all the students are from the same country,Japan for instance, the Kanto region (East) andthe Kansai region (West) can be listed as head-ings. My Japanese students can readily iden-tify many of each region's characteristics, andthey appear comfortable contributing theirimpressions. Some responses include: "Kansaipeople don't eat natto" or "They wear bright-colored clothes," and "Kanto people speak toofast" Or "They are very hospitable." An alter-native to this activity is for students to drawcaricatures of people from other countries,using them to point out some common stereo-types (Gaston, n.d.).

190

Newspaper cartoons (often humorous in na-ture, but exaggerated, see illustration below),photos, and headlines (eye-catching, but some-times misleading) can also be used to identifystereotypes. I paste these on colored construc-tion paper, cover them with clear plastic, andattach some questions such as:-Who are the people in the cartoon?


-What are they talking about?What stereotypical behavior/attitude does this

cartoon represent?Notice how the caricature is drawn. What are

the features that seem exaggerated?

Students discuss their answers in groups, andthen with the class.

ThAT'S .MAP '!/) by Bruce Brunger

NOW, MRS SUZUKI,CAN YOU IDENTIFYWHICH FOREIGNERTOOK YOUR PURSE?

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(Reprinted by permission of the artist)

I have used the following magazine article toidentify a stereotype.

"Last year," said Scott, "I was driving mydaughter to school and was stopped by police.I was driving my Mercedes, and they sus-pected I was a drug dealer. I had to convincethem otherwise. This type of thing has beenhappening in L.A. for years." (Sports Illus-trated, 1992:26)

The following questions can be given to stu-

dents to answer individually or in groups:Where does the series of events take place?What's the main idea of the article?What stereotypes are represented in this ar-

ticle?How can stereotypes be damaging?

Newspaper headlines can also reinforce ste-reotypes. Some recent examples include:Beyond Extremists, German Dislike of For-eigners Grows; Increased Coordination Seenin German Attacks; German Anger Toward

66BEST COPY AVAILABLE

BRIGHT IDEAS 191

Refugees Targets Gypsies; Radicals In Ger-many See Selves As Future Nazis; NigerianSwindlers Targeting Japanese Firms, PoliceWarnExample questions for newspaper headlinesare:What's the main idea of the headline?What stereotypes are represented/reinforced

in this headline?After reading these related headlines, how do

you think stereotypes develop?

If teachers have access to video equipment,other discussion activities could be developed.Some videos and the stereotypes they presentare listed below:Black&White (music video) by Michael Jack-son: portrays native American Indians as rag-ing savages.Kramer vs. Kramer: depicts father as an in-competent parent.Top Gun: portrays Navy pilots as cocky wom-anizers.Driving Miss Daisy: addresses the negativelabel placed on African Americans and Jews(by the patrolmen).Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: subtlycommunicates the idea that the title of Doctoris socially acceptable for men only and notwomen: Jones and Brody discover that "Dr."Schneider is a woman.Crocodile Dundee: dispels stereotypes ofAboriginals in a humorous way.Breakfast at Tiffany's: presents an exagger-ated caricature of a Japanese landlord playedby Mickey Rooney.Colors: depicts African Americans and His-panics as heartless criminals.Silence of the Lambs: portrays gays as violentand psychotic.Shogun: reinforces and romanticizes the Japa-nese samurai image.

Some sample questions for videos include:-Are these groups identified and interpretedaccurately?How are they interpreted (in terms of Western

standards)?-What are the underlying assumptions? (Luce& Smith, 1987:248).

ConclusionThese communicative activities are most

appropriate for intermediate to advanced-levelstudents since the tasks are designed to gener-ate discussion and help students discover waysto recognize and refine stereotypes. In teach-ing about stereotypes, teachers should takeadvantage of the variety of instructional mate-rials that are available. Use of these materialsnot only gives students the opportunity todescribe, summarize, state the main idea ofarticles and comment on movie videos, theyhelp students become more perceptually awareof stereotypical assumptions.

As Blair states, "[we] cannot ignore culturaldifferences and the stereotypes that surroundthem" (1989:48). And while it would be unrea-sonable and unrealistic to expect that stereo-types can be eradicated from our conscious-ness, our goal should be to develop strategiesto deal with stereotypes so that people mayfoster and appreciate more effectiveintercultural communication.

ReferencesBlair, K. (1989). Make a mask! The face you save

may be your own. English Teaching Forum, 27

(3), 47-50.Cooke, D. et al. (1984). Teaching development

issues. U.K.: Section I Perceptions DevelopmentEducation Project.

Gaston, J. (n.d.). Cultural awareness teaching tech-niques. Japan: Holt-Saunders.

Luce L.F., & Smith E.C., (Eds.). (1987). Towardinternationalism. USA: Newbury House.

Robinson,G.L.N.(1985).Crosscultural understand-

ing. New York: Pergamon Press.Sports Illustrated, 11 May, 1992.The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dic-

tionary. (1971). Oxford, England: Oxford Uni-versity Press.

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Errors, Humor, Depth,and Correction in the"Eisakubun " Class

Robert W Norris

Teachers of large "eisakubun" (writing) classesat Japanese universities and colleges face adifficult task in determining how much andwhat kind of written feedback to use on studentpapers. This Bright Idea presents a simple andeffective correction system built around threemain concepts: (1) recognition and eliminationof common errors, (2) humor and Stevick's(1976, 1982) concept of "cognitive depth"(i.e., the processing of language stimulus to adeep level of memory, where the possibility oflong-term or permanent retention is increased),and (3) an error-marking system that is easy forstudents to use in correcting their own errors.Thus far, the system has been enthusiasticallyreceived and the results have been encourag-ing.

Common ErrorsHaving taught in Japan for ten years and

having compiled many lists of common errorsmade by Japanese students of English, I havenoticed a definite consistency among errortypes. Although a complete list of commonerrors would be too large to be addressed in aclass that meets no more than 28 times a year,attention can be given to the most obviouserrors. The most common errors (and examples)which I have chosen to actively correct in my"eisakubun" classes are listed below:1. Mistakes in collective nouns and the noun"people."

a. My families are four.b. Almost all peoples in Japan eat rice.

2. Wrong pattern for the past tense. This in-cludes use of the "be" verb form and the"become + verb" form.

a. It was taste very good.b. I became want to study English.

3. Wrong usage of the passive and activevoices.

a. I was enjoyed this book.b. Our bedroom used for many kind of room.

4. Omission of verbs after the auxiliary "can."a. My friend can English very well.b. He could everything at school.

5. Insertion of unnecessary verbs, particularlythe "be" verb.

a. I am really believe music is good forhumans.b. People are keep quiet.

6. Wrong usage or omission of prepositions.a. At January it snowed very much.b. We stayed Tokyo two years.

7. Wrong usage of articles.a. I bought a present for a my friend.b. Apple is not the vegetable.

8. Lack of subject-verb agreement.a. Every man are hard worker.b. She play with my sister.

9. Starting too many sentences with conjunc-tions.

a. I like music. And I like dancing. And I likechocolate.b. I brought my umbrella. Because it wasraining. So I am not wet.

10. Wrong usage of present tense or futuretense in a clause denoting the action (or thestate) of the past.

a. I go back home last summer.b. Everybody thought he will become angry.

11. Wrong choice of words.a. About uniforms there are decided schooland freedom school.b. I tripped to America.

12. Wrong usage of the present and past parti-ciple in such verbs as "interest," "excite,""surprise," and so on.

68

Robert W. Norris has taught in Japan for ten years.He is currently a full-time instructor at FukuokaWomen's Junior College and is working on his finalthesis for an M.A. in TEFL at Newport University,Newport Beach, California.

BRIGHT IDEAS 193

a. I am interesting in American music.b. It was a very excited news.

Based on the above twelve problem areas, arepetitive four-week cycle of activities wasdeveloped that gives students practice in pro-duction, recognition of common errors, andcorrection. The first two weeks of the cycleinvolve the students in sentence-level activi-ties designed to give them practice with prob-lem structures. In the third week, studentswrite compositions that require frequent usageof certain tenses. The fourth week of the cycleis one of error correction and will be the focusof the rest of this article.

Error Lists, Humor, and "Depth"Error lists form the central component of the

four-week cycle. Their use is designed to meetcultural expectationsl, facilitate students' gram-mar consciousness-raising, and make use ofStevick's concept of "depth" in language ac-quisition. The system for using the error listsis simple. Concentrating on the types of com-mon errors outlined earlier, the teacher takesabout twenty examples of these errors fromstudent letters and compositions, makes a list,and hands out copies of the list in the fourthweek of the cycle. To retain the anonymity ofthe writers and avoid singling anyone out,changes in verbs and nouns are often made.

During the first half of the class the studentswork in small groups discussing and correct-ing errors. During the second half of the classthe teacher gives a lecture on the errors. Thelecture is filled with as much humor as pos-sible. This humor is an exaggeration of what anative speaker's reactions might be to some ofthe errors on the list. Below are some typicalerrors taken from student papers, and examplesof the author's presentation:

1. "My family is four": The teacher demon-strates an imaginary exchange: "That's inter-esting. What an unusual family you have. Let'ssee. Your father is four years old. Your motheris four years old. Your brother is four years old.

Everyone is four years old! By the way, howdid you get to be 18 years old?" The teacherrewrites the sentence in correct form.

2. "I tripped to Tokyo": The teacher explains"trip" is normally used as a noun ("I took atrip"), then demonstrates slapstick style "trip"as a verb. The teacher designates a place acrossthe room as "Tokyo" and "trips to Tokyo."

3. "Son is elementary school": The teacherdraws a family on the board: a woman, twolittle girls, and a building. The teacher writes aname by each figure, then acts out an exchangewith an imaginary stranger: "Hello, Mr. Smith.I'd like you to meet my family. This is my wifeSally (pointing to the woman figure). Theseare my two daughters, Betty and Sue (pointingto the girl figures). And this is my son John(pointing to the building figure). He is anelementary school!" The teacher gives ex-amples of correct usage.

4. "He was died his wife": The teacher writeson the board these sentences:a. He was killed by his wife.b. His wife was killed by him.c. He killed his wife.d. His wife killed him.e. He was dead, but now he is alive.f. His wife was dead, but now she is alive.g. He died.h. His wife died.The teacher acts out an exchange betweenperson A, who says, "He was died his wife,"and person B, who goes through all the pos-sible interpretations, becomes increasingly frus-trated, and finally begins jumping up and downwhile shouting, "Who died?" The teacher fallsto the ground with a heart attack, gets up,smiles at the class, and says, "His wife died."

5. "The book was excited." The teacher actsout a conversation with the book, who says,"Oh my God! The Yakult Swallows won thepennant! I'm so happy! I'm so excited!" (theteacher shows the book jumping up and down)

194

and the teacher, who says, "Now calm down.Don't get so excited. You might have a heartattack." The teacher explains the "-ing" parti-ciple is normally used to describe things andpeople's characters, while the "-ed" participleis normally used to describe feelings. Theteacher puts correct examples on the board(e.g., "The fans were excited" "The game wasexciting").

There is a method to this madness. First ofall, humor is an often underused and unexploitedvariable in creating a positive classroom atmo-sphere. Secondly, the type of humor used in theerror correction lecture is designed to createstrong, often exaggerated, images that have thepotential to touch the students on affective oremotional levels. In short, the humor used inthe lecture is a vehicle to take the materialbeing learned into deeper levels of cognitiveawareness, that is, into long-term or even per-manent memory.

Not every error on the list needs to be pre-sented comically, but humor is an effectiveteaching tool where applicable. Most errors dolend themselves to a variety of possible inter-pretations. Any teacher should be able to comeup with a few humorous explanations within asingle list of errors.

When using humor, there is one point theteacher should keep in mind. It is essential thatthese interpretations not turn into any kind ofcondescending or derogatory comment. Errorsshould always be seen as learning tools. Themessage to the students should be that errorsare a natural part of learning and everyonemakes them. If a relaxed atmosphere has beencreated and the teacher is seen as enjoying his/her experience with the students, it is unlikelythat any negative and unwanted impressionswill be derived from the use of humor incorrecting errors.

Error-Marking SystemFrom the start of the second four-week cycle

the teacher can begin introducing the num-bered error-marking system. Errors on the er-

70


ror lists are put in numerical order. For ex-ample, the first list might be numbered 1-20,the second 21-40, and so on. The errors on thelists should be the repetitive and commontypes discussed previously. Thus, it becomeseasy for the teacher, when marking studentpapers, to circle the most troublesome errorsand write their corresponding numbers, whichare on the error lists the students have. Thestudents are then able to review their notes,make corrections, and hand in the revisedpapers at a later date.

In addition to putting the responsibility forcorrection on the students, another advantageof the numbered error-marking system is thatthe students' memories of the slapstick humorused in the error-correction lecture will betriggered. In referring the student back to thatexperience the image is reinforced and drivento a "deeper" level where the possibility ofretention is stronger. If the student felt a bondwith the teacher at the moment of the errorbeing explained, and if s/he had an emotionalreaction (laughing), the information receivedat that moment has a good chance of movingcloser toward long-term memory.

ConclusionWith the usual "eisakubun" classes in Japan

numbering over 40 students, correction of in-dividual papers imposes an intolerable burdenon even the most dedicated teachers. By con-centrating on certain common types of errorsand using a numbered correction system, how-ever, teachers can greatly improve the effi-ciency and effectiveness of their classes; cor-rection time is reduced, students are made tothink through their errors (as opposed to curso-rily glancing at the teacher's written commentsand suggestions), and compositions are usedfor teaching rather than for unsystematic prac-tice or constant testing.

If the teacher can feel comfortable in the roleof occasional entertainer or "ham," the humor-filled correction lecture can go a long waytoward creating a classroom atmosphere where"affective filters are lowered" (Krashen 1981,

BRIGHT IDEAS

1982)2, as well as promoting "depth" in theretention of the patterns and structures to whichthe students are exposed.

Footnotes1. For detailed comments and analyses of culturalexpectations and grammar teaching within the Japa-nese education system, see Beers and Rittmaster;Brown and Helgesen; Dissosway; and Murray, TheLanguage Teacher, June 1989.2. Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisi-tion incorporates the notion of the Affective Filteras proposed by Dulay and Burt (1977). The filtercontrols how much language input the learner isopen to and how "deep" the input reaches. Learnerswith high motivation and self-confidence and with

195

low anxiety have "low filters."

ReferencesDulay, H., & Burt, M. (1977). Remarks on creativity

in language acquisition. In M. Burt, H. Dulay, &M. Finocchiaro (Eds.), Viewpoints onEnglish asa second language. New York: Regents.

Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisitionand second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon.

Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in sec-ond language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon.

Stevick, E. (1976). Memory, meaning, and meth-od: Some psychological perspectives on languagelearning. Rowley, MA.: Newbury House.

Stevick, El. (1982). Teaching and learning Ianguages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Science Experimentsin English Class?

R. Ken Fujioka Laurie Tellis

Me? Teach science?But I'm an English teacher! I know aboutadjectives and tenses; not atoms and test tubes.

Relax! Bringing simple scientific experimentsinto the ESL/EFL classroom is fun. The stu-dents are curious; they become motivated tolearn how things work, and they find their ownanswers by working together in English. Teach-ers can focus on particular language areas forpractice and correction, and students do notneed white lab coats.

The KnowHow Book of Experiments (1989)is an excellent place to start. This book hasclear, illustrated instructions for performingeasy (and safe!) scientific experiments. Wedeveloped the following activity using threeexperiments from this book. The activity is forintermediate and advanced-level students, butit can readily be adapted for other levels. No

special equipment is neededthe experimentsare done with everyday items such as emptybottles, balloons, vinegar, and baking soda.

The particular language areas focused on aregiving clear instructions, asking for confirma-tion, correcting misunderstandings, and givingencouragement. Skills for listening and orga-nizing pieces of information in logical orderare also incorporated.

THE ACTIVITYAfter some preliminary language work, the

students help each other understand the in-structions for one experiment, perform thatexperiment, and then teach it to other students.

Introducing the LanguageBefore beginning the experiments, we want

the students to start thinking in terms of thefocus language. We put the following grid onthe blackboard and ask the students for sugges-tions for each box.

R. Ken Fujioka holds an M.A. in Linguistics as wellas an engineering degree. He teaches at the Lan-guage Institute of Japan in Odawara.

Laurie Tellis is the Business Communications Pro-gram supervisor at the Language Institute ofJapan.


GivingInstructions

GivingEncouragement

CorrectingMistakes

Asking forConfirmation

Giving InstructionsWe pantomimed some of the actions they mightneed, in order to elicit sentences like: "Pleaseopen the bottle," "Fill it halfway," or "Fold thepaper in half."Giving Encouragement"Great job!" "That's it," and "Almosttryagain."Correcting Mistakes"That's not quite right," "I think it's too much/cold/small."Asking for Confirmation"Is this right/okay?" "How's this?" "Is thatenough?"

Performing the ExperimentsThe students work in small groups with

different experiments. (The number of experi-ments, and the number and size of the groups,will vary with class size.) Each group is pro-vided with all the necessary equipment and theinstructions for the experiment it will perform.

There are several ways the instructions canbe presented. We have chosen three differentmethods for our three experiments. In eachcase, the students are responsible for makingsure everyone in their group understands all ofthe instructions before beginning the experi-ment.

The Magic Balloon ExperimentThe instructions are recorded on audiotape.

The students control the tape recorder andlisten as many times as necessary.

72

The Gas CannonThe instructions are typed and cut into strips.

The students must organize the information,deciding the order of the steps. They also haveillustrations of the procedure, and must deter-mine the correct sequence.

The Bottle FountainThe instructions for this experiment, which

is slightly more complex than the other two,are simply listed in sequence in paragraphform (see illustration on next page). The stu-dents have the illustrations, as in the Gas Can-non, and must put them in order.

Once the instructions are understood by allthe participants, each group performs its ex-periment. Again, students actively help eachother in the task. They often are successful thefirst time, but if the experiment fails, theyusually know why and are eager to try again.The excitement at this stage generates a lot oflanguage so the teacher may want to just walkaround and monitor the action.

Team TeachingAfter successfully performing the experi-

ments, the students review the procedures,develop a set of simple instructions, and "re-hearse" their teaching plan, referring to thegrid on the board as necessary.

The equipment for all three experimentsshould be put on each table. The groups rear-range themselves so that two representativesfrom each group are at each table (see dia-gram). The two students who have done theirexperiment are now the teachers. They instructthe other students, without the aid of tapes,typed instructions, illustrations, or hand ges-tures. Clear verbal instructions are essential.The other students are encouraged to ask forclarification and confirmation.

The other two experiments are taught thesame way at each table, so that everyone has anopportunity to teach all the experiments, aswell as learn them.

BRIGHT IDEAS

Bottle Fountain

You will needa small bottle with a screw-on

topa plastic drinking strawplasticine.a pin or needleposter paint or inka bowl of very hot water

197

Take the top off the bottle.Make a hole in the top. Half fillthe bottle with cold water. Addsome ink (food coloring). Screwthe top on very tightly. Pushthe straw through the hole.Press plasticine around it toseal up the hole. Put a plug ofplasticine in the end of thestraw. Poke a hole in it with apin or needle. Put the bottle ina container and fill it up withvery hot water. Wait a whilefor the experiment to work.

PLASTICINE

PLASTIC /NE

(Reprinted by permission of the publisher) IIEST COPY AMIABLE

73


LEARNING THE EXPERIMENT

0

O

O

O

BOTTLE

FOUNTAI N

EXPERIMENT

TABLE 1

ci

MAGIC

BALLOON

BOTTLE

EXPERIMENT

TABLE 2

0 00

TEACHING OTHERS THE EXPERIMENT

ALL

THREE

EXPERI MENTS

TABLE 1

0 0

8ALL

THREE

EXPERIMENTS

TABLE 2

Wrap-UpSmall-group discussion provides closure to

the activity and a source of valuable feedbackfor the teacher. Some possible questions forguided discussion are:Why does the experiment work? If it didn't

work the first time, why not?Were the instuctions easy to follow? Compare

receiving instructions from a piece of paper oraudiotape, and learning from other people.What did you discover? About science? En-

glish? Teaching? Language learning? Yourclassmates?

OptionsDepending on the needs of an individual

class, the activity can be altered to focus onother language areas; such as the passive voice,

GAS

CANNON

EXPERIMENT

TABLE 3

ALL

THREE

EXPERI MENTS

TABLE 3

0

conditionals, cause and effect, probability, pre-diction, sequencing, or imperatives. To addwriting practice, have the students write theinstructions, rather than explain them orally,for their classmates to follow. Or, have themwrite a "lab report" afterwards, summarizingwhat they did and the results. The lab reportcould also be given orally as a presentation tothe class, followed by a brief question-and-answer session.

This activity is flexible enough to be adaptedto a variety of classes, from senior high schoolstudents to engineers. It can also be used witha variety of levels, depending on the languagefocus and amount of new vocabulary. Lower-level classes, for example, may work best withjust one or two experiments and a simplifiedset of instructions.

74

BRIGHT IDEAS 199

ConclusionCuriosity and a sense of adventure motivate

the students to take an active role in the experi-ments. A lot of language is generated as theypursue how things work, and even "failure" inthe experiment sparks new discussion as theytry again. Students feel a sense of satisfactionfrom completing a challenging task and mak-ing it happen in English. From the teacher'sstandpoint, the activity is virtually self-con-tained; the teacher can stay in the backgroundnoting errors for later work while the studentshelp each other learn. Science experiments inEnglish class? Of course!

AknowledgmentIn Japan, Usborne books can be ordered from:

Usborne Books (Japan)ABS Building, 3F,2-4-16 Kudan MinamiChiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102Tel: (03) 3221-9794, Miss Y. EmoriFax: (03) 3239-2817

ReferenceAmery, H. (1989). The knowhow hook of experi-

ments. London: Usborne Publishing Ltd.

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WORLD ENGLISHESJOURNAL OF ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL AND INTRANATIONAL LANGUAGE

Editors: BRAJ B KACHRU, Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois, 4088 ForeignLanguages Building, 707 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA andLARRY E SMITH, Institute of Culture and Communication, East-West Center, 1777 East-WestRd, Honolulu, HI 96849, USA

World Englishes (WE) is devoted to the study of global varieties of English in their distinctivecultural and sociolinguistic contexts. The journal recognizes that English belongs to all who useit and is unique in that it provides an international outlook on three areas of research:language; literature; methodology of English teaching.WE is aimed at students, researchers and teachers, and is integrative in its approach to thestudy and teaching of English language and literature. The primary concern in the sphere ofliterature is with 'non-native' literatures in English.The journal also provides evaluative and critical articles in methodology, psycholinguistics,sociolinguistics and stylistics, and encourages discussion and debate through the "Comments andReplies" section.

A Selection of PapersALAN FIRTH (Denmark), 'Lingua franca negotiations: towards an interactional approach.SAEKO FUKUSHIMA (Japan), Offers and requests: performance by Japanese learners ofEnglish.JEAN D'SOUZA (Singapore), English - one or many?: an experimental study.RAPHAEL 0 ATOYE (Singapore), Word stress in Nigerian English.VINOD S DUBEY (India), The lexical style of Indian English newspapers.TERESE THONUS (USA), Englishization of business names in Brazil.

Indexed/Abstracted in: Cont Pg Educ, Ling Abstr, LLBA, Sociol Abstr

(00673)Subscription Information1992: Volume 11 (3 issues)Annual subscription (1992)Two-year rate (1992/93)ISSN: 0883-2919

£110.00£209.00

US$175.00US$332.50

PERGAMON PRESS

Pergamon Press plc, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 08W, UKPergamon Press, Inc., 395 Saw Mill River Road, Elmsford, NY 10523, USA

Advertising rate card available on request. Back issues and current subscriptions are also available in microform. Sterlingprices quoted are definitive. US dollar prices are quoted for convenience only and are subject to exchange rate fluctuation.Prices include postage and insurance and apply worldwide except in Japan.

melt fartIEW /WARR AAR r

The Other Tongue: EnglishAcross Cultures (2d ed.).Braj B. Kachru (Ed.). Chicago:University of Illinois Press,1992.

Reviewed by Timothy Riney

In his foreword to the first edition (1982) ofKachru's The Other Tongue, Charles Fergusondescribed "the incredible spread of English asa global language" as "one of the most signifi-cant linguistic phenomena of our time" (p.xiv), but he also confided that "at this stage ofthe research, the papers cannot go very fartoward constructing theories or models of varia-tion" (p. xv). Ten years later, in a less modestand measured foreword to the second edition,Peter Strevens heralds forth what he calls the"fast developing interdisciplinary domain thathas come be called 'English as an InternationalLanguage' (EIL)" and "the growing solidityand sophistication of the intellectual studies,both descriptive and explanatory in nature,generated under the EIL rubric" (p. xi).By all accounts "a world of Englishes" and

new areas of scholarship have opened up in thepast decade, and Kachru deserves and receives


Page 201

BOOK REVIEWSa good deal of the credit for this development.In a review of Kachru's first edition, RobertKaplan acknowledged Kachru to be "the leaderin study of English across cultures" (1984:54).Since that time the stature of Kachru has steadilygrown. He has appeared as one of the featuredexperts on the topic of EIL on the widelydisseminated The Story of English video andtextbook series (McCrum, Cran, and MacNeil,1986). Directly or indirectly, his energy andideas have influenced the development of threepublications concerned with global varietiesof English: World Englishes (of which Kachruis coeditor), English Worldwide, and EnglishToday. In light of all of the above, one's expec-tations are high that Kachru's second editionbe substantially updated, revised, and improved.

A New Paradigm for New EnglishesKachru and his collaborators address educa-

tional and sociolinguistic issues: language at-titudes, non-standard languages and languagestandardization, language variation and lan-guage varieties, and language functions, shift,and spread. Using "other tongue" to refer to theuse of English as an "additional" (p. 1) ratherthan a "second" or a "foreign" language, Kachruintended that his first edition "serve as the firststep toward our understanding of the complexissues involved in the formal and functionalcharacteristics of the Englishes around theworld" (p. xxiv). In the introduction to thesecond edition, he offers more rationale:

It is still generally not realized that the other-tongue Englishes have several interesting as-pects that go beyond the realms of pedgogy.

Timothy Riney teaches at International ChristianUniversity in Tokyo. His article on English lan-guage variation and attitudes comes out this year inHeartland English: Variation and Transition in theAmerican Midwest, edited by Timothy Frazer, pub-lished by the University of Alabama Press.

77

202

These varieties have their own sociological,linguistic, and literary manifestations. The glo-bal consequences (good or bad) of English asthe other tongue, and certainly the perspectiveof those who use it as the other tongue, havehardly been presented. The side of the nativespeaker has been concentrated upon to thepoint where it has acquired a questionablestatus in terms of norm, description, and pre-scription [Kachru's italics]. (p. 3)

Kachru's strengths have been his bullets ofinsight that shatter comfortable old assump-tions about monolingualism, English languagestandards, and linguistic competence. Amongthe questions posed by Kachru have been thefollowing: (1) What factors in Asia and Africamotivated the retention of English after the endof the colonial period? (2) What is thesociolinguistic profile of each English variety,and what parameters govern its "nativization"and the "Englishization" of languages in con-tact with English? (3) What new communica-tive events (e.g., non-native English interac-tions), strategies (e.g., code switching), andnorms (e.g., endo-normative and exo-norma-tive) have arisen? (4) What differentiates theEnglish of the bilingual and the monolingualspeaker? (5) What universals in non-nativeEnglishes across cultures can be identified?

A good deal of Kachru's efforts are devotedto changing people's attitudes about English.For the English as "the other tongue" speaker,he prescribes the following: (I) stop associat-ing English with the colonial past, and stopregarding English as an evil influence whichnecessarily leads to Westernization; (2) acceptlocal literature written in English as part of thelocal (and not Anglo) literary tradition; (3)recognize that primarily national (and not in-ternational) uses of English contribute tonativization of English; and (4) develop a con-fident identity in a local English.

Kachru also claims to have identified a set ofnative English speaker "fallacies" about En-glish language teaching: (1) outside LI coun-tries, English is learned to interact with nativespeakers; (2) English is necessarily learned as


a tool to understand and teach Anglo culturalvalues or Judeo-Christian traditions; (3) thegoal of learning and teaching English is toadopt the native models (e.g., pronunciation)of English; (4) international non-native variet-ies of English are "interlanguages" striving toachieve "native-like" character; (5) nativespeakers of English significantly affect theglobal teaching of English, English policy for-mation, and English language spread; and (6)diversity and variation in English is necessar-ily an indicator of linguistic decay, and re-stricting the decay is the responsibility of thenative scholars of English and ESL programs.

One of Kachru's maxims is that "a deviationfor one beholder is an appropriate communica-tive act [Kachru's italics I for another languageuser" (p. 9). Invariably for Kachru, the "user"is the "other tongue" speaker, and the "be-holder" is the monolingual native Englishspeaker. Kachru is confident that"monolingualism is not an ideal state" (p. 11),and that "there is a complex world of NNS(non-native speaker) English that most nativespeakers are not aware of' (pp. 37-38). Kachrudoes not, however, discuss whether this is anEnglish-only phenomenon or whether nativespeakers of other languages (e.g., French andHindi) have similar attitudes toward nonnativedialects.

Overview.Kachru explains that 60 percent of the papers

in the first edition were revisions of paperspresented at a conference at the University ofIllinois; the other contributors were invited.The second edition includes the followingchanges: (1) nine chapters are omitted; (2) fourcontributors to the first edition (Nelson,Strevens, and Sridhar & Sridhar) have revisedor replaced their previous chapters; (3) fournew contributors appear (Yamana Kachru,Smith, Lowenberg, and Thumboo); and (4) B.Kachru adds one more chapter, making histotal contribution to this new edition threechapters, plus the introduction and the editing.

One notes from the acknowledgments on the

\78

BOOK REVIEWS 203

back of the title page that six of the "new"articles (by Strevens, Sridhar & Sridhar,Lowenberg, Smith, Thumboo, and Nelson)were published elsewhere between 1985 and1989. One oversight is acknowledging thatKachru's "new" chapter, "Teaching WorldEnglishes" is almost identical to a paper of thesame title published in Cross Currents in 1989.This leaves Yamana Kachru's paper as theonly paper that appears for the first time in thisentire second edition.

The second edition is comprised of 19 papersdivided into six sections: (1) "English in theGlobal Context: Directions and Issues" (sixpapers), (2) "Nativization: Formal and Func-tional" (four papers), (3) "Contact and Change:Question of a Standard" (three papers), (4)"Literary Creativity in the Other Tongue" (twopapers), (5) "Discourse Strategies: Text inContext" (three papers), and (6) "WorldEnglishes in the Classroom: Rationale andResources" (one paper).

Of the 19 contributors in this edition, 17 arelinguists, one is an anthropologist and one isthe senior editor for the University of IllinoisPress. One indication of the huge influence andproductivity of Kachru in the field of EIL isthat 15 of 18 papers in this volume includeKachru in their lists of references, and 13 of the15 of these lists include more references byKachru than any other author (except, in a fewcases, the author of the article itself). But thesenumbers may also signal that something isamiss. Despite the many genuinely "provoca-tive" issues (Kachru, p. 6) raised in thesepapers, and the hundreds of references to theworks of Kachru, nowhere in this volume arethe ideas of Kachru directly challenged. Se-lected passages from Prator (1968) and Selinker(1971) that predate most of Kachru's signifi-cant work are propped up as easy targets andthen too easily shot down. Conspicuously ab-sent is a full treatment of Kachru's well-knowndebate with Quirk (e.g., 1987, 1989), Kachru'sprincipal opponent in the battle over Englishstandards for world Englishes.

The Unrevised but Reprinted Papers from theFirst Edition

Three unrevised but reprinted papers do notaddress Kachru's themes. Heath's paper is asolid piece of historical and biographical re-search done in the 1970s that pays tribute to anearly German Americanbut is never explic-itly linked to Kachru's ideas. AnthropologistStanlaw aptly summarizes how Englishloanwords have been borrowed into Japanese,but provides little enlightenment beyond that:"The major difference between Japanized En-glish and most other non-native varieties is thedegree to which members of the population arefluent speakers" (pp. 195-196). Lowry, editorfor the University of Illinois press, paradoxi-cally describes how three non-native Englishwriters "demonstrated their abilities to avoidthe pitfalls of folksiness and provincialism.Were this not so, their novels would appealonly to linguists interested in non-nativeEnglishes" (p. 296).

Regrettably, none of the five case studies(involving China, Japan, Africa, and the South-ern Pacific) has been revised, leaving some oftheir barely post-colonial data and referencesobsolete in 1992. The best of these case studiesis Moag's, which formulates conditions andprinciples (e.g., regarding the life-cycle of anon-native language) that can guide scholar-ship in the future. Two papers (not case stud-ies) by Kahane (on how a non-standard dialectbecomes a standard) and Fishman (on the soci-ology of English) are also strong on conditionsand principles that make them worth reprint-ing.

Former Contributors' New or Revised PapersSome of the "new" papers are actually some-

what dated. A case in point is the paper bySridhar & Sridhar (first published in 1986)intended to explain the failure of SLA theory toaccount for indigenized varieties of English. Aglance at page 93 quickly reveals what theSridhars assume to be SLA theory and a glanceat the references will attest to what extent this


article is current. The Sridhars' bitter attack onSLA theory (circa 1980), inadvertently con-ceals their valuable points about how the stabi-lized "additional language" situation differsfrom those situations that SLA theory hastraditionally addressed.

Strevens' paper (first published in 1987) isenthusiastic proselytization for the worldEnglishes movement. Unfortunately, Strevens(recently deceased) and Kachru will neverhave another chance to coordinate their thoughtsin a third edition on some key issues. Strevens(pp. 39-40), for example, claims that localEnglish pronunciations present no real issue,and that English grammar and vocabulary aretaught and learned without variation. But varia-tion is what this new discipline is all about, andinstitutionalized attitudes and practices (e.g.,see Lowenberg, pp. 108-118, and Kachruerywhere) that disfavor variation constituteone of the major EIL issues.

The Four New ContributorsFour new papers (three previously published)

comprise the most substantial improvementover the first edition. Smith addresses the spreadof English and issues of intelligibility. YamanaKachru describes differences between the rhe-torical styles of Indian English and AmericanEnglish. Lowenberg addresses the difficulty ofdetermining what is "deviant" (and not a localnorm) and demonstrates how standard testsfavor speakers and writers of the majoritynorm (e.g., the USA) over those of other norms(e.g., Malaysia). Thumboo, addressing the lit-erary dimension of the spread of English, elo-quently and convincingly argues that the "onelanguage: one-literature" equation does notapply to English.

These four papers from new contributorsmark a clear departure from all the others. Allmake a serious attempt to address one facet ofKachru's new Englishes. None claims to bedefinitive. One completes them with a greaterunderstanding about certain new English is-sues that one can later build upon. Regrettably,the new edition contains only four of these

excellent studies.

EditingSome evidence suggests that this second

edition was compiled hastily. On pages 126and 132 Bokamba cites Kachru (1983), but thiscitation does not appear in Bokamba's list ofreferences. The missing reference may be foundon page 205 in Stanlaw's list of referenceswhere it does not refer to anything in the bodyof Stanlaw's text. Of greater substance is theinterpretation by Lowenberg on page 109 of"Kachru (1976)" as evidence that Indian En-glish speakers preferred local and not nativespeaker norms, and the interpretation by Kachruon page 327 of "Kachru (1976)" as evidence ofan Indian preference fora native speaker model.

ConclusionThe strengths of this second edition over the

first are in the new papers by the new contribu-tors, and in several new questions and insightsthat Kachru places in his revised introductionand his concluding chapter (which appeared inCross Currents in 1989). Potential purchasersshould keep in mind that all but one of thesesecond edition papers were previously pub-lished, and several are somewhat dated. Re-peating one another rather than complement-ing one another, these papers were clearlyselected for and not conceived for this volume.Repetitiveness combined with a plethora ofKachru references have been pointed out be-fore in Kachru's work (see Kaplan, 1984;Francis, 1992).

The most serious weakness of this new edi-tion, however, is the lack of substantial revi-sion of Kachru's own thought and work in away that adequately reflects what Strevensboldly characterized in the foreword to thisedition as a decade of tremendous change inEIL scholarship. Kachru's past genius andproductivity have led us to expect more newparadigms and insights than he gives us here.If The Other Tongue is to have a third edition,then in it Kachru will have to addresssociolinguistic developments that will inevita-

:to80

BOOK REVIEWS

bly follow from the sociopolitical and eco-nomic changes now transforming Europe andAsia. This would require a completely newpaper by Kachru. Something that this secondedition sorely lacks.

ReferencesFrancis, N. (1992). Review of The alchemy of Eng-

lish, by Braj B. Kachru. Language, 68(1), 231-232.

Kachru, B. (1982). Theother tongue: English across

cultures. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Kachru, B. (1989). Teaching world Englishes. Cross

Currents, 16(1), 15-21.Kaplan, R. (1984). Review of The other tongue:

English across cultures,by Braj B. Kachru. Ap-

plied Linguistics, 5(1), 53-55.

205

McCrum, R., Cran, W., & MacNeil R. (1986). The

story of English. New York: Elisabeth SiftonBooks, Viking.

Prator, C. (1968). The British heresy in TESL. In J.Fishman, C. Ferguson, & J. Das Gupta (Eds.),Language problems of developing nations (pp.459-476). New York: Wiley & Sons.

Quirk, R. (1987). The questions of standards in theinternational use of English. In P. Lowenberg(Ed.), Language spread and language policy:Issues, implications, and case studies (pp. 229-241). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown UniversityPress.

Quirk, R. (1989). Language varieties and standardlanguage. JALT Journal, 1 1(1),14 -20.

Selinker, L. (1971). Interlanguage. InternationalReview of Applied Linguistics, 10(3), 209-231.

Historical Linguistics andPhilology.Jacek Fisiak (Ed.). (Trends inLinguistics, Studies andMonographs No. 46) Moutonde Gruyter (Berlin), 1990.

Reviewed by Alan S. Kaye

Fisiak has done it again! What we have here isan eclectic grab-bag of high-powered paperson historical linguistic topics similar in scopeand variety to the excellent volume he edited in1988 for the same publisher (see my review ofit in Journal of Linguistics, 1990, 26(2), 571-72). As with the previous tome, these paperswere also presented at an International Confer-ence, this time on Historical Linguistics andPhilology, held at Blazejewko near Poznan in1988. Fisiak is right to emphasize in the pref-ace that the papers are "sometimes extremelynarrow in scope" (p. v). Among these, givenfor the benefit of the general linguist, andbeyond my purview and that of most linguistsare the following: A. Ahlqvist's study of the

Audacht Morainn, an Old Irish text on king-ship; F. Austin's analysis of the letters of JuliaMiles Barnes, the wife of Cambridge-educatedpoet and philologist William Barnes (1801-1886); G. Bunt's study of a fourteenth-centurypoem William of Palence (the only survivingmanuscript is located at King's College,Cambridge); L. Campbell's survey of the philo-logical works on Mayan languages, such as thec. 1720 Arte de las tres lenguas Cakchiquel,Quiche y Tzutuhil, including an interestingdiscussion of Mayan hieroglyphic writing; U.Canger's fascinating but technical study of theearly sources for the study of Nahuatl or Aztec(1547 onwards) and what they reveal aboutstress, vocalic length, and the glottal stop inboth sixteenth-century Nahuatl and Spanish;A. Dees' dialectology of spoken Old French;B. Diensberg's study of the phonological sta-tus of long consonants in Middle English basedon the Vernon manuscript of theAncreneRiwle;H.J. Diller's work on the semantic changes ofthe English verbs persuade and convince (with

Alan S. Kaye has taught in the Department ofLinguistics at California State University at Fuller-ton for over 20 years. He is the author of manyhooks, articles, and reviews in general and applied

206

the intriguing title of "Linguistic searchlightsand philological buckets"); J. Faarlund's ar-ticle on the runic inscriptions in ancient Nor-dic; M. Gerritsen's syntax of Middle Dutch; I.Goddard's interpretation of Massachusett's (anextinct Algonquian language) orthography; V.Kniersa's paper on runic orthography; S.Nevalinna's lexical variation in Late MiddleEnglish; K. Odwarka's study of scribal errorsin Old Saxon; H. Pilch's edition of the lastVercelli homily (Old English); R. Posner'sparametric changes and Romance possessives;M. Rissanen's study of Old English syntax andlexicon; and W. Winter's account of the dele-tion of accented vowels in Tocharian B, espe-cially the shwa. All these papers appear to belinguistic philology or philological linguisticsat its very best.

There are three articles, however, whichdeserve some special comment because theirsubject matter is apt to interest the generalhistorical linguist. First, we applaud JeanAitchison's "The missing link: the role of thelexicon," which postulates a "'blueprint' of aprotypical change," viz. the idea of a "con-spiracy" plus the notion of a "snowball" (p.12). As the author so elegantly puts it: "Thishappens fortuitously in the early stages of achange. The conspiracy creates a surface struc-ture target, and, as more and more contexts getimplicated, the change is akin to a snowball,rolling down a hill, gathering speed and strengthas it goes. This model is valid for all types ofchange..." (ibid.). By examining different plu-ral markers in Tok Pisin (e.g. of man `men'),one can plausibly understand that o/ has be-come part of the snowball effect: of with hu-mans, then adjectives, then animates in gen-eral. "Eventually, sucking in the remaininginanimates will be a minor matter" (p. 25). Theauthor has made a good case that in Tok Pisin,the change of o/ first applied to certain lexemes;then it expanded to cover a range of lexicalcategories. Thus, to quote the author onceagain: "...the lexicon is the crucial link be-tween changes at the various levels; it providesthe crucial key to the early phases of a change"

82


(ibid.). This position makes sense.Secondly, Laurel Brinton's "The develop-

ment of discourse markers in English" de-serves mention because it demonstrates thatdiscourse analysis is an important tool in philo-logical analysis. The thesis of the paper is thatOld English hwcet is a discourse marker equiva-lent to Modern English's pragmatic particle,i.e., right, you know, I mean, and the relativelynew like (very common in American teenagerspeech). The author is right to point out that thediachronic study of discourse markers has been"largely ignored." In this connection, let mepoint out a flabbergasting loan translation:Modern English like has been calqued in Is-raeli Hebrew teenager speech as ke?ilu. Hasthis sort of thing ever been documented for twounrelated languages before?

Finally, Witold Manczak's "The object ofphilology and the object of linguistics" studiesthe nature of linguistic relatedness demon-strating that when Slav icists universally pro-claim Polish to be more closely related toUkrainian than Russian, this conclusion is notbased on phonetic similarities but rather onlexical convergences. The author argues againstthe pronouncement of the German orientalistLudolf who, we are told, "was the first to claimthat 'die Sprachverwandtschaft offenbart sichnicht im Worterbuch, sondern in derGrammatik"'i(p. 264), and applies this prin-ciple to the problem of the original homelandof the Goths, arriving at the (controversial?)conclusion that it was not in Scandinavia, andthat Germanic should be subdivided into North,Middle (with German, English, etc.,), and South(Gothic).

Although most of these papers can be classi-fied as philological investigations of minutiae,it is the genre of painstakingly careful anddetailed studies like these which advance thelarger picture of diachronic linguistics.

I. "The related among languages becomes evidentnot in the lexicon, but rather in the grammer." (Mytranslation.)

BOOK REVIEWS 207

Teaching One to One.Tim Murphey. Longman Ltd.,1991.

Reviewed by N. Mc Beath

Described as a "practical guide to the one-to-one teaching of private students," TeachingOne to One fills a gap which has existed in theESL literature for far too long. Although teachertraining has generally neglected one-to-oneteaching, every EFL teacher knows that thereis a constant demand for it, and Murpheydeserves credit for this ground-breaking work.

The book seems especially relevant to teach-ers working in Japan, for LoCastro (1989)reports that many Japanese students regardone-to-one teaching as the ideal learning situ-ation. Murphey states that about 80% of hisstudents at Nanzen University in Nagoya arealready giving private lessons to high schoolstudents, though not all are teaching English.This demand for one-to-one teaching in Japanmay be linked to Amano's suggestion that"children have become conscious of and areresisting the compulsion and regimentationthat characterise Japanese schools" (1992:127),but whatever the reason, the demand for pri-vate lessons exists, and this book will helpteachers to fill it.

Based on Murphey's teaching and researchat the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland,Teaching One to One consists of seven chap-ters, a brief postscript, a glossary of EFL terms,a bibliography and ten appendices. Through-out the book there are numbered observationswhich provide a brief recapitulation of themain theoretical points, and these are reprintedtogether in Appendix 3. Although Murpheycalls many of his observations "down-to-earthcommon sense" (p. 1), they focus attention onaspects of teaching which may have become soroutine that their implications are no longerfully considered.

In chapter 1, the principles of one-to-one

teaching are outlined, with attention to factorslike the differences involved in individual ratherthan group talk, unequal encounters, adjustingto others, involvement, proximity, and learn-ing in groups. The second chapter consists of13 case histories, nine drawn from Murphey'sexperiences as a teacher in Switzerland, andfour from his experiences as a student of Ger-man, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. There is aninteresting balance here, and although thematerial is anecdotal, Murphey extracts gen-eral principles from specific situations. Unex-plored, however, is the case of the teachergiving one-to-one instruction to a teenagerwhose parents expect results; not all clients arewell-balanced adults with a love of language.

Chapter 3, "Views from Other Teachers,"raises important points, as it concentrates onthe framework within which teaching takesplace. Murphey himself was a freelance teacher,but he points out that there are also teacherswho work for language schools or who providetuition under the general aegis of a school.There are language schools which specialise inone-to-one teaching, and service companieswhich provide one-to-one teachers for theirclients. Teachers will be faced with slightlydifferent rules of engagement in each of thesecases, but as Murphey suggests there is verylittle in the literature about this type of teach-ing, and little training available for the teachersinvolved. The fourth chapter considers thebasic questions of who the client will be, wherethe instruction will take place, and how andhow long the subject will be studied. Sugges-tions are made but no hard and fast rules aregiven as circumstances will vary from client toclient.

Similarly, chapter 5 "Materials, Ideas andTechniques," offers ideas rather than recipes.Murphey considers both the advantages anddisadvantages of commercial EFL materials,authentic materials, adapted, created and per-

N. McBeath has been teaching EFL for 18 years andhaS taught in Britian and Saudi Arabia. He hasspent the last 12 years with the military in Oman.His main interests are ESP and Materials Design.

208

sonalized materials. The importance of thefirst class and careful planning are also.empha-sized and the author suggests that personalprofiles of clients be compiled and notes main-tained as a record of each class. Listening, eyecontact, mirroring, action language and self-directed learning are considered with the un-derstanding that teachers and students do notalways agree on their priorities. An interestingsuggestion is that with one-to-one students,learning can take place via mail or telephone,and that diary entries or homework can also beintegrated into teaching. A list of conversa-tional start-ups is offered and there is also alook at the role played by the so-called "fourskills."

Chapter 6 is concerned with the practicalaspects of teaching one-to-one. The results ofsurveys conducted in Switzerland and Ger-many are reviewed with guidelines for teach-ing at home as well as conditions for one-to-one teaching provided. There is useful adviceon rates, collecting fees, cancellation of les-sons, travel and photocopying expenses, lengthof lessons, meeting places, and methods ofattracting clients, though Murphey admits thatthe personal recommendations of existing stu-dents are the best advertising. The chapterconcludes with notes on the importance ofliaisons between teachers engaged in one-to-one teaching and suggests that a special inter-est group should be established for, amongother things, the publication of case histories.

Chapter 7 goes beyond one-to-one teachingto consider its impact on "regular classroom


teaching" (p. 97). Murphey believes that teach-ers with experience in one-to-one teachingmay find that they are able to reconstruct thediscourse of their classrooms, place encoun-ters with their students on a more equal foot-ing, or introduce approaches like peer tutoring,pair work and small group work. He refers withapproval to the literature on these humanisticapproaches, and cites instances of existingcourses which foster learner independence. Anote on examples and sources of one-to-oneclass materials is included, but the most recenttext cited is Byrne (1987), and teachers wouldbe well advised to look for newer material.

As a practical guide, Teaching One to One isexcellent value for the money. It offers soundadvice, and is a first class handbook for anyteacher offering private lessons. It is perhapstoo dependent on data from Switzerland, andthe references to the teaching situation in Japanare clearly those of a newcomer to the country,but this is an accessible book on a neglectedarea of teaching and well-worth reading.

ReferencesAmano, I. (1992). The bright and dark sides of Jap-

anese education. RSA Journal, 140, no. 5425,119-128.

Byrne, D. (1987).Techniques for classroom inter-action. London: Longman.

LoCastro, V. (1989). Large size classes: The situ-ation in Japan. Project report No. 3, Lancaster/Leeds Language Learning in Large Classes Re-search Project. Lancaster/Leeds: University ofLancaster/University of Leeds.

WOW! Window on the WorldStudent's Book 1. Rob Nolasco.Oxford University Press, 1990.

Reviewed by Julie Evans

WOW! Window on the World is a three-levelEnglish course for young teenagers. Each levelconsists of a student's book, workbook,

teacher's book, and classroom cassette. Thebook is based on a fictitious televisionprogramme and includes cartoons, quizzes,reports, news, fashion, sports, and activities.The Teacher's Book 1 states that "WOW seeksto educate and also to entertain" (p. i).

Julie Evans is an instructor in the CommunityProgram at the Language Institute of Japan. Shehas a Teaching Diploma and Education Degreefrom Massey University, New Zealand.

4

BOOK REVIEWS 209

I used the Student's Book 1 with first andsecond-year Japanese junior high school stu-dents at an English language institute in Japan.There were approximately ten students in eachclass which met for one hour, once a week. Thecontent to be covered in each unit was manage-able in a one-hour class.

The student's book is eye-catching with manycolourful photographs and illustrations. At firstglance, I was extremely impressed with thelayout; each of the twenty units is divided intothree lessons which are simple to follow. Thelessons progress in an orderly manner andcover some interesting topics. Each of thethree lessons in a unit follows a basic structure.For example, in the first unit, lesson one usesthe context of a television programme to intro-duce and practice giving simple introductionsand identifying people by name. Lesson twoprovides additional material for asking wherepeople are from, and lesson three introduces anon-going story, "The Search," which reviewsthe structures previously presented.

The student's book is full of activities. Mostof them are short and concise and can becompleted quickly in class or as homework.The layout of each lesson is clear, so mystudents could look back and see what they hadcovered. Many of the exercises, however, lackoriginality and students often were not moti-vated by the set task. While most of the activi-ties were simple and related to the functionbeing practised, many were too easy, even formy low-level students.

The rate at which the lessons progressed indifficulty was also a problem. To begin with,the pace was good; the lessons were simple andmy students were familiar with the functionsbeing presented. However, the book contin-ued to increase in difficulty too rapidly. Toomuch of the vocabulary was new (eg., official,vigorous, and encounter), and the statisticswere sometimes confusing, as a result, interestwas soon lost.

According to the teacher's book, "TheSearch," provides practice in two skills areas,listening and reading. It is written in cartoon

form which is both eye-catching and helpfulfor understanding. A cassette tape correspondswith the pictures and has an excellent soundtrack with clear characterisation. The benefitof using a continuing story is that students whoattend classes regularly can predict what willhappen in the story line. For students who areoften absent, however, this can be a detriment.

To incorporate speaking and writing prac-tice into "The Search," I supplemented it withextra activities. Students sometimes read thedialogues with partners or as a class, and theycould write down their predictions and latercheck them. During most classes, I used thecassette to correspond with the lesson's func-tion. Unfortunately, the vocabulary used in"The Search," was a little too difficult for mystudents and too much time was spent oncomprehending it, a disadvantage in a one-hour lesson.

Occasionally, the function to be taught wasunclear. To have lessons which were morefocussed, I eliminated some activities and of-ten supplemented with others. While the courseprovides a guide for teaching the basics (suchas the simple present, prepositions, and pos-sessive adjectives), the lessons are not self-contained and putting a lesson together inconjunction with the book was time-consum-ing.

While the first version of the book usesBritish English, the 1992 version, AmericanWow!, uses American English. Much of thebooks' content is focussed on life in Britain orin America, respectively. I felt that this was aweakness when using it in an EFL situation.Some of the topics, however, were very inter-esting, such as "How to spend money," "Foodfacts," and "Holiday reports."

Unfortunately, not all of the content is fac-tual. On page 36 of the British text, there is asection entitled "Young People in Britain To-day." It includes statistics about music ("50 percent of young people have theirown walkman"),and about leisure activities and hobbies ("30per cent of young people play computer gamesin their bedrooms"). But the same statistics are

'5

210

included in American Wow! under the heading"Young People in the U.S. Today."

To cite another example, on page 29 of theBritish text there is a passage entitled "A Japa-nese School In London," and on the same pagein the American text, "A Japanese School InNew York." The content varies only slightly:


"She watches only one hour of television aweek and she doesn't have any English friends,"and "She watches only about one hour oftelevision a week, and she doesn't have anyAmerican friends." Not knowing which statis-tics are indeed factual detracts from the goal toeducate as well as entertain.

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JournalsApplied Linguistics, 13(2-4). (1992). Oxford: Oxford

University Press.Asian & Pacific Quarterly of Cultural and Social

Affairs, 24(1). (1992). Seoul: Cultural and SocialCentre for the Asian and Pacific Region.

The Beaver Dam, 21,22 (1992). Brasilia, Brazil:Casa Thomas Jefferson.

Bulletin CILA, 56 (1992). Neuchatel: Institut delinguistique de l'Universite de Neuchatel.

CTJ Journal, 25 (1992). Brasilia, Brazil: Casa Tho-mas Jefferson.

EA Journal, 10(1,2). (1992). Pyrmont, Australia:English Language Intensive Courses for Over-seas Students.

ELT./ournal, 46(2-4). (1992). Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press.

English For Specific Purposes, 1 1(2). (1992). NewYork: Pergamon Press.

English Teachers' Journal, 44,45 (1992). Israel:Ministry of Education and Culture.

English Teaching Forum, 30(3,4). (1992); 3 1 ( 1 ).(1993). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government.

English Today, 8(2-4). (1992). Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press.

General Linguistics, 31(3-4). (1991). UniversityPark, P.A.: Pennsylvania State University Press.

IATEFL Newsletter, 115,116 (1992). Whitstable,England: IATEFL.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 16

(1-4). (1992). New York: Pergamon Press.JALT Journal, 14(2). (1992). Tokyo: Japan Asso-

ciation of Language Teachers.The Journal of English Language Teaching, 27( 1-

4). (1992). Madras, India: The English LanguageTeachers' Association of India.

Journal of Human Sciences, 2 (1989); 1,2 (1991 &1992). Turkey: Middle East Technical University.


Winter 1992213

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Develop-ment, 12(6). (1991); 13(1-4). (1992). Clevedon,England: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Language and Education,5(3).(1991); 6(1). (1992).Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Language and Intercultural Training (formerly Lan-guage Training), 13(1,2). (1992). Bath, England:Language Training Services.

Language, Culture and Curriculum, 4(3). (1991).Dublin: Institiuid Teangeolalochta Eireann.

Language Learning, 42(2-4). (1992). Ann Arbor,Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

The Language Teacher, 16(6-12). (1992); 17(1).(1993). Tokyo: Japan Association of LanguageTeachers.

The Modern Language Journal, 76(2-4). (1992).Madison, Wisconsin: University of WisconsinPress.

NAFSA Newsletter, 44(1-3). (1992). Washington,D.C.: National Association for Foreign StudentAffairs.

Perspectives,3(2).(1991);4(2). (1992). Hong Kong:City Polytechnic of Hong Kong.

Practical English Teaching, 12(4). (1991); 13(1,2).(1992). London: Mary Glasgow Publications.

Prospect,7(2).(1992).Sydney, Australia: NationalCentre for English Language Teaching and Re-search.

RELC Journal, 23(1). (1992). Singapore: SEAMEORegional Language Centre.

The Teacher Trainer, 6(2,3). (1992). Canterbury,England: The Pilgrims English Language CourSe.

TESL Reporter, 24(4). (1991); 25( I ). (1992). Ha-waii: Brigham Young University.

TESOL in Context, 2(1,2). (1992). West Preston,Victoria: Journal of the Australian Council ofTESOL Associations.

TESOL Matters, 2(4-6). (1992). Alexandria, Vir-ginia: TESOL.

TESOL Quarterly, 26(1-4). (1992). Alexandria, Vir-ginia: TESOL.

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