Teaching English to speakers of other languages: Substance and technique By Betty Wallace Robinett (review)

222LANGUAGE, VOLUME 57, NUMBER 1 (1981) The third goal (enriching social psychology) is the most difficult to attain, and has been least obviously advanced by this volume. This does not mean that it is a worthless goal, by any means. Establishments are sometimes influenced by small provocative groups; elephants are sometimes moved by sparrows. I have my doubts that social psychology can or will be so moved, but I admire the gumption of those who are willing to try. I would merely caution them to remember sympathetically that even establishments and elephants have purposes, directions, and priorities; therefore, though outsiders may consider them 'static' and 'descriptive', their own self-perceptions may be that they are 'on the move and getting places' without need of interference from the periphery. [Received 3 March 1980.] Teaching English to speakers of other languages: Substance and technique. By Betty Wallace Robinett. Minneapolis & New York: University of Minnesota Press and McGraw-Hill, 1978. Pp. xiv, 321. Cloth $15.00, paper $8.95. Reviewed by Fraida Dubin, USC New books on language pedagogy have appeared with increasing frequency during the past several years. Documenting the vitality of the field, this information explosion provides instructors of methods courses with an ample collection from which to select the right book for the particular purpose. Among these publications, American authors alone have employed different organizing principles (e.g. Celce-Murcia & Mcintosh 1979, Dubin & Olshtain 1977, Paulston & Bruder 1976, Rivers & Temperley 1978). It seems appropriate, therefore, to view Robinett's new text in relation to the current crop of methodology books, as well as to consider its internal merits. Authors who set out to organize a complex field in a survey text face vexing dilemmas. Like teaching an introductory course, their assignment is more demanding than producing a volume in a specialized area—or, for that matter, teaching a graduate seminar. Moreover, considering the dynamic shifts and expansions in the field of English language teaching (ELT) during the past decade, the task is even more formidable. The audience for teacher education in ELT possesses myriad needs and abilities; so an author is faced with the task of producing a book that can fit the requirements of disparate practitioners —from whom there is frequently a plea for more techniques or howto 's, and less theory or background. When they look for textbook models, writers find that others in ELT have tended to follow one of three options: (1) the anthology, in which the authoreditor selects a compatible group of articles by specialists in the field; (2) the synthesis approach, which attempts to fuse theory and application; or (3) the model which offers theory and background first, and then application and technique—or in the case of R's book, matter first, then techniques. Each model has drawbacks: the anthology author is, after all, an editor—a role with its own pitfalls. Creating a framework for a synthesis is a difficult REVIEWS223 assignment, particularly in the ELT area. Moving from theory to application is precarious, because (among other reasons) theories change. As an example of the 'background first, then application' approach, R's book is divided in two parts: I, 'The English language', and II, 'Teaching English to speakers of other languages'—separating a description of important features of English from issues connected with language pedagogy. An outstanding feature is the lengthy bibliographies which R gives at the back of the book, one for each chapter. The volume is expertly designed, produced, and printed. Part I deals with the English grammatical system (60 pages), sound system (45 pages), and vocabulary system (30 pages). Beginning with a 'description of the major aspects of English grammar ... that teachers ... must be familiar with' (3), there follows 'in quite traditional terms' a description of devices that signal grammatical relationships in English, together with a section drawn primarily from generative-transformational sources. Ample exercises at the end of the chapter reinforce the contents of the sections which explicate grammar. In reading through the chapter on the grammatical system, as well as those on the sound and vocabulary systems, one recalls a common misunderstanding on the part of teachers-in-training: 'Is this what we teach in ESL/EFL?' Frequently...