Teaching modern languages Ed. by Geoffrey Richardson (review)

BOOK NOTICES 1003 Part 3 applies these ideas to the formation of a bilingual class of six-year-old deaf children. Two teachers, a deaf signer and a hearing speaker, duplicate teaching. To establish rapport and to approximate mothers' behavior with infants, the teachers tell family histories and fictional stories. The content and language forms emerge gradually through repetition and play. Speech lessons and written language, using the stories, are quickly added. The children enjoy performing, and come to anticipate their favorite parts in sign and spoken form. They match the content across sign, speech, and print. Parent education focuses on pleasure in family communication, and on carry-over between school and home. Over a period ofa year and a half, the children display interest in all three modes, but use sign best. After one year, the children are mainstreamed with an interpreter for the morning, and continue their bilingual class after noon. B is very sketchy on the results. She says that children code-switch between the teachers, but use both sign and voice together. Through writing and reading, the children 'fill in' the function words of vocal language. Some brief examples are given; however, B's linguistic data are too meager to assess as code-switching, and in general her descriptions oflanguage data are global or anecdotal. The book is so well reasoned and grounded in theory and research, from appropriate Continental and American sources, that it is a shock to realize that B never presents her data to us. [Madeline Maxwell, University of Texas, Austin.] Teaching modern languages. Ed. by Geoffrey Richardson. London: Croom Helm; New York: Nichols, 1983. Pp. 240. Cloth £15.95, paper£7.95. The ten articles on teaching (not learning!) modern languages which are collected here are both refreshing and disappointing. Refreshing is the non-vitriolic nature of what R's foreword calls 'a comprehensive coverage ofthe most important issues in the field of modern language teaching': these include the recognition of past mistakes and misguided 'revolutions' (55), the inclusion of current research on learning theory (passim), the 'accuracy vs. fluency' controversy (133), the central role of language usage (passim ), and the changing linguistic needs of the world (82). However, one is disappointed by several omissions. Speech Act theory receives only limited recognition (126), and conversational and discourse analysis are not mentioned at all. Modern technological improvements, e.g. video and computers, are neglected, although the terms 'software' and 'hardware' are used (57). There is no reference to the contributions made by the area of English as a Second Language . Perhaps even more disappointing is the implied conclusion that bad foreign language teaching still persists, despite the obvious dedication and expertise of the authors. All this aside, this collection does have its strengths, and should be considered seriously by teachers looking for new ideas backed by experience and scholarship. However, the American reader should be warned that all the authors reflect British context and experience, and that the book's glossary of terms and abbreviations is inadequate for explaining all the acronyms and descriptions used. The articles range from A. W. Hornsey's 'Aims and objectives in foreign language teaching ' (1-18) to G. H. Soles' 'Assessment and testing ' (186-206) and D. E. Ager's 'The demands and needs of the universities, industry and commerce ' (207-29). Recognizing that 'many of our pupils simply do not wish to learn a foreign language ' (14), Hornsey subordinates the attainment of linguistic skills in a FL to more humanistic aims, e.g. learning about the FL and culture. This is echoed in Ager's distinction between education and training, in which he pleads for standards in FL competency that reflect the changing educational and economic needs of the 20th century. Richardson seems to contradict himself in his two articles. In 'An introductory overview of methods and methodology' (19-37), he begins with a quote from Wilkins' 1974 Second-language learning and teaching: 'There is no single , "best" way of teaching foreign languages.' But in '"Direct Method" Teaching' (38-52), he emerges as a very strong champion ofthe Direct Method, which he traces back to Victor's 1882 article 'Der Sprachunterricht muß umkehren'. ?. K. Cammish has...