Dimension 2008: Languages for the Nation ed. by C. Maurice Cherry, Carol Wilkerson (review)

CHERRY, C. MAURICE, and CAROL WILKERSON, eds. Dimension 2008: Languages for the Nation. Valdosta, GA: Southern Conference on Language Teaching, 2008. ISBN 1883640 -22-9. Pp. 126. $10. The use of a blind-review selection process and the careful work of the volume’s two editors have resulted in an excellent conference proceedings, which contains eight well-written and informative articles. The open-ended conference theme (Languages for the Nation) is carried through to the proceedings volume. In this reviewer’s opinion, the volume would have benefited from the cohesion provided by a topical organization (e.g., methods, assessment, and programmatic concerns). Three articles center on methods and strategies. In the first of these articles, “Drama in the Classroom and Improved Academic Performance,” David R. Miller makes a convincing case for the use of drama as a method for teaching Spanish. Students in three different settings (a typical state university, an HBCU, and a class at a men’s correctional facility) read and performed an unedited Nicaraguan play on health care issues written by a local theater group in Nicaragua ; they outperformed control groups who had not read the play on both achievement and motivation measures. In “An Analysis of the Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) Method,” David Alley and Denise Overfield provide both an historical overview and an insightful critique of TPRS (the latest iteration of TPR). Their reservations about TPRS include issues such as its use of inauthentic language through teacher-created stories, its insistence on BEP (bizarre, exaggerated, and personalized), and the lack of cultural authenticity in the materials. They conclude that TPRS has more in common with earlier methods such as ALM or Grammar-Translation than with newer, more communicative approaches to language learning. Readers tuned into the learning styles and preferences of the millennial generation will profit from the innovative blend of technology and creative writing that Edwina Spodark describes in her article, “Technoconstructivism and the Millennial Generation: Creative Writing in the Foreign Language Classroom.” Two articles deal primarily with assessment. The first, “Technology for Oral Assessment” (Patricia Early and Peter B. Swanson) compares the use of in-class oral assessments and those provided by today’s technology (e.g., Audacity, Odeo, and iPods). Based on their critiques of the two approaches and a comparison of in-class oral testing and out-of-class testing using digital voice recorders, the authors make a strong case for using technology as a vehicle for out-of-class oral assessment. In her article, “Connecting a Standards-Based Curriculum with Student Performance and Assessment,” Rosalie Cheatham describes a beginning-to-advanced level university curriculum based on the three modes of the Communication Standard (interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational) where classroom activities and assessments reflect tasks that students would be likely to encounter in the real world. Programmatic issues are dealt with in the remaining three articles. Marat Sanatullova advocates using the Teacher Work Sample (TWS) as a basis for constructing unit lesson plans in pre-service teacher education programs. Sanatullova demonstrates that the TWS in combination with a WebQuest (an inquiry-based on-line activity in which students seek out information) provides a useful structure for pre-service teachers. For readers not familiar with the issues involved with the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs), Elvira SanatullovaAllison ’s article (“The National Security Language Initiative and Less Commonly 828 FRENCH REVIEW 84.4 Taught Languages”) provides an excellent overview of that field including the categories of LCTLs, the rationale behind LCTL offerings at universities, and enrollment data (check the University of Minnesota’s LCTL database and 2007 MLA enrollment data for up-to-date information). Lisa Signori’s “The Belgian Connection” addresses the importance of including Belgium in French programs and provides useful information about the country. All in all, Languages for the Nation provides a useful contribution to the profession, and readers taking the time to peruse its pages will find much to recommend it. Ohio State University Diane W. Birckbichler ROCHAT, DENISE. Contrastes: grammaire du français courant. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. ISBN 0-205-64699-0. Pp. 504. $52.00. Contrastes is a grammar textbook for students with a solid foundation in French, ready...