Books
Ishihara, Noriko & Maeda, Magara, Communication in context. London: Routledge, 2010. Pp. xi + 186. ISBN 978-0-415-77708-7 (pbk).
This innovative advanced level course in Japanese teaches appropriate language use in real-life situations. With an emphasis on listening and speaking skills, the course takes a descriptive approach, demonstrating the variations that exist among Japanese speakers. Authentic sample dialogues demonstrate a range of generally preferred language uses, giving the student the tools to communicate in an effective and culturally appropriate manner. The text is organized according to frequently used functions of speech, such as requesting, apologizing, refusing, thanking and complimenting and presents commonly-used expressions and typical speech routines, providing the learner with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the usage of these routines within the social context.
Matthiessen, Christian, Teruya, Kazuhiro & Lam, Marvin, Key terms in systemic functional linguistics. London: Continuum, 2010. Pp. xii + 308. ISBN 978-1-847-06440-0 (pbk).
The field of Systemic Functional Linguistics is a social semiotic approach to language pioneered by M. A. K. Halliday which has assumed a central importance in linguistics in recent years, anchored by a growing body of work. This book details the key terms, thinkers and texts in this field in an approachable, easy to understand and accessible manner. It is authored by leading names in the field and is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates studying linguistics and language studies.
Benati, Alessandro G. & Lee, James F., Processing instruction and discourse. London: Continuum, 2010. Pp. xi + 235. ISBN 978-0-826-43496-8 (pbk).
Processing Instruction is an approach to grammar instruction for L2 learning, contrasting with traditional grammar instruction in its focus on structured input rather than learners’ output. This book compares student assessment after traditional grammar instruction and after Processing Instruction in order to assess the positive benefits of this method of L2 teaching. Rather than examining sentence-level tasks, the study looks at the relative effectiveness of Processing Instruction on discourse-level linguistic ability. Case studies using empirical data from L2 learners of Japanese, Italian and English are used to highlight the benefits to the learner of this method of enhanced input. This monograph will be of interest to postgraduates and academics researching SLA and applied linguistics.
Macaro, Ernesto (ed.), Continuum companion to second language acquisition. London: Continuum, 2010. Pp. xi + 357. ISBN 978-0-826-49506-8 (pbk).
This book aims to be an essential one-volume resource for advanced students, postgraduate students, researchers and academics working within SLA and applied linguistics. It offers a comprehensive reference resource featuring an overview of key topics in SLA as well the key research methods used. It then goes on to look at current research areas and new directions by examining the principal relationships in the field, including that between L1 and L2 acquisition and L2 input and L2 output.
Journals
The ESPecialist. EDUC/PUC-SP, Rua Monte Alegre, 984 – Perdizes Cep 05014–001 – São Paulo – SP, Brazil. ISSN 0102–7077. Vol. 30.1 (2009), pp. 1–110.
In the first of the five papers in this issue, Maria Francisca Lier-DeVitto (São Paulo Catholic University) discusses the issue of pathological speech and argues that such speech has been systematically excluded from linguistic theory. Luciane Leipnitz (Rio Grande do Sul Federal University) focuses on German vocabulary and the production of multi-word lists in order to describe, categorize and better understand the use of collocations in German. Fernanda Coelho Liberali (São Paulo Catholic University), Valdite Pereira Fuga (São Paulo Catholic and Mogi das Cruzes University) & Eduardo de Andrade Gonçalves (São Paulo Catholic and FAMA) deal with the larger issue of citizenship in education, covering issues such as meaning/sense and responsibility from a Bakhtinian standpoint, claiming that sharing meaning helps to promote citizenship in schools. The fourth paper, by Adriane Orenha & Diva Cardoso de Camargo (São Paulo State University at São José do Rio Preto) reports on corpus-based research in the field of terminology. Specifically, their research aimed at extracting phraseological units from a parallel corpus and a comparable corpus of contracts/agreements. The final paper, by Adriana Sales Zardini & José Wilson da Costa (Minas Gerais Federal Technology Centre) details how email correspondence can be used as a tool for helping develop reading and writing skills with Brazilian school children in public elementary schools.
