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2004 35: 377RELC JournalJesús García Lab

Book Review: Using the Mother Tongue  

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Book Reviews 377

combine these three issues as reflexes of one over-arching skill. For instance, many

respondents felt that a serious impediment to literacy was the ‘crazy’ English spelling

system. The chapter also discusses folk perceptions of second language acquisition.

Chapter 5 deals with folk perceptions of general and descriptive linguistic notions. The

authors focus on two main issues in this chapter: (1) notions of grammaticality and (2)

passive sentences. Interestingly, the authors argue that ‘when engaged in talk about

language, even at the structural level…the folk often reach the same conclusions as

theoreticians’ (p. 279). The final chapter attempts to synthesize the folk perceptions

brought up throughout the course of the book. The authors recognize that all folk

perceptions cannot be lumped into the same bag, but rather that perceptions pattern out

in different ways. They identify a Metalanguage 1 as a perception of language that ‘is

not directed to a phenomenon which a speaker is unaware of, but to one which he or

she has focused on in some way’ (p. 302). Additionally, they point out a Metalanguage

2 as perceptions that are ‘sorts of unasserted beliefs which members of speech com-

munities share’ (p. 308). The authors conclude this chapter with a discussion of how

critical discourse analysis (e.g. Kress, Fairclough, Wodak) can shed new light on folk

perceptions of language.

Folk Linguistics is a comprehensive introduction to the field of perceptual dialectol-

ogy that should be read by anyone interested in the formal study of language. Further-

more, it challenges Mackey’s aphorism and brings it to fruition, not as a triviality, but

rather as a fundamental part of linguistic scholarship.

Glenn A. Martí

DELLER, Sheelagh, and Mario RINVOLUCRI, Using the Mother Tongue (London:

Delta Publishing/English Teaching Professional, 2002), pp. 96. ISBN 0-954198-61-1

(pbk).

Modern EFL classrooms are living a revolution. Old and new instructional elements

and procedures gain in importance. For instance, grammar, after 20 or more years of

open debate, has come back to most textbooks when only 10 years ago it was almost

banned in language teaching. Likewise, teachers are looking at L1 as a valuable

resource in their teaching. First, it was as a facilitating tool for individual instruction,

pair work or group work (Anton and DiCamilla 1999). Today Deller and Rinvolucri’s

Using the Mother Tongue brings new ideas to endorse and value L1 in foreign lan-

guage instruction. Both writers stress the importance of this book at this moment.

Most L2 instructors have recognized the importance of the student’s mother tongue

(Schweers 1999; Tang 2000; Turnball 2001; Turnball and Arnett 2002; Stanley 2002;

Wang and Wen 2002). Despite the writers’ claim of their own novelty, there are other

researchers who have made such claims before in the use of the different skills such as

writing (Swain and Lapkin 2000) or reading (Upton and Lee-Thompson 2001). At the

time of writing this review, about 70 articles addressing the use of L1 in the classroom

could be found in the ERIC database,1 and a new book by Vivian Cook (2003) has

1. The Eric Database is available at http://www.eduref.org/plweb-cgi/fastweb?search

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378 Regional Language Centre Journal 35.3 (2004)

addressed the issue from a theoretical perspective. Then, what is the writers’ innova-

tion? First, the book provides a solid and well constructed set of ideas applicable to

most foreign language (not only EFL/ESL contexts); second, these ideas and exercises

are well organized according to their role in the class, skills used and students’ pro-

ficiency level; third, the book is very clear and facilitates the teacher’s preparation for

the activity through a well detailed description of how and with whom the teacher can

implement each activity.

The book is divided into two parts. The first, ‘Classroom Management’, addresses

general processes of introducing L1, cooperating and setting the processes for activ-

ity and language feedback in the classroom. The exercises in this section require

different degrees of L1 use. The second part, ‘Living Language’, consists of five

different sections preceded by a one page introduction under the following headings:

Grammar, Vocabulary, Skills-Input, Skills-Output and Using Translation. It totals

115 activities with different proficiency requirements which run from absolute begin-

ner to advanced.

Each exercise gives a key before showing the steps of implementation which gives

information concerning the requirements and other parameters, such as the teacher’s

degree of knowledge of the students’ mother tongue, class type according to their

mother tongue (monolingual or multilingual), students’ proficiency level, the goals of

the activity and the required materials.

Deller (2003) has claimed that ‘the grammar section includes a number of contras-

tive activities designed to make grammar less frightening and more accessible’, and

also that this book is very flexible and adaptable to different levels from teachers with

little or no experience at all to the most experienced, from those who are fluent in more

than one foreign language to those who know none. Overall, the reality is that the book

seems to be aimed at native (English speaking) bilingual teachers at either beginners or

advanced level. One thing that the writers have not considered is students’ attitude

towards the EFL teacher. Modified and unexpected translation along with code mixing

do not necessarily create the image of the teacher as an intelligible professional but an

insecure (or even ignorant one) instead.

What is certainly true is that this type of book can be extremely enriching; it is

necessary to provide teachers with real examples and activities that lead to valid L1 use

in the foreign language classroom. The ideas can be used in a number of different

circumstances. One outstanding feature of this book is its adaptability to different

teaching methodologies and contextualized situations. Many of the activities can be

used by grammar translation teachers as well as by the most eclectic ones.

In consequence, the book is highly disruptive for those teachers who always believe

that Foreign Language learning can only be done through the target language ignoring

all the positive values, language skills and general knowledge that L2 students bring

into the classroom. But for those who love innovation, who look at the human side of

language learning (as Rinvolucri himself), and for those of us who believe in continu-

ous motivation, the ideas in the book are attractive and valuable. The book could be a

great help for teachers and practitioners (non-native and native) who are looking for

better and original ways of doing things.

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Book Reviews 379

REFERENCES

Anton, M., and F.J. DiCamilla

1999 ‘Socio-Cognitive Functions of L1 Collaborative Interaction in the L2 Class-

room’, Modern Language Journal 83.2: 233-47.

Cook, V. (ed.)

2003 The Effects of the Second Language on the First (Tonawanda, NY: Multilin-

gual Matters).

Deller, S.

2003 ‘Using the Mother Tongue’ (Book review). Humanising Language Teaching

5.1, retrieved on 2/02/2004 at http://www.hltmag. co.uk /jan03/pubs.htm

Schweers, Jr, C.W.

1999 ‘Using L1 in the L2 Classroom’, Forum 37.2, retrieved on 2/02/2004 at

http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol37/no2/p6.htm

Stanley, K.

2002 ‘Using the First Language in Second Language Instruction: If, When, Why,

and How Much?’, TESL-EJ 5.4, retrieved on 2/02/2004 at http://www-

writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej20/f1.html

Swain, M., and Lapkin, S.

2000 ‘Task-Based Second Language Learning: The Uses of the First Language’,

Language Teaching Research 4.3: 251-74.

Tang, J.

2000 ‘An Empirical Study of the Use of the Mother Tongue in L2 Reading Class’,

Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics 5.2: 45-58.

Turnball, M.

2001 ‘There Is a Role for the L1 in Second and Foreign Language Teaching,

but…’, Canadian Modern Language Review 57.4: 531-40.

Turnball, M., and K. Arnett

2002 ‘Teachers’ Uses of the Target and First Languages in Second and Foreign

Language Classrooms’, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 22: 204-18.

Upton, T.A., and L.C. Lee-Thompson

2001 ‘The Role of the First Language in Second Language Reading’, Studies in

Second Language Acquisition 23.4: 469-95.

Wang, W., and Q. Wen

2002 ‘L1 Use in the L2 Composing Process: An Exploratory Study of 16 Chinese

EFL Writers’, Journal of Second Language Writing 11.3: 225-46.

Jesús García Lab

LEKI, Ilona (ed.), Academic Writing Programs—Case Studies in TESOL Practice

Series (Washington: TESOL, 2001), pp. x + 178. ISBN 0-939791-89-7.

Every now and again I get a truly enjoyable book to review and this volume was

definitely one of them. This is an excellent, long-awaited volume for many of us

looking for situated accounts of writing instruction, and Ilona Leki, the editor, is to be

commended for bringing together a variety of perspectives that offer nuanced and

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