LINGUIST List 10.293

Mon Feb 22 1999

Books: Bilingualism

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Janet Spaulding, Bilinguialism: Assessment, Language Processing

Talking and Testing: Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral
proficiency. Richard Young and Agnes Weiyun He (eds.) (University of
Wisconsin-Madison/SUNY Stony Brook) Studies in Bilingualism, 15
HB:1998  xviii, 367 pp. US & Canada:  1 55619 549 4
$69.00 Rest of World: 90 272 4121 X NLG 138.00

This book brings together a collection of current research papers on
the assessment of oral proficiency in a second language. Fourteen
chapters focus on the use of the language proficiency interview or LPI
to assess oral proficiency. The volume addresses the central issue of
validity in proficiency assessment: the ways in which the language
proficiency interview is accomplished through discourse. Contributors
draw on a variety of discourse perspectives, including the ethnography
of speaking, conversation analysis, language socialization theory,
sociolinguistic variation theory, human interaction research and
systemic functional linguistics.  And for the first time, LPIs
conducted in German, Korean, and Spanish are examined as well as
interviews in English.

This book sheds light on such important issues as how speaking ability
can be defined independently of an LPI that is designed to assess it
and the extent to which n LPI is an authentic representation of
ordinary conversation in the target language. It will be of
considerable interest to language testers, discourse analysts, second
language acquisition researchers, foreign language specialists, and
anyone concerned with proficiency issues in language teaching and
testing.

Contributions by: Marianne Celce-Murcia; Agnes Weiyun He; Richard
Young; Marysia Johnson; Andrea Tyler; Heidi Riggenbach; Dale April
Koike; Agnes Weiyun He; Carol Lynn Moder; Gene B. Halleck; Maria M.
Egbert; Bernard Mohan; Yumiko Yoshida-Morise; Lucy Katona; Catherine
E. Davies; Kyu-hyun Kim; Kyung-hee Suh; Steven Ross; Richard Young;
Gene B. Halleck.


Language Processing and Second Language Development Processability
theory Manfred Pienemann,(Australian National University) Studies in
Bilingualism, 14 Hardcover: 1998; x, 395 pp. US; Canada: 1 55619 548
6; $69.00 Rest of World: 90 272 4120 1; NLG138.00

This book explores the way in which language processing mechanisms
shape the course of language development, thus adding one major
psychological component to the search for a theory of second language
acquisition.

The core of the book is Pienemanns Processability Theory which spells
out which second language forms are processsable at which
developmental stage. The theory is based on recent research into
language processing and is formalized within Lexical-Functional
Grammar. The predictions of the theory are applied to the second
language development of English, German, Japanese and Swedish. The
theory is also tested in on-line experiments. In addition,
Processability Theory has major implications for interlanguage
experiments. In addition, Processability Theory has major implications
for interlanguage variation (including task variation) and age-related
differences in language acquisition.

John Benjamins web site:
http://www.benjamins.com

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1998 Contributors