LINGUIST List 22.4813 Sat Dec 03 2011 Review: Applied Linguistics: De Houwer and Wilton (eds., 2011) Editor for this issue: Anja Wanner <anjalinguistlist.org> This LINGUIST List issue is a review of a book published by one of our supporting publishers, commissioned by our book review editorial staff. We welcome discussion of this book review on the list, and particularly invite the author(s) or editor(s) of this book to join in. If you are interested in reviewing a book for LINGUIST, look for the most recent posting with the subject "Reviews: AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW", and follow the instructions at the top of the message. You can also contact the book review staff directly. Directory         1.     Marc Deneire , English in Europe Today Message 1: English in Europe Today Date: 03-Dec-2011 From: Marc Deneire <marc.deneireuniv-nancy2.fr> Subject: English in Europe Today E-mail this message to a friend Discuss this message Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/22/22-868.html EDITORS: Annick De Houwer and Antje Wilton TITLE: English in Europe Today SUBTITLE: Sociocultural and educational perspectives SERIES TITLE: AILA Applied Linguistics Series 8 PUBLISHER: John Benjamins Publishing Company YEAR: 2011 Marc Deneire, Nancy Université, France. SUMMARY ''English in Europe Today'' is a collection of articles dedicated to Karlfried Knapp on the occasion of his official retirement from the University of Erfurt in 2011. As noted by the editors, the contributors to the volume all have a personal and/or professional connection with Knapp, whose research focused on intercultural communication and English as a Lingua Franca. In their introductory chapter, Wilton and De Houwer point to the fact that Europe has always been a multilingual territory, where power relations have had an influence on the nature of language contact. However, in spite of the ambivalent attitudes toward high prestige languages and linguae francae -- Greek among the Romans, Latin in the Roman Empire and in the middle ages, French as a language of diplomacy, English as a lingua franca today -- none of these languages has ever threatened the linguistic diversity of Europe. On the contrary, internal migrations and the vitality of lesser-spoken languages have greatly added to that diversity in all European regions. In her article on ''The increasing role of English in Basque education,'' Jasone Cenoz looks at the impact of two main trends in the Basque country: the introduction of English in pre-primary education and the use of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) with English. 90 percent of schools there teach English from the age of 4 and 25 percent of primary schools participate in CLIL programs, which makes them an ideal testing ground to measure the effects of these variables. Results for both factors are mixed: Children who start learning English early do not perform better than those who start later (age 8) and CLIL programs only outperform traditional programs when traditional English classes are maintained. Cenoz concludes that the amount of exposure may be more important than age or CLIL, if the purpose is to raise the English proficiency of Basque learners. In the third article, Susan Gass and Daniel Reed chronicle the development of an English test in Greece. They show that the main difficulties they encountered were not related to language issues but rather to intercultural sensitivities linked to differences in political and administrative contexts, to cultural content, to different testing cultures, and to the role and importance of different stakeholders. They conclude that in any collaborative approach, contexts and cultures contribute to shaping the final product in a way that cannot be fully predicted at the outset. In her analysis of English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) in German universities, Annelie Knapp reports that even though 50 percent of her sample had studied at foreign universities, there is a notable tendency for students to avoid EMI courses at their own German university. More than 70 percent of the students report occasional or frequent problems in understanding, which results in less participation and discussion and a reduction in the amount of course content. Knapp further discusses samples from an applied chemistry class in an ELF context and notes that instructors tend to have difficulty using everyday language to explain technical concepts and often make false assumptions about shared knowledge. She concludes that the technique of ''letting it pass'' (Firth 1996) is often inappropriate in academic contexts and that adequate support needs to be made available by administrators if they want to use EMI to attract international students. Kurt Kohn's article explores the conflict generally perceived between non-native speakers' claim of ownership of English and their preference for Standard English models. Using a social constructivist perspective, Kohn explains that all non-native English speaker-learners develop their own English (which he calls ''the My English condition'') depending on the communities of practice they belong to and the requirements of performance they impose on themselves or that are imposed on them. Kohn also uses Karlfried Knapp's distinction between participation and membership to argue that while individuals participate in certain communities, they may also develop a communal identity, which resides in ''attitudes and values that form part of the speaker-learner's construction of otherness'' (p. 88). Thus ELF speakers may well develop their communicative contacts with other non-native speakers while feeling communally attracted to native speakers and Standard English values. In chapter six, Li Wei observes and documents the early acquisition of English by three Chinese children who were one year old when they arrived in Britain. His study supports the view that context of acquisition should be fully taken into account in explaining early bilingual development. There is, for example, a clear link between parental discourse and children's development. In his conclusion, Li Wei proposes two hypotheses for further research: the comparability hypothesis, which assumes that structures that are completely similar or completely different are acquired more easily than more ambiguous structures, and the input style hypothesis, which states that the quantity and variety of input have a direct impact on the number and type of words structures the children learn to produce in spontaneous conversation. The title of Jacomine Nortier's article, ''The more languages, the more English: a Dutch perspective,'' summarizes her main argument. In the Netherlands, today 75 percent of the people speak two or more languages and in a city like Utrecht, 77 percent know three or more languages. The author addresses the question of whether Dutch is, as some people argue, in danger of being displaced by English as a result. She answers with a firm ''no.'' She notes that (1) the influence of English on Dutch is superficial and mainly lexical, the grammar remaining almost completely unaffected; (2) loanwords have been integrated into Dutch as far as morphology and pronunciation are concerned; (3) English is widely used in Dutch advertising, but so was French for most of the 20th century, and (4) most surveys are based on self-reporting, but real proficiency is rarely tested. Nortier reports some examples of embarrassingly poor English that show that in EU meetings, the use of translators may be more appropriate than the use of English by Dutch and Flemish delegates. Like Kohn, Barbara Seidlhofer argues that ''ELF gets appropriated by its non-native users, who then become agents in the processes that determine how the language spreads, develops, varies, and changes'' (p. 140). It is precisely because it is emergent in nature that ELF does not enter into competition with other languages and can serve as an intercultural tool in the shaping of the European Union. Unlike other languages, ELF is not attached to a specific territory, culture, or set of values. Thus, rather than reducing diversity in language choice, it actually enhances it. In the final contribution Marjolijn Verspoor, Kees de Bot, and Eva van Rien discuss an attempt to measure the effect of language input outside of school on L2 acquisition. Because most TV programs are not dubbed in the Netherlands, Dutch audiences are exposed to an average of one hour of English a day. However, the authors found a group of Dutch people who for religious reasons are not exposed to the media, which allowed them to make a comparison between ''media groups'' and ''non-media groups.'' In each setting, tests conducted in monolingual and in bilingual schools show a positive effect of media exposure in both settings with bilingual schooling compensating for lack of exposure. EVALUATION The nine chapters in this book testify to the many different facets of English in a multilingual and multicultural Europe. I personally found every single contribution interesting and valuable, a rare experience in this type of collection. It is of course impossible to comment on all the issues raised in this book. Therefore, I will limit myself to the question of language policy, an issue raised by Seidlhofer and introduced by the editors, who argue that ''patterns of linguistic change reflect power structures and societal realities'' (p. 1). Even though Seidlhofer concludes her paper by saying that ELF enriches the European linguistic repertoire and contributes to linguistic and cultural diversity, she seems to take issue with the official multilingual and multicultural policy of the EU. ''The rhetoric of the protectionism of linguistic diversity persists,'' she writes (p136), and ''[t]he forceful and enforced promotion of multilingualism as an official policy is in stark contrast with the actual practice of European citizens and institutions alike increasingly converging toward one lingua franca'' (p. 137). Finally, citing Coulmas, she suggests that establishing a link between political and linguistic loyalties and between language and culture represents ''the ideological dead weight of the nineteenth century'' (p. 137). It might be helpful to remember that even though the ELF perspective may have liberated non-native speakers from the yoke of the native speaker, English remains the language of power all over the world. In most European countries, it may not be the language of politics and administration, but, as recent crises have shown, the seat of power has shifted from the political to the financial world. ''Learn English, Wall Street English,'' is not only the slogan of a well-known private school, it reflects that shift of power and reminds us that English remains the ''language of authority'' (Bourdieu, 1991: 48) in the European linguistic market. As noted in some contributions to this volume, the number of speakers of English may be high in Europe, but the number of people who master the language remains small. This may be due to the fact that, just as in the outer circle, ''opportunities for practicing English remain urban and associated with white collar jobs'' (Mufwene 2010: 57). As a result, many people lose their job or don't get one because of a lack of knowledge of English. It is, I would argue, the role of the political sphere to protect the weaker citizens against economic and financial instability. In short, not promoting multilingualism not only leads to a massive rejection of European institutions, but it ultimately means that the EU refuses to protect its citizens against the financial powers that govern today's world. REFERENCES Bourdieu Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Firth, Alan 1996. The discursive accomplishment of normality: On ''Lingua Franca'' English and conversational analysis. Journal of Pragmatics 26: 237-259 Mufwene, Salikoko S. (2010) Globalization and the spread of English: what does it mean to be Anglophone? English Today 26(1). 57-59. ABOUT THE REVIEWER Marc Deneire received his PhD degree in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994 and is presently Associate Professor of English at Nancy Université. His research interests include sociolinguistics, World Englishes, language policy, and second language acquisition. Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 03-Dec-2011       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.