LINGUIST List 12.214

Sat Jan 27 2001

Review: Toohey, Learning English at School

Editor for this issue: Terence Langendoen <terrylinguistlist.org>



What follows is another discussion note contributed to our Book Discussion Forum. We expect these discussions to be informal and interactive; and the author of the book discussed is cordially invited to join in. If you are interested in leading a book discussion, look for books announced on LINGUIST as "available for discussion." (This means that the publisher has sent us a review copy.) Then contact Andrew Carnie at carnielinguistlist.org

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  • CISCEL, MATTHEW HARVEY, Review: Toohey, Learning English at School

    Message 1: Review: Toohey, Learning English at School

     Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 15:08:16 -0500
    From: CISCEL, MATTHEW HARVEY <MHCISCELengr.sc.edu>
    Subject: Review: Toohey, Learning English at School


    Toohey, Kelleen (2000) Learning English at School: Identity, Social Relations and Classroom Practice. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. viii, 152 pp.

    Reviewed by: Matthew H. Ciscel, University of South Carolina, Columbia

    The book under review presents findings from a three-year longitudinal study of minority-language children in English-medium classrooms in North America. The focus is on how social practices related to child second language acquisition affect the development of the children's school identities. Given the policy trend away from bilingual education for immigrant and minority language children in English- dominant countries, this topic is relevant to a wide range of readers, from linguists and educators to concerned parents. Much of the study is also accessible to the same range of readers. However, the ethnographic methodology constrains the degree to which the study's findings are generalizable and informative to practical solutions. Nevertheless, the study is significant in that it explores the socio- cultural factors that have until recently been regularly ignored both in second language research and in the debate over bilingual education.

    A very brief introduction, in which the author provides a short background and overview of the book, is followed by a presentation of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study in Chapter 1, 'Framing story: Theory, setting and methodology.' Arguing that little second language research has involved consideration of cultural and socio-political practices, particularly in child second language acquisition, the author emphasizes the particulars of socio-cultural theories rather than second language learning. The theories of two Russian intellectuals, Vygotsky and Bakhtin, contribute significantly to the theoretical foundation. Clear and concise synopses of their ideas are accompanied by useful references to other researchers influenced by their work. This discussion is followed by clear, but perhaps overly brief, explanations of the research questions, the research site, and the methodology. Essentially, the author followed six minority-language children from kindergarten through grade two, observing classroom behavior and conducting interviews to trace the emergence of both their skills in English and their school identities.

    Chapters 2 and 3 introduce the six children and provide some analysis of the social practices related to language use and identity in the context of their kindergarten year. Interviews with the teacher and parents about each child supplement descriptions of the events related to each child over the course of the year. The practices represented by these events are shown to fix each child in a relatively constrained school identity that has consequences for success in the development of various competencies (linguistic, social, etc.). Furthermore, the narrative form of each child's 'story' in kindergarten makes the content of the author's arguments clear, even to a non-specialist.

    In Chapter 4, '"Break them up, take them away": Practices in the Grade 1 classroom', the author describes the individualizing effects of spatial and material relations that the six children confronted in Grade 1. Although this chapter contains an interesting post-structural analysis of seating arrangements and supply organization within the children's desks, the discussion is rather brief and narrow considering that a whole year's worth of data might have gone into it. Once again, the children's minority-language status appears to be an impediment to the emergence of a sufficiently independent school identity. The author suggests that alternative classroom practices might remove these impediments.

    The children are then followed to Grade 2 in Chapter 5. The focus here is on authoritative versus liberal discourse types in the classroom and how these affect the subjects' access to different social voices. Example dialogues from three discourse types are discussed and analyzed with respect to theoretical constructs. The author concludes that discourse types that allow the children the freedom to play with new roles and voices best facilitated their growth beyond fixed school identities.

    Finally, in Chapter 6, the author concludes by summarizing the results and discussing their significance. The results are grouped into three types: identity, resource distribution, and access to discourse. Having been presented in turn parallel to the three progressive grade levels, they are tied together here as a set of co-variables in the children's English and social development. The disadvantages that language-minority children experience in all three areas justify a discussion of balancing access and improving future research and pedagogy related to this issue.

    The greatest values of the book relate to its socio-cultural approach and reader accessibility. As the author notes, second language and pedagogical research often focus on cognitive factors to the exclusion of contextual influences. Ethnographic research such as this provides valuable insight concerning contextual variables that often remain uncontrolled and unaccounted for, particularly in studies on child second language acquisition. This fact alone suggests a reading of this book for researchers in that field.

    The brief, accessible format of the book also makes it useful for readers outside the immediate field. However, its brevity reduces, at times, the width and breadth of the content. For example, more extensive coverage of the methodology and the data from Grade 1 might have provided a more complete or holistic picture of project and the children's development.

    A final criticism involves the author's call for a change in school practices to allow all children greater access to positions of power and prestige within the classroom. As it appears, this call strikes me as idealistic, at best, and contradictory, at worst. What is power if all have equal access to it? Although such egalitarianism is enticing, a more practical solution would involve strategies to facilitate enough general access to power such that the classroom (and the children's socialized identities and practices) do not become dysfunctional. However, this point reflects little more than a philosophical quibble. Overall, the book is engaging and replete with ideas and directions for continuing research.



    Matthew H. Ciscel, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of South Carolina, has research interests in second language acquisition theory, language variation, and the politics of language. His dissertation research involves investigating the role of national identity in patterns of multilingualism in the former Soviet Union.