Reviews
In this issue, we are pleased to offer reviews of books about curriculum design; the link between learner corpus research and second language acquisition; and language support for immigrants in Japan from a multicultural community-building perspective.
First, Kenneth Charles Lambo reviews What English Language Teachers Need to Know Volume III: Curriculum, 2nd edition. According to Lambo, what sets this 2nd edition apart from the earlier one is that “the authors have expanded their chapters to address the pressing technological and multilingual challenges facing learners and teachers in today’s English Language Teaching (ELT) education.” Although he points out a few shortcomings of the book in terms of providing novice teachers with explicit background information, overall, he regards the book as essential reading for “educators who aspire to make a significant impact in their field, encouraging them to critically reflect on and enhance the delivery and implementation of their language instruction.” The second review, written by Trevor Sitler is of the book Learner Corpus Research Meets Second Language Acquisition, the goal of which is to “maintain that LCR can greatly benefit SLA ... primarily through studies on L1 transfer and proficiency.” According to Sitler, one of the benefits that educators can hope to take away from this book is that thanks to advances in technology, educators with only fundamental computer skills can try their hand at corpus research. In the end, Sitler stresses that “this book provides a great introduction to SLA researchers who are looking for a fresh perspective on learner language.” In the third review, Karen Masatsugu describes Language Support for Immigrants in Japan: Perspectives from Multicultural Community Building as a “timely book … a collection of papers about Japanese language education for immigrants in Japan, written by Japanese academics, teachers, and volunteers for an international English-speaking audience.” Although noting a few infelicities in English, she applauds the book for “provid[ing] a rich description of attempts to provide language support to immigrants in Japan through community-based language classes and night schools, the challenges faced and still to be overcome as Japan increasingly depends on immigrant labor, and provides a convincing argument for multicultural community building.” As always, we hope that readers will find these reviews helpful.
