Pergamon English for Specific Purposes, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 26%278, 1994

Copyright 0 1994 The American University Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in the USA

0889-4906/94 $6.00 + .OO

Reviews

LANGUAGE, LEARNING AND SUCCESS: STUDYING THROUGH ENGLISH. G. M. Blue (Ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1993, iv + 170 pp.

Reviewed Ly Dbirbe Motta Roth

Language, Learning and Success, edited by G. M. Blue, consists of 16 papers originally presented at the tenth biennial BALEAP conference (British Association of Lecturers of English for Academic Purposes) held at the Uni- versity of Southampton in 1991. Using language that is not too technical, the authors present their views on problems commonly found in EAP practice, such as the interrelation between a learner’s competencies in the language and in the discipline, or how to develop text analysis in specific subjects.

Blue opens the volume with an analysis of a number of facets of Academic Success, the general theme proposed for the conference, providing an over- view of how the articles to follow explore the theme from four different per- spectives: language related aspects, study skills, language and culture, and disciplinary discourse.

Swales, the keynote speaker, provides a comprehensive view of EAP as a discipline that has its own operational characteristics such as the administrative relationship between the institutional host and the unit. He goes on to discuss the similarities and (mainly) differences between the British and the North American experience of postgraduate students, arguing that native (and non- native) postgraduates in American universities seem to deal with a wider range of communicative events than their British/European counterparts. Finally, he examines the conference abstract as one of the specific genres U.S. postgrad- uate students must acquire, producing a useful framework for abstract pro- duction. Swales’ paper has a comprehensive dimension that can only be at- tained by an experienced practitioner in the field.

The four articles to follow concern different aspects of language: the role of English in academic success (Grundy); how EAP teachers and tutors assess students’ linguistic competencies (Tonkyn et al.); ways to implement a stu- dent-centered placement procedure (Ward Goodbody); and how to develop a phraseological approach to non-native speaker academic writing (Howarth). In this first block, Grundy’s paper presents the most comprehensive view of the intertwined elements that contribute to students’ development in their specific areas. Unfortunately, it is the only paper in the section (and in the whole book) which does not have references, thus failing to direct readers to other theo- retical and practical works on the topic.

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Study skills are the focal point of the next five papers. Jordan addresses the question of whether students can transfer study skills from their first language into English; and, if not, whether study skills can be taught. Obah writes about a study and test-taking strategy. In an attempt to appeal to technology-oriented students, she encodes the strategy in a mathematical equation: (PWR)“. Its resemblance to the well-known SQ3R technique in vogue in the ’60s gives this article a rather outmoded character.

Exploring library facilities, one of the most relevant study skills in postgrad- uate courses in the western world, also receives attention in this volume. Primrose, a librarian, argues that using such facilities demands a great amount of intellectual effort from overseas students who do not have such information- storing systems in their home countries. At the other extreme, library staff also face difficulties trying to understand and be understood by these students, giving rise to misinterpretations and hard feelings. In a very effective way, Primrose calls attention to overseas students’ needs and to the diversity of information resources these students have to control in order to attain aca- demic success. Because it is not written by what we could call an EAP prac- titioner, the article presents a broader view of what is involved in EAP leam- ing, resulting in the most interesting text in this section. Finally, James reports on an information-structuring exercise used as a preparation for essay writing. I found it a bit hard to follow James’ argumentation in the description of his experiment, and would like to have seen more discussion on the text analysis exercises. In contrast, Hewings provides extensive textual information in his discussion of dissertation and research paper conclusions. Basing his argument on higher level similarities between conclusions in both genres, he argues that even though no advice is provided, university teachers require that postgrad- uate students produce papers with standard conclusions.

The next block of articles considers language and culture. Concentrating on cultural expectations and behavior patterns, Brumfit questions how language can be used in intercultural unequal power relations. His discussion suggests that the task of EAP tutors goes beyond purely linguistic activity and that a more socially-oriented perspective should be undertaken. Turner’s article is the high point of this section. He focuses critically on controversial aspects of language education, stressing the importance of understanding intercultural communication as a benefit rather than a problem. Finally, McDonough and McDonough explore the issue from a special perspective, conceiving English as a foreign culture. They report on their diary writing about their EAP prac- tice with a non-native student experiencing culture shock in a British univer- sity. From the perspective of an EFL teacher, the most relevant issue they raise refers to their impression that available models of second language ac- quisition do not successfully account for the role of the student or of the teacher as intervening parts in the acquisition process. Although I find it in- teresting, this paper lacks a more effective discussion of how the evolution of the learning process correlates with the evolution of the student’s text pro- duction.

Disciplinary discourse is dealt with in the last three papers of the book.

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Subject-specific constraints are examined in discussion sections of disserta- tions in Engineering and Biology (Dudley-Evans); and in planning and executing pre-sessional courses in English for Academic Legal Purposes (Howe). The final paper debates the view that reading in specific fields is “an undifferentiated activity of verbal decoding” (Morrison et al., p. 158). As with the articles in the previous section, these three papers tend to asseverate that cognitive and linguistic competence in the discipline are intrinsically related. Therefore, in order to successfully deal with new information and how it is organized in the field, students must develop appropriate content schemata (i.e., background knowledge about the subject) as well as formal schemata (i.e., background knowledge about the subject text features).

Although it almost entirely relies on context-bound contributions of ESL teachers working in British/American academic settings, this can also be used as a reference book for those EAP professionals currently working in other countries. It would be interesting, though, to have articles dealing with the role of English in foreign academic contexts in countries outside Europe or the U . S . , where English is (also) commonly viewed as the linguafranca of science. For those EAP teachers that have not yet had the opportunity to develop research in either ESL or EFL classrooms, it provides some good feasible ideas about possible ways to approach problematic areas (e.g., teaching the writing of dissertation conclusions, developing a placement procedure). Some articles are especially relevant for foreign university teachers and post- graduate students of English and Discourse Analysis. Four articles - Swales, Hewings, Howarth, and Turner - are able to provide advice concerning the specificities of academic texts. In foreign contexts such as Brazil, EAP teach- ers can profit from this kind of information when helping researchers cope with the problem of writing papers in English as a condition to getting their work recognized by the international academic community. Primrose offers a critical view of the kind of experience foreign post-graduate students are likely to face when doing research in England (and I can say, in the United States, too). Dudley-Evans’ text can be especially useful for those working with genre analysis thanks to his discussion of the interdependency between the disci- pline’s rationale and the rhetorical structure of MSc dissertations.

The references in the book include recent publications from the late ’80s up to 1990. However, the bibliography presents a weak point in that it is scattered among the chapters and would most certainly profit from being put together in a separate section to which all papers (and readers) could refer. The book closes with useful notes on contributors, which supply practitioners in coun- tries outside England with information about the authors.

The papers in this volume attain cohesion by focusing on some of the issues that are central to EAP. However, as can be expected from any compilation, some articles will not be as easy to read or as informative as others. Never- theless, Language, Learning and Success is a book that conveys relevant information about EAP, covering a wide range of readers’ interests. Above ail, where the book excels is in its offering of suggestions for course activities and topics for further investigation. For EFL teachers - at all levels - who are

272 Reviews

not usually involved with systematic investigation of the problems in their teaching practice, some chapters report on experiments that can be replicated without necessarily entailing great resources of cost, people and, probably time (e.g., Ward Goodbody on students’ self-assessment: Grundy on the role of English in academic success). To these EFL teachers, such investigations can bring an opportunity to reflect upon central issues in their practice in a more explicit and systematic way. As Lynch and Anderson (1991: 88) point out, one can think of (at least) two kinds of conference papers. “One presents a finely- honed outcome of long established work. Another summarises work so far and is intended as the basis for discussion.” Both compilations of the 1991 and the 1989 BALEAP conference papers belong to the second sort due to the con- stant concern of writers to deal with their on-going classroom problems in a simple and synthetic way. Also, both editions show ESL teachers’ concern towards overseas students’ difficulties in coping with differences between the British academic setting and their own in terms of cultural expectancies of behavior in communicative events.

Language, Learning and Success confirms the applied linguistics perspective of EAP, that is, an approach to the classroom as the realm of research, where problems are detected and investigated. From this observation, solutions are proposed which may be applied by other professionals in the field, so that advances in the discipline are made.

REFERENCES

Lynch, T., & Anderson, K., (1991). Do you mind if I come in here?: A comparison of EAP seminar/discussion materials and the characteristics of real academic interaction. In P. Adams, B. Heaton, & P. Howarth (Eds.), Socio-cultural issues in English forAcademic Purposes (BALEAP 1989 Con- ference Papers). London: Macmillan Publishers Limited.

D&i&e Motta Roth is Assistant Professor of English at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Brazil. Her current research focuses on the teaching of EFL academic writing.

0889-4906(94)E0007-Y

WRIT IN WATER: ASPECTS OF THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL ARTI- CLE. David Banks. [Brest Cedex, France]: E.R.L.A. (Universitk de Bretagne Occidentale), 1994, 134 pp.

Reviewed by Bjiirn Melander

In the introduction to Writ in Water: Aspects of the Scientific Journal Article, David Banks points to the rapid development of the study of scientific writing in English: during the last decades, new and important ways of analyzing scientific text have been developed by researchers working with discourse analysis, or more recently, genre analysis. But, as he puts it, the fact that this