36 TESOL Journal

Finding the balance between new contentand new language in a second language textis always a difficult task in ESL and EFL,especially at the beginning literacy stage.Facts and Figures, designed for beginningreading classes, is a compromise betweencontent input and language input; easy to

comprehend expository texts are used tointroduce new vocabulary. In addition, effec-tive strategies, models, and exercises areemployed for developing reading and com-prehension skills.

Facts and Figures, the first book in aseries of reading texts intended to teach inte-grated reading skills from the beginning tothe high intermediate levels, assumes a basicvocabulary in English of approximately 300words and teaches roughly 500 new wordswhile developing the reading skills of com-prehension, finding the main idea, and usingcontext to understand vocabulary items. It isaccompanied by CNN video clips and videoactivities that build students’ oral/aural flu-ency using the vocabulary learned in theunit. The texts incorporate interesting factsfrom around the world, ranging from infor-mation about the kiwi bird and oranges to

classical music and the Polynesians,making the book interesting todiverse audiences, regardless of theirage, cultural background, and pur-pose for learning English. On theother hand, some of the topics (e.g.,“Why Are Elephants Important?,”“The Date Palm,” “A Giraffe inCentral Asia”) may be a little dry andtrivial for adult learners. Althoughaccessible to different audiences, the

texts are not authentic and may fall into thecategory of textoids—artificial vehicles forcarrying vocabulary and grammar.

The book’s organization is clear and logi-cal. There are several units with five lessonsin each unit. The complexity of content andlanguage increases with every unit, as vocab-ulary is introduced gradually and then usedrepeatedly. Units are grouped by themes;each unit is preceded by prereading vocabu-lary activities and is followed by a review.The texts in the first unit are purposely short(half a page) and easy, to give students thetime to get used to the book, the class, andthe instructor. The density of the texts (con-textually and linguistically) slowly increases,but the clarity of structure and consistency ofassignments accommodate this transition.

The instructions for prereading and

Facts and Figure s :Basic Reading Practice ( 3 r d ed.)

Patricia Ackert with Jean Bernard.Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle, 1999

Pp. 310.

Reviewed by Victoria B. Lannen

crucial role of idioms in language learning.The most striking feature of the book is itsorganizational format. The idioms are pre-sented according to three governing principles:

1. underlying metaphor2. topic3. keyword

To illustrate the metaphor “a company isa ship,” the book lists the idioms I’m sure thebank will bail us out, Don’t rock the boat, Weought to be pulling together, and I t ’ suncharted territory for us (p. 23). Some ofthe topics serving as bases for categorizingidioms include: “Relationships” (He’s headover heels in love), “Speed” (The newsspread like wildfire), and “Suitability” (I f e e llike a duck out of water). The third organiz-ing principle is the more traditional one ofpresenting idioms according to keywords.Each unit contains a large selection of chal-lenging exercises that enable the learner topractice using the idioms in context.

This book could be enjoyable to use forESL teachers and students. Showing howidioms can be grouped thematically by under-lying metaphor, topic, and keyword is an inno-vative pedagogical approach and will aid the

learner in acquiring control over one of themost difficult aspects of the English language.

American Idioms and Some Phrases Justfor FunEdward Swick. (1999). Barron’sEducational Series (250 WirelessBoulevard, Hauppauge, New York 11788USA). Pp. 120.

American Idioms and Some Phrases Justfor Fun is an idioms exercise book for inter-mediate-level ESL students. It can be used tosupplement classroom textbooks as well asfor self-study because it includes exercises,tests, and answer keys. Section 1 introduces110 idioms, with definitions and illustrativesentences. There are 20 Phrases Just for Funsections, many of which include trendy orslang idioms to provide “insight into a morecurrent or youthful way of speaking, such asto hang out with or to tick off” (p. xi).

Section 2 consists of exercises for prac-tice in using the idioms. These exercises,however, are the weakest part of the book.They are not carefully referenced with theidiom presentations in Section 1, so it is dif-ficult to know which exercise corresponds towhich idiom. Many of the exercises involve

conjugating verbs in various tenses, an activ-ity that is hard to justify in the age of com-municative methods for language teaching.Some of the exercises have the student sim-ply write sentences using a particular idiom,an activity that is usually too difficult for anintermediate-level student without moreguidance.

The idea of a self-study idioms book isbasically a good one, but it seems that thisbook was not planned and written with thecare necessary to accomplish this goal.

ReferenceBruck, C. (2000, April 17). The com-

mando. The New Yorker, 80–95.

AuthorThomas C. Cooper is associate professor

of foreign language education at TheUniversity of Georgia, in Athens, in theUnited States. His research interests includesecond language acquisition and foreignlanguage teaching methodology with anemphasis on German and English as a sec-ond language. He has published articles inModern Language Journal, ForeignLanguage Annals, and TESOL Quarterly.

Language Teaching Awareness: A Guideto Exploring Beliefs and Practices is aboutgaining awareness of teaching beliefs andpractices through the process of exploration.The book opens with a dedication to JohnFanselow, who pioneered the concept ofexploratory teaching: “To John Fanselow,our mentor and friend, who has liberated somany of us from the usual ways of looking”(p. v). Readers of this book will learn how to

see differently. A quotation from Fanselow(1987) captures an informal definition ofexploration as well as the book’s purpose:

As we generate alternatives to the norm,we become aware of what is within us andwhat we are capable of. If we realize howmuch more is within us, it is much morelikely we will be able to aid our studentsin coming to the same conclusion. (p. 7)

The book is divided into three principalsections.

1. “Introduction to an Exploratory Approachto Teaching” presents the book’s philoso-phy and nine basic assumptions.

2. “Processes for Exploring Teaching” presents generic, reflective tools for exploration and development.

3. “Examples of Teachers’ Explorations” presents narratives from the authors’ experiences that illuminate awareness anddiscovery.

Each chapter opens with a motiva-tional quotation to focus its theme.Chapter organization departs fromthe traditional model of posing ques-tions at the end by placing them,instead, at the beginning to guidereader thinking and to serve as chap-ter headings. Several key questionslocated at critical junctures through-out the chapter, called “Task

Breaks,” prompt the reader to interact withand reflect on the material.

Gebhard and Oprandy’s exploratoryapproach is different from, but overlapswith, a developmental approach to peda-gogy. First, the two approaches use the samereflective tools—observation, actionresearch, journaling, and discussion(Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 8)—to produce aware-ness. Moreover, the long-term goal of creat-ing empowered, autonomous teachers is thesame. The principal difference betweendevelopment and exploratory approaches isin their short-term goals: development,according to Lange (1990) and others “is aprocess of continual intellectual, experimen-tal, and attitudinal growth of teachers” (p.250). Hence, development seeks change,improvement, or growth. Exploration, on theother hand, does not agree with the premiseof these development goals because theymay emphasize the shortcomings of previ-ous practices and potentially limit futurepossibilities. The principal short-term goal

Winter 2000 37

postreading activities are consistently clearthroughout the book. There are cloze exer-cises, vocabulary reviews, comprehensionchecks, and a number of display questions,which provide a firm setting for controlledpractice. Although most of the activities arewell designed, there is a lack of prompts tostimulate students to produce oral and writ-ten utterances of their own. Furthermore,some of the comprehension tests asking forthe main idea seem to be hard to completebecause descriptive texts (e.g., “The Kiwi,”“The Camel,” “Oranges”) have more thanone main idea; writing a short summarycould have been a better prompt for thosetexts.

One of the most valuable features of thebook is the target vocabulary. Although thetopics are diverse and even exotic (e.g., theIditarod, the European Raja of Sarawak, theMaori of New Zealand), only useful, high-frequency words are focused on as newvocabulary. New vocabulary items are bold-faced, underlined, and accompanied by

small pictures in the text. There is a picturesymbol for each unit at the top of everypage; each text is illustrated with largeblack and white pictures. Only one font isused throughout the book, which makesdecoding easier for beginning students;however, the use of a single font may alsobe viewed as a limitation because it does notchallenge learners to practice reading a vari-ety of typefaces they will encounter ineveryday texts.

A more serious shortcoming of the text isoversimplification of the syntax; excessiveuse of short sentences in parallel construc-tions leads to overuse of pronouns, some-times causing loss of cohesion and limitingcomprehension to the sentence level only.Short sentences bring in multiple pronouns,which leads to syntactic ambiguity, as illus-trated in the following examples.

The date palm is a wonderful tree. Peopleeat dates. They feed them to their animals.They use the leaves and wood to build

houses. They use wood to build boats. (p. 73)

Despite some imperfections, Facts andFigures is a valuable resource for teachingvocabulary and grammar to beginningESL/EFL students, if used consistently andin congruence with the accompanying CNNvideos. By breaking the reading processdown into sequential units, the course makesthe task of vocabulary acquisition more con-trollable, gradually allows access to moresophisticated texts, and develops integratedreading and vocabulary skills.

AuthorVictoria B. Lannen received her BA in

TESOL/TEFL from St. Petersburg StateUniversity, in Russia, and taught EFL inRussia before relocating to California. Sheis currently teaching ESL in San DiegoCommunity College District, ContinuingEducation, while finishing her MA in lin-guistics/TESOL at San Diego StateUniversity, in the United States.

Language Teaching Aw a re n e s s :A Guide to Exploring Beliefs

and PracticesJerry G. Gebhard and Robert Oprandy.

New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999Pp. xviii + 237.

Reviewed by Patricia L. Miller