- Email: [email protected]
Getting ahead
190
Reviews
thy of detailed and meticulous study since the wealth of ideas, variety of approaches, and the depth of analysis cannot be arrived at without a careful reading. The only disturbing feature, however, is the editors’ insistence on trying to distinguish between genre analysis and discourse analysis (p. 3) and to present them as two separate approaches. This same attempt was made in the earlier volume (1990), edited by Tony Dudley-Evans and Willie Henderson. Since discourse analysis cannot be carried out in a void but within genres, whether those genres be introductory textbooks, research articles, reprint requests, letters, essays, editorials, or lectures, etc, why do we need the two terms “genre analysis” and *‘discourse analysis”? Besides, to suggest that a controversy in economics research articles is a separate genre from a controversy in science research articles (p. 14, this volume) raises the question of whether a controversy in the economics textbook would also be regarded as a separate genre (or sub-genre?) within the textbook genre. If so, how are we going to put a stop to the proliferation of genre types? REFERENCES Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dudley-Evans, T., & Henderson, W. (1990). The language of economics: The analysis of economics discourse. London: Modern English Publications and the British Council. Myers, G. (1989). The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics, 10(l), l-35. Myers, G. (1990). Writing biology: Texts in the social construction of scientific knowledge. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Angele Tadros is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English, College of Arts at King Saud University. 0889-4906(94)EOO06-X
GETTING AHEAD. SarahJones-Macziola and Greg White. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 136 pp. Reviewed by Kay Westerfild
As companies become increasingly multinational in their business strategies, their need for specific purpose language training grows. In response, new materials for business English training have entered the market. Despite some
Reviews
191
imperfections, GettingAhead is a training package which stands out in terms of its diverse and engaging activities. At the core of the package is the Learner’s Book. Other elements which were not sent by the publisher for review include a cassette tape and Teacher’s Guide with teaching suggestions, additional communicative tasks, and an answer key. In addition, there is a Home Study Book and cassette tape or CD, which provide extra practice on what has been covered in class. GettingAhead is aimed at students at a pre-intermediate proficiency level in English who would like to improve their English for business purposes. They could be preparing for work experiences or currently employed. Those students without a background of work experience to call upon are not significantly hampered in discussions throughout the text. However, I would be careful about using it with older, upper-level managers, who might find some of the drawings in the Learner’s Book more appropriate for younger learners. The book is composed of 16 main chapters with 4 review chapters and is accompanied by a tape and teacher’s guide. Each of the main chapters covers a set of communication skills related to a particular topic; for example, under introductions and greetings, the authors cover the usual skills of “introducing yourself, ” “saying where you’re from,” and “introducing other people.” The chapter on occupations deals with the skills of “saying what you do,” “telephoning,” and “finding out information about people.” Other chapter topics include companies, visits and travel, work history, fairs and sales, and product description. The book is, for the most part, visually attractive with a clear layout and the inclusion of colorful realia, such as photographs of companies, ads, and products. The photographs plus the references to actual well-known companies bring authenticity to the text. There is an international flavor as students discover information about cities and leading multinational corporations from around the globe. While the themes are understandably similar to those in other business communication texts at this level, the activities in Getting Ahead are exceptional. A lot of thought has gone into providing students and teachers with a choice of stimulating activities that vary from chapter to chapter. The text follows an integrated skills approach that revolves around brief readings, writing activities that focus on sentence and discourse level issues, and listening and discussion tasks. As many of the chapter themes lend themselves to a particular structural element, the authors smoothly slip in activities on troublesome grammar points, such as prepositions, gerunds, tenses, and modals .
Information gap activities based on separate student files found at the back of the book provide additional practice on the content and communication skills of each chapter. This type of format has proven successful in other business English training materials, including International Business English and International Hotel English. The board game format for a type of review activity every four chapters is unusual and should be quite appealing to younger leamers as a change of pace.
192
Reviews
The text incorporates a wide range of listening activities based on the cassette tape that accompanies the book. Tape transcripts are included in the back of the Learner’s Book. Certain activities promote awareness of stress and intonation in common phrases, such as “Nice to see you,” and “Pleased to meet you.” Pronunciation is also touched upon, for example, whether to pronounce the past tense ending of regular verbs Id/, It/, or /id/. Other activities using the cassette tape include listening for differences in a reading text and listening to confirm predictions or to complete a chart. As the tape was not sent for review, I cannot comment on the authenticity of the recording or whether varieties of English are used so as to reflect the nature of English as an international language. Although the book has many strengths, it is not without a few weak points, primary among which is the absence of any activities or notes that develop intercultural awareness. Certainly intercultural skis are as critical as linguistic skills in today’s international business arena. Perhaps in the next edition, the authors could pursue the addition of intercultural notes as has been done so well in the series Living and Working in America and in the business/culture text The Culture Puzzle. Another potentially problematic aspect of the Learner’s Book is that it includes phonetic transcriptions of words or sounds without providing a key for students or teachers who are unfamiliar with the phonetic alphabet. This happens in a pronunciation chart in Chapter 2, which groups the letters of the alphabet phonetically. It might have been more helpful to have included a familiar word that embodies the vowel sound (which is, of course, dialect dependent). Phonetic transcriptions also appear without a key in the “Wordlist” at the end of the book. Vocabulary words are listed here along with the number of the chapter in which they first occurred. Without an easily accessible key, the wordlist is not as helpful as it could be. While the activities are very well done, I would also like to have seen some optional information-gathering tasks included. These could take place either inside the classroom with guest speakers or outside the classroom, giving students the opportunity to interact with the environment, be it in an ESL or EFL teaching situation. Perhaps, however, such activities are included in the Teacher’s
Guide.
Based upon an evaluation of the Learner’s Book, GettingAhead appears to be a well-designed package to help pre-intermediate students get ahead in their business communication skills. REFERENCES Levine, D. R., Baxter, J., & McNulty, P. (1987). The culture puzzle. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Jones, L., & Alexander, R. (1991). International business English. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Adamson, D. (1989). Intemzational hotel English. London: Prentice-Hall International.
Reviews
193
McSwain, M., & Morihara, B. (1990). Living and working in America. Washington, DC: VIA Press.
IN PRINT. Rod Revel and Simon Sweeney. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 122 pp. Reviewed by Kay Westerfild In Print focuses on developing the ability of learners to extract information efficiently from various types of business documents. The authors emphasize “spending a minimum of time getting maximum understanding from what you read” (p. 1). The only difficulty with following that advice in the case of In Print is that many of the texts are so engrossing that one does not want to hurry through them! The wide range of authentic texts and the attention paid to developing effective reading strategies make In Print a resource to be strongly considered for Business English training programs or for individual use. In Print is intended for managers already working within a company or for people preparing for careers in business. I strongly question the authors’ statement that the book could be used with students at low-intermediate or even intermediate proficiency levels. I think these students would quickly become frustrated with the language and tasks even if they were very motivated to study business texts. The book seems more suitable for upper intermediate to advanced students of business English. In Print has 12 units followed by an answer key for learners working on their own. The first unit introduces critical reading strategies, which are then developed throughout the book. This unit is a strength of the text as many learners who may be proficient readers in their own language do not simply transfer those skills into the target language but read painstakingly word-byword with an overreliance on their dictionaries. Reminding them of reading strategies that they quite likely use with Ll texts can only help them tackle documents more successfully in English. The remaining units deal with a number of high-frequency business topics, including business software and computer systems, marketing, human resources management, economics, company accounts, financial planning, and legal contracts. The authentic texts represent a variety of text types; there are extracts from manager handbooks, manuals, newspapers, journals, financial and sales reports and contracts - all types of documents that managers encounter in their daily work. This is in contrast to another advanced, business reading text, Selected Readings in Business, which includes articles solely from leading business periodicals, such as the Harvard Business Review and Fortune.
Each unit begins with an “Introduction” section that sets the stage for the texts that follow by providing a scenario in which the manager is required by his/her company to pursue the theme of the unit. Apart from developing lan-
Reviews
thy of detailed and meticulous study since the wealth of ideas, variety of approaches, and the depth of analysis cannot be arrived at without a careful reading. The only disturbing feature, however, is the editors’ insistence on trying to distinguish between genre analysis and discourse analysis (p. 3) and to present them as two separate approaches. This same attempt was made in the earlier volume (1990), edited by Tony Dudley-Evans and Willie Henderson. Since discourse analysis cannot be carried out in a void but within genres, whether those genres be introductory textbooks, research articles, reprint requests, letters, essays, editorials, or lectures, etc, why do we need the two terms “genre analysis” and *‘discourse analysis”? Besides, to suggest that a controversy in economics research articles is a separate genre from a controversy in science research articles (p. 14, this volume) raises the question of whether a controversy in the economics textbook would also be regarded as a separate genre (or sub-genre?) within the textbook genre. If so, how are we going to put a stop to the proliferation of genre types? REFERENCES Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dudley-Evans, T., & Henderson, W. (1990). The language of economics: The analysis of economics discourse. London: Modern English Publications and the British Council. Myers, G. (1989). The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics, 10(l), l-35. Myers, G. (1990). Writing biology: Texts in the social construction of scientific knowledge. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Angele Tadros is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English, College of Arts at King Saud University. 0889-4906(94)EOO06-X
GETTING AHEAD. SarahJones-Macziola and Greg White. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 136 pp. Reviewed by Kay Westerfild
As companies become increasingly multinational in their business strategies, their need for specific purpose language training grows. In response, new materials for business English training have entered the market. Despite some
Reviews
191
imperfections, GettingAhead is a training package which stands out in terms of its diverse and engaging activities. At the core of the package is the Learner’s Book. Other elements which were not sent by the publisher for review include a cassette tape and Teacher’s Guide with teaching suggestions, additional communicative tasks, and an answer key. In addition, there is a Home Study Book and cassette tape or CD, which provide extra practice on what has been covered in class. GettingAhead is aimed at students at a pre-intermediate proficiency level in English who would like to improve their English for business purposes. They could be preparing for work experiences or currently employed. Those students without a background of work experience to call upon are not significantly hampered in discussions throughout the text. However, I would be careful about using it with older, upper-level managers, who might find some of the drawings in the Learner’s Book more appropriate for younger learners. The book is composed of 16 main chapters with 4 review chapters and is accompanied by a tape and teacher’s guide. Each of the main chapters covers a set of communication skills related to a particular topic; for example, under introductions and greetings, the authors cover the usual skills of “introducing yourself, ” “saying where you’re from,” and “introducing other people.” The chapter on occupations deals with the skills of “saying what you do,” “telephoning,” and “finding out information about people.” Other chapter topics include companies, visits and travel, work history, fairs and sales, and product description. The book is, for the most part, visually attractive with a clear layout and the inclusion of colorful realia, such as photographs of companies, ads, and products. The photographs plus the references to actual well-known companies bring authenticity to the text. There is an international flavor as students discover information about cities and leading multinational corporations from around the globe. While the themes are understandably similar to those in other business communication texts at this level, the activities in Getting Ahead are exceptional. A lot of thought has gone into providing students and teachers with a choice of stimulating activities that vary from chapter to chapter. The text follows an integrated skills approach that revolves around brief readings, writing activities that focus on sentence and discourse level issues, and listening and discussion tasks. As many of the chapter themes lend themselves to a particular structural element, the authors smoothly slip in activities on troublesome grammar points, such as prepositions, gerunds, tenses, and modals .
Information gap activities based on separate student files found at the back of the book provide additional practice on the content and communication skills of each chapter. This type of format has proven successful in other business English training materials, including International Business English and International Hotel English. The board game format for a type of review activity every four chapters is unusual and should be quite appealing to younger leamers as a change of pace.
192
Reviews
The text incorporates a wide range of listening activities based on the cassette tape that accompanies the book. Tape transcripts are included in the back of the Learner’s Book. Certain activities promote awareness of stress and intonation in common phrases, such as “Nice to see you,” and “Pleased to meet you.” Pronunciation is also touched upon, for example, whether to pronounce the past tense ending of regular verbs Id/, It/, or /id/. Other activities using the cassette tape include listening for differences in a reading text and listening to confirm predictions or to complete a chart. As the tape was not sent for review, I cannot comment on the authenticity of the recording or whether varieties of English are used so as to reflect the nature of English as an international language. Although the book has many strengths, it is not without a few weak points, primary among which is the absence of any activities or notes that develop intercultural awareness. Certainly intercultural skis are as critical as linguistic skills in today’s international business arena. Perhaps in the next edition, the authors could pursue the addition of intercultural notes as has been done so well in the series Living and Working in America and in the business/culture text The Culture Puzzle. Another potentially problematic aspect of the Learner’s Book is that it includes phonetic transcriptions of words or sounds without providing a key for students or teachers who are unfamiliar with the phonetic alphabet. This happens in a pronunciation chart in Chapter 2, which groups the letters of the alphabet phonetically. It might have been more helpful to have included a familiar word that embodies the vowel sound (which is, of course, dialect dependent). Phonetic transcriptions also appear without a key in the “Wordlist” at the end of the book. Vocabulary words are listed here along with the number of the chapter in which they first occurred. Without an easily accessible key, the wordlist is not as helpful as it could be. While the activities are very well done, I would also like to have seen some optional information-gathering tasks included. These could take place either inside the classroom with guest speakers or outside the classroom, giving students the opportunity to interact with the environment, be it in an ESL or EFL teaching situation. Perhaps, however, such activities are included in the Teacher’s
Guide.
Based upon an evaluation of the Learner’s Book, GettingAhead appears to be a well-designed package to help pre-intermediate students get ahead in their business communication skills. REFERENCES Levine, D. R., Baxter, J., & McNulty, P. (1987). The culture puzzle. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Jones, L., & Alexander, R. (1991). International business English. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Adamson, D. (1989). Intemzational hotel English. London: Prentice-Hall International.
Reviews
193
McSwain, M., & Morihara, B. (1990). Living and working in America. Washington, DC: VIA Press.
IN PRINT. Rod Revel and Simon Sweeney. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 122 pp. Reviewed by Kay Westerfild In Print focuses on developing the ability of learners to extract information efficiently from various types of business documents. The authors emphasize “spending a minimum of time getting maximum understanding from what you read” (p. 1). The only difficulty with following that advice in the case of In Print is that many of the texts are so engrossing that one does not want to hurry through them! The wide range of authentic texts and the attention paid to developing effective reading strategies make In Print a resource to be strongly considered for Business English training programs or for individual use. In Print is intended for managers already working within a company or for people preparing for careers in business. I strongly question the authors’ statement that the book could be used with students at low-intermediate or even intermediate proficiency levels. I think these students would quickly become frustrated with the language and tasks even if they were very motivated to study business texts. The book seems more suitable for upper intermediate to advanced students of business English. In Print has 12 units followed by an answer key for learners working on their own. The first unit introduces critical reading strategies, which are then developed throughout the book. This unit is a strength of the text as many learners who may be proficient readers in their own language do not simply transfer those skills into the target language but read painstakingly word-byword with an overreliance on their dictionaries. Reminding them of reading strategies that they quite likely use with Ll texts can only help them tackle documents more successfully in English. The remaining units deal with a number of high-frequency business topics, including business software and computer systems, marketing, human resources management, economics, company accounts, financial planning, and legal contracts. The authentic texts represent a variety of text types; there are extracts from manager handbooks, manuals, newspapers, journals, financial and sales reports and contracts - all types of documents that managers encounter in their daily work. This is in contrast to another advanced, business reading text, Selected Readings in Business, which includes articles solely from leading business periodicals, such as the Harvard Business Review and Fortune.
Each unit begins with an “Introduction” section that sets the stage for the texts that follow by providing a scenario in which the manager is required by his/her company to pursue the theme of the unit. Apart from developing lan-