- Email: [email protected]
Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (Second Edition)
Book reviews / System 29 (2001) 303±316
309
Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (Second Edition) Diane Larsen-Freeman; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986/2000, xv+189 pp, £13.20 Pb. ISBN 0 19 435 5748. Success in English Teaching Paul Davies and Eric Pearse; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, xiv+221 pp, £13.20 Pb. ISBN 0 19 442 1716. These two books are both aimed at relatively inexperienced and/or untrained teachers, but they relate to two quite dierent approaches to language teacher education. Whereas Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (henceforth, TPLT) devotes separate chapters to various methods, focusing on the way these reveal dierent underlying principles, Success in English Teaching (henceforth, SET) oers a practical induction into a particular way of teaching, namely a weak version (Howatt 1984, p. 279) of communicative approach. These dierences re¯ect the books' roots in dierent (American and British) methodological and teacher training `traditions'. TPLT was based originally on a `methods/approaches course' taught at the School for International Training, Vermont, and this kind of course appears to be a more or less standard feature of MA in TESOL programmes in the USA. In the American context, the rejection of audiolingualism in the 1960s gave rise to a ¯uid situation, involving a search for alternative theories to replace behaviourism and structural linguistics. There was (and, to some extent, continues to be) a genuine competition to ®ll the vacuum among what are termed in SET (p. 191) `alternative methods': hence the development of MA `methods courses' and the equal weight (individual chapters) assigned in both TPLT and its nearest rival, Richards and Rodgers (1986), to Suggestopedia (now termed `Desuggestopedia'), Total Physical Response, Community Language Learning and The Silent Way alongside Communicative Language Teaching, The Audiolingual Method, The Grammar-Translation Method (TPLT only), The Direct Method (TPLT ), Situational Language Teaching (Richards and Rodgers only) and The Natural Approach (Richards and Rodgers). In the UK, on the other hand, there has been a more continuous methodological `mainstream' since World War II, with one established (Establishment-supported) approach to ELT Ð situational language teaching Ð having evolved relatively painlessly into another Ð communicative language teaching Ð from the mid-1970s onwards. The authors of SET have extensive teacher training experience in Mexico, and the book is explicitly aimed at non-native teachers (or teachers-to-be) in formal educational contexts. However, its situational/communicative prescriptions for successful English teaching are evidently derived from ®rmly within the mainstream British ELT tradition, and the book invites comparison with popular teacher training manuals in the same genre by, for example, Cross (1999), Harmer (1991) and Ur (1996). In relation to some of their main competitors (indicated above), both books have many commendable features. Some years ago I started out using Richards and Rodgers (1986) as the main text on a year-long `methods course' for undergraduates in a Japanese university, recommending TPLT (in its ®rst, 1986, edition) as a
310
Book reviews / System 29 (2001) 303±316
supplementary text. It soon became apparent that TPLT was the more suitable of the two for introductory purposes, for the following reasons: (1) it consistently proceeds from concrete example to theory: a sample description of a lesson is provided for each method, and this forms the basis for subsequent commentary on principles, followed by further explanation of techniques; (2) most of the methods in the book are also illustrated on a related video-tape, available to educators residing outside the USA from the United States Information Agency (the address is given in the book); (3) the book is generally written in clear, jargon-free English, and is laid out clearly; (4) each chapter is broken up into short sections, and is structured in a consistent manner, further easing the reading process for non-native speakers; (5) the author is scrupulously non-judgmental with regard to the methods included, thus allowing students to make up their own minds; and (6) there are useful discussion questions which encourage students to consider the relevance of principles to their own contexts and/or practice. Richards and Rodgers (1986) is, of the two books, the more academically `solid' (more detail is provided on the historical background to each method and on underlying theories of language and learning), but TPLT is both more likely to be accessible for many `beginning' students and easier to use as a classroom resource. The second edition of TPLT under review here retains the above positive features and also contains: (1) an expanded Introduction, and a `Note to the Teacher Educator' which presents arguments for the overall approach adopted; (2) two additional chapters for ideas which have come into prominence since the ®rst edition (Chapter 10 focuses on the view that `language can best be learned when it is taught through communication, rather than for it' (pp. xi±xii), i.e. content-based, task-based, and participatory approaches, while Chapter 11 deals with `learning how to learn', i.e. learning strategies, cooperative learning, and multiple intelligences); and (3) an additional, ®nal chapter in which major dierences (and some similarities) between methods are highlighted. In sum, TPLT has been conscientiously re-edited to take account of feedback and recent developments, not just repackaged. As the author of TPLT recognizes (pp. x±xi), the concept of `method' has itself come in for much criticism since the book's ®rst edition (see, for example, Pennycook (1989), and Kumaravadivelu's (1994) assertions that we (should?) live in a `postmethod condition'). Nevertheless, in her introductory `Note to the Teacher Educator', Larsen-Freeman lists a number of arguments in favour of a study of methods (pp. ix±x), two of which I ®nd particularly convincing: (1) exposure to a variety of methods can provide a foil for re¯ection and clari®cation of trainees' own teaching principles; and (2) a knowledge of methods is part of the knowledge base of teaching, a `given' of the professional discourse community into which trainee teachers are being initiated. Whereas the concept of method might itself relate to an outmoded, `applied science' (Wallace, 1991) view of teaching, the overall comparative use to which Larsen-Freeman wishes to put methods is strongly related to a `re¯ective' (Wallace ibid.) paradigm This is why, in combination with the video mentioned above and supplementary lecture notes and activities, I have again been using TPLT as a course text recently,
Book reviews / System 29 (2001) 303±316
311
this time in its second edition and with postgraduate (pre-MA) students from a variety of countries at a British university. As I have already implied, TPLT provides a partial (American) perspective on the history and relative salience of methods, but this can be compensated for to some extent through reference to other texts (e.g. Richards and Rodgers (1986) for Situational Language Teaching, Howatt (1984) on European and British traditions of ELT generally, and any available documentation Ð though this is often lacking Ð on dierent traditions in students' home countries). While TPLT can serve as an excellent spur to re¯ection, it is an introductory, not a self-sucient `academic' text: the book needs to be supplemented with better sources of historical and other background information if a solid and sound `knowledge base' regarding these and other methods is to be developed in teacher trainees. If TPLT adopts a `re¯ective' approach to initial teacher education, SET and other teacher training manuals in the same genre clearly belong to a `craft' (Wallace, 1991) tradition. Compared with other manuals, SET is a handy volume and packs a lot into a small space: it is very comprehensive and concise (Chapters 1±7 cover situational/communicative techniques for presentation, controlled practice, vocabulary teaching, skills development, and review and remedial work, while Chapters 8±12 deal with other important practical issues: planning and class management, working with a coursebook, teaching aids and materials, testing and evaluation, and professional development). The clear layout enables easy reference, and the short sections and many useful examples make the book attractive and accessible. Other user-friendly features are the Glossary, a list of sources and further reading, and an index. There are questions for discussion at appropriate points, though not in all chapters (e.g. Chapters 6, 7 and 8), and there is a useful ®nal summary and project suggestion at the end of each chapter. To better enable use in teacher training, more questions for discussion and other activities could perhaps have been included. Throughout the book, there are various extracts from published teaching materials which would undoubtedly be useful if this book were to be used as a course text. Indeed, Chapter 9 on `Working with a coursebook' is a particularly welcome feature, based as it is on a recognition that teachers in `TESEP' (Holliday, 1994) contexts are often tied to particular textbooks. All in all, then, the book can certainly be recommended to those seeking a concise but comprehensive training manual in communicative language teaching techniques for TESEP settings. Ultimately, though, some doubts need to be raised about SET's claims for relevance in TESEP situations (p. xiii). The book is presented at the outset (pp. 1±3) as being unproblematically based on common sense views of `success' in English teaching, but as TPLT and SET 's own historical overview of various methods (in Chapter 12) imply, there may be dierent criteria for success in dierent settings, and a wide range of possible methodological options to meet these criteria. SET is based on the overriding assumption that `Real success in English language teaching and learning is when the learners can actually communicate in English inside and outside the classroom' (p. 15). This has the status of orthodoxy in British ELT, but success in TESEP settings can be (and often is) de®ned very dierently, with
312
Book reviews / System 29 (2001) 303±316
divergent methodological implications: in some countries (Japan, for instance) secondary school foreign language education has been seen, and might still legitimately be seen, as aiming to provide a basis of linguistic competence on which learners can later build communicative competence (in which case reformed grammar-translation or situational language teaching might still be most appropriate?); TESEP teaching might need to be directed towards traditional exams (grammartranslation again?); ®nally, and more seriously perhaps, in TESEP contexts there are likely to be valid educational and motivational, not just utilitarian goals (hence, `alternative methods'? Cooperative learning? Learner autonomy? Language through literature? Intercultural awareness-raising?). Issues of appropriate methodology, it might be suggested, can only be addressed properly by re¯ective teaching within particular contexts, not by the imposition of a craft tradition developed elsewhere, however modi®ed. To its credit, SET does, in its ®nal chapter, acknowledge the importance of principled eclecticism and re¯ective teaching, but it remains overall a practical manual which inducts the user into the British mainstream approach. These two books both have the merit of attempting to incorporate recent shifts in conceptions of teacher preparation: the second edition of TPLT under review here goes further than the ®rst in acknowledging possible limitations of the `method' concept and in stressing the need for teachers to re¯ect on teaching and develop their own personal theories, while SET acknowledges dierent recent concerns relating to needs for appropriate methodology. Both of them are eminently usable, to dierent purposes and in dierent types of training context, for initial teacher education, but neither text can escape accusations of ethnocentrism (Liu, 1998) when used in teacher education for TESEP settings.
References Cross, D., 1999. A Practical Handbook of Language Teaching. 3rd EditionLongman, Harlow. Harmer, J., 1996. The Practice of English Language Teaching. 2nd EditionLongman, Harlow. Holliday, A., 1994. Appropriate Methodology and Social Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Howatt, A.P.R., 1984. A History of English Language Teaching. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Kumaravadivelu, B., 1984. The postmethod condition: (E)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly 28 (1), 27±48. Liu, D., 1998. Ethnocentrism in TESOL: teacher education and the neglected needs of international TESOL students. ELT Journal 52 (1), 3±10. Pennycook, A., 1989. The concept of method, interested knowledge, and the politics of language teaching. TESOL Quarterly 23 (4), 591±615. Richards, J.C., Rodgers, T.S., 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Ur, P., 1996. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Wallace, M.J., 1991. Training Foreign Language Teachers: a Re¯ective Approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Book reviews / System 29 (2001) 303±316
313
Richard C. Smith Centre for English Language Teacher Education, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK E-mail address: [email protected] PII: S0346-251X(01)00006-9
An Empirical Grammar of the English Verb System Dieter Mindt; Berlin, Cornelsen Verlag, 2000, 657pp, DM 148, Pb. ISBN 3-46437110-7. This book reports a major research project in which verb phrases in several corpora of English were investigated in detail. It is a substantial and comprehensive survey of the internal grammar of the English verb phrase. The book consists of an Introduction and six other chapters. The ®rst of these explains the few technical terms that are used in the book, such as `time and temporal meaning' and `intentional and non-intentional subjects'. The next chapter takes a fairly standard approach to verb forms, listing the dierent combinations of forms (`patterns') that verbs can have, such as DO with its ®ve forms (do, does, doing, did and done) and PUT with its three forms ( put, puts, putting). Clear and informative ®gures are used to present the information, and lists of verbs are given for each pattern. The chapter `Verb Phrases' dierentiates between ®nite and non®nite verb phrases, and recounts the various sequences of modals, auxiliaries, catenative and main verbs. The chapter makes use of a series of innovative diagrams which represent the parts of the verb phrase as connected nodes and explain the restrictions on connections. Again, the emphasis is on clarity and on the establishment of comprehensive rules. The longest two chapters in the book Ð `Finite Verb Phrases' and `Non-Finite Verb Phrases' Ð deal in detail with the dierent types of verb phrase, and thereby with the traditional concepts of tense and aspect. Example sections include: `The present perfect', `The AUX-passive', `Catenative verbs+to-in®nitive'. Each section is divided into three parts based on the amount of information given. The ®rst part gives the `basics' of form, meaning and contexts (e.g. negation, type of subject, cooccurring adverbs, clause type); the second gives prototypical uses of the verb phrase in question; the third gives research-based details of form, meaning and contexts. This allows readers to easily select the amount of information they need. The ®nal chapter of the book gives quantitative information regarding the representation of time in the English verb phrase.
309
Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (Second Edition) Diane Larsen-Freeman; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986/2000, xv+189 pp, £13.20 Pb. ISBN 0 19 435 5748. Success in English Teaching Paul Davies and Eric Pearse; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, xiv+221 pp, £13.20 Pb. ISBN 0 19 442 1716. These two books are both aimed at relatively inexperienced and/or untrained teachers, but they relate to two quite dierent approaches to language teacher education. Whereas Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (henceforth, TPLT) devotes separate chapters to various methods, focusing on the way these reveal dierent underlying principles, Success in English Teaching (henceforth, SET) oers a practical induction into a particular way of teaching, namely a weak version (Howatt 1984, p. 279) of communicative approach. These dierences re¯ect the books' roots in dierent (American and British) methodological and teacher training `traditions'. TPLT was based originally on a `methods/approaches course' taught at the School for International Training, Vermont, and this kind of course appears to be a more or less standard feature of MA in TESOL programmes in the USA. In the American context, the rejection of audiolingualism in the 1960s gave rise to a ¯uid situation, involving a search for alternative theories to replace behaviourism and structural linguistics. There was (and, to some extent, continues to be) a genuine competition to ®ll the vacuum among what are termed in SET (p. 191) `alternative methods': hence the development of MA `methods courses' and the equal weight (individual chapters) assigned in both TPLT and its nearest rival, Richards and Rodgers (1986), to Suggestopedia (now termed `Desuggestopedia'), Total Physical Response, Community Language Learning and The Silent Way alongside Communicative Language Teaching, The Audiolingual Method, The Grammar-Translation Method (TPLT only), The Direct Method (TPLT ), Situational Language Teaching (Richards and Rodgers only) and The Natural Approach (Richards and Rodgers). In the UK, on the other hand, there has been a more continuous methodological `mainstream' since World War II, with one established (Establishment-supported) approach to ELT Ð situational language teaching Ð having evolved relatively painlessly into another Ð communicative language teaching Ð from the mid-1970s onwards. The authors of SET have extensive teacher training experience in Mexico, and the book is explicitly aimed at non-native teachers (or teachers-to-be) in formal educational contexts. However, its situational/communicative prescriptions for successful English teaching are evidently derived from ®rmly within the mainstream British ELT tradition, and the book invites comparison with popular teacher training manuals in the same genre by, for example, Cross (1999), Harmer (1991) and Ur (1996). In relation to some of their main competitors (indicated above), both books have many commendable features. Some years ago I started out using Richards and Rodgers (1986) as the main text on a year-long `methods course' for undergraduates in a Japanese university, recommending TPLT (in its ®rst, 1986, edition) as a
310
Book reviews / System 29 (2001) 303±316
supplementary text. It soon became apparent that TPLT was the more suitable of the two for introductory purposes, for the following reasons: (1) it consistently proceeds from concrete example to theory: a sample description of a lesson is provided for each method, and this forms the basis for subsequent commentary on principles, followed by further explanation of techniques; (2) most of the methods in the book are also illustrated on a related video-tape, available to educators residing outside the USA from the United States Information Agency (the address is given in the book); (3) the book is generally written in clear, jargon-free English, and is laid out clearly; (4) each chapter is broken up into short sections, and is structured in a consistent manner, further easing the reading process for non-native speakers; (5) the author is scrupulously non-judgmental with regard to the methods included, thus allowing students to make up their own minds; and (6) there are useful discussion questions which encourage students to consider the relevance of principles to their own contexts and/or practice. Richards and Rodgers (1986) is, of the two books, the more academically `solid' (more detail is provided on the historical background to each method and on underlying theories of language and learning), but TPLT is both more likely to be accessible for many `beginning' students and easier to use as a classroom resource. The second edition of TPLT under review here retains the above positive features and also contains: (1) an expanded Introduction, and a `Note to the Teacher Educator' which presents arguments for the overall approach adopted; (2) two additional chapters for ideas which have come into prominence since the ®rst edition (Chapter 10 focuses on the view that `language can best be learned when it is taught through communication, rather than for it' (pp. xi±xii), i.e. content-based, task-based, and participatory approaches, while Chapter 11 deals with `learning how to learn', i.e. learning strategies, cooperative learning, and multiple intelligences); and (3) an additional, ®nal chapter in which major dierences (and some similarities) between methods are highlighted. In sum, TPLT has been conscientiously re-edited to take account of feedback and recent developments, not just repackaged. As the author of TPLT recognizes (pp. x±xi), the concept of `method' has itself come in for much criticism since the book's ®rst edition (see, for example, Pennycook (1989), and Kumaravadivelu's (1994) assertions that we (should?) live in a `postmethod condition'). Nevertheless, in her introductory `Note to the Teacher Educator', Larsen-Freeman lists a number of arguments in favour of a study of methods (pp. ix±x), two of which I ®nd particularly convincing: (1) exposure to a variety of methods can provide a foil for re¯ection and clari®cation of trainees' own teaching principles; and (2) a knowledge of methods is part of the knowledge base of teaching, a `given' of the professional discourse community into which trainee teachers are being initiated. Whereas the concept of method might itself relate to an outmoded, `applied science' (Wallace, 1991) view of teaching, the overall comparative use to which Larsen-Freeman wishes to put methods is strongly related to a `re¯ective' (Wallace ibid.) paradigm This is why, in combination with the video mentioned above and supplementary lecture notes and activities, I have again been using TPLT as a course text recently,
Book reviews / System 29 (2001) 303±316
311
this time in its second edition and with postgraduate (pre-MA) students from a variety of countries at a British university. As I have already implied, TPLT provides a partial (American) perspective on the history and relative salience of methods, but this can be compensated for to some extent through reference to other texts (e.g. Richards and Rodgers (1986) for Situational Language Teaching, Howatt (1984) on European and British traditions of ELT generally, and any available documentation Ð though this is often lacking Ð on dierent traditions in students' home countries). While TPLT can serve as an excellent spur to re¯ection, it is an introductory, not a self-sucient `academic' text: the book needs to be supplemented with better sources of historical and other background information if a solid and sound `knowledge base' regarding these and other methods is to be developed in teacher trainees. If TPLT adopts a `re¯ective' approach to initial teacher education, SET and other teacher training manuals in the same genre clearly belong to a `craft' (Wallace, 1991) tradition. Compared with other manuals, SET is a handy volume and packs a lot into a small space: it is very comprehensive and concise (Chapters 1±7 cover situational/communicative techniques for presentation, controlled practice, vocabulary teaching, skills development, and review and remedial work, while Chapters 8±12 deal with other important practical issues: planning and class management, working with a coursebook, teaching aids and materials, testing and evaluation, and professional development). The clear layout enables easy reference, and the short sections and many useful examples make the book attractive and accessible. Other user-friendly features are the Glossary, a list of sources and further reading, and an index. There are questions for discussion at appropriate points, though not in all chapters (e.g. Chapters 6, 7 and 8), and there is a useful ®nal summary and project suggestion at the end of each chapter. To better enable use in teacher training, more questions for discussion and other activities could perhaps have been included. Throughout the book, there are various extracts from published teaching materials which would undoubtedly be useful if this book were to be used as a course text. Indeed, Chapter 9 on `Working with a coursebook' is a particularly welcome feature, based as it is on a recognition that teachers in `TESEP' (Holliday, 1994) contexts are often tied to particular textbooks. All in all, then, the book can certainly be recommended to those seeking a concise but comprehensive training manual in communicative language teaching techniques for TESEP settings. Ultimately, though, some doubts need to be raised about SET's claims for relevance in TESEP situations (p. xiii). The book is presented at the outset (pp. 1±3) as being unproblematically based on common sense views of `success' in English teaching, but as TPLT and SET 's own historical overview of various methods (in Chapter 12) imply, there may be dierent criteria for success in dierent settings, and a wide range of possible methodological options to meet these criteria. SET is based on the overriding assumption that `Real success in English language teaching and learning is when the learners can actually communicate in English inside and outside the classroom' (p. 15). This has the status of orthodoxy in British ELT, but success in TESEP settings can be (and often is) de®ned very dierently, with
312
Book reviews / System 29 (2001) 303±316
divergent methodological implications: in some countries (Japan, for instance) secondary school foreign language education has been seen, and might still legitimately be seen, as aiming to provide a basis of linguistic competence on which learners can later build communicative competence (in which case reformed grammar-translation or situational language teaching might still be most appropriate?); TESEP teaching might need to be directed towards traditional exams (grammartranslation again?); ®nally, and more seriously perhaps, in TESEP contexts there are likely to be valid educational and motivational, not just utilitarian goals (hence, `alternative methods'? Cooperative learning? Learner autonomy? Language through literature? Intercultural awareness-raising?). Issues of appropriate methodology, it might be suggested, can only be addressed properly by re¯ective teaching within particular contexts, not by the imposition of a craft tradition developed elsewhere, however modi®ed. To its credit, SET does, in its ®nal chapter, acknowledge the importance of principled eclecticism and re¯ective teaching, but it remains overall a practical manual which inducts the user into the British mainstream approach. These two books both have the merit of attempting to incorporate recent shifts in conceptions of teacher preparation: the second edition of TPLT under review here goes further than the ®rst in acknowledging possible limitations of the `method' concept and in stressing the need for teachers to re¯ect on teaching and develop their own personal theories, while SET acknowledges dierent recent concerns relating to needs for appropriate methodology. Both of them are eminently usable, to dierent purposes and in dierent types of training context, for initial teacher education, but neither text can escape accusations of ethnocentrism (Liu, 1998) when used in teacher education for TESEP settings.
References Cross, D., 1999. A Practical Handbook of Language Teaching. 3rd EditionLongman, Harlow. Harmer, J., 1996. The Practice of English Language Teaching. 2nd EditionLongman, Harlow. Holliday, A., 1994. Appropriate Methodology and Social Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Howatt, A.P.R., 1984. A History of English Language Teaching. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Kumaravadivelu, B., 1984. The postmethod condition: (E)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly 28 (1), 27±48. Liu, D., 1998. Ethnocentrism in TESOL: teacher education and the neglected needs of international TESOL students. ELT Journal 52 (1), 3±10. Pennycook, A., 1989. The concept of method, interested knowledge, and the politics of language teaching. TESOL Quarterly 23 (4), 591±615. Richards, J.C., Rodgers, T.S., 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Ur, P., 1996. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Wallace, M.J., 1991. Training Foreign Language Teachers: a Re¯ective Approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Book reviews / System 29 (2001) 303±316
313
Richard C. Smith Centre for English Language Teacher Education, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK E-mail address: [email protected] PII: S0346-251X(01)00006-9
An Empirical Grammar of the English Verb System Dieter Mindt; Berlin, Cornelsen Verlag, 2000, 657pp, DM 148, Pb. ISBN 3-46437110-7. This book reports a major research project in which verb phrases in several corpora of English were investigated in detail. It is a substantial and comprehensive survey of the internal grammar of the English verb phrase. The book consists of an Introduction and six other chapters. The ®rst of these explains the few technical terms that are used in the book, such as `time and temporal meaning' and `intentional and non-intentional subjects'. The next chapter takes a fairly standard approach to verb forms, listing the dierent combinations of forms (`patterns') that verbs can have, such as DO with its ®ve forms (do, does, doing, did and done) and PUT with its three forms ( put, puts, putting). Clear and informative ®gures are used to present the information, and lists of verbs are given for each pattern. The chapter `Verb Phrases' dierentiates between ®nite and non®nite verb phrases, and recounts the various sequences of modals, auxiliaries, catenative and main verbs. The chapter makes use of a series of innovative diagrams which represent the parts of the verb phrase as connected nodes and explain the restrictions on connections. Again, the emphasis is on clarity and on the establishment of comprehensive rules. The longest two chapters in the book Ð `Finite Verb Phrases' and `Non-Finite Verb Phrases' Ð deal in detail with the dierent types of verb phrase, and thereby with the traditional concepts of tense and aspect. Example sections include: `The present perfect', `The AUX-passive', `Catenative verbs+to-in®nitive'. Each section is divided into three parts based on the amount of information given. The ®rst part gives the `basics' of form, meaning and contexts (e.g. negation, type of subject, cooccurring adverbs, clause type); the second gives prototypical uses of the verb phrase in question; the third gives research-based details of form, meaning and contexts. This allows readers to easily select the amount of information they need. The ®nal chapter of the book gives quantitative information regarding the representation of time in the English verb phrase.