410 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 67, NUMBER 2 (1991) performance on the written but not the production test. Doris Feldman (88-105) finds that universal knowledge as well as culturally-specific knowledge is involved in comprehending a text. Folk tales are especially effective in the L2 classroom because their reading protocols draw mostly on universal knowledge: children remember active verbal relationships best. Machiko Tomiyana (106-8) replicates previous Ll work done on backwards pronominalization with L2 subjects. William Baker (119-25) examines slips of the tongue from near-native L2 speakers of Spanish, who were more likely to substitute an item similar in meaning than in sound, in contrast to Ll speakers, who exhibited no preference. The two articles in Part II, by JoAnn Crandau, Theresa Dale, Nancy Rhodes, & George Spanos (129-50) and by Carolyn Kessler, Mary Ellen Quinn, & Curtis Hayes (151-63), also deal with reading, but in relation to mathematics (e.g. word problems). Both stress the formulaic linguistic nature ofthe 'math register', a simplified variety which makes reading difficult for minority and nonminority readers alike. This research adequately debunks the commonly-held belief in educational circles that math constitutes a 'languagefree ' subject where L2 learners should be expected to perform well. In Part III, Georganne Weller (167-91) provides an excellent survey of the difficulties in constructing language proficiency tests for L2 speakers and describes the test she developed and administered to the indigenous peoples of Guerrero, Mexico. Unfortunately, the results of her instrument were not available at the time of the conference, but they are reported elsewhere . Betty Colonomos (204-16) discusses the perils of proficiency-based testing with respect to L2 signers of ASL; proficiency ratings reflect a task-oriented framework of discourse which does not always accurately predict success in topic-oriented performances. Johanna Katchen (217-32) demonstrates how Ll speakers simplify their speech when talking to L2 speakers, producing 'foreigner talk', even at the university level. Dorothea Mohle (233-44) develops a useful notion of advanced L2 fluency based on articulation rate, the average number of syllables spoken per minute minus the pause time. The three chapters included in Part IV are quite varied. Joanne Rappaport (247-57) extols the virtues of hiring an anthropologist in a modern language department to implement a culturally -based intermediate language curriculum. Hamid Abdeljaber (258-65) suggests that using a 'middle language' in the classroom, a variety which is neither the standard language nor a dialect of any one region, helps solve the problem of dealing with Arabic diglossia. Robert Robison (266-78) shows how secondary students lose little linguistic L2 ability over the summer, especially if they started learning a foreign language early, in elementary school. The volume is typographically clear and free from errors, and it includes both an author and a subject index. With respect to the book's subtitle , 'Theory as practice/practice as theory', it should be noted that the discussions in Issues in L2 tend to center around practice, offering an impressive array of current research with concrete suggestions for today's L2 classroom. L2 research is frequently slighted in the field of linguistics, where theoretical concerns are dominated by questions of formal syntax to the exclusion of everything else. More publications need to bring to light the theoretically relevant data found in L2 phenomena; this is precisely the service that Labarca & Bailey have performed in editing Issues in L2. [Robert J. Blake, University of Rochester.] Doublespeak: From 'revenue enhancement ' to 'terminal living' : how government , business, advertisers, and others use language to deceive you. By William Lutz. New York: Harper & Row, 1989. Pp. xiii, 290. $17.95. For a number of years now William Lutz has been exposing doublespeak by institutions and others who manipulate public opinion through language. In this volume he has compiled the best (or perhaps I should say the worst) examples of deceptive language into a series of commentaries on linguistic deception; the result is Doublespeak, an eight-chapter guided tour of the state of public language. The examples of doublespeak presented here range from the merely pretentious (such as calling greeting cards 'social expression products', teachers 'classroom managers', and mud flaps 'splash and spray suppression devices') to the...
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Dec 1, 1991
Michael Jacobsen 
