Book reviews / System 41 (2013) 484-495 487 References Bhatia. V, 2002. A generic view of academic discourse. In: Flowerdew. J. (Ed). Aealemic Discourse. Longman, UK, pp. 21-39. Biber, D,, 1988, Variation aeross Speech and Writing. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Hyland, K., 2011. Disciplinary specificity: Discourse, contest, and ESP. In: Belcher, D., Johns, A.M., Patridge, B. (Eds), New Directions in English for Specific Purposes Research. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, pp. 624. Kilgariff, A., Ryetly, P, Smrz, P, Tugwell, T, 2004, The Sketch Engine. In; Willams, G., Vessier, S. Eds.) Proceedings of the Eleventh EURALEX International Congress, Universite de Beetagne-Sud, Lorient, France. ‘Scott, M, 2010, WordSmith Tools Version 5. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, ‘Wells, G., 1992. The centrality of talkin education. In: Norman, K.(Ed.), Thinking Voices: the Work ofthe National Oracy Project. Hodder and ‘Stoughton, London, UK, pp. 282-310. J. Elliott Casal Department of Linguistics, Ohio University, 383 Gordy Hall, Athens, OH 45701, USA E-mail address: jc02404@ ohio.edu Joseph J. Lee English Language Improvement Program, Department of Linguistics, Ohio University, 383 Gordy Hall, Athens, OH 45701, USA Corresponding reviewer. E-mail address: leej3@ohio.edu pdx doi org/10. 10165 system 2013.08.006 Language Teaching in Blended Contexts, Margaret Nicolson, Linda Murphy, Margaret Southgate (Eds). Dunedin Academic Press, Edinburgh (2011). xx + 279 pp. ‘Teaching languages via different online tools isa ‘hot’ topic nowadays. The rapid development of information and communication technologies and the increasing normalization of computer-mediated communication are quickly transforming teaching and learning practices in tertiary and other educational sectors. Language teachers today are expected to incorporate different types of CMC (computer-mediated communication) in their teaching, be it blogs, forums, wikis or synchronous tools. Some teachers have enthusiastically embraced this change and are constantly looking for ideas and suggestions about effective use of different tools, while others remain anxious and uncom- fortable. That is why a book on teaching in blended environments is most timely and welcome. Written by lecturers, and tutors from the Open University (UK), one of the best-known institutions in distance language teaching, this book is based on authors’ practical experience in blended tertiary and adult-education contexts. ‘One of the main themes of the book is that teaching in blended contexts has both similarities and differences with teaching in a traditional face-to-face classroom and that some “good teaching practices’ can apply to both contexts. ‘The authors of the book, therefore, must have faced a dilemma: whether to focus only on context-specitic elements of blended delivery and write a concise book or whether to discuss general teaching practices and produce a longer, more comprehensive work. This book takes the second approach and combines (a) general insights from language-teaching methodology, (b) research on blended teaching and (c) practical ideas accumulated by Open University language teachers. It will, therefore, be of interest to a wide range of readers. Teachers-in-training and curriculum designers at stitutions thinking about introducing blended language teaching may find this book particularly valuable. The book is a collection of 17 chapters written by different authors. Most of the chapters (except for Chapters 5. 6, 13, 14, 15, 16) seem self-contained and could function as stand-alone pieces, which, depending on readers’ preference, can be considered an advantage or a drawback. Personally, I view such organization asa strength as it allows readers to consult relevant chapters quickly and efficiently.488 Book reviews / System 41 (2013) 484-495 ‘The first six chapters (Sections 1 and 2) overview general concepts, such as learner diversity, leaner autonomy. learner motivation, and designing and implementing effective assessment. The chapters include reflections on how different delivery modes impact on important components of the teaching environment. As the book progresses, the chapters become more context-specific, Section 3 (Chapters 712) focuses on planning and delivering lessons specifically via synchronous and asynchronous modes, such as telephone teaching, audio and videoconferencing, teaching and asynchronous forums, wikis, blog teaching and so on. The next block of chapters (Section 4, Chapters 13 and 14) discusses issues associated with teaching community (or heritage) language learners, for example, learners of Celtic languages in the UK. Section 5 (Chapters 15—16) is dedicated to professional development of language teachers, Given a broad scope of the book, several scenarios are possible when reading it. New language teachers or those who wish to comprehensively review important teaching principles (both for face-to-face and in blended contexts) will benefit from reading the whole book. Those language teachers who consider themselves well-informed in current theories of language teaching might be more interested in Sections 3 and 4, which focus exclusively on the blended context, while teacher-developers might find Chapters 15-16 most valuable. ‘Most of the chapters are based on a “theory-contextualization’ pattern with the initial literature review followed by, perhaps, the most useful section, practical ideas and examples. As the book is written by multiple contributors, the literature review for each chapter is done in a slightly different way. My personal favourite ‘theory reporting style” can be found in Chapter 4 (motivation) where, after an extensive discussion, the authors used bullet points to sum up the theory and link it to practice. This format is likely to work well for the majority of readers as it reinforces the main ideas in a clear and concise way. Other chapters also use bullet points, mostly for listing practical idea ‘A recurrent theme of the book is the need for heightened explicitness in teacher—student communication in blended contexts as the lack of it might lead to miscommunication and loss of student motivation, Not surprisingly then, the book provides numerous practical examples and documentation used by the Open University, such as detailed teaching plans for blended contexts (p. 23), telephone lessons (p. 177), examples of assessment criteria (p. 27) and forum tasks (pp. 176178) and notes for mentors (p. 234). [also appreciated the interesting statistics shared by the authors (for example, that only 10-30% of all students in the Open University tend to actively participate in asyn- chronous writing tasks (p. 180)). Those of us who try to employ asynchronous tools such as forums, blogs and wikis in our teaching, will undoubtedly find these numbers reassuring, The value of sharing detailed examples is clear: they provide illustrations for the theoretical concepts discussed and serve as templates for adoption by other teachers. Other highlights of the book were recommendations on employing, audio rather than written feedback for distance leamers. The authors see audio feedback as a more social and emotional way to connect with distance learners and argue in favour of using it in different contexts (p. 88). Another interesting discussion is related to designing assessment tasks in line with real-world interactions (for example, using the telephone for assessing a task such as booking a hotel room; or email for assessing writing in Chapter 5), I was impressed by Section 3, and in particular by the chapters on “Teaching by Telephone’, “Delivering Syn- ‘chronous Online Teaching’ and “Asynchronous Online Teaching’, as they are focused on the alfordances and challenges of each of the respective media and provide detailed, step-by-step suggestions on planning, executing and evaluating the outcome of the sessions, While I appreciated the authors” opinions on the different media, for example, that the telephone is a less spontaneous genre and, therefore, requires a ‘tighter agenda-setting’, I could not help but compare my own experience teaching via telephone with that of authors. At times, I found myself disagreeing with some of the authors’ observations. For example, my experience of one-to-one teaching via the telephone was that of spontaneous, almost intimate conversations with strong rapport and frequent student disclosures about their lives. It is possible, however, that the difference in our experiences might be accounted by different teaching contexts ~ the authors of the ‘book are teaching at a large institution (OU), while T was teaching in the context of a private language centre. Given substantial interest in synchronous online teaching, Chapter 10 (Delivering Synchronous Online Teaching) is likely to become one of the most frequently consulted chapters in this book. The authors provide practical examples of managing such different areas as group dynamics, time, communication flow, interaction and technology. In conjunction with Chapter 9 (Planning and Preparing for Synchronous Online Teaching) and its detailed review of typical functionality of videoconferencing tools (pp. 132—133), Chapter 10 will be a good starting point for teachers, who are new to online teaching, ‘Another important contribution of this book is raising issues associated with teacher development in blended contexts. Chapter 15, for example, offers an extensive discussion as to why teachers in blended contexts needBook reviews / Ssstem 41 (2013) 484-495 489 professional development. A reader might finish Chapter 15 convinced that technical challenges and emotional anxieties over operating in the blended medium do indeed require a special teacher-development and wondering how it could be done. Luckily, the next chapter (Chapter 16) has practical suggestions, such as peer Support, one-to-one and ‘group mentoring, tandem teaching, observations, micro-teaching, and shared resour ‘The coverage of this book is comprehensive. The only gap apparent to this reviewer was the fact that the syn- chronous online chapters are written from the one-many, videoconferencing perspective with the assumption that teachers will use such specialized software as Illuminate, Adobe Connect, etc. Those teachers who might opt for voice-chat technologies, such as, for example, Skype or Google Talk, will not find detailed discussions of these tools. Presumably, voice-chat, albeit being very popular among users worldwide. is not commonly used by large institutions, such as the Open University. Language Teaching in Blended Contexts is an excellent, easy-to-read book with a good balance of theoretical discussions and practical ideas from the Open University. Indeed, I can see this book becoming one of the most consulted reference books for those involved in blended language teaching and would highly recommend it toa broad range of teachers and teacher-developers, Olga Kozar Depariment of Linguistics, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Ausiralia E-mail address: olga.kozar@mq.edu.au upd doi org/10.1016F system 2013.08.007 Mapping Applied Linguistics, Christopher J. Hall, Patrick H. Smith, Rachel Wicaksono, Routledge Abingdon, U.K. and New York (2011). 422 pp. Currently, numerous books are available (such as Cook, 2003; Davies, 2007; Groom and Littlemore, 2011) which set out to provide a guide to the field of applied linguistics for advanced undergraduate students and those undertaking a master’s degree. Individual lecturers who teach such courses will have their favourites and may not always find time to update the reading lists they supply to their students before yet another term’s teaching descends upon them. In my view, however, it would be well worth lecturers casting an eye over the contents of this book, since it offers a lively and engaging overview of applied linguistics, rendered yet more readable by the use of well-chosen examples and a genuinely global vision. No student reader who takes an interest in the roles of language in human communication and social interaction could fail to find captivating insights here Clearly, one initial task for authors of a book such as this is to offer a definition of the term ‘applied linguistics’, or atleast to provide some explicit guidance to readers on its scope of reference. Those with a long background in the field will be not be surprised that Brumfit’s (1995) definition (“the theoretical and empirical investigation of real-world problems in which language is a central issue”) and Widdowson’s (2000) distinction between ‘applied linguistics’ and “linguistics applied’ enter the fray here. Both of these formulations are generally endorsed by the authors and they go ‘on to use the term “autonomous applied Tinguistics” (so as to point up the difference from ‘Tinguisties applied”), which in their view “draws on theory, findings and method from many other scholarly fields aside from general linguisties, including education, anthropology, sociology, public policy, health sciences, information technology and others” (p. 16). The distinction between ‘linguistics applied’ and ‘autonomous applied linguistics’ is made clearer for the reader in a figure (Figure 1.5, p. 16), and this also has the benefit of showing that the authors see the latter (following Brumfit) ‘as concerned with problem-solving across a whole range of areas in which language plays a crucial role. This, 100, is where the book’s title comes in. Given that, as the authors rightly note, there may be no absolute agreement among applied linguists about which “component areas” (p. 16) fall within it and which outside it, there is a sense in which delineating the field is akin to an exercise in topographic map-making, The metaphor of map-making retums at various points in the book, with the authors pointing out that “our map is one projection among many” (p. 19) ~ though a