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160

emphasis on the questions and narrative routines surrounding young Indige-
nous children. The second part follows Indigenous children into the classroom, 
where standard English is the medium of instruction and often a new variety for 
students. The next part focuses more tightly on three educational issues: oral 
assessment of Indigenous languages, speech pathology assessment for Indige-
nous students, and hearing loss. The fi nal part takes a broader sociolinguistic 
approach and discusses the implications of some of these patterns with an eye to 
language contact and mixing as well as the shift toward English. Taken together, 
the chapters provide a clear, compelling, and novel description of the linguistic 
diversity and discursive complexity of these children’s environments as well as 
the challenges in establishing educational policies and practices that build 
upon the many strengths and skills these students bring with them to school.     

 REFERENCE 

    Schieffelin  ,   B.  , &   Ochs  ,   E.    (Eds.). ( 1986 ).  Language socialization across cultures .  New York : 

 Cambridge University Press . 

   ( Received  1   June   2009  )  

    Kendall A.     King       

   University of Minnesota  

          doi:10.1017/S0272263109990428  

        APPLICATIONS OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS: COGNITIVE 
APPROACHES TO PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR .    Sabine     De Knop   and 
  Teun     De Rycker     (Eds.).   Berlin :  Mouton de Gruyter ,  2008 . Pp.  415 .  

       Pedagogical grammar and cognitive linguistics are brought together in this volume. 
The aim of a cognitive linguistic approach to teaching grammar is to provide im-
plicit or explicit linguistic instruction on features and patterns considered rele-
vant and to organize instructional materials in a manner that refl ects  the 
acquisition of grammar according to this view. De Knop and De Rycker claim that 
there is a lack of a strong theoretical framework to support the teaching of 
language. They suggest a usage-based and cognition-oriented linguistic theory to 
pedagogical grammar. This volume includes 13 contributions presented in three 
parts: (a) cognition and usage, (b) tools for conceptual teaching, and (c) concep-
tual learning. 

 Part 1 consists of four chapters that analyze the basic form-meaning units of 

a language, including a review of the major theoretical approaches in cognitive 
linguistics such as Langacker’s cognitive grammar and Goldberg’s construction 
grammar. Part 2 includes four chapters and examines the potential contribution 
of a cognitive approach to contrastive and error analysis. Using Italian and 
Spanish data, the contributors highlight the necessity of cognitive tools in 
analyzing language-internal and language-external similarities and differences 
between languages. Part 3 examines the constraints involved in the learning of 
motion events, temporal structure, and dynamic action. The authors of these 

Book Notices

161

chapters study the implementation of Long’s concept of focus on form in the 
teaching of motion events as well as the construal of external temporal structure 
(tense) and internal temporal structure (aspect) of language. 

 De Knop and De Rycker should be commended for this edited volume, which 

will no doubt be of value to the burgeoning fi eld of cognition-based pedagogical 
grammar. The chapters compiled in this volume make a solid connection between 
the theories of cognitive linguistics and pedagogical grammar. The inclusion of 
theory, pedagogical implications, and data from a variety of language families 
make this volume useful for teachers and curriculum designers to gain insight 
into the usefulness of a cognitive approach in identifying, describing, analyzing, 
and interpreting the constraints involved in language learning. However, for 
students new to the fi eld of cognitive grammar, this volume should be accompa-
nied by an introductory volume to cognitive linguistics.   

 ( Received  3   June   2009  )  

    Baburhan     Uzum       

   Michigan State University