Translation Errors
What makes a good Linguistics critical review?
Commentary on Review
Topic
Write a critical review of Wolfson's article, 'Compliments in Cross-Cultural Perspective'. In your review you should summarise the text and then evaluate it (800 words)
Academic Style and Conventions
1. Analysing the topic Notice how the topic is asking students to do two things - to summarise the text and to evaluate it. When reading a text, keep these two points in mind: - What is the text saying? (summary) - What do I think about what it's saying? (evaluation) 2. The text being reviewed Always commence your review by including the full bibliographic details of the work under review. 3. Introduction The opening sentence of the review should be relevant to the broad issues of the topic, without resorting to cliché.
Sample review
Wolfson, N. (1981). Compliments in Cross-Cultural Perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 15(2), Jun, 117-124. Teaching how to communicate effectively is now seen as a major goal of language teachers, both those teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) and second-language learning in general. The differences in norms of interaction between cultures, as explored in Hymes' work on the ethnography of speaking (1962), have since been highlighted through further sociolinguistic work. Such work includes an investigation into the formal instruction of the speech acts of giving and responding to compliments (Ishihara, 2004) and an examination of inductive and deductive approaches for teaching compliments and compliment responses (Rose & Kwai-fong, 2001). In the article Compliments in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Wolfson explores the speech act of complimenting, specifically in regards to its utility for second-language learners of English, through analysis of the semantic and syntactic structures of compliments. With her colleague, Joan Manes, Wolfson analysed complimenting behaviour in American English, and has, in addition, constructed a corpus of compliments used
Commentary on Review
Topic
Write a critical review of Wolfson's article, 'Compliments in Cross-Cultural Perspective'. In your review you should summarise the text and then evaluate it (800 words)
Academic Style and Conventions
1. Analysing the topic Notice how the topic is asking students to do two things - to summarise the text and to evaluate it. When reading a text, keep these two points in mind: - What is the text saying? (summary) - What do I think about what it's saying? (evaluation) 2. The text being reviewed Always commence your review by including the full bibliographic details of the work under review. 3. Introduction The opening sentence of the review should be relevant to the broad issues of the topic, without resorting to cliché.
Sample review
Wolfson, N. (1981). Compliments in Cross-Cultural Perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 15(2), Jun, 117-124. Teaching how to communicate effectively is now seen as a major goal of language teachers, both those teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) and second-language learning in general. The differences in norms of interaction between cultures, as explored in Hymes' work on the ethnography of speaking (1962), have since been highlighted through further sociolinguistic work. Such work includes an investigation into the formal instruction of the speech acts of giving and responding to compliments (Ishihara, 2004) and an examination of inductive and deductive approaches for teaching compliments and compliment responses (Rose & Kwai-fong, 2001). In the article Compliments in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Wolfson explores the speech act of complimenting, specifically in regards to its utility for second-language learners of English, through analysis of the semantic and syntactic structures of compliments. With her colleague, Joan Manes, Wolfson analysed complimenting behaviour in American English, and has, in addition, constructed a corpus of compliments used