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Autor/s Kalenda EatonArcadia University, USA   ABSTRACT In this article I examine the creation of neo-slave narratives, or fictional texts written in the 20th and 21st centuries, yet set during an imagined period of American slavery or indentured servitude. In these novels the authors, usually African-descended, depict slavery and/or plantation life, generally, to privilege the experiences of the slave. The process of actively writing against traditional plantation narratives of the 18th and 19th centuries can liberate slave histories and allows silenced actors to speak. However, in this paper, I argue that there is a danger of further marginalization when History is the platform for creative expression. I examine two novels whose authors employ the use of satire to discuss slave experience and by doing so, I explore how the images of Black slave and servant women can be either devalued or empowered depending on authorial representation and intent.

Reviewed by Yasutake IshiiSeijo University, Tokyo, Japan   1. INTRODUCTION “Phrasal verb” is a term that refers to those units of verbs and particles, i.e. prepositions and adverbs, that have more or less different meanings from those of the verbs alone. Phrasal verbs are extremely significant in the English language. According to Biber et al. (1999: 408-409, 415), more than 2,000 phrasal verbs, items consisting of a verb (and a complement) followed by an adverb in their definition, and over 5,000 prepositional verbs, items consisting of a verb followed by a preposition in their definition, are used in every one million words in fiction and conversations.Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus is a specialized dictionary of English phrasal verbs (“PVs”, henceforth) and other structurally similar phrases of verbs and particles. This dictionary is “specially designed to help learners of English deal confidently with phrasal verbs” (page vi). In this review, we will concentrate on three aspects of this dictionary: the coverage of its entry items, the effectiveness and uniqueness of the characteristic features adopted in this dictionary, and a problematic strategy found in the macrostructure of headword PV items. By considering these aspects, we will be able to see whether it is really an effective learning tool for learners.

Autor/s Ruth BreezeUniversidad de Navarra, Spain   ABSTRACT Although verb-particle combinations are generally relatively uncommon in formal English, they occur with a certain frequency in texts related to the economy, and specifically in journalism and academic analysis focusing on the financial markets. The first part of this paper consists of a corpus study of the verb-particle combinations found in two 200,000 word corpora of business English, one consisting of market reports from the Financial Times, the other of academic research papers on economics from a series of peer-reviewed journals. The particles UP, DOWN, OFF, OUT, BACK and AHEAD are found to be particularly frequent, in combination with a wide range of verbs, mainly verbs of motion. The last section of the paper provides some models for creating exercises for teaching purposes, which start from an analysis of the metaphors associated with each particle and progress to comprehension of real examples from market reports published in the Financial Times.

Table of Contents From the editors Carme Manuel Cuenca Articles  Diasporic dialogues: The role of gender, language, and revision in neo-slave narrative. Kalenda Eaton Jacqueline Woodson’s narrative style in The Other Side: An African American picture book for children. Agustín Reyes Torres Anzaldúa and ‘the new mestiza’: A Chicana dives into collective identity. María Henríquez-Betancor Wordarrows: The performative power of language in N. Scott Momaday’s non-fiction work. Anna M. Brígido-Corachán Memory and language in Hiromi Goto’s Chorus of Mushrooms. Eva Pich Ponce The voice of the cypresses: Cyrus Cassells and the poetry of Salvador Espriu. Dídac Llorens Cubedo A poet speaks about ...  The use and abuse of language by a Chicano from Aztlán (both words unknown). Nephtalí de León Book and Multimedia Reviews  Koritha Mitchell. Living with Lynching. Mª Mar Gallego Durán

From the Editors SPECIAL ISSUE: LANGUAGE VALUE IN MINORITY LITERATURES In the wake of Nigerian independence and in contrast to African writers who took an essentialist view that equates language with cultural identity (Ngugi wa Thiong’o, for example), Chinua Achebe declared that “[a] language spoken by Africans on African soil, a language in which Africans write, justifies itself” (1975: 67). According to his vision, the colonizers’ languages, English and French, even if they were not African languages, because of their grasp on African history, were part and parcel of African experience. [...]

Autor/s Iñaki Pikabea TorranoJosé Francisco Lukas MujikaUniversidad del País Vasco, SpainNeus Figueras CasanovasGeneralitat de Catalunya, Spain   ABSTRACT In the Basque Country there are currently more than 140,000 people with accredited qualifications that certify their knowledge of Euskara (Basque Language). These qualifications have been issued by a number of official bodies dependent on the Basque Government, but had not been validated against each other until recently.In order to validate these qualifications and adapt them to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, a group of experts were commissioned by the Basque Government to undertake a study conducive to this end. This paper outlines the methodology and conclusions of that study.

Autor/s Spiros PapageorgiouEducational Testing Service, MI, USA   ABSTRACT One of the main aims of the Common European Framework of Reference is to help providers and users of assessments “describe the levels of proficiency required by existing standards, tests and examinations in order to facilitate comparisons between different systems of qualifications” (Council of Europe 2001: 21). Providers of language assessments both inside and outside Europe follow various methodologies to align their assessments with the CEFR levels, as several case studies show (Figueras and Noijons 2009; Martyniuk 2010). This paper discusses the use of the CEFR in the field of language assessment, focusing in particular on issues related to alignment. The paper presents the types of validity evidence that should be accumulated to support an alignment claim and concludes with directions for future research in order to further enhance our understanding of using the CEFR for the design of assessments and the interpretation of assessment results.

From the Editors ADAPTING TO THE CEFR IN ELT: EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT OF LANGUAGE COMPETENCE This issue includes articles concerning different approaches to tackle the impact of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) on English Language Teaching (ELT) and assessment. Special attention is paid to the assessment of language competence in a higher education context. The use and impact of evaluation and assessment results is of paramount importance when these results are a prerequisite, for instance, to start postgraduate studies or to be able to ask for a job where a specific level is required.

Autor/s Antonio José Jiménez-MuñozUniversidad de Oviedo, Spain   ABSTRACT Advocates of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) have extolled the virtues of this approach to fostering both content and language alike. However, the generalised and varied implementation of EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) in universities worldwide has led many lecturers to question these claims. This paper presents a CEFR (Common European Framework)-based model for measuring the impact of EMI at the tertiary level, the aim being to provide further evidence of the progress made in language-learning in modules taught in a foreign language. Using questionnaires based on the revised and refined CEFR descriptors from EAQUALS (Evaluation and Accreditation of Quality in Language Services), students answer an initial self-assessment survey about their background and language skills, which is controlled by a final questionnaire targeting their perceived progress throughout their instruction. Designed from the ground up with the CEFR as a backdrop, this method can be easily tallied with objective assessment to uncover data about students’ linguistic performance in CLIL contexts.

Reviewed by Raquel Lázaro GutiérrezUniversidad de Alcalá, Spain   This textbook is a comprehensive guide for (mainly, but not only) linguistics, sociology, communication and even business students on the theories and research methodologies of conversation analysis. Based on ethnomethodology, a theoretical perspective of sociology which appeared in the 1960s and which explored how people create social order, social structure and situated action (Garfinkel 1967) through the direct observation of human behaviour, conversation analysis emerged in the 1980s as an approach to the study of talk in interaction. Sacks (1984), a graduate student who worked with Garfinkel, thought of talk as the ideal source of data to study human action, as it could be tape-recorded and carefully and repeatedly examined. The conversation analysis methodology was soon found useful for the study of a wide range of conversations (formal, informal, institutional, etc.) held for a great deal of different purposes and in diverse contexts (business, education, media, legal settings, etc.).