Hall, Smith and Wicaksono: Mapping Applied Linguistics

Normally I don't write about my textbooks here, for the very simple reason that I usually don't read them very thoroughly.  This volume, for example, was assigned to one of my grad level classes last semester.  I gave it a cursory flip-through, heaved a shoulder in a gesture of unimpressiveness, and proceeded to give two very successful presentations on it. 


Then came time for my comprehensive exam, a monolithic beast taking five hours and covering everything from syntax and phonology to translation and language policy planning.  To my weary disgust, this book was on the reading list.  Now I had to pull it off the shelf and actually read it, for who knew what obscure point would be referenced by our seemingly sadistic professors? 


And in the course of reading it, I developed an opinion that was somewhat more specific than a shrug of disregard.  To wit:  this was not a textbook--let one appropriate for graduate level work.  It was a discussion guide, such as might be found in the back of a coffee club book.  It offered no information, merely a wearisome list of things to think about, hedge statements, "possible answers", and "some thoughts on" various topics about which one would hope to be getting rather more detail. 


In short, I suppose I could picture using this as the textbook for an undergraduate introduction to linguistics, but that it was not only a textbook for my graduate level seminar, but also on the reading list for my senior comprehensive exam is insulting, and should give you some idea of the laziness of my advising professor.