Japanese: Pt. 1: The Spoken Language (Yale Language)

As most readers will already know, Eleanor Jorden has spent a distinguished career campaigning to make language teaching a respected academic profession. Jorden does not indulge in empty theorizing: true to her pedagogical ideals, she gives concrete and practical working models where other might write methodological essays. Japanese: The Spoken Language (JSL) is the crowning achievement of this career. . . . More than two decades of thought and research went into the preparation of these materials, and the attention to detail shows. JSL, far and away the most consistent and rigorous language text I know of in any language, is already the most talked about work in the language teaching profession to appear in many years. . . . The text series is arguably the most important contribution to Japanese linguistics since Martin's A Reference Grammar of Japanese appeared in 1975. At the very least, JSL offers more than a pedagogical model; it also contains analyses of the Japanese language to be found nowhere else. There is no other published source for most of Jorden's ideas on grammar and sociolinguistics. The textbook is her forum for academic discourse, and she uses the medium with unmatched skill. . . . Demanding and rewarding. --S. Robert Ramsey, Modern Language Journal