learners’ successful access to new learning.

The book challenges the

monolingual ideology that pervades language policy in Australia by
showing the valuable resources that languages constitute in developing
a global worldview and a harmonious society. The book deserves to be
widely read.

ROBYN MOLONEY
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia

Mindful L2 Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Perspective on

Cultivating Teachers’ Professional Development
Karen Johnson and Paula Golombek. New York, NY: Routledge, 2016.
Pp. x + 178.

doi: 10.1002/tesq.379

& As linguistic diversity increases among K–12 students, the prepara-

tion of second language (L2) teachers has garnered increased atten-
tion. In this book, Karen Johnson and Paula Golombek describe their
unique approach to L2 teacher education. Specifically, they assume a
sociocultural perspective in analyzing the moment-to-moment dialogic
interactions and experiences that foster the development of L2 tea-
cher expertise.
In the first two sections of the book, Johnson and Golombek pro-
vide a broad overview of their sociocultural perspective on L2 teacher
education. Drawing on Vygotskian theory, they conceptualize teacher
learning as a fundamentally social process embedded in cultural and
historical contexts. They emphasize that learning to teach should be
“intentional, deliberate, and goal-directed by expert teacher educators”
(pp. 3–4). Specifically, the authors introduce the term responsive media-
tion to describe the dynamic process by which learners develop higher
mental processes through participation in mediated activity that is
responsive to their unique needs. The authors flesh out responsive
mediation, in both conceptual and practical terms, by describing the
relevance of several Vygotskian-inspired theoretical concepts to L2
teacher education. They also make a case for using sociocultural dis-
course analysis as a window into the dialogic interactions between
teachers and teacher educators.

REVIEWS 477
 Having outlined their theoretical foundations, the authors turn to
applications. The book’s third section presents examples of various
practices the authors have implemented and evaluated in their own L2
teacher education programs. Across these examples, they emphasize
the critical role of teacher educators in providing deliberate and goal-
directed mediation that is responsive to the sociocultural histories of
prospective L2 teachers.
In the book’s final section, Johnson and Golombek return to a
more theoretical discussion of responsive mediation and its central
role in L2 teacher education. They describe their pedagogical
approach as mindful L2 teacher education, recognizing that “mindfulness
of what, how, and why we do what we do and its consequences”
(p. 163) for teachers is central to responsive mediation in L2 teacher
education. In the final pages, the authors describe several shifts in
thinking and practice needed to enact mindful L2 teacher education.
Overall, the book offers a theoretically grounded and empirically rich
window into L2 teacher education practices. While the first two sections
are heavy on theory, the case studies presented in the third section bring
these theories to life. By examining excerpts of discourse between teach-
ers and teacher educators, Johnson and Golombek convey the rich and
multilayered texture of these interactions as well as the dynamic nature
of responsive mediation. Perhaps the book’s most important contribu-
tion is its illustration of the indispensable role of teacher educators in
cultivating teacher expertise through systematic and intentional instruc-
tion. In an era marked by the de-professionalization of teaching, this
book is a welcome reminder that teacher education makes a difference.
If we are to expect the next generation of L2 teachers to be effective in
their roles, we should take seriously the authors’ call for more focused
inquiry into the practices of L2 teacher education.
Although the book covers a great deal of ground, it is noticeably
lacking in its consideration of content areas in L2 teacher education.
Due to the language-intensive nature of college- and career-ready con-
tent standards (Lee, Quinn, & Valdes, 2013), L2 teachers are increas-
ingly called upon to support L2 learners in a range of content areas,
including mathematics, science, and social studies. As a result, L2
teachers need to be familiar with the ways language is used across con-
tent areas as well as how they can support L2 learners in accessing rig-
orous content instruction in English (Valdes, Kibler, & Walqui, 2014).
Despite this urgent need, the case studies presented in the book fea-
ture prospective L2 teachers learning to teach exclusively in the con-
texts of English as a second language (ESL) and English language
arts. Ultimately, adopting a broader and more inclusive definition of
content areas may be necessary to ensure that L2 teachers are pre-
pared to meet the demands of contemporary classrooms.

478 TESOL QUARTERLY

 Those seeking concrete strategies for preparing L2 teachers will not
find them in this book. Even the recommendations provided in the
last chapter are relatively theoretical and abstract. The authors caution
that the practices they present are not necessarily “best practices” but
are meant to illustrate the challenges and affordances of enacting
responsive mediation and to paint a picture of L2 teacher education
in all of its nuance and complexity. As such, this book may be a useful
resource for L2 teacher educators seeking to put their “pedagogy
under a microscope” (p. 163) in search of more responsive ways of cul-
tivating teacher expertise.

REFERENCES
Lee, O., Quinn, H., & Valdes, G. (2013). Science and language for English lan-
guage learners in relation to Next Generation Science Standards and with
implications for Common Core State Standards for English language arts and
mathematics. Educational Researcher, 42, 223–233.
Valdes, G., Kibler, A., & Walqui, A. (2014). Changes in the expertise of ESL profession-
als: Knowledge and action in an era of new standards. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of
English to Speakers of Other Languages.

SCOTT E. GRAPIN
New York University
New York, New York, United States

Humor in the Classroom: A Guide for Language Teachers and

Educational Researchers
Nancy D. Bell and Anne Pomerantz. New York, NY: Routledge,
2016. Pp. vi + 204.

doi: 10.1002/tesq.378

& In their newest collaboration, Bell and Pomerantz provide a useful

guide for educators interested in incorporating humor in the language
classroom. The field of second language (L2) humor has been steadily
growing over the past few decades, and this accessible book seeks to pro-
vide language educators with practical ideas that are rooted in research.
The book is divided into nine chapters and broadly moves from more
theoretical concerns to more practical ones. The first two chapters help
to lay the conceptual argument upon which the rest of the book is built.
In Chapter 1, “Language, Communication, and Education,” the authors

REVIEWS 479