From the ancient Mediterranean world to the present day, our conceptions of what is universal in language have interacted with our experiences of language learning. This book tells two stories: the story of how scholars in the west have conceived of the fact that human languages share important properties despite their obvious differences, and the story of how westerners have understood the nature of second or foreign language learning.
In narrating these two stories, the author argues that modern second language acquisition theory needs to reassess what counts as its own past. The book...

"NOT TODAY," was part of a battle cry of John C. Lafferty's Marine unit in Vietnam. He could not forget the meaning of this battle cry nor of his comrades left behind. Twelve years after the war he confides in his sister and tells her his story. Then, she realizes the change in him was not because of the horrors of war, but of the courage, sacrifices and the bonding that takes place between comrades in arms. This wasn't anything she could have guessed nor would she even have been able to understand had he not told her his story. This is when she realizes she wouldn't want to change him back,...

"NOT TODAY," was part of a battle cry of John C. Lafferty's Marine unit in Vietnam. He could not forget the meaning of this battle cry nor of his comrades left behind. Twelve years after the war he confides in his sister and tells her his story. Then, she realizes the change in him was not because of the horrors of war, but of the courage, sacrifices and the bonding that takes place between comrades in arms. This wasn't anything she could have guessed nor would she even have been able to understand had he not told her his story. This is when she realizes she wouldn't want to change him back,...

A collection of content-based chapters and case studies examining the pedagogical potential and realities of digital literacies in education. The book aims to examine a number of foundational aspects of Web 2.0 technologies and social media applications and to understand the implications for teaching, learning, and professional development.

Combining insider and outsider perspectives, Women in Lebanon looks at Christian and Muslim women living together in a multicultural society and facing modernity. While the Arab Spring has begun to draw attention to issues of change, modernity, and women's subjectivity, this manuscript takes a unique approach to examining and describing the Lebanese "alternative modernities" thesis and how it has shaped thinking about the meaning of terms like evolution, progress, development, history, and politics in contemporary Arab thought. The author draws on extensive ethnographic research, as well as...

The French North African Crisis analyses the postwar breakdown in French imperial rule in North West Africa, concentrating primarily upon the Algerian war of independence. The book highlights the human tragedy involved and the divisive consequences within French metropolitan politics of intractable colonial conflict. It further examines how far the protracted crisis of colonial control in North Africa shaped French foreign and security policy and this impacted upon Anglo-French relations, the western alliance and the wider process of decolonization.