Kategoria BISAC: Language Arts & Disciplines >> Study & Teaching

The sociopolitical dimensions of English language teaching are central to the English language professional. These dimensions include language policies, cultural expectations, and the societal roles of languages. This book aims to present these issues to practicing and aspiring teachers in order to raise awareness of the sociopolitical nature of English language teaching.

Mindful of the fact that cultures are now more interdependent than ever, this book explores the development of critical cultural awareness through the processes of teaching and learning about foreign cultures. It draws upon theoretical foundations relating to inter- and intra-cultural communication from contemporary philosophical movements, namely Critical Theory and Postmodernism. The study adopts Critical Pedagogy, as it is described by Freire, Giroux and others, as the educational framework providing guidelines for taking a critical perspective towards both native and foreign cultures....

This book focuses on the increase of urban multilingualism in Europe as a consequence of processes of migration and minorisation. It offers multidisciplinary, crossnational and crosslinguistic perspectives on immigrant minority languages at home and in school in six multicultural cities across Europe. In each of these cities, Germanic or Romance languages have a dominant status in public life. This Multilingual Cities Project is based on large-scale empirical findings and has been carried out under the auspices of the European Cultural Foundation, in Amsterdam.

Part I offers...

The book focuses on one aspect of foreign language acquisition that has not received much attention, that of the effect of bilingualism in the oral production of the English language learners. Two research areas have tackled this issue separately. On the one hand, third language acquisition researchers have analysed bilingualism effects in the acquisition of a third language. On the other hand, studies in interlanguage pragmatics have taken into account variables affecting the use of request acts by second language learners of English. The two research areas are connected in this volume,...

How can we envisage a new language and culture pedagogy that breaks with the tradition of viewing language as part of a closed national universe of culture, history, people and mentality, and begins to see itself as a field operating in a complex and dynamic world characterised by transnational flows of people, commodities and ideas? Initially, to understand the field and its current challenges, we must understand its history, and the first part of this book contains a critical analysis of the history of the international field of culture teaching - the first historical treatment of this...

This book of readers theatre scripts for low-achieving middle grade readers is meant to inspire. Written at readability levels of grades 2 and 3, students who struggle with reading will enjoy learning about the lives of people both current (Bob Woodruff) and historical (Franklin Roosevelt) who are inspirational because of their perseverance and ability to overcome adversity in their daily lives. By reading, performing, and discussing these plays about people who possess the important character trait of perseverance, students will not only practice their oral reading skills, thus building...

Set in the rapidly changing world of the contemporary United Arab Emirates and bringing together detailed linguistic analysis with cutting edge social theory, this book explores the development of the first cohort of students to complete a new Bachelor of Education in English language teaching, theorizing the students' learning to teach in terms of the discursive construction of a teaching identity within an evolving community of practice. Both a study of the influence of issues such as gender and nationalism in language teacher education in the Middle East, as well as of the power of...

In this age of globalisation, people who do not speak a foreign language are at a serious disadvantage in the job market. It is therefore of great relevance that learners with learning disabilities are also provided with equal and appropriate opportunities to acquire a second or foreign language. The aim of the book is to give readers an insight into the language learning process of learners with disabilities. The articles discuss the learning process and the teaching of dyslexic as well as hearing impaired learners in various parts of the world, from the USA and Canada to England, Norway,...