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

This book addresses specific learning difficulties in reading and spelling - developmental dyslexia. Set in the cross-linguistic context, it presents issues surrounding dyslexia from the perspective of a foreign language teacher. It is intended to serve as a reference book for those involved in foreign language teaching, including experienced in-service teachers and novice teachers, as well as teacher trainers and trainees. It offers an up-to-date and reader-friendly study of the mechanisms of dyslexia and an overview of the current research on the disorder, in theoretical and practical...

This volume is the first to offer a comprehensive and, at the same time, in-depth examination of the spread of English and English language education across Greater China. It consists of two parts. Part 1 presents rich sociolinguistic data for easy comparisons between mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, while Part 2 explores in depth the phenomena inside mainland China to provide contrastive analysis of English language use and education in economically booming areas such as Shanghai and Guangdong and underdeveloped regions like Xinjiang and Yunnan. With the...

ELT education, as a commodity, takes many forms in countries all over the world. This book questions how the benefits of international English language education projects are distributed. The critical issues of language rights and linguistic diversity are pivotal in the book's examination of domination and subordination in international language education projects. The author's description of the role and teaching of English is based on her experience of working in ELT aid and development and fee-based projects, and through it she unmasks the interests and intentions of aid and fee-based...

This book contributes to the growing field of EFL teacher identity, which is now recognized to influence numerous aspects of classroom teaching and of student learning. It focuses on an under-researched, and yet highly influential group of teachers that shape English language education in Japan: Japanese university English teachers. In three interrelated narrative studies, it examines how four relatively new teachers develop professional identity as they become members of the community of practice of university English teachers; how gender impacts the professional identity of seven female...

This book presents studies from authors at the cutting edge of second language vocabulary research, whose output represents much of the current focus and direction of work in this area. The authors address various aspects of L2 lexical processing and explore different models of acquisition, processing and storage. The studies are linked by the fact that the authors have all belonged to the same dynamic and influential vocabulary acquisition research group led by Paul Meara. Alison Wray provides an overview of how Meara has led this group's research activities in an innovative PhD...

Building on both Western and Asian theoretical resources, the book examines how EIL teachers see themselves as professional and individual in relation to their work practices. It reveals the tensions, compromises, negotiations and resistance in their enactment of different roles and selves, especially when they are exposed to values often associated with the English-speaking West. The ways they perceive their identity formation problematise and challenge the seemingly dominant views of identity as always changing, hybrid and fragmented. Their experiences highlight the importance of the...

Due to its theoretical and educational significance within the language learning process, the study of L2 motivation has been an important area of second language acquisition research for several decades. Over the last few years L2 motivation research has taken an exciting new turn by focusing increasingly on the language learner's situated identity and various self-perceptions. As a result, the concept of L2 motivation is currently in the process of being radically reconceptualised and re-theorised in the context of contemporary notions of self and identity. With contributions by leading...

Modern languages are offered to young learners at an increasingly early age in many countries; yet few publications have focused on what is available to children in different contexts. This volume fills this gap by documenting the state-of-the-art in researching young language learners using a variety of research methods. It demonstrates how young children progress and benefit from an early exposure to modern languages in different educational contexts, and how affective, cognitive, social, linguistic and classroom-related factors interact in the processes. A special strength is the range...

The testing and assessment of language competence continues to be a much debated issue in foreign language teaching and research. This book is the first one to address the testing of four important dimensions of foreign language education which have been left largely unconsidered: learner autonomy, intercultural competence, literature and literary competence, and the integration of content and language learning. Each area is considered through a theoretical framework, followed by two empirical studies, raising questions of importance to all language teachers: How can one test literary...