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

Changing English examines the history of English from its origins in the fifth century to the present day. It focuses on the radical changes that have taken place in the structure of English over a millennium and a half, detailing the influences of migration, colonialism and many other historical, social and cultural phenomena. Expert authors illustrate and analyze dialects, accents and the shifting styles of individual speakers as they respond to changing circumstances. The reader is introduced to many key debates relating to the English language, illustrated by specific examples...

In this book Edward McDonald takes a fresh look at issues of language in Chinese studies. He takes the viewpoint of the university student of Chinese with the ultimate goal of becoming 'sinophone': that is, developing a fluency and facility at operating in Chinese-language contexts comparable to their own mother tongue. While the entry point for most potential sinophones is the Chinese language classroom, the kinds of "language" and "culture" on offer there are rarely questioned, and the links between the forms of the language and the situations in which they may be used are rarely drawn....

This book examines new functional approaches to language and education, and the impact of these on literacy in the classroom. The first section looks at issues of multimodality, in which the definition of a text is expanded to include not only that which is written down, but also the interaction of writing, graphics, and audiovisual material. The contributors explores ways in which language education can be expanded to deal with multimodal discourse, whether in children's books, in textbooks, or on the web. The second section looks at how critical discourse analysis and...

This book explores the nature of knowledge, language and pedagogy from the perspective of two complementary theories: systemic functional linguistics, and Bernstein-inspired sociology. Bernstein's sociology of knowledge makes a distinction between horizontal and vertical discourses as ways in which knowledge is transmitted in institutional settings, with teachers as agents of symbolic control.

Systemic functional linguists have explored educational discourse according to similar hierarchies, and by bringing the two perspectives together this book shows the impact of language on...

This book presents new research in the field of language acquisition and development. The contributors pay attention to first language development and other language acquisition (second, foreign and additional), and focus on issues directly relevant to both areas of investigation. One of the main aims of the book is to discover how research and practice in first language development can contribute to the teaching and learning of other languages, and vice versa. The book is distinctive in this area in its application of theoretical findings to the development of principles,...

The end of the twentieth- and beginning of the twenty-first centuries have witnessed a large scale increase in demands for international peace keeping mechanisms. Because of a complex history of spread and power, English has become the de facto lingua franca of international communication and negotiation, and the inevitable accompaniment to this is the growth in hostility against the perceived imperialism of the English language. This book argues that the growth of English(es) as a lingua franca has the potential to foster closer bonds between communities, countries and continents. Using...