Language teaching theory and methods Books

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Book SynopsisThis work is a thorough investigation and comparison of intonational features of two varieties of English: the English spoken by speakers of educated Southern British English and the English spoken by native speakers of Finnish. The investigation is based on a large database and an exceptionally thorough acoustic analysis, and the discussion presents new perspectives on interlanguage intonation. The work also contains a very detailed review of contemporary theories and models of intonation. This book is intended for phoneticians and linguists, as well as teachers and students of English as a foreign language.Table of ContentsContents: Phonetics - Applied linguistics - English Language Teaching - Intonation - Prosody - Interlanguage.

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Book SynopsisThis work, which represents an integrated linguistic-argumentative approach, deals with the linguistic, argumentative and rhetorical analysis of English for Science and Technology (EST). The importance of this field for international communication has meant increased interest in the analysis of EST and above all in the analysis of the structure of EST texts. The work is divided into three parts. The first part analyses important cognitive and argumentative operations, especially with regard to their function in EST. It looks at the types, objectives, forms and structures of arguments and defines and explains central concepts such as common and specific topoi. Part Two deals with how these cognitive and argumentative operations are realised in language, in microstructures and macrostructures, and ends by analysing a complete EST text. The third part takes this article and shows how it could be used in university-level EST teaching.

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Book SynopsisCan learner autonomy as a pedagogical approach improve the quality of foreign language learning? How can this approach be constructed so that it empowers foreign language learners to increase their learning independence and create the conditions for continuing progress? This book seeks to contribute to a longstanding and yet ongoing debate around questions such as these. It has been written by teacher trainers from several different European countries for foreign language teacher trainers and for teachers in training. The authors are committed to building a theoretical framework for the development of learner autonomy as well as working out its practical implications for foreign language teaching. The first three chapters of the book aim to help trainers and teachers understand the theory which is relevant to learner autonomy and the principles which support it. The last three chapters present practical ways of fostering learner autonomy in order to facilitate intercultural competence as well as develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills in a foreign language.

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Book SynopsisThe volume brings together contributions from scholars active in the field of pronunciation teaching and those more concerned with theoretical phonetics and phonology. The focus of the book is on English phonetics and phonology viewed and studied from the perspective of foreign learners, teachers and teacher trainers. Contributions are divided into three sections: accents, speech and applications. The first section discusses a variety of issues related to accents: description of accents in Britain today, theoretical perspectives on accent study and the problem of reference accent in teaching. The main concern of the contributions in the second section is the context for phonetics and phonology teaching at the university level and in teacher training with emphasis on awareness raising. The third section presents studies in interlanguage phonetics and phonology, speech processing and pronunciation teaching.

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Book SynopsisThe study investigates interactions between 29 tandem partners from a German and a North American university, who met twice a week in a text-based online environment that allowed them to communicate with each other in real time via a computer keyboard. The analysis focuses on learners' codeswitching, negotiation of meaning, error correction, and the use of specific spellings and punctuation. The data suggest that most partners complied with the principle of reciprocity and that the non-threatening atmosphere of the MOO encouraged them to test their hypotheses about their L2. Moreover, the analysis revealed a noticeable increase in learners' awareness of the target language. All students frequently engaged in negotiation of meaning, but there was a conspicuous absence of corrective feedback.

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Book SynopsisThe papers that make up this collection were either presented at the CETaLL (Commission on Educational Technology and Language Learning) Colloquium The Autonomous Learner and the Media held as part of the 10th AILA World Congress in Amsterdam, August 8-15, 1993, or were presented in other sections at the same congress. Not only do they all share the common theme of exploring how media technology can be used to enhance language learning and teaching, but more than that, they relate the excitement of breaking down barriers and building bridges with the help of both old and new technology. Papers from Austria, Finland, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Britain and the United States cover a wide range of topics, from the latest hi-tech multi-media project to the humble radio with its potential for interactivity.Trade ReviewOverall the book is a valuable contribution to the literature on CALL in that it covers a wide range of technology from radio to the Multimedia Teleschool and provides many stimulating contributions to the debate on media technology in language teaching. (Gudrun Oberprieler, System)Table of ContentsContents: Virtual reality in the FL classroom - Multi-media centers - Teleschool - Computerbased communication - Computer conferencing - Interactive radio - Distance teaching - Teletext subtitles - Production of video programmes - International CALL bibliography.

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Book SynopsisReading Eating Disorders uses literary texts as a key to open the door of American culture. Novels and poems on disordered eating reveal America's bulimic relationship to food and the tendency to punish individuals particularly women and the poor for not being slender. These texts partake of the confessional ethos in American public culture the need to testify to and hear about intimate physical details. Tracing the history of eating disorders and Western culture's idealization of thinness with reference to canonical literary works such as Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market (1859) and Samuel Richardson's Clarissa (17478), the author illustrates anorexia, bulimia, and the binge-eating disorder using contemporary accounts of these disorders. A cultural studies approach to literature is taken to describe how writings on eating disorders reveal the political and economic world out of which they are written.

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Book SynopsisThis book discusses how Theodore Dreiser and F. Scott Fitzgerald alongside other novelists enforced in their usage and interpretation of the term personality a newly emerging vision of self in American society. This vision was other-directed: many Americans meant to impress their social surroundings through consciously cultivating personality as a social stimulus value, which they hoped would ceaselessly further their social station. Anticipating the discourses in other cultural forms, the early twentieth-century American novelists warned that individuals' repeated endeavors to define themselves outwardly would inevitably lead to identity loss and depression.

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Book SynopsisDesde hace casi tres décadas, el concepto de estrategias de aprendizaje está siendo centro de atención en la investigación y práctica docente de las lenguas extranjeras. A pesar de ello, existe poca claridad en torno a ellas, lo que hace necesario un gran esfuerzo de investigación y experimentación docente. El presente volumen ofrece una colección de investigaciones recientes en el campo de las estrategias de aprendizaje. For the last thirty years the concept of learning strategies has been at the centre of research and practice of foreign language teaching. In spite of this interest, there still is little clarity about what learning strategies are, which means that a lot of research is needed in this field. This volume reports on recent research and thinking in the field of learning strategies.

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Book SynopsisPragmatic competence is an integral and indispensable component of overall language competence. Omitting the pragmatic dimension from language assessment is, therefore, quite unfortunate. This book describes the development and validation of three test methods designed to test the interlanguage pragmatic knowledge of EFL learners. Altogether 413 subjects participated in the development of the tests. Results showed that all three methods investigated had measured learners' interlanguage pragmatic knowledge. Quantitative analyses showed that the tests tapped the intended construct and the test methods measured a similar construct. Analyses of verbal reports yielded results which supported the quantitative analyses and revealed that the construct-relevant knowledge was involved in the test takers' cognitive activities. This book ends with some pedagogical implications of this study and directions for further research.

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Book SynopsisThe term new learning environments' has, in the past, been employed almost exclusively in relation to discussions on the use of computers in language learning. This volume seeks to provide a broader interpretation for language learners, teachers and researchers who are increasingly involved in language learning beyond the traditional environment of the classroom. Contributors explore a range of theoretical and pedagogical frameworks which inform the development of new learning environments, the forms these environments take, and how they are created and sustained. This volume explores the issue of whether new learning environments call for new methodologies and support new kinds of learning, the extent to which they can be developed within schools and universities, and their potential role in language learning within the wider community.

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Book SynopsisThe World According to Bridget Jones: Discourses of Identity in Chicklit Fictions examines the cultural functioning of a popular contemporary strand in mainstream Anglo-American literature, known as chicklit. Assuming that the interpretive potential of chicklit novels is connected with the process of identity formation, the book points out the possibility of the readers identification with certain fictional discourses permeating the convention. The study focuses on complex links between Anglo-American cultural discourses and narrative constructions of identity and explores narrative representations of contemporary family, love, and sexuality. It also tackles the relation between chicklit and consumerism, reconstructing salient characteristics of contemporary consumer culture and the position of the fictional female consumer within discourses of body, beauty, and shopping.

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Book SynopsisFinding words and images with which to describe and come to terms with a disaster is a psychological necessity, but it also inevitably manifests socio-cultural habits of thought and political interests. Language shapes, distorts and appropriates an occurrence that is not just a shocking and all too real destruction of life, property and the environment, but also a social construct. The unrepresentability' of the experience of a disaster and the textuality of the represented event and thus also the contradictions, ruptures and silences inevitably created by the tensions between reality' and representation' are the focus of the essays collected in this volume. Thirteen contributions by internationally active researchers in the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, sociology and philosophy provide interdisciplinary perspectives on the ways in which we write and think about the unimaginable.

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Book SynopsisThis book gives an in-depth literary history focusing on the lives and works of five major Native American authors: John Rollin Ridge, Sarah Winnemucca, Simon Pokagon, Alexander Lawrence Posey, and Charles Alexander Eastman. Their writings, produced in an era characterized by severe cultural oppression, are not only milestones in the evolution of early Native American literature but also comprise a significant contribution to American letters. The literary bequest of the authors covered in this book openly contests the perennial stereotype of the Vanishing Indian.

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Book SynopsisInformation and communication technology (ICT) has dramatically altered the world's social and economic landscape and is now gaining momentum in the realm of language studies. Corpora and ICT in Language Studies attempts to signal and document this phenomenon by bringing together twenty-nine contributions authored by both seasoned researchers and newcomers to the field. The contributions range from more traditional corpus-based or corpus-driven studies to those incorporating ICT as an integral part of their methodology. The volume includes a selection of conference papers given at PALC 2005, the fifth conference in the biennial cycle of meetings organized by the Department of English Language at Lódz University, as well as a number of invited papers. The papers are grouped in three parts: corpora in empirical language studies, cognitive linguistics and e-learning.

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Book SynopsisWho wrote the High Dutch Minerva? And why? This work seeks to disprove the reasons offered by scholars for the emergence of the first German grammar for the English, the High Dutch Minerva (1680), by considering biographical material on the author, Martin Aedler (1643-1724), placing the author and his work in their German and English social contexts. It argues that Aedler, a lecturer in Hebrew, published his grammar for the use of the English intellectual elite, but did so to satisfy the patriotic imperatives of members of the German language societies and their desire to legitimate the German language for a new audience; Aedler does this through the use of universal grammar. Included is an edition of his correspondence which sheds light on the teaching of Hebrew at Cambridge.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a richly illustrated, hands-on discussion of one of the fastest growing fields in linguistics today. The authors address key methodological issues in corpus linguistics, such as collocations, keywords and the categorization of concordance lines. They show how these topics can be explored step-by-step with BNCweb, a user-friendly web-based tool that supports sophisticated analyses of the 100-million-word British National Corpus. Indeed, the BNC and BNCweb have been described by Geoffrey Leech as «an unparalleled combination of facilities for finding out about the English language of the present day» (Foreword). The book contains tasks and exercises, and is suitable for undergraduates, postgraduates and experienced corpus users alike.Table of ContentsContents: Reference guide to BNCweb, a user-friendly, web-based interface to the British National Corpus (key features include: collocations, frequency distribution, keywords) – Practical guide to methodology, covering both quantitative and qualitative analysis of corpora – Query language reference.

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Book SynopsisThis book contains nine essays on Lucius Annaeus Seneca, distinguished Stoic Philosopher, creative writer, and Statesman of the Neronian Age. As author of epistles, treatises, dialogues, dramas, and epigrams, he produced a variety of works that enriched Rome’s literary achievement. Like the previous volumes – Essays on Seneca (Peter Lang, 1993) and Further Essays on Seneca (Peter Lang, 2001) – this book presents an in-depth analysis of the Cordoban Philosopher’s thoughts and portrays his erudition, humanitas, artistry, and deep psychological understanding of the frailties and strengths of human nature.Table of ContentsContents: Essays dealing with Seneca’s thoughts on the emotions, love, envy, anger, the bestowal of benefits, the quest for the vita beata, old age, exercise and fitness, and evil.

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Book SynopsisIt has long been noted that high-stakes language exams exert a powerful influence on teaching and learning, a phenomenon known as the washback effect (Alderson and Wall, 1993). However, due to the complex nature of the phenomenon, little research has been conducted in the field so far. This book, which is based on empirical research into the washback effect of First Certificate in English (FCE, Cambridge ESOL), discusses and elaborates on the complexity of the phenomenon and accounts for the intervening factors that mediate the process of test washback. The book concludes with the presentation of a model that demonstrates how the mechanism of washback operates and with recommendations to a variety of stakeholders for achieving beneficial washback.Table of ContentsContents: Washback – Backwash – Language Testing – Language Teaching – Exam Influence – Exam-oriented Materials – Student Diaries.

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Book SynopsisAt the end of compulsory schooling, a quarter of European adolescents do not meet the minimal standards in reading literacy required for life-long learning and a satisfactory private and professional life (cf. the PISA-surveys). Funded by the European Commission (2006-2009), the ADORE Project «Teaching Struggling Adolescent Readers – A Comparative Study of Good Practice in European Countries» involved researchers and practitioners from the following 11 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Switzerland. During a 2-year-investigation period, transnational teams observed extraordinary examples of classroom instruction in all respective countries and identified key elements of good practice concerning reading instruction on different levels: classroom practice, schools, communities and national educational systems. The ADORE-book intends to be a guide for decision-makers and practitioners who want to improve the reading instruction for struggling adolescent readers.Table of ContentsContents: Christine Garbe/Karl Holle/Swantje Weinhold/Alexa Meyer-Hamme/Anika Barton: Characteristics of Adolescent Struggling Readers – Christine Garbe/Karl Holle/Alexa Meyer-Hamme/Swantje Weinhold: The ADORE Project – Christine Garbe/Martin Gross/Karl Holle/Swantje Weinhold: Key Elements of Good Practice – Dorothee Gaile: Key Element No. 1: Designing a Supportive Teacher-Student and Student-Student Interaction – Karl Holle: Key Element No. 2: Applying Diagnostic Forms of Assessment – Patricia Schillings: Key Element No. 3: Involving Students in Planning the Learning Process – Sari Sulkunen/Inga Arffman: Key Element No. 4: Choosing Engaging Reading Materials – Patricia Schillings/Catherine Gabelica: Key Element No. 5: Involving Students in Texts – János Steklács: Key Element No. 6: Teaching Cognitive and Meta-Cognitive Reading Strategies – Gerd Kruse/Thomas Sommer: Key Element No. 7: Creating an Inspiring Reading Environment – Raluca Stefania Pelin: Key Element No. 8: Teacher Participation and Support by Principals – Alexa Meyer-Hamme/Swantje Weinhold: Key Element No. 9: Multi-Professional Support – Dobrosław Bilski/Beata Szczepańska: Key Element No. 10: Community Support – Ragnar Gees Solheim: Key Element No. 11: Legal and Financial Resources – Christine Garbe: Key Element No. 12: Reading Research and Knowledge Transfer – Dorothee Gaile: Key Element No. 13: Teacher Training and Professional Development – Thomas Sommer/Gerd Kruse: Key Element No. 14: Media Literacy and Information-Communication-Technology (ICT) – Christine Garbe: Key Element No. 15: Quality Monitoring and Evaluation – Christine Garbe: Key Element No. 16: National Educational Values and Curricula – Christine Garbe/Karl Holle/Swantje Weinhold: Conclusions and Comments – Donna E. Alvermann: An External Perspective on the ADORE Project.

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Book SynopsisDefining the construct of interaction for paired assessment purposes has been difficult, despite the evolution of our view of language to include the social perspective of co-construction, and the fact that such discourse is increasingly taught and assessed. In this volume three sequenced studies define interaction in paired oral assessment through the verbal protocols of learners of Spanish and their assessors. Assessors then scale performances from videoed test performance data resulting in the development of an evidence based rating process which includes non-verbal interpersonal communication, interactive listening and interactional management.Table of ContentsContents: Issues relevant to assessing communicative interaction in pairs – Interlocutor effects in testing speaking – Developing rating scales – Rater orientation to peer interaction in speaking tests – Candidate orientation to peer interaction – Developing a data based rating procedure from observed peer interaction.

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Book SynopsisDer Sammelband Fremdsprachen in der Perspektive lebenslangen Lernens bietet einen breit gefächerten Einblick in die Thematik der neuen Reihe Fremdsprachen lebenslang lernen. Es werden Themen wie die Faktoren Alter und Motivation, Hypothesen Sensibler Phasen, Autonomes Lernen, Mehrsprachigkeit, das Sprachenportfolio, die Verwendung von Chunks beim Spracherwerb und Deutsch als Zweitsprache im Kindes- und Erwachsenenalter aus der übergreifenden Sicht lebenslangen Lernens behandelt. Neben empirischen und theoretischen Arbeiten werden auch Berichte aus der Praxis vorgestellt.Table of ContentsInhalt: Rüdiger Grotjahn/Torsten Schlak (†): Alter und Fremdsprachenlernen: Ein Forschungsüberblick – Annette Berndt: Die Entwicklung fremdsprachlicher Kompetenz in lebenslanger Sicht: Ein Zugang über die Theorie dynamischer Systeme – Michael McGarry/Barbara Schmenk: The autonomous lifelong learner as an economized subject of education – Franz-Joseph Meißner: Mehrsprachigkeit in der Perspektive lebenslangen Lernens – Stephen Ryan/Zoltán Dörnyei: The long-term evolution of language motivation and the L2 self – Günther Schneider: Das Sprachenportfolio als Evaluationsinstrument und Lernbegleiter lebenslangen Lernens – David Singleton/Romana Kopečková: Second language phonology: a critical perspective on critical period perspectives – Karin Aguado: Sind L2-Chunks lebenslang erlernbar oder gibt es eine sensible Phase für ihren erfolgreichen Erwerb? – Stefanie Haberzettl/Christine Dimroth/Nadja Wulff/Christine Czinglar: Der Erwerb des Deutschen als Zweitsprache im Grundschulalter – Gemma Artieda/Carmen Muñoz: The role of age and literacy in adult foreign language learning – Andrea Mentel-Winter: (Fähigkeits-)Selbstkonzepte erwachsener DaZ-Lernender - Eine Einführung – Ekkehard Nuissl/Bettina Thöne-Geyer: Lernen und Lehren in der Erwachsenenbildung – Robert Sobotta: Deutschlernen mit älteren Menschen am Beispiel des Goethe-Instituts Dresden: «Deutsch 50 Plus» – Albert Raasch: Plädoyer für «Betreutes Sprachenlernen»: Ein Essay zum Sprachenunterricht für «ältere Ältere».

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Book SynopsisLearning opportunities outside school are met with increasing interest. Not only the visual character of leisure time venues supports foreign language learning, but also their aesthetic quality is enjoyed by students and teachers. Other learning venues outside school like work places and places visited during stays abroad are appreciated for their interactional support. However, as the ten papers of this volume show, the opportunity to experience free choice learning and hence the chance for life-long learning has to be well balanced with the scaffolding and the sheltered space that language learners need. Only if this dove-tailing works out well, resources can be better used and students can benefit in terms of motivation, cultural awareness, and increased foreign language competence.Table of ContentsContents: Markus Kötter: Work experience as an opportunity for language learning – Karin Sandwall: Starting with practice - workplace related second language learning in and out of school – Bärbel Diehr: Go out. Get involved. Gain experience. Teacher development in school placements abroad – Lotta König: Learning to teach English beyond the classroom - combining theory and practice in teacher training by preparing and accompanying a class trip – Christiane Lütge: Exploring cinema worlds - perspectives for and beyond the English as a Foreign Language classroom – Isabella Sabo/Dennis Haack: «Lean back and learn» - a Teaching English as a Foreign Language unit in the cinema on «This is England» – Ralph Olsen: Micro-scaffolding in theatre-oriented post-performance communication – Carola Surkamp: Experiencing plays as performances: the theatre as a place to learn outside of school – Heike Rohmann: Historical museums as learning sites in foreign language education and cultural studies – Jutta Rymarczyk: Foreign language learning with new technologies in the context of museum education.

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