The preamble to the post-apartheid South African constitution states that 'South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity' and promises to 'lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law' and to 'improve the quality of life of all citizens'. This would seem to commit the South African government to, amongst other things, the implementation of policies aimed at fostering a common sense of South African national identity, at societal dev- opment and at reducing of levels of social inequality. However, in the period of more than a decade that has now elapsed since the end of apartheid, there has been widespread discontent with regard to the degree of progress made in connection with the realisation of these constitutional aspirations. The 'limits to liberation' in the post-apartheid era has been a theme of much recent research in the ?elds of sociology and political theory (e. g. Luckham, 1998; Robins, 2005a). Linguists have also paid considerable attention to the South African situation with the realisation that many of the factors that have prevented, and are continuing to prevent, effective progress towards the achievement of these constitutional goals are linguistic in their origin.

This volume presents new and cutting-edge research on the question of how we parse, interpret and understand language in more complex discourse settings. The challenge is to find empirical evidence on how information structure and semantic processing are related. Comprehensible answers are provided by showing how syntax, phonology, semantics and pragmatics interact and how they influence semantic processing and interpretation. The analysis of core information structural concepts that contribute to processing such as focus and contrast, the specific discourse status of referents that add to the common ground, context dependency and markedness as well as prosodic prominence and givenness marking has added new and convincing evidence to the research of information structure and semantic processing.

This book explores the influence of high stakes standardised testing within the context of South Korea. South Korea is regarded as a shining example of success in educational achievement and, as this book reveals, pressurised standardised testing has been a major contributing factor to its success. This unique country provides an excellent setting from which to explore the powerful relationship that exists between testing and learning and can advance our understanding of which factors and test conditions will positively and negatively influence learning. This book follows the test activity of a group of Korean university students preparing for the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) and posits a revised model of the influence of testing on learning. It calls for a more socially situated view of tests and test-takers considered in relation to the sociocultural, historical, political and economic contexts in which they are embedded.

Humans' development of literacy has been a recent focus of intense research from the reading, cognitive, and neuroscience fields. But for individuals who are deaf-who rely greatly on their visual skills for language and learning-the findings don't necessarily apply, leaving theoretical and practical gaps in approaches to their education. Assessing Literacy in Deaf Individuals: Neurocognitive Measurement and Predictors narrows these gaps by introducing the VL2 Toolkit, a comprehensive test battery for assessing the academic skills and cognitive functioning of deaf persons who use sign language. Skills measured include executive functioning, memory, reading, visuospatial ability, writing fluency, math, and expressive and receptive language. Comprehensive data are provided for each, with discussion of validity and reliability issues as well as ethical and legal questions involved in the study. And background chapters explain how the Toolkit was compiled, describing the procedures of the study, its rationale, and salient characteristics of its participants. This notable book: Describes each Toolkit instrument and the psychometric properties it measures. Presents detailed findings on test measures and relationships between skills. Discusses issues and challenges relating to visual representations of English, including fingerspelling and lipreading. Features a factor analysis of the Toolkit measures to identify underlying cognitive structures in deaf learners. Reviews trends in American Sign Language assessment. Assessing Literacy in Deaf Individuals is an essential reference for researchers, graduate students, clinicians, and other professionals working in the field of deafness and deaf education across in such areas as clinical child and school psychology, audiology, and linguistics.

A clear organized structure that allows for one chapter's lessons to build on another, assisting in supporting and scaffolding students' knowledge Clear visuals and charts that take into account the learner's language level. Support for the instructor with transcripts of materials and ideas for activities both in the textbook and the workbook. Diverse video, audio, reading, and web activities that engage the students at their level, thereby supporting their participate in communicative activities. The program has been the best seller as a college Russian textbook through five editions since 1993

Changes in the discipline of english language arts teacher education have produced a much more expansive understanding of literacy and of what teachers of English language arts do. This volume addresses these changes by featuring innovation-both theoretical and applied-in the field itself. Changes in the field of English language arts teacher education suggest a need to also examine how teachers approach learning to teach in a field that has so quickly evolved. This book seeks to understand how a future teaching force will approach this changing landscape and how we, as English teacher educators, might effectively prepare them to do so.

This book offers a range of perspectives and insights from around the world on the teaching and learning of listening, speaking, reading and writing. It brings together contributors from across six continents, who analyse a wide range of teaching and learning contexts, including primary, secondary, tertiary, private, and adult ESL/EFL classes. In doing so, they provide locally relevant accounts that nonetheless resonate with other contexts and wider concerns. This informative and practical edited collection will appeal to students and scholars who are interested in the four building blocks of language learning, as well as language education and teacher education.

This volume provides concise, authoritative accounts of the approaches and methodologies of modern lexicography and of the aims and qualities of its end products. Leading scholars and professional lexicographers, from all over the world and representing all the main traditions and perspectives, assess the state of the art in every aspect of research and practice. The book is divided into four parts, reflecting the main types of lexicography. Part I looks at synchronic dictionaries - those for the general public, monolingual dictionaries for second-language learners, and bilingual dictionaries. Part II and III are devoted to the distinctive methodologies and concerns of the historical dictionaries and specialist dictionaries respectively, while chapters in Part IV examine specific topics such as description and prescription; the representation of pronunciation; and the practicalities of dictionary production. The book ends with a chronology of the major events in the history of lexicography. It will be a valuable resource for students, scholars, and practitioners in the field.

The book constitutes a selection of 18 papers on foreign language pedagogy (11 papers) and translation studies (9 papers). The first part of the book is devoted to foreign language pedagogy. The articles in this part focus on issues such as English as lingua franca, foreign language teacher training, the role of individual learner differences in language learning and teaching especially with respect to strategies of language learning as well as psychological and socioaffective factors. The part focusing on translation studies comprises articles devoted to a variety of topics. It places a wide range of readings within the context of varying translation domains such as translation competence, literary translation, translation strategies, translation teaching (including strategies of dictionary use) and translator training. The combination of the above aspects intends to underline the truly interdisciplinary nature of translation.

This book contributes to our growing understanding of the nature and development of language learner self-concept. It assesses the relevant literature in the disciplines of psychology and applied linguistics and describes in-depth, qualitative research examining the self-concepts of tertiary-level EFL learners. Although researchers in applied linguistics and SLA have recognized the importance of self-constructs, there remains little empirical work in the context of foreign language learning that focuses exclusively and at length on this central psychological construct. The content of this monograph draws on interdisciplinary sources, with input from psychology and applied linguistics. It will appeal to students and researchers interested in language-learner psychology as well as self-related constructs in general. The text provides insights into how learners view themselves, and how these self-beliefs can develop and affect the progress of an individual's language learning.