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Books > Language & Literature > Language teaching & learning (other than ELT) > Language teaching theory & methods
Language and Development - Teachers in a Changing World comprises twenty-one case accounts contributed by language education professionals working in the context of international development. Frank and stimulating, the contributions explore the implementation of interactive educational approaches in ten Asian countries. The accounts draw on real-life experiences from countries which collectively have been under-represented in the literature to date: Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. The issues discussed will be familiar to those working in similar situations throughout the world, as many questions are raised and answered in the lively depictions of classroom practice, project management and funding relationships. The editors' introductory and concluding sections provide a descriptive conceptual framework for the practice-based accounts, while allowing the reader the freedom to interpret the meanings and the theoretical implications of each account for themselves.
Language, Literature and the Learner is an edited volume evolving from three international seminars devoted to the teaching of literature in a second or foreign language. The seminars explicitly addressed the interface between language and literature teaching to investigate the ways in which literature can be used as a resource for language growth at secondary, intermediate and upper-intermediate level. This book presents the reader with a practical classroom-based guide to how the teaching of language and literature, until recently seen as two distinct subjects within the English curriculum, can be used as mutually supportive resources within the classroom. Through essays and case studies it reports on the most recent developments in classroom practice and methodology and suggests ways in which the curriculum could be reshaped to take advantage of this integrated approach. The text will be essential reading for students undertaking PGCE, TESOL/MA, UCLES, CTEFLA, RSA and Teachers' Diploma courses worldwide. Students of applied linguistics, those on stylistics courses and undergraduates studying English language will welcome it as accessible supplementary reading.
The topics of autonomy and independence play an increasingly important role in language education. They raise issues such as learners' responsibility for their own learning, and their right to determine the direction of their own learning, the skills which can be learned and applied in self-directed learning and capacity for independent learning and the extents to which this can be suppressed by institutional education. This volume offers new insights into the principles of autonomy and independence and the practices associated with them focusing on the area of EFL teaching. The editors' introduction provides the context and outlines the main issues involved in autonomy and independence. Later chapters discuss the social and political implications of autonomy and independence and their effects on educational structures. The consequences for the design of learner-centred materials and methods is discussed, together with an exploration of the practical ways of implementing autonomy and independence in language teaching and learning . Each section of the book opens with an introduction to give structure to the development of ideas and themes, with synopses to highlight salient features in the text and help build upon the material of previous chapters.
This volume deals with a number of related issues that are becoming
increasingly crucial for English studies during this time when most
faculty in the field are assistant professors approaching tenure
review or associate professors seeking promotion. These critical
issues focus on:
This text assesses the importance of language technology to increasingly popular computer-assisted language learning work. The book contains writings on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, testing, distance learning and user studies.
In an attempt to fill the gap left by the many published studies on
classroom second language research, this book explores a variety of
human, social, and political issues involved in the carrying out of
such studies. Many journals are chock-full of the results of
classroom research, with evidence to support one claim or another
about the efficacy of one teaching method or another. Many
textbooks are replete with statistical procedures to be used, and
with experimental designs to fit varying situations. Too often
overlooked in these treatments are the human, social, and political
issues involved in carrying out research in classrooms that are not
one's own. What are the problems going to be when one attempts work
such as this? What does one do on discovering that an
administrator's agenda is different than one had thought? What does
one do when a teacher resents intrusions into her classroom? This
book offers a view on those kinds of issues, as presented and
managed by successful classroom researchers themselves.
The techniques of natural language processing (NLP) have been
widely applied in machine translation and automated message
understanding, but have only recently been utilized in second
language teaching. This book offers both an argument for and a
critical examination of this new application, with an examination
of how systems may be designed to exploit the power of NLP,
accomodate its limitations, and minimize its risks. This volume
marks the first collection of work in the U.S. and Canada that
incorporates advanced human language technologies into language
tutoring systems, covering languages as diverse as Arabic, Spanish,
Japanese, and English.
Although there has been much empirical study within what has been
referred to as "functional approaches to child language," there has
yet to be a major attempt to compare and contrast such proposals.
In addition, much of the work carried out within child language
from a functionalist perspective has not been specific with regard
to the nature of the approach adopted. In attempting to fill the
gap, the author of this book begins with a comparison of various
functionalist approaches. By concentrating on one domain --
agentivity and control -- Budwig develops a set of research
questions based on an examination of findings stemming from
linguistics, psycholinguistics, and developmental psychology, and
also provides an in-depth discussion of related methodological
issues. In the second part of the book, she traces the development
of linguistic means to refer to oneself within a
developmental-functionalist perspective. Individual case studies as
well as group analyses of six children in the early phases of
acquiring English grammar are provided. In the last part, Budwig
examines the relationship between forms and functions in
development with special attention to potential generalizations
about the organization and reorganization of the children's
linguistic systems.
The techniques of natural language processing (NLP) have been
widely applied in machine translation and automated message
understanding, but have only recently been utilized in second
language teaching. This book offers both an argument for and a
critical examination of this new application, with an examination
of how systems may be designed to exploit the power of NLP,
accomodate its limitations, and minimize its risks. This volume
marks the first collection of work in the U.S. and Canada that
incorporates advanced human language technologies into language
tutoring systems, covering languages as diverse as Arabic, Spanish,
Japanese, and English.
The Challenge of English in the National Curriculum considers how particular aspects of a national curriculum can be reconciled with the best practice of the English teaching tradition. The authors are all practising teachers who look at the lessons of the past as well as their hopes for the future. Each chapter begins from a question raised by teachers when asked at in-service workshops about the issues which concerned them most. The chapters cover most of the more significant aspects of English within the National Curriculum and vary from John Johnson's survey of practical ways to raise the standard of oracy to Nick Peim's suggestions for coping with Key Stage 4 which leads him to a radical questioning of the whole nature of English as a curriculum subject.
The growth in demand for Japanese in the English-speaking world as a whole, but especially in the United States, Australia and Britain has led to rapid developments in Japanese language teaching and the need for more and improved resources. This collection of papers examines these developments and their implications for the future in a series of case studies by experts from both Europe and Japan. For example the system evolved in Nagoya for accurate aptitude testing is detailed here as is the work/study programme for students at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies designed to gain the most from a period in Japan. The current issues and problems involved in teaching and learning Japanese are discussed: how to deal with the large number of kanji that must be learnt, how to overcome the scarcity of authentic materials outside Japan, the different cultural contexts, and the growing diversity of students requirements. The syllabus of Britain's new GCSE examination in Japanese is included with an outline of the Department of Trade and Industry's Diploma programme and details of other examinations such as the Japan Foundation's Proficiency Test. Ongoing developments
Assessment and accreditation of prior learning systems are now
widely used in colleges to open up access for potential students by
harnessing their prior learning, knowledge and skills. But one
major issue, language and literacy, has not yet been adequately
addressed, and our education system still presents many barriers
for non-native speakers of English. "APL and the Bilingual Learner"
focuses on practical and pro-active ways of approaching these
problems.
From Testing to Assessment: English as an International Language provides a critical review of conventional and alternative approaches to the assessment of English literacy skills in various parts of the world. It presents empirical studies conducted in three major settings: in countries such as Japan and Brazil where English functions as the language of international commernce; in multilingual countries such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe where English is the national language of education and government; and in such countries as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States where English is the dominant language. The book opens with a discussion of language assessment in relation to debates about the nature of literacy; it concludes with a discussion of policy implications, which is grounded in literacy theory as well as in practical constraints such as available human and material resources.
Corpora are well-established as a resource for language research; they are now also increasingly being used for teaching purposes. This book is the first of its kind to deal explicitly and in a wide-ranging way with the use of corpora in teaching. It contains an extensive collection of articles by corpus linguists and practising teachers, covering not only the use of data to inform and create teaching materials but also the direct exploitation of corpora by students, both in the study of linguistics in general and in the acquisition of proficiency in individual languages, including English, Welsh, German, French and Italian. In addition, the book offers practical information on the sources of corpora and concordances, including those suitable for work on non-roman scripts such as Greek and Cyrillic.
Now in its second edition, this volume provides an up to date, accessible, yet authoritative introduction to feedback on second language writing for upper undergraduate and postgraduate students, teachers and researchers in TESOL, applied linguistics, composition studies and English for academic purposes (EAP). Chapters written by leading experts emphasise the potential that feedback has for helping to create a supportive teaching environment, for conveying and modelling ideas about good writing, for developing the ways students talk about writing, and for mediating the relationship between students' wider cultural and social worlds and their growing familiarity with new literacy practices. In addition to updated chapters from the first edition, this edition includes new chapters which focus on new and developing areas of feedback research including student engagement and participation with feedback, the links between SLA and feedback research, automated computer feedback and the use by students of internet resources and social media as feedback resources.
Since it was first established in the 1970s, the Applied Linguistics and Language Study series has become a major force in the exploration of practical problems in human communication and language education. Drawing extensively on empirical research and theoretical work in linguistics, sociology, and psychology and education, the series explores key issues in language acquisition and language use. In this book Michael McCarthy and Ronald Carter describe the discoursal properties of language and demonstrate what insights this approach can offer to the student and teacher of language. The authors examine the relationship between complete texts, both spoken and written, and the social and cultural contexts in which they function. They argue that the functions of language are often best understood in a discoursal environment and that exploring language in context compels us to revise commonly-held understandings about the forms and meanings of language. In so doing, the authors argue the need for language teachers, syllabus planners and curriculum organisers to give greater attention to language as discourse. Language as Discourse: Perspectives for Language Teaching challenges many current language teaching orthodoxies and offers the reader new, and sometimes provocative, perspectives on language awareness. There are chapters on issues in teaching spoken and written language; patterns of text organisation; literature, culture and language teaching; teaching grammar and vocabulary from a discourse perspective; and planning a discourse-based language syllabus. Each chapter has reader activities to consolidate the points made throughout the book and there is a detailed and wide-rangingbibliography. The book is a thought-provoking exploration of discourse analysis which will be of relevance to applied linguists, to teachers of both English and foreign languages, and to students of language in education.
As computers become more widely used in schools, it is clear that they have the potential to redefine the scope of the language curriculum. But for this potential to be realized they need to be fully integrated into classroom activities. The contributors to "Language, Classrooms and Computers" - all with experience of teaching about language and computers for The Open University - use teachers' accounts and research findings to examine how the use of computers in school can affect the ways in which children learn and teachers teach. The first section looks at some generic aspects of computer use, focusing particularly on class management, including such topics as individual and group learning, the role of the teacher as facilitator and co-learner and the problems of limited access. The second section examines the contribution of specific sorts of software package to language learning. This is a book designed for everyone who wants Information Technology to add a new dimension to their teaching.
As the effects of European integration become more widely felt, the teaching of modern languages is moving towards the centre of the educational agenda and more and more schools are considering starting pupils on a first foreign language other than French - a development encouraged by the National Curriculum orders in Modern Languages. "Diversification in Modern Language Teaching" gives language teachers and heads of department the evidence upon which to decide if diversification is right for them. It presents findings from a longitudinal study, the Oxford Project on Diversification of First Foreign Language Teaching (OXPROD), which looked both at pupils' learning experiences and at the organizational questions affecting schools where the policy was implemented. It argues first that there is nothing in the nature of German or Spanish that makes these languages unsuitable as first foreign languages for the whole ability range, and second that the decision on whether to diversify must be a purely educational one, based on pupil motivation and accessibility, as well as on particular local strengths among staff and parents.
The greater the publicity and the mroe spectacular the probouncements of Lozanov and others about their results, the more urgent the need for an investigation of Suggestology. During a four-year research project, Ludger Schiffler studied the creation, applications and reception of the Lozanov method. His primary research concerned its basic hypotheses in teaching foreign languages with new and unorthodox methods, such as using music and relaxation techniques. Both critics and advocates of suggestology will find many significant insights in Schiffler's conclusions, but the greatest beneficiaries of Schiffler's research will be teachers, linguists and anyone who is interested in learning a foreign language more effectively.
"Starting English Teaching" is aimed at new teachers and at teachers new to the teaching of English. Its main focus is the secondary classroom, but primary teachers too will find here much to interest them. Taking the National Curriculum in English as a starting point, but not necessarily the last word on the subject, Robert Jeffcoate looks at the theoretical issues involved in thinking about what English means, defining goals and planning the curriculum. He shows the how to go about developing a repertoire of skills in the different curriculum areas from drama teaching to teaching about the language. His suggestions are illustrated with detailed examples of classroom practice and with many quotations from pupils' own work.
The concept of Language Awareness promotes conscious attention to the structure and functions of language as an element of language education. Although this concept is a relatively recent one, it has been very influential and is now widely applied in schools. However, most language Awwareness programmes are based upon contentious theoretical assumptions about language and schooling. whilst Critical language Awareness accepts the general case which has been made for Language Awareness, it offers an approach based upon critical theories of language and language education.
Showcasing a new methodology in language learning and identity research, this carefully conceptualized, innovative book explicates the use of autoethnography as a way of re-imagining one's sense of linguistic and cultural identity. A key work for researchers and students in Applied Linguistics and Language Education, it addresses fundamental aspects of research methodology and explores substantive issues relating to individual dimensions of multilingualism. Choi shows convincingly how the learning of a language is inseparable from one's constant searching for a voice, a place, and a self in this world, demonstrating the importance of interrogating what lies behind everyday life events and interactions-the political and ethical implications of the utterances, thoughts, actions, and stories of the self and others. Themes of authenticity, illegitimacy, power relations, perceptions of self/other, cultural discourses and practices, and related issues in multilingual identity development surface in the multi-modal narratives. Chapters on methodology, woven through the book, focus on the process of knowledge production, approaches to writing narratives, the messiness of research writing practices, and the inseparability of writing and research.
This book offers a lively introduction to the research methods and techniques available to English language teachers who wish to investigate aspects of their own practice. It covers qualitative and quantitative methodology and includes sections on observation, introspection, diary studies, experiments, interviews, questionnaires, numerical techniques and case study research. Each method is illustrated with examples in language teaching contexts, and techniques of data collection and analysis are introduced. The authors focus particularly on research in the classroom, on tests, materials, the effects of innovations, and they discuss methods appropriate to research in various collaborative modes as well as by individuals. A key feature of the book is an introduction to the debate surrounding different approaches to research, with an evaluation of traditional research in relation to the paradigms associated with reflective practice and action research. The book is ideal for teachers on initial training and post-experience courses, students on degree programmes in applied linguistics and TEFL and, of course, practising teachers with an interest in research methods in language teaching. |
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