Academic vocabulary is in fashion, as witnessed by the increasing number of books published on the topic. In the first part of this book , Magali Paquot scrutinizes the concept of 'academic vocabulary' and proposes a corpus-driven procedure based on the criteria of keyness, range and evenness of distribution to select academic words that could be part of a common-core academic vocabulary syllabus. In the second part, the author offers a thorough analysis of academic vocabulary in the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE) and describes the factors that account for learners' difficulties in academic writing. She then focuses on the role of corpora, and more particularly, learner corpora, in EAP material design. It is the first monograph in which Granger's (1996) Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis is used to compare 10 ICLE learner sub-corpora, in order to distinguish between linguistic features that are shared by learners from a wide range of mother tongue backgrounds and unique features that may be transfer-related.

This book addresses one of the most famous and controversial arguments in the study of language and mind, the Poverty of the Stimulus. Presented by Chomsky in 1968, the argument holds that children do not receive enough evidence to infer the existence of core aspects of language, such as the dependence of linguistic rules on hierarchical phrase structure. The argument strikes against empiricist accounts of language acquisition and supports the conclusion that knowledge of some aspects of grammar must be innate. In the first part of Rich Grammars from Poor Inputs, contributors consider the general issues around the POS argument, review the empirical data, and offer new and plausible explanations. This is followed by a discussion of the the processes of language acquisition, and observed 'gaps' between adult and child grammar, concentrating on the late spontaneous acquisition by children of some key syntactic principles, basically, though not exclusively, between the ages of 5 to 9. Part 3 widens the horizon beyond language acquisition in the narrow sense, examining the natural development of reading and writing and of the child's growing sensitivity for the fine arts.

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.

This text examines the importance of politeness in pragmatic expression and communication, making a significant contribution to the debate over whether the universal politeness theory is applicable globally regardless of cultural differences.

The goals of this volume are twofold: on a general level the volume explores whether evidence for teaching and learning can be found in mother-child interactions during the course of first language acquisition and whether these processes can be objectively described; on a sublevel, the volume investigates whether the denials of frequency and reinforcement effects found in the literature withstand closer scrutiny. The findings support a teaching/learning approach to first language acquisition and demonstrate some of the major principles involved in this process.

This collection of research has attempted to capture the essence and promise embodied in the concept of "identity" and built a bridge to the realm of second language studies. However, the reader will notice that we did not build just one link. This volume brings to light the diversity of research in identity and second language studies that are grounded the notions of community, instructors and students, language immersion and study abroad, pop culture and music, religion, code switching, and media. The chapters reflect the efforts of contributors from Canada, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States who performed their research in the countries just mentioned and in other regions around the world. Because of this, this volume truly offers an international perspective.

In the age of information, an essential priority in the context of international education is the development of language learning and its inconsistencies. The gap between language and education has intermittently grown through time, with mistaken assumptions about how linguistic shortcomings are being solved around the world. Research on comparative educational approaches to teaching verbiage and the foundation of future language development are instrumental in positively impacting the global narrative of dialectal education. International Approaches to Bridging the Language Gap is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of second language teaching as well as social developments regarding intercultural learning. While highlighting topics including curricular approaches, digital competence, and linguistic disparities, this book is ideally designed for language instructors, linguists, teachers, researchers, public administrators, cultural centers, policymakers, government officials, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the latest advancements of multilingual education.

Covering both theoretical and practical approaches, Writing the Research Paper guides students studying in English as a second or additional language through the skills necessary for success in university-level writing and research. The book begins with theoretical considerations, such as research, argumentation and critical thinking. It then offers a broad range of practical assistance covering all aspects of the writing process, including topic selection, argument, counter-argument, paragraph structure and cohesion. The book is accompanied by a companion website, writingtheresearchpaper.com. The website hosts many features, including chapter summaries, exercises, quizzes, PowerPoints, additional learning material, and technology assistance. The website also hosts numerous authentic examples of student papers at each of the critical stages of the writing process.

The challenge to improve second language acquisition efficiency has always been at the heart of education because a good command of a language provides new opportunities to manipulate information and apply acquired knowledge and skills to novel problems in new situations. Thus, there is a necessity for creating an alternative to either task-based or form-focused methods commonly employed in today's instruction. An Invariant-Based Approach to Second Language Acquisition: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential reference source that elaborates on traditional 2L concepts and terms and provides new practical tools and mechanisms for developing student communicative competencies. Featuring research on topics such as syllabus design, language interpretation, and speech types, this book is ideally designed for educators, administrators, researchers, and academicians.

This ground-breaking work is a detailed account of an innovative and in-depth study of the attitudes of in excess of 500 Japanese learners towards a number of standard and non-standard as well as native and non-native varieties of English speech. The research conducted refines the investigation of learner attitudes by employing a range of pioneering techniques of attitude measurement. These methods are largely incorporated from the strong traditions that exist in the fields of social psychology and second language acquisition and utilize both direct and indirect techniques of attitude measurement. The author locates the findings in the context of the wealth of literature on native speaker evaluations of languages and language varieties. The study is unique in that the results provide clear evidence of both attitude change and high levels of linguistic awareness among the informants of social and geographical diversity within the English language. These findings are analyzed in detail in relation to the global spread of English as well as in terms of the pedagogical implications for the choice of linguistic model employed in English language classrooms both inside and outside Japan. The issues examined are of particular interest to educators, researchers and students in the fields of applied linguistics, TESOL, second language acquisition, social psychology of language and sociolinguistics. The pedagogical and language policy implications of the findings obtained make essential reading for those with a specific focus on the role of the English language and English language teaching, both in Japan and beyond.

Understanding metaphor raises key questions about the relationship between language and meaning, and between language and mind. This book explores how this understanding can impact upon the theory and practice of language teaching. After summarising the cognitive basis of metaphor and other figures of speech, it looks at how this knowledge can inform classroom practice. Finally, it sets out how we can use these insights to re appraise language learning theory in a way that treats it as consonant with the cognitive nature of language. MARKET 1: Academic libraries and departments of English as a Second Language, Modern Languages, Linguistics, especially Applied Linguistics and Language Learning Theory, and Cognitive Linguistics MARKET 2: English language teachers

This book examines the concept of authentic English in today's world, where cultures are in constant interaction and the English language works as a binding agent for many cross-cultural exchanges. It offers a comprehensive review of decades of debate around authenticity in language teaching and learning and attempts to synthesise the complexities by presenting them as a continuum. This continuum builds on the work of eminent scholars and combines them within a flexible framework that celebrates the process of interaction whilst acknowledging the complexity and individual subjectivity of authenticity. Authenticity is approached as a complex dynamic construct that can only be understood by examining it from social, individual and contextual dimensions, in relation to actual people. Authenticity is a problem not just for language acquisition but one which affects us as individuals belonging to society.

Teaching and Researching: Lexicography explains the relationship between lexicographic practice (dictionary-making) and theory (dictionary research), with special reference to the perspectives of dictionary history, criticism, typology, structure and use. It particularly looks at the use and relevance of dictionaries in second language learning.

This volume depicts the phenomenon of cross-linguistic influences in the specific context of multilingual language acquisition. It consists of articles on various issues relating to the syntactic and lexical development of foreign language learners from different L1 backgrounds, in many cases involving languages which are typologically distant from English, such as Russian, Croatian, Greek and Portuguese. Individual chapters highlight different areas expected to be especially transfer-prone at the level of grammatical and lexical transfer in particular contexts of language contact.

The author, a well-known development psychologist, challenges Piagetian theories of language development. Rondal studies verbal and nonverbal interactions between children and parents from a social-behavioristic perspective.

Foreigners often say that English language is "easy." A language like Spanish is challenging in its variety of verb endings (the verb speak is conjugated hablo, hablas, hablamos), and gender for nouns, whereas English is more straight forward (I speak, you speak, we speak). But linguists generally swat down claims that certain languages are "easier" than others, since it is assumed all languages are complex to the same degree. For example, they will point to English's use of the word "do" -- Do you know French? This usage is counter-intuitive and difficult for non-native speakers. Linguist John McWhorter agrees that all languages are complex, but questions whether or not they are all equally complex. The topic of complexity has become a hot issue in recent years, particularly in creole studies, historical linguistics, and language contact. As McWhorter describes, when languages came into contact over the years (when French speakers ruled the English for a few centuries, or the vikings invaded England), a large number of speakers are forced to learn a new language quickly, and this came up with a simplified version, a pidgin. When this ultimately turns into a "real" language, a creole, the result is still simpler and less complex than a "non-interrupted" language that has been around for a long time. McWhorter makes the case that this kind of simplification happens in degrees, and criticizes linguists who are reluctant to say that, for example, English is simply simpler than Spanish for socio-historical reasons. He analyzes how various languages that seem simple but are not creoles, actually are simpler than they would be if they had not been broken down by large numbers of adult learners. In addition to English, he looks at Mandarin Chinese, Persian, Malay, and some Arabic varieties. His work will interest not just experts in creole studies and historical linguistics, but the wider community interested in language complexity.

Experiential Learning in Foreign Language Education explores and integrates the necessary knowledge base and practices in foreign language education in terms of the basic concepts of experiential learning, intercultural learning, autobiographical knowledge and teacher development, together with the philosophical underpinnings of foreign language education.

With an Introduction by Anthony D. Pellegrini, this work is one of the most extensive studies of early language and literacy undertaken to date. This volume describes the four interdisciplinary facets of a three-year longitudinal investigation of the early literate and linguistic experience and knowledge of a cohort of sixty 3- and 4-year-olds. Coverage includes: an extensive survey of home literate environment and development across a broad range of earliest literate and meta-literate knowledge over the three-year span of the study; links early literate experience and knowledge to differential strategies of speech act comprehension over time, showing that early literate experience heightens dependence upon linguistic as distinct from contextual information in comprehension; the employment of parent-child book reading as the matrix for a detailed analysis of lexical development, relating forms of parent-child interaction around text to variation in sophistication of reference; and finally, the examination of child-child interaction in a detailed, naturalistic framework, in relation to aspects of literate experience and knowledge.

This work identifies developmental stages in the acquisition of object pronouns by instructed second language learners of Spanish. It examines learners ranging from beginner to advanced, where the most advanced are themselves teachers of Spanish language courses. Study abroad experience is also a variable in the data. The book explores language production from a functionalist perspective, examining form-to-function and function-to-form mappings. It provides insights into related developments in production, placement and processing of object pronouns. Detailed analysis reveals that the most powerful predictor of performance across levels and within levels for each of these is the level of the learner.Formal instruction and the study abroad experience is examined, both the specific instruction on object pronouns and overall exposure to instruction.

SLA literature tends to focus predominantly on what motivates language learners, but what demotivates them has not been widely discussed. This book, focusing exclusively on demotivation, will help readers to understand motivational issues from a different perspective. The aims of the work are threefold: to present the current developments of demotivation research in the field of SLA and bridge motivational theory/research and demotivation research; to promote the understanding of possible causes of demotivation; and to expand the focus of demotivation research through a reflection on current motivation theory/research and a discussion of methodological issues. The research presented in this book is situated in Japanese English-teaching contexts and will serve as a foundation for anyone wishing to better understand the causes of demotivation in SLA and to explore the topic in their own contexts.

A collection of empirical studies on gender and the acquisition, development, meaning and use of vocabulary by female and male adult, adolescent, and young learners of English and Spanish as a second or foreign language. Up-to-date research identifies relationships between gender and vocabulary in a language classroom context.

Susan Foster-Cohen explores a range of issues, including the nature of prelinguistic communication and its possible relationship to linguistic development; early stages of language development and how they can be viewed in the light of later developments; the nature and role of children's experience with the language(s) around them; variations in language development and between the languages they learn; later oral language development; and literacy.

Polysemy is a term used in semantic and lexical analysis to describe a word with multiple meanings. The problem is to establish whether its the same word with related meanings or different words that happen to look or sound the same. In 'Plainly planes plane plains plainly' how many distinct lexical items are there? Such words present few difficulties in everyday language, but pose near-intractable problems for linguists and lexicographers. The contributors, including Anna Wierzbicka, Charles Fillmore, and James Pustejovsky, consider the implications of these problems for grammatical theory and how they may be addressed in computational linguistics.

Based on comparative analyses of diachronic data, the articles in this volume address both theoretical and methodological issues in the study of grammaticalization and lexicalization in both Eastern and Western languages. The central question raised and discussed in this volume is how, if any, typological properties of the two genetically unrelated language families interact with the processes of grammaticalization and lexicalization.

David Winton Thomas (1901-1970) was Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge (1938-1968) and one of the most distinguished British lexicographers of the Hebrew language. His special contribution was the identification of words in Biblical Hebrew that had lain undetected since ancient times, sometimes because they were homonyms of other, better-known words. He called his project 'The Recovery of the Ancient Hebrew Language', the title of his inaugural lecture at Cambridge in 1939, as well as of the present book. In this volume John Day has gathered together all Winton Thomas's lexicographical articles (nearly 400 pages altogether) in a convenient format; hitherto these have been scattered around many different journals and books. In addition, he has prefaced them with a very substantial introduction of some 150 pages, in which he offers the first thorough and systematic evaluation of Winton Thomas's work. Day concludes that there are definitely occasions where Thomas has made a positive and enduring contribution to Hebrew lexicography, and it is important that modern scholars do not overlook these conclusions. On the other hand, it becomes clear that Thomas was sometimes too prone to appeal to cognate Semitic languages (especially Arabic) in the search for new meanings of Hebrew words when this was unnecessary. In seeking to make a thorough appraisal of Thomas's proposals this volume offers a valuable contribution to the study of Biblical Hebrew lexicography.