'The thrill is that you're actually figuring it out on your own. You're engaging with another language, not just parroting it... It's an excellent way to start, and leaves the listener thinking, Hey, Ich kann do dis.' - New Yorker, David Sedaris, humorist and author, on learning German with the Michel Thomas Method Looking for a convenient language course that fits your lifestyle and gets you speaking a new language in a matter of weeks, not years? The original no-books, no-homework, no-memorizing method is in tune with the way the brain prefers to receive, store and retrieve information. You'll stick with it because you'll love it. * Pick up Swedish naturally and unforgettably without strain or stress * Learn from listening and speaking, without the pressure of writing or memorizing * Build up your Swedish in manageable steps by thinking out answers for yourself * Progress to the full Foundation Swedish course with confidence in the method. WHY IS THE METHOD SO SUCCESSFUL? 'What you understand, you know; and what you know, you don't forget.' - Michel Thomas Before there was machine learning, there was Michel Thomas. For over 50 years he worked on decoding languages by breaking them down into their most essential component parts. These 'building blocks' are introduced to the learner sequentially in such a way that you reconstruct the language for yourself - to form your own sentences, to say what you want, when you want. This unique method draws on the principles of instructional psychology and works with the way your brain prefers to receive, store and retrieve information. Knowledge is structured and organized so that you absorb the language easily and don't forget it. The method is designed to eliminate the stress which prevents you from relaxing and allowing the brain to work in the way which accepts learning in a seemingly painless, very exciting and highly motivating way. HOW DO THE COURSES WORK? 'All stress inhibits true and effective learning' - Michel Thomas During the course, you will join Michel Thomas Method Teachers Roger Nyborg, Hakan Rosenqvist and two students in a live lesson, learning from both their successes and their mistakes to keep you motivated and involved throughout the course. You, as the learner, become the third student and participate actively in the class. Within the very first hour you will be able to construct simple phrases by listening and thinking out answers for yourself without the pressure of writing or stress of having to memorize. You will learn at your own pace, pausing and repeating where necessary, and complete the course in about 3-5 hours. WHAT WILL I ACTUALLY ACHIEVE? 'I am the architect who builds the house. It's up to you to decorate it.' - Michel Thomas The Michel Thomas Method will help you kick-start, continue, and flourish in your Swedish language learning journey. It is not intended to get you perfectly fluent, but it will get you speaking and using Swedish, with proper pronunciation, faster than most any other method. It is designed to give you a strong foundation and good working knowledge of a language from which you can expand and later 'add decoration' to. It is a rapid method for learning, but still requires effort and concentration on the part of the learner. WHAT'S INCLUDED IN THE COURSE?* Start Swedish includes one audio CD. The booklet is available to download from www.michelthomas.com. LEARN ANYWHERE AND ANYTIME! Reclaim your pockets of free time to learn a new language! Don't be tied to chunky books or your computer, Michel Thomas Method audio courses let you learn whenever and wherever you want, in as little or as much time as you have. WHERE DO I GO NEXT? Foundation Swedish follows on from the Start course.

It's easy to teach yourself Greek! "Complete Greek: A Teach Yourself Guide" provides you with a clear and comprehensive approach to Greek, so you can progress quickly from the basics to understanding, speaking, and writing Greek with confidence. Within each of the 24 thematic chapters, important language structures are introduced through life-like dialogues. You'll learn grammar in a gradual manner so you won't be overwhelmed by this tricky subject. Exercises accompany the texts and reinforce learning in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This program also features current cultural information boxes that reflect recent changes in society. Features: One and five-minute introductions to key principles to get you started Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress Extra online articles at www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the basics of the language

An introduction to the pronunciation and phonetics of French for English-speaking students. Recent research has shown that adult learners can achieve good and even near-native pronunciation by using a phonetics-based approach. This book is the result of many years' experience of teaching pronunciation and takes the student in easy stages through the different sounds of French. No previous knowledge of phonetics is required. The style is lively and accessible and each chapter contains a set of specially designed exercises for the sounds studied.

Die Beitrage dieses Bandes untersuchen aus einem angewandt-gesprachsanalytischen Zugriff wissensbezogene Aushandlungsprozesse in Gesprachen von Institutionenvertreter/innen mit Klient/innen und ihren Zusammenhang mit institutionellen Aufgaben und Zielen sowie den sozialen Rollen der Interagierenden. Wissen ist in solchen Gesprachen allgegenwartig: Es bildet in vielfaltiger Weise Grundlage und Gesprachsinhalte fur professionelles berufliches Handeln und entpuppt sich als interaktional ausserordentlich komplex. Die Untersuchung von wissensbezogenen interaktionalen Praktiken, z. B. Praktiken des Wissenstransfers, eroeffnet neue Perspektiven auf die institutionelle Praxis. Sie dient damit der - aus angewandter Perspektive angestrebten - Optimierung wissensbezogener kommunikativer Prozesse.

The book contains papers presented at an international colloquium which has taken place at regular intervals (since 1985) and which is devoted to the contrasting study of the French language in Europe and Canada. In 2007 the focus was on the different varieties of French that can be observed in France and in Canada. Here specialists from Canada, France and Germany present their research results in the fields of phonetics and phonology, vocabulary and lexicography, word formation, history of the French language and the history of (French) place names in present-day Canada.

A many-faceted exploration of spoken eloquence: how it works, how it has evolved, and how to tap its remarkable power We all know eloquence when we hear it. But what exactly is it? And how might we gain more of it for ourselves? This entertaining and, yes, eloquent book illuminates the power of language from a linguistic point of view and provides fascinating insights into the way we use words. David Crystal, a world-renowned expert on the history and usage of the English language, probes the intricate workings of eloquence. His lively analysis encompasses everyday situations (wedding speeches, business presentations, storytelling) as well as the oratory of great public gatherings. Crystal focuses on the here and now of eloquent speaking-from pitch, pace, and prosody to jokes, appropriateness, and how to wield a microphone. He explains what is going on moment by moment and examines each facet of eloquence. He also investigates topics such as the way current technologies help or hinder our verbal powers, the psychological effects of verbal excellence, and why certain places or peoples are thought to be more eloquent than others. In the core analysis of the book, Crystal offers an extended and close dissection of Barack Obama's electrifying "Yes we can" speech of 2008, in which the president demonstrated full mastery of virtually every element of eloquence-from the simple use of parallelism and an awareness of what not to say, to his brilliant conclusion constructed around two powerful words: dreams and answers.

A discussion of the benefits and pitfalls of citizen science-scientific undertakings that make use of public participation and crowd-sourced data collection. James Wynn's timely investigation highlights scientific studies grounded in publicly gathered data and probes the rhetoric these studies employ. Many of these endeavors, such as the widely used SETI@home project, simply draw on the processing power of participants' home computers; others, like the protein-folding game FoldIt, ask users to take a more active role in solving scientific problems. In Citizen Science in the Digital Age: Rhetoric, Science, and Public Engagement, Wynn analyzes the discourse that enables these scientific ventures, as well as the difficulties that arise in communication between scientists and lay people and the potential for misuse of publicly gathered data. Wynn puzzles out the intricacies of these exciting new research developments by focusing on various case studies. He explores the Safecast project, which originated from crowd-sourced mapping for Fukushima radiation dispersal, arguing that evolving technologies enable public volunteers to make concrete, sound, science-based arguments. Additionally, he considers the potential use of citizen science as a method of increasing the public's identification with the scientific community, and contemplates how more collaborative rhetoric might deepen these opportunities for interaction and alignment. Furthermore, he examines ways in which the lived experience of volunteers may be integrated with expert scientific knowledge, and also how this same personal involvement can be used to further policy agendas. Precious few texts explore the intersection of rhetoric, science, and the Internet. Citizen Science in the Digital Age fills this gap, offering a clear, intelligent overview of the topic intended for rhetoric and communication scholars as well as practitioners and administrators in a number of science-based disciplines. With the expanded availability of once inaccessible technologies and computing power to laypeople, the practice of citizen science will only continue to grow. This study offers insight into how-given prudent application and the clear articulation of common goals-citizen science might strengthen the relationships between scientists and laypeople.

Este volumen recoge una seleccion de las comunicaciones presentadas en el Congreso Internacional sobre Descortesia y violencia verbal en espanol, organizado por el Grupo de investigacion Argumentacion y persuasion en Linguistica en la Universidad de Sevilla durante los dias 5 al 7 de noviembre de 2008. Los estudios aqui presentados se caracterizan, pues, por describir en diferentes corpora como el lenguaje se utiliza para crear una relacion social armonica, o, por el contrario, para producir un choque frontal con el receptor o danar su imagen. En ellos se abordan las diferentes normas que cada grupo social, situacion interactiva o tipo de texto impone. De esta manera, hay aportaciones sobre sus manifestaciones en la sintaxis, la prosodia o la semantica que se basan en la lengua de los medios de comunicacion, en interacciones orales en ambitos coloquiales o formales como, por ejemplo, los debates parlamentarios, y en discursos del espanol peninsular y americano. El rigor cientifico presente en todos ellos hace que sus conclusiones supongan un verdadero avance en el diseno de las relaciones entre lenguaje y sociedad.

Investigates the rhetorical practices that contemporary evangelical Christian women use to confront theological and cultural issues that stymie deliberation within their communities regarding how to respond to sexual assault and domestic violence, with an eye toward both compassion for victims and accountability for perpetrators.