Understanding what constitutes expertise in language learning and teaching is important for theoretical reasons related to psycholinguistic, and applied linguistic, inquiry. It also has many significant applications in practice, particularly in relation to the training and practice of language teachers and improvements in students' strategies of learning. In this volume, methodologies for establishing what constitutes expert practice in language teaching and learning are discussed and the contributions address the fields of listening, reading, writing, speaking and communication strategies, looking at common characteristics of the "expert teacher" and the "expert learner."

Literacy and the Bilingual Learner focuses on bilingual learners in London (UK) schools and colleges and aims to bring this marginalised group into sharper relief so as to allow their distinctive skills and resources to be acknowledged and to ensure greater access to quality education. While the interest is in literacy more widely, this book will look specifically at the teaching of reading. How do bilingual learners develop identities as readers and how are they supported in the journey to forms of literacy which serve their social needs and academic aspirations in the twenty first century? The book takes both a sociocultural and sociolinguistic approach to literacy, to include a strong emphasis on critical literacy. An over-riding theme of the book, defined and developed across chapters which address different learning contexts, is the role of critical literacy as key in allowing second language learners to engage with the key debates of our age.

This book investigates neoliberalism in education and explains how it is a complex phenomenon which takes on local characteristics in diverse geopolitical, economic and cultural settings, while retaining a core commitment in all its manifestations to market fundamentalism. Neoliberalism - that set of beliefs and practices which has become the economic orthodoxy of global preference since the 1980s - appears remarkably resilient despite the US financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent implementation of austerity in the massively indebted nations of the European Union. This book addresses the phenomenon of neoliberalism in education and focuses on school and higher education settings in Ireland, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. Specifically, it addresses the role of language and semiosis in the reconfiguration of global educational practices along increasingly marketised lines. At the same time, the nature of the counter-hegemonic discourses also in circulation in these sectors is also considered. Collectively, the chapters in the book seek to shed light on the possibilities for resistance and the prospect of change from a variety of theoretical and (inter)cultural perspective. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of the journal, Language and Intercultural Communication.

This book investigates neoliberalism in education and explains how it is a complex phenomenon which takes on local characteristics in diverse geopolitical, economic and cultural settings, while retaining a core commitment in all its manifestations to market fundamentalism. Neoliberalism - that set of beliefs and practices which has become the economic orthodoxy of global preference since the 1980s - appears remarkably resilient despite the US financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent implementation of austerity in the massively indebted nations of the European Union. This book addresses the phenomenon of neoliberalism in education and focuses on school and higher education settings in Ireland, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. Specifically, it addresses the role of language and semiosis in the reconfiguration of global educational practices along increasingly marketised lines. At the same time, the nature of the counter-hegemonic discourses also in circulation in these sectors is also considered. Collectively, the chapters in the book seek to shed light on the possibilities for resistance and the prospect of change from a variety of theoretical and (inter)cultural perspective. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of the journal, Language and Intercultural Communication.

Literacy and the Bilingual Learner explores the literacy development of bilingual learners in London (UK) schools and colleges through a series of vignettes and case studies of learners and their educational experiences.

Understanding what constitutes expertise in language learning and teaching is important for theoretical reasons related to psycholinguistic, and applied linguistic, enquiry. It also has many significant applications in practice, particularly in relation to the training and practice of language teachers and improvements in students' strategies of learning. In this volume, methodologies for establishing what constitutes expert practice are discussed and the contributions address the fields of listening, reading, writing, speaking and communication strategies, looking at common characteristics of the 'expert teacher' and the 'expert learner'.