Language education at all levels benefits from research in a multitude of ways. Conversely, educational practices and experiences offer fertile ground for research into language learning, teaching and assessment. This book views research in language education as a reciprocal venture that should benefit all participants equally. Practice is shaped by theory, which in turn is illuminated and refined by practice. The book brings together studies from different fields of language education in nine countries on four continents: Cameroon, Canada, Finland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan and Sweden. The authors report on research that depends on the active involvement of teachers, teacher educators and learners of different ages and various backgrounds. The book focuses on projects designed to address challenges in the classroom and on the role of learners as collaborative agents in the research process as well as collaborative research in professional development and the role of collaborative research in the development of national policy.

The publication of this collection of essays on the current crisis concerning Iraq will not be welcomed by the United States government. Although the authors - a group of German and American scholars, who are moral theologicans, policy analysts, political scientists, and a Middle East historian - write from divergent backgrounds and perspectives, all finally concur, sometimes for different reasons, in rejecting the arguments of the Bush administration in favor of unilateral U.S. military action against Iraq. These essays are uniformly free of the intemperate language and careless argumentation that characterizes some of the opposition to American policy inside and outside the United States, and is therefore easy to dismiss. Whether the authors address either the threat Saddam Hussein represents to his reagon and the world or the prospects for alternative strategies, the reasoning is generally wellinformed, sensitive to complexity, and attentive to detail. The book will help to confirm and strengthen the growing 'thoughful opposition' in the United States and abroad to the Bush policies, and as such deserves to be taken very seriously.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and its Companion Volume have established themselves as an indispensable reference point for all aspects of second and foreign language education. This book discusses the impact of the CEFR on curricula, teaching/learning and assessment in a wide range of educational contexts, identifies challenges posed by the Companion Volume and sheds light on areas that require further research and development. Particular attention is paid to three features of the two documents: their action-oriented approach, their focus on plurilingualism, and the potential of their scales and descriptors to support the alignment of curricula, teaching/learning and assessment. The book suggests a way forward for future engagement with the CEFR, taking account of new developments in applied linguistics and related disciplines.

This is the first book on language learner autonomy to combine comprehensive accounts of classroom practice with empirical and case-study research and a wide-ranging engagement with applied linguistic and pedagogical theory. It provides a detailed description of an autonomy classroom in action, focusing on Danish mixed-ability learners of English at lower secondary level, and reports the findings of a longitudinal research project that explored the learning achievement over four years of one class in the same Danish school. It also presents two learner case studies to show that the autonomy classroom responds to the challenges of differentiation and inclusion, and two institutional case studies that illustrate the power of autonomous learning to support the social inclusion of adult refugees and the educational inclusion of immigrant children. The concluding chapter offers some reflections on teacher education for language learner autonomy. Each chapter ends with discussion points and suggestions for further reading.

This is the first book on language learner autonomy to combine comprehensive accounts of classroom practice with empirical and case-study research and a wide-ranging engagement with applied linguistic and pedagogical theory. It provides a detailed description of an autonomy classroom in action, focusing on Danish mixed-ability learners of English at lower secondary level, and reports the findings of a longitudinal research project that explored the learning achievement over four years of one class in the same Danish school. It also presents two learner case studies to show that the autonomy classroom responds to the challenges of differentiation and inclusion, and two institutional case studies that illustrate the power of autonomous learning to support the social inclusion of adult refugees and the educational inclusion of immigrant children. The concluding chapter offers some reflections on teacher education for language learner autonomy. Each chapter ends with discussion points and suggestions for further reading.

Diversity - social, cultural, linguistic and ethnic - poses a challenge to all educational systems. Some authorities, schools and teachers look upon it as a problem, an obstacle to the achievement of national educational goals, while for others it offers new opportunities. Successive PISA reports have laid bare the relative lack of success in addressing the needs of diverse school populations and helping children develop the competences they need to succeed in society. The book is divided into three parts that deal in turn with policy and its implications, pedagogical practice, and responses to the challenge of diversity that go beyond the language of schooling. This volume features the latest research from eight different countries, and will appeal to anyone involved in the educational integration of immigrant children and adolescents.

In a country that has always prided itself on its toughness, individuality, and youthful spirit, we share one common thread, woven through time and unchanged in popularity -- durable cotton denim jeans. Journey through the history of jeans, from their invention during the Gold Rush through the turbulent eras that preceeded the 21st Century. Watch as denim slacks help Americans define themselves, whether that definition is strong, unpretentious, pretentious, informal, comfortable, classless, haute couture, hard-working, or reliable. Also, revisit the craze for vintage blue jeans, when faded and worn fueled a frenzy of global buying. Artful photography of denim as seen on bodies, in retail stores, and in the flea markets of America, add to the thoughful essays, making this a iconic book certain to be treasured in fashion circles for decades.

This collection of seminal essays by David Little addresses the subject of human rights in relation to the historical settings in which its language was drafted and adopted. Featuring five original essays, Little articulates his long-standing view that fascist practices before and during World War II vivified the wrongfulness of deliberately inflicting severe pain, injury, and destruction for self-serving purposes and that the human rights corpus, developed in response, was designed to outlaw all practices of arbitrary force. Drawing on the natural rights tradition, the book contends that while there must be an accountable human rights standard, it should nevertheless guarantee wide latitude for the expression and practice of religious and other conscientious beliefs, consistent with outlawing arbitrary force. This book further details the theoretical grounds of the relationship between religion and human rights, and concludes with essays on U.S. policy and the restraint of force in regard to terrorism and to cases like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. With a foreword by John Kelsey, this book stands as a capstone of the work of this influential writer on religion, philosophy, and law.

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) was used to develop guidelines for the provision of English L2 support for newcomer children in Irish primary schools. The guidelines present age-appropriate and domain-specific 'can do' descriptors for the first three levels of the CEFR (A1 B1). This book reports on an in-depth empirical investigation of the English L2 development of 18 primary pupils over the course of one school year. It presents case studies which illustrate the often uncertain progress of pupils' language development, and examines the wide range of variance across the sample. It also provides an analysis of the data as a whole, which reveals a number of regular patterns. The findings confirm that pupils' communicative capacity developed according to the functional trajectory proposed by the guidelines and derived from the CEFR; they also allow us to attach a great deal of linguistic detail to descriptors of underlying linguistic competence."

Engaging with Linguistic Diversity describes an innovative and highly successful approach to inclusive plurilingual education at primary level. The approach was developed by Scoil Bhride (Cailini), Blanchardstown, as a way of converting extreme linguistic diversity - more than 50 home languages in a school of 320 pupils - into educational capital. The central feature of the approach is the inclusion of home languages in classroom communication. After describing the national context, the book traces the development of Scoil Bhride's approach and explores in detail its impact on classroom discourse, pupils' plurilingual literacy development, and their capacity for autonomous learning. The authors illustrate their arguments with a wealth of practical evidence drawn from a variety of sources; pupils' and teachers' voices are especially prominent. The concluding chapter considers issues of sustainability and replication and the implications of the approach for teacher education. The book refers to a wide range of relevant research findings and theories, including translanguaging, plurilingual and intercultural education, language awareness and language learner autonomy. It is essential reading for researchers and policy-makers in the field of linguistically inclusive education.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and its Companion Volume have established themselves as an indispensable reference point for all aspects of second and foreign language education. This book discusses the impact of the CEFR on curricula, teaching/learning and assessment in a wide range of educational contexts, identifies challenges posed by the Companion Volume and sheds light on areas that require further research and development. Particular attention is paid to three features of the two documents: their action-oriented approach, their focus on plurilingualism, and the potential of their scales and descriptors to support the alignment of curricula, teaching/learning and assessment. The book suggests a way forward for future engagement with the CEFR, taking account of new developments in applied linguistics and related disciplines.

This collection of seminal essays by David Little addresses the subject of human rights in relation to the historical settings in which its language was drafted and adopted. Featuring five original essays, Little articulates his long-standing view that fascist practices before and during World War II vivified the wrongfulness of deliberately inflicting severe pain, injury, and destruction for self-serving purposes and that the human rights corpus, developed in response, was designed to outlaw all practices of arbitrary force. Drawing on the natural rights tradition, the book contends that while there must be an accountable human rights standard, it should nevertheless guarantee wide latitude for the expression and practice of religious and other conscientious beliefs, consistent with outlawing arbitrary force. This book further details the theoretical grounds of the relationship between religion and human rights, and concludes with essays on U.S. policy and the restraint of force in regard to terrorism and to cases like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. With a foreword by John Kelsey, this book stands as a capstone of the work of this influential writer on religion, philosophy, and law.

The book provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary account of the scholarship on religion, conflict, and peacebuilding. Extending the scope of inquiry beyond previous parameters, the volume engages deeply with the legacies of colonialism, missionary activism, secularism, orientalism, and liberalism as they relate to the discussion of religion, violence, and nonviolent transformation and resistance. Featuring diverse case studies from various contexts and traditions, the volume is organized thematically into five different parts. It begins with an up-to-date mapping of scholarship on religion and violence, and religion and peace. The second part explores the challenges related to developing secularist theories on peace and nationalism. In addition, this section broadens the discussion of violence to include an analysis of cultural and structural forms, thereby expanding the scope of potential scholarship pertinent to the analysis of religion. The third part engages with the controversies within religion and development, religious-violent and nonviolent-militancy, religion and the legitimate use of force, the protection of the freedom of religion as a keystone of peacebuilding, and theories about gender and peacebuilding. The fourth part highlights peacebuilding in practice by focusing on constructive resources within various traditions, the transformative role of rituals, spiritual practices involved in the formation of peace-builders in contexts of acute violence, youth and interfaith activism in American university campuses, religion and solidarity activism, scriptural reasoning as a peacebuilding practice, and an extended reflection on the history and legacy of missionary peacebuilding. The conclusion looks to the future of peacebuilding scholarship and the possibilities for new growth and progress. Bringing together a diverse array of scholars, this innovative Handbook grapples with the tension between theory and practice, cultural theory, and the legacy of the liberal peace paradigm, offering provocative, elastic, and context-specific insights for strategic peacebuilding processes.

'Weber's famous study of the 'affinity' between the rise of rational bourgeois capitalism in England and Calvinist-Puritanism has for almost a century stirred up a cloud of dust and misunderstanding. Toward the end of settling some of the dust no one has previously made such an acute analysis of pre-revolutionary England as has David Little. On the one hand, he has applied and extended Weber's method, especially in the sphere of the law-monopoly and corporation law-thus filling a gap in these studies. He has also delineated the sharply conflicting conceptions of social order and of legitimation. On the the other hand, Little has given an invaluable critical survey of the extensive literature of Weber's thesis. This is a landmark in the study of the complex and varying relations between religion and society.' -James Luther Adams, Harvard Divinity School

Engaging with Linguistic Diversity describes an innovative and highly successful approach to inclusive plurilingual education at primary level. The approach was developed by Scoil Bhride (Cailini), Blanchardstown, as a way of converting extreme linguistic diversity - more than 50 home languages in a school of 320 pupils - into educational capital. The central feature of the approach is the inclusion of home languages in classroom communication. After describing the national context, the book traces the development of Scoil Bhride's approach and explores in detail its impact on classroom discourse, pupils' plurilingual literacy development, and their capacity for autonomous learning. The authors illustrate their arguments with a wealth of practical evidence drawn from a variety of sources; pupils' and teachers' voices are especially prominent. The concluding chapter considers issues of sustainability and replication and the implications of the approach for teacher education. The book refers to a wide range of relevant research findings and theories, including translanguaging, plurilingual and intercultural education, language awareness and language learner autonomy. It is essential reading for researchers and policy-makers in the field of linguistically inclusive education.

Featuring numerous case studies from various contexts and traditions, The Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding brings together a diverse array of scholars to grapple with the tension between theory and practice, cultural theory, and the legacy of the liberal peace paradigm. This innovative Handbook offers provocative, elastic, and context-specific insights for strategic peacebuilding processes.