Writing development and pedagogy is a high priority area, particularly with standardised testing showing declines in writing across time and through the years of schooling. However, to date there are relatively few texts for teachers and teacher educators which detail how best to enable the children to become confident, autonomous and agentic writers of the future. Developing Writers Across the Primary and Secondary Years provides cumulative insights into how writing develops and how it can be taught across years of compulsory schooling. This edited collection is a timely and original contribution, addressing a significant literacy need for teachers of writing across three key stages of writing development, covering early (4-7 years old), primary (7-12 years old) and secondary years (12-16 years old) in Anglophone countries. Each section addresses two broader themes - becoming a writer with a child-oriented focus and writing pedagogy with a teacher-oriented focus. Together, the book brings to bear rigorous research and deep professional understanding of the writing classroom. It offers a novel approach conceiving of writing development as a dynamic and multidimensional concept. Such an integrated interdisciplinary understanding enables pedagogical thinking and development to address more holistically the complex act of writing.

Writing development and pedagogy is a high priority area, particularly with standardised testing showing declines in writing across time and through the years of schooling. However, to date there are relatively few texts for teachers and teacher educators which detail how best to enable the children to become confident, autonomous and agentic writers of the future. Developing Writers Across the Primary and Secondary Years provides cumulative insights into how writing develops and how it can be taught across years of compulsory schooling. This edited collection is a timely and original contribution, addressing a significant literacy need for teachers of writing across three key stages of writing development, covering early (4-7 years old), primary (7-12 years old) and secondary years (12-16 years old) in Anglophone countries. Each section addresses two broader themes - becoming a writer with a child-oriented focus and writing pedagogy with a teacher-oriented focus. Together, the book brings to bear rigorous research and deep professional understanding of the writing classroom. It offers a novel approach conceiving of writing development as a dynamic and multidimensional concept. Such an integrated interdisciplinary understanding enables pedagogical thinking and development to address more holistically the complex act of writing.

There is widespread concern in all English speaking countries at the rapid decline in study of languages. The promise of 'languages for all' in the UK and North America in the 1970s marked a shift from languages as elite subjects for the privileged few, but this promise has not been fulfilled. This book explores the reasons for and solutions to this decline. More importantly, it looks at how these trends have been reversed in successful school programs and the implications of this for language education policy makers. The study draws on an analysis of data from 600 primary, secondary and community languages schools over six years and from detailed case studies in a representative sample of 45 successful schools. The book proposes a range of strategies to address the decline: from engaging classroom learning, assessment outcomes and embedding languages as central in school curriculum on the one level, to a mix of incentives and mandation for language study, especially at upper secondary school level. The authors explore the impact of learning languages on the thinking, educational experiences and outcomes of young people across a range of ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses. They show the importance of having equal access to languages study in a world where young people will have increasingly more diverse working lives and argue that the gap in languages between policy and uptake is really a gap in the thinking of policy makers and government.

There is widespread concern in all English speaking countries at the rapid decline in study of languages. The promise of 'languages for all' in the UK and North America in the 1970s marked a shift from languages as elite subjects for the privileged few, but this promise has not been fulfilled. This book explores the reasons for and solutions to this decline. More importantly, it looks at how these trends have been reversed in successful school programs and the implications of this for language education policy makers. The study draws on an analysis of data from 600 primary, secondary and community languages schools over six years and from detailed case studies in a representative sample of 45 successful schools. The book proposes a range of strategies to address the decline: from engaging classroom learning, assessment outcomes and embedding languages as central in school curriculum on the one level, to a mix of incentives and mandation for language study, especially at upper secondary school level. The authors explore the impact of learning languages on the thinking, educational experiences and outcomes of young people across a range of ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses. They show the importance of having equal access to languages study in a world where young people will have increasingly more diverse working lives and argue that the gap in languages between policy and uptake is really a gap in the thinking of policy makers and government.

The study explores the profile of social capital among groups of older adults with different demographic backgrounds and investigates how both individual social capital and perceived community social capital affect their quality of life in an urban Chinese community. It adopts a quantitative approach to explore social capital through a systematic random sampling and face-to-face questionnaire interview among the older adults in an urban community of Shanghai. Findings of the research convey noteworthy theoretical, practical, and policy implications as well as suggestions for further research with a central focus on the position of social capital. Based on the empirical understanding of the contribution of social capital to quality of life and the theoretical reinforcement cycle of social capital, the study supports the theory of successful aging in the literature: that the older population is dedicated to actively engage in later life. Policy planners and community practitioners should underpin the 'fortune' of social capital, and strategically promote older adults' engagement in community.

The rapid worldwide growth in migration, asylum seekers and refugees and reactions to this, the expansion of media and technology, political and economic changes at international and local levels are both challenges and opportunities for research in applied linguistics. This book presents 23 articles by key researchers exploring the ways in which applied linguistics can play a role making a difference in people's lives. It is a timely publication when access to powerful discourses is increasingly an issue for many of the world's populations. The book showcases the contribution of applied linguists working in such areas as language teaching and learning, policy development, discourse analysis, language assessment, language development and bilingualism in the UK, Asia and Australasia. The book is aimed at teachers, teacher educators, undergraduate and postgraduate students who are working in the areas of the applied linguistics and language education, but also to anyone with an interest in language and the impact that it has on our lives."The whole idea is that so many of us live our lives applying linguistics and yet we don't even think about it". - Shirley Brice Heath, in Heath and Kramsch (2004, 82): Individuals, Institutions and the Uses of Literacy: Shirley Brice Heath and Claire Kramsch in Conversation. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(1):75-94.