This book offers a precise and rigorous analysis of the meanings of offensive words in Chinese. Adopting a semantic and cultural approach, the authors demonstrate how offensive words can and should be systematically researched, documented and accounted for as a valid aspect of any language. The book will be of interest to academics, practitioners and students of sociolinguistics, language and culture, linguistic taboo, Chinese studies and Chinese linguistics.

This volume offers a collection of essays addressing contemporary issues in foreign and second language education. In particular, it addresses language learner autonomy, both as a theoretical construct and in relation to areas of application such as the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), the European Language Portfolio (ELP), teacher training, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and minority language provision. The contributors - well-known researchers, policy makers, teachers and teacher trainers - provide a multi-faceted insight into an innovative and influential approach to language education. David Little, to whom the volume is dedicated, was Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Head of the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. He is recognised worldwide as a leading proponent of the theory of language learner autonomy, and has been a driving force behind many influential language education initiatives internationally.

This book offers a precise and rigorous analysis of the meanings of offensive words in Chinese. Adopting a semantic and cultural approach, the authors demonstrate how offensive words can and should be systematically researched, documented and accounted for as a valid aspect of any language. The book will be of interest to academics, practitioners and students of sociolinguistics, language and culture, linguistic taboo, Chinese studies and Chinese linguistics.

This book is an exploration of the vitality of multilingualism and of its critical importance in and for contemporary cities. It examines how the city has emerged as a key driver of the multilingual future, a concentration of different, changing cultures which somehow manage to create a new identity. The book uses the recent LUCIDE multilingual city reports as a basis for discussion and analysis, and deals with both societal and individual multilingualism in a way that draws on the full range of their historical, contemporary, visual/audible, psychological, educational and policy-oriented aspects. The book will be of interest to students and researchers of multilingualism, migration studies, European Studies, anthropology, sociology and urbanism.

Bruxelles, Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt/M., New York, Oxford, Wien. The important question of how to bring the European Union closer to its citizens is bound up with the issue of how individuals, groups and nation states express and assert identity, with one of the fundamental challenges how to approach and deal with multilingual communication. This study assesses language use in a multilingual trans-European speech community. It examines language learning at school, university and elsewhere, languages spoken at home and in the workplace, and speakers' attitudes towards language learning and future linguistic solutions in Europe. The speech community selected for the case study are graduates of the College of Europe, a postgraduate institution of European Studies. Amongst other questions, this publication asks why these particular speakers are multilingual, and whether a two-tier Europe is developing in terms of foreign language skills. Using the case study as a point of departure for further discussion, the author explores how a balance may be achieved between managing effective communication between speakers, whilst maintaining the right of the individuals to use their own mother tongue. Contents: Sociolinguistics - Foreign language learning - Language use and choice - Language attitudes.