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This unique work challenges the assumption that dictionaries act as objective records of our language, and instead argues that the English dictionary is a fundamentally ethnocentric work. Using theoretical, historical and empirical analyses, Phil Benson shows how English dictionaries have filtered knowledge through predominantly Anglo-American perspectives. The book includes a major case study of the most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and its treatment of China.
This book is the first in-depth examination of the application of theories of space to issues of second language learning. The author introduces the work of key thinkers on the theory of space and place and the relevance of their ideas to second language acquisition (SLA). He also outlines a new conceptual framework and set of terms for researching SLA that centre on the idea of 'language learning environments'. The book considers the spatial contexts in which language learning takes place and investigates how these spatial contexts are transformed into individualised language learning environments, as learners engage with a range of human and nonhuman, and physical and nonphysical, resources in their daily lives. Revisiting linguistics and language learning theory from a spatial perspective, the book demonstrates that the question of where people learn languages is equally as important as that of how they do so. This work is essential reading for any researcher wishing to research the role of the environment as an active player in SLA.
This text defines autonomy in language learning, how it is implemented and how research and independence/autonomy can inform each other.
The Discourse of YouTube explores the cutting edge of contemporary multimodal discourse through an in-depth analysis of structures, processes and content in YouTube discourse. YouTube is often seen as no more than a place to watch videos, but this book argues that YouTube and YouTube pages can also be read and analysed as complex, multi-authored, multimodal texts, emerging dynamically from processes of textually-mediated social interaction. The objective of the book is to show how multimodal discourse analysis tools can help us to understand the structures and processes involved in the production of YouTube texts. Philip Benson develops a framework for the analysis of multimodality in the st...
The topics of autonomy and independence play an increasingly important role in language education. They raise issues such as learners' responsibility for their own learning, and their right to determine the direction of their own learning, the skills which can be learned and applied in self-directed learning and capacity for independent learning and the extents to which this can be suppressed by institutional education. This volume offers new insights into the principles of autonomy and independence and the practices associated with them focusing on the area of EFL teaching. The editors' introduction provides the context and outlines the main issues involved in autonomy and independence. Lat...
This edited volume offers a cohesive account of recent developments across the world in the field of learner and teacher autonomy in languages education. Drawing on the work of eminent researchers of language learning and teaching, it explores at both conceptual and practical levels issues related to current pedagogical developments in a wide range of contexts. Global shifts have led to an increase in autonomous and independent learning both in policy and practice (including self-access and distance learning). The book s scope and focus will therefore be beneficial to language teachers as well as to students and researchers in applied linguistics and those involved in pre- and in-service teacher education. The book concludes with an overview of the state of research in this field, focusing on the (inter)relationships between the concepts of learner and teacher autonomy.
This is a contest, played like Parcheesi, in which the contestant advances or is sent back through the seven ages of man. The Author has written a parody of life with such incisiveness that it becomes like Swift in its barbs. The play creates a picture of man from birth until death, with all its madness, with all its familiarity and with all its nonsense. What's more, a quartet consisting of the games master, the male players and the female players assist the incomparable contestant from "mewling infant" to "second childishness and mere oblivion." Incident after incident makes you laugh and suddenly makes you stop and think that maybe you're laughing at yourself.-- from publisher's website.
Narrative Inquiry in Language Teaching and Learning Research is the only entry-level introduction to research methods using stories, either as data or as a means of presenting findings, and a practical guide for those interested in carrying out narrative studies. This successful text is grounded in published empirical research within the field of language teaching and learning and clearly defines basic concepts in narrative inquiry, explaining how and why narrative methods have been used in language teaching and learning research and outlining different choices and approaches. It also examines the different ways of eliciting, analyzing, and presenting narrative inquiry data, which offers exc...