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Language acquisition is a human endeavor par excellence. As children, all human beings learn to understand and speak at least one language: their mother tongue. It is a process that seems to take place without any obvious effort. Second language learning, particularly among adults, causes more difficulty. The purpose of this series is to compile a collection of high-quality monographs on language acquisition. The series serves the needs of everyone who wants to know more about the problem of language acquisition in general and/or about language acquisition in specific contexts.
In the last 25 years foreign language teaching has been able to increase its efficiency through an orientation towards authentic language materials, pragmatic language functions and interactive learning methods. However, so far foreign language teaching has lacked a sufficiently strong theoretical framework to support the teaching of language in all its aspects. Arguably, such a linguistic theory has to be usage-based and cognition-oriented. Since cognitive linguistics - and especially cognitive grammar - is concerned with conceptual issues against the larger background of human cognition and because it is based on actual language use, it becomes a powerful tool for dealing adequately with t...
ESL Readers and Writers in Higher Education describes the challenges ESL students in U.S. postsecondary institutions face when studying in a second language, and offers suggestions for how teachers, advisors, tutors, and institutions might provide support that meets the reading and writing needs of this very important student population. Because the ESL profession as a whole, including what professionals are doing in the classroom, sits under the umbrella of an institutional response to a language-related challenge, some solutions aimed at helping students achieve optimal proficiency lie outside of the classroom. As such, this book is based on the assertion that language development support is not the sole responsibility of language teachers. Everyone on campuses that hosts ESL students bears some responsibility for these students' language development. Chapters are therefore, intentionally adapted to appeal to a wide variety of readers from classroom teachers, and teachers in training, to admissions officers, academic advisors, and international student advisors.
Time is the most fundamental category of human cognition and action, and all human languages have developed many devices to express it. These include verbal categories, such as tense and aspect, but also adverbials, particles, and principles of discourse organisation. This book is intended as a tutorial for the study of how time is expressed in natural languages. Its chapters take the reader through a number of foundational issues, such as the various notions of time and the various means to express it; other chapters are devoted to more specific questions, such as the acquisition of time, its modelling in formal semantics and in computational linguistics, or how its expression can be empirically investigated.
This volume brings together a collection of papers presented at the 2014 World Congress of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), held in Brisbane, Australia, and represents current research and practice from across the globe related to reading, writing and visual literacy. Given that globalisation has resulted in an increase in the pursuit of second language (often English) literacy for those who want to enhance their access to better education and employment options, the development of literacy skills cannot be left to chance. This book explores current efforts to tease out the variables involved in the development of literacies, and will inform educators and teacher trainers of ways to improve classroom pedagogies and increase learner literacy competencies. The volume will be of use to both new and seasoned researchers wishing to enhance their understanding of current and emerging perspectives in the development of literacies. It will also be of interest to language teachers and language policy makers as the papers address current issues in language education.
Little Words is an interdisciplinary examination of the functions and change in the use of clitics, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, discourse particles, auxiliary/light verbs, prepositions, and other “little words” that have played a central role in linguistic theory and in language acquisition research. Leading scholars present advanced research in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse function, historical development, variation, and acquisition by children and adults. This unique volume integrates the views and findings of these different research areas into one professional source to be used within and across disciplines. Languages studied include English, Spanish, French, Romanian, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Slavonic, and Medieval Leonese.
Theory has been used widely in the field of second language writing. Second language writing specialists—teachers, researchers, and administrators—have yet to have an open and sustained conversation about what theory is, how it works, and, more important, how to practice theory. Practicing Theory in Second Language Writing features fourteen essays by distinguished scholars in second language writing who explore various aspects of theoretical work that goes on in the field.
A collection of papers on Contrastive Pragmatics, involving research on interlanguage and cross-cultural perspectives with a focus on second language acquisition contexts.
This book brings together a collection of current research on the assessment of oral proficiency in a second language. Fourteen chapters focus on the use of the language proficiency interview or LPI to assess oral proficiency. The volume addresses the central issue of validity in proficiency assessment: the ways in which the language proficiency interview is accomplished through discourse.Contributors draw on a variety of discourse perspectives, including the ethnography of speaking, conversation analysis, language socialization theory, sociolinguistic variation theory, human interaction research, and systemic functional linguistics. And for the first time, LPIs conducted in German, Korean, ...