Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Synthesizing Research on Language Learning and Teaching
This volume presents the first collection of work on research synthesis in applied linguistics. It introduces readers to a cutting-edge approach for reviewing and summarizing exactly what accumulated research has to say about theoretical and practical subjects. John Norris and Lourdes Ortega first elucidate the value and practice of synthesis, and they challenge all members of the research community to adopt a synthetic ethic. The book then features seven empirical syntheses, each modeling rigorous synthetic practice in definitively reviewing the state of knowledge and research quality in important domains. Included are five meta-analyses on: Universal Grammar; Task-Based Interaction; Corrective Feedback; Instructed Pragmatics Development; and Reading Strategy Training. Also included are a qualitative meta-synthesis on Effective Teaching for English Language Learners, and a historiographical synthesis of Proficiency Assessment practices. Rounding out the collection are commentaries by two renowned experts in language learning and teaching research: Nick Ellis and Craig Chaudron.
Designing Second Language Performance Assessments
This volume focuses on the decision-making potential provided by second language performance assessments. The authors first situate performance assessment within a broader discussion of alternatives in language assessment and in educational assessment in general. They then discuss issues in performance assessment design, implementation, reliability, and validity. Finally, they present a prototype framework for second language performance assessment based on the integration of theoretical underpinnings and research findings from the task-based language teaching literature, the language testing literature, and the educational measurement literature. The authors outline test and item specifications, and they present numerous examples of prototypical language tasks. They also propose a research agenda focusing on the operationalization of second language performance assessments.
Second Language Educational Experiences for Adult Learners
Second Language Educational Experiences for Adult Learners explains the latest research on adult learning and then applies that work to specifically address second language learning. In the foundational chapters, this book introduces some of the differences between language learning for adults. In the second half of the volume, the authors move to consider educational design in chapters on curriculum, materials, assessment, and technology. This is an essential book for researchers and students interested in the science of language learning or anyone looking to better understand the science of adult education.
The Military History of the Bicycle
Almost as soon as a viable metal-framed bike was invented, it was put to military use, offering a much cheaper, less fragile and less logistically demanding alternative to horse transport. Widely used in many armies from the late 19th century, through both world wars and beyond, the bicycle really is the forgotten war machine. John Norris traces traces the development of military cycling from first experiments, including early (often flawed) designs for armed and multi-passenger versions. He explains how any why bikes were used for rapid movement of infantry units as well as carrying messages and other tasks. First used in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, then by both sides in the Boer Wa...
Collision Course
If Europe, Russia, and international bodies such as the U.N. and NATO end up playing a more prominent role in Iraq's immediate future, all parties, including the United States, would do well to revisit the lessons learned during the U.S.-led war in Kosovo in 1999. As a confrontation over Kosovo's final push for independence looms, this book offers seminal insight into the negotiations that took place between the United States and Russia in an effort to set the terms for ending the conflict. This study in brinksmanship and deception is an essential background for anyone trying to understand Russia's uneasy relations with the West. America's relationship with Russia has become increasingly imp...
Assessing Academic English for Higher Education Admissions
Assessing Academic English for Higher Education Admissions is a state-of-the-art overview of advances in theories and practices relevant to the assessment of academic English skills for higher education admissions purposes. The volume includes a brief introduction followed by four main chapters focusing on critical developments in theories and practices for assessing reading, listening, writing, and speaking, of which the latter two also address the assessment of integrated skills such as reading-writing, listening-speaking, and reading-listening-speaking. Each chapter reviews new task types, scoring approaches, and scoring technologies and their implications in light of the increasing use of technology in academic communication and the growing use of English as a lingua franca worldwide. The volume concludes with recommendations about critical areas of research and development that will help move the field forward. Assessing Academic English for Higher Education Admissions is an ideal resource for researchers and graduate students in language testing and assessment worldwide.
Task-based Language Teaching
Over the past two decades, task-based language teaching (TBLT) has gained considerable momentum in the field of language education. This volume presents a collection of 20 reprinted articles and chapters representative of work that appeared during that period. It introduces readers- - graduate students, researchers, teachers - -to foundational ideas and themes that have marked the emergence of TBLT. The editors provide a first chapter that locates TBLT within broader discourses of educational practice and research on language learning and teaching. The book then features four sections consisting of important, often difficult to find, writings on major themes: fundamental ideas, approaches, and definitions in TBLT; curriculum, syllabus, and task design; variables affecting task-based language learning and performance; and task-based assessment. In a concluding chapter, the editors challenge simplistic notions of TBLT by reflecting on how this body of work has initiated the possibility of a truly researched language pedagogy, and they highlight critical directions in TBLT research and practice for the future.
Researching L2 Task Performance and Pedagogy
This volume honours Peter Skehan’s landmark contributions to research in Task-Based Language Teaching. It offers state-of-the-art reviews as well as cutting-edge new research studies, all reflective of key theoretical and methodological issues in current research, such as the role and nature of task complexity and the distinct dimensions of L2 task performance. Collectively, these chapters celebrate Professor Skehan’s seminal influence on TBLT and second language acquisition research, and they bear witness to the sustained academic mentoring and collaboration that have characterised his career. Contributed both by senior academics and more recent participants in SLA and TBLT research, the chapters variously explore conceptual frameworks and methodological insights on central issues in TBLT research, theoretical debates, innovative research paradigms and methodologies, as well as practical pedagogical proposals. The book provides a wide-ranging and balanced account of Skehan’s work and its impact on other researchers, serving as an introduction as well as a critical review for both seasoned and novice researchers and for interested practitioners.
