The last few decades have seen an upsurge of research interest in metaphor and figurative language. This interest has also become part of a larger enquiry into the relationship between language and other processes of mind, an enquiry that is producing the field known as cognitive linguistics. This book is very much a product of this new interest and its rapidly expanding literature. However, the book’s primary objective is not to add to that already extensive body of research; my concern here is to explore the relevance of this knowledge for another related area, that of language teaching.
Present blog is created to help TEFL and TESOL experts to have easy access for the books, resources and materials they need in doing their researches, teachings, and learnings in the field of ESL and EFL. Moreover, there are books and materials that can be helpful for English learners to improve their language skills.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Mind, Metaphor and language teaching
The last few decades have seen an upsurge of research interest in metaphor and figurative language. This interest has also become part of a larger enquiry into the relationship between language and other processes of mind, an enquiry that is producing the field known as cognitive linguistics. This book is very much a product of this new interest and its rapidly expanding literature. However, the book’s primary objective is not to add to that already extensive body of research; my concern here is to explore the relevance of this knowledge for another related area, that of language teaching.
Language and Gender: An advanced resource book
Language and Gender: An advanced resource book provides a rich diversity of material for students in this field, particularly those who wish to contribute through their own research as well as learn about and appreciate the significance of others’ work. The target audience for the series is upper undergraduates and postgraduates on Language, Applied Linguistics and Communication Studies programmes as well as teachers and researchers in professional-development and distance-learning programmes. High-quality applied research resources are also much needed for teachers of EFL/ESL and foreign-language students at higher-education colleges and universities worldwide.The Introduction ‘A’ units establish key terms and concepts, provide a discursive summary and overview, and preview what is to come in the corresponding extension (‘B’) and exploration (‘C’) units.
Memory, Psychology and Second Language Learning
This book aims to review the work done in psychology and linguistics on language processing and to relate it to the learning of a second language. It is aimed at the student language teacher who will also be studying aspects of linguistics such as phonology alongside psychological theories and theories of language learning. It is an attempt to pull together the two disciplines with a specific focus on the second language learner. It will also be of interest to postgraduate students in offering them a wide variety of sources for further research. It is also, I hope, an aid for the experienced teacher who is interested in putting current theories of language learning and teaching into a new perspective. In particular, the inclusion of the neuropsycholical evidence for established psycholinguistic models provides a interesting perspective for the more general reader who is interested in language processing.
WASHBACK IN LANGUAGE TESTING: Research Contexts and Methods
Washback and the impact of tests more generally has become a major area of study within educational research, and language testing in particular, as this volume testifies. The extensive use of examination scores for various educational and social purposes in society nowadays has made the washback effect a distinct educational phenomenon. This is true both in general education and in teaching English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL), from Kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms to the tertiary level. Washback is a phenomenon that is of inherent interest to teachers, researchers, program coordinators/directors, policymakers, and others in their day-to-day educational activities. The purpose of the present volume, then, is twofold; first to update teachers, researchers, policymakers/administrators, and others on what is involved in this complex issue of testing and its effects, and how such a phenomenon benefits teaching and learning, and second, to provide researchers with models of research studies on which future studies can be based. In order to address these two main purposes, the volume consists of two parts. Part I provides readers with an overall view of the complexity of washback, and the various contextual factors entangled within testing, teaching, and learning. Part II provides a collection of empirical washback studies carried out in many different parts of the world, which lead the readers further into the heart of the issue within each educational context.
Understanding Language Teaching; From Method to Postmethod
“Break the pattern which connects the items of learning,” warned the celebrated anthropologist, Gregory Bateson, “and you necessarily destroy all quality” (1979, p. 8, italics in original). He issued this warning in a letter to his fellow regents of the University of California, complaining about American schools that teach the students “almost nothing of the pattern which connects” (p. 8). The pattern which connects. That’s what this book is all about. Not the so profound pattern that governs the evolution and ecology of all life on earth, but the more mundane pattern that connects the various elements of learning, teaching, and teacher education in the narrow field of teaching English to speakers of other languages. It may appear to be inappropriate or even anticlimactic, to link the concern for an understanding of the ecological macrocosm with the concern for an understanding of the pedagogical microcosm. But the whole point, if we follow the Batesonian argument, is that the elements constituting each are indeed interconnected in ways that may not be readily apparent.The book is divided into three parts: (1) Language, Learning, and Teaching, (2) Language Teaching Methods, and (3) Postmethod Perspectives. I make it a point to highlight the underlying links within and between the parts in order to bring out the pattern which connects.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
TEACHING AND LEARNING IN TWO LANGUAGES: Bilingualism & Schooling in the United States
The major purpose of the Multicultural Education Series is to provide preservice educators, practicing educators, graduate students, scholars, and policy makers with an interrelated and comprehensive set of books that summarizes and analyzes important research, theory, and practice related to the education of ethnic, racial, cultural, and language groups in the United States and the education of mainstream students about diversity. The books in the Series provide research, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the behaviors and learning characteristics of students of color, language-minority students, and low-income students. They also provide knowledge about ways to improve academic achievement and race relations in educational settings.The book addresses an increasingly important challenge confronted by schools in the United States: educating to high standards students from diverse language, culture, and social-class groups. This book is timely and significant because the author uses a research based, nuanced, and complex analysis to describe the ways in which students learn a second language and how schools can best facilitate the acquisition of a second language by bilingual students. García provides a comprehensive description of the theory and research on second-language teaching and learning, identifies the characteristics of effective bilingual education programs, and presents examples of school programs that exemplify these characteristics.
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