The Handbook of Applied Linguistics

The focus of applied linguistics is on trying to resolve language-based problems that people encounter in the real world, whether they be learners, teachers, supervisors, academics, lawyers, service providers, those who need social services, test takers, policy developers, dictionary makers, translators, or a whole range of business clients.

This is one of the best and greatest handbooks published about applied linguistics.

With 886 pages, it covers almost all problems discussed in applied linguistics.

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Explorations in Pragmatics

This volume consists of selected papers from the LAUD Symposium held on March 27–30, 2006 in Landau, Germany, including the keynote address by John Searle, six of the plenary talks and four selected papers from the conference. These papers reflect current trends in international research in pragmatics over recent years. The authors, coming from 10 different countries, represent all angles of pragmatics.

The papers address these issues from a variety of directions.

• ·         Language use and pragmatics from philosophical perspective.
• ·         cognitive aspect of pragmatics
• ·         Intercultural aspects of pragmatics.
• ·         Corpus based methodology in different ways within pragmatics
• ·         Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural

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Experimental Pragmatics

How does our knowledge of language on the one hand, and of the context on the other permit us to understand what we are told, resolve ambiguities, grasp both explicit and implicit content, recognize the force of a speech act, appreciate metaphor and irony? These issues have been studied in two disciplines: pragmatics and psycholinguistics, with limited interactions between the two. Pragmatics is rooted in the philosophy of language and in linguistics and has spawned competing theories using as evidence a mixture of intuitions about interpretation and observations of behaviour.

Psycholinguistics has developed sophisticated experimental methods in the study of verbal communication, but has not used them to test systematic pragmatic theories. This volume lays down the bases for a new field, Experimental Pragmatics, that draws on pragmatics, psycholinguistics and also on the psychology of reasoning. Chapters in this volume either review pioneering work or present novel ways of articulating theories and experimental methods in the area. In this introduction we outline some core pragmatic issues and approaches and relate them to experimental work in psycholinguistics and in the psychology of reasoning.

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Dictionary of Language and Linguistics

The present dictionary differs fundamentally from these monumental works. In its scope and format, it fills a gap which, in spite of David Crystal’s Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (Oxford 19852), has existed up until now: in a handy one-volume format, this dictionary provides a thorough overview of all areas of linguistics. Not restricted to specific theories, it encompasses descriptive and historical, comparative and typological linguistics, as well as the applied subdisciplines. Along with the traditional core areas (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics), interdisciplinary fields (such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics and ethnolinguistics), as well as stylistics, rhetoric and philosophy of language are represented. In addition, the dictionary includes basic terminology from logic, mathematical and computational linguistics as well as applied linguistics; finally, descriptions of individual languages and language families are provided. With this broad range of content and its succinctly written articles, this dictionary is meant for both students and professional scholars in linguistics and allied fields.

This book is the result of over twenty years of development, in which numerous scholars from Germany and other countries were involved. The first German edition appeared in 1983 as the result of this author’s ten-year efforts. Owing to the rapid development of linguistics, a second, completely revised edition became necessary.

Seventeen scholars revised, corrected and extended the texts of the first edition. Their work was based on dozens of peer reviews and, no less importantly, on their own research.

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Computer-mediated Communication for Linguistics and Literacy: Technology and Natural Language Education

Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) is an amazingly multi- and inter-disciplinary subject area that spans fields as diverse as computer science, information technology, communication studies, linguistics, literacy, education, business, ethics, and law. Given this vast subject-matter it would be practically impossible for any single volume to cover all aspects of CMC to any appreciable depth. There is thus the need to focus on one or the other of these component disciplines.

Within this wider, interdisciplinary arena, this book, titled, Computer-mediated Communication for Linguistics and Literacy: Technology and Natural Language Education, occupies an important position. It has a clear focus on the linguistic, literacy and educational aspects of CMC. The book investigates the way humans communicate through the medium of information technology gadgets. Based on extensive research on how we use natural languages like English and Chinese in media such as emails, MSN, and mobile phones, the book outlines new forms and ways of speaking, reading, and writing in an age in which there is a pervasive presence of communication technologies in offices and homes. This interaction between human language and technology has created new forms and uses of language and literacy the study of which has given birth to this exciting new field of Computer mediated Communication (CMC) that we are about to delve into.

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Appraising Research in Second Language Learning

This book is written to guide student and novice researchers through their critical reading of a research paper in the field of second language learning. They will be shown ways of approaching the appraisal of the abstract and the introductory section of the study, both of which set the stage by describing the rationale as well as the objective of the work. Similarly, the reader will be given ideas about how to assess the method and procedures section so that he or she can decide, for example, whether the research design was appropriate, and what precautions were taken to guard against threats of validity to the findings. They will become more familiar with, and confident about, interpreting results from commonly-used descriptive or inferential statistical procedures and checking how appropriately these have been presented. Finally, the reader should be in a position critically to evaluate the researcher’s own interpretation of the findings in terms of the extent to which the conclusion is justified, can be generalized, and has limitations.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Teaching English as a Foreign Language

This book is written for teachers of all backgrounds. Our aim is to discuss a wide range of teaching problems—from classroom techniques to school organization—in order to help practicing teachers in their daily tasks. We have adopted an eclectic approach, recognizing that the teaching of English must be principled without being dogmatic and systematic without being inflexible. We have tried to show how the underlying principles of successful foreign language teaching can provide teachers in a wide range of EFL situations with a basic level of competence which can be a springboard for their subsequent professional development. We gratefully record our debt to colleagues and students past and present at the London University Institute of Education, whose experience and thinking have helped shape our own. Particularly, we would like to thank our colleague John Norrish for compiling the bibliography.

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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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Sociolinguistic Variation

Why does human language vary from one person, or one group, to another? In what ways does it vary? How do linguists go about studying variation in, say, the sound system or the sentence structure of a particular language? Why is the study of language variation important outside the academic world, in say education, the law, employment, or housing? This book provides an overview of these questions, bringing together a team of experts to survey key areas within the study of language variation and language change. Covering both the range of methods used to research variation in language, and the applications of such research to a variety of social contexts, it is essential reading for advanced students and researchers in sociolinguistics, communication, linguistic anthropology, and applied linguistics.

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Spoken English, TESOL and Applied Linguistics: Challenges for Theory and Practice

This collection of essays by leading researchers in the field of spoken discourse and language teaching pursues two aims. Its first aim is to present an issues-led discussion of the present state of research into spoken language. Contributors address issues concerning, for example, the extent to which new data regarding the nature of spoken discourse challenge existing language theories, models or paradigms; and the question whether there is a ‘paradigm-shift’ taking place due to the weight of evidence that spoken discourse is a distinctive form in its own right, or whether this evidence will be absorbed into existing models and theories.  

The collection’s second aim is to address some of the complex and rewarding opportunities offered by these emerging insights for language teaching. Can the insights of current research on spoken language easily be accommodated into existing language teaching, whether at the level of pedagogic grammars, or methods; or do they present challenges which break new ground? Is there such a thing as a ‘spoken genre’, and how can this concept inform materials production or language teaching? Will current research on spoken forms have an impact on the assessment of speaking? And what weight should be given to the phonetic and paralinguistic meaning-bearing elements of the spoken form, either in language description or in the curriculum?






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Linguistics An Introduction

Written by a team based at one of the world’s leading centres for linguistic teaching and research, the second edition of this highly successful textbook offers a unified approach to language, viewed from a range of perspectives essential for students’ understanding of the subject. A language is a complex structure represented in the minds of its speakers, and this textbook provides the tools necessary for understanding this structure. Using clear explanations throughout, the book is divided into three main parts: sounds, words and sentences. In each, the foundational concepts are introduced, along with their application to the fields of child language acquisition, psycholinguistics, language disorders and sociolinguistics, giving the book a unique yet simple structure that helps students to engage with the subject more easily than other textbooks on the market. This edition includes a completely new section on sentence use, including an introduction and discussion of core areas of pragmatics and conversational analysis; new coverage of sociolinguistic topics, introducing communities of practice; a new subsection introducing the student to Optimality Theory; a wealth of new exercise material and updated further reading.

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Language Testing and Validation: An Evidence-based Approach

Research and Practice in Applied Linguistics is an international book series from Palgrave Macmillan which brings together leading researchers and teachers in Applied Linguistics to provide readers with the knowledge and tools they need to undertake their own practice-related research. Books in the series are designed for students and researchers in Applied Linguistics, TESOL, Language Education and related subject areas, and for language professionals keen to extend their research experience.

This book follows the rationale and structure of the Research and Practice in Applied Linguistics Series in first providing a theoretical overview of the field, followed by detail of how this works in practice and then suggesting focuses and methods for researching key areas. In Part 1 we map out the types of validation evidence we need to provide if we are to have any confidence that the results of performance on a test give us an accurate picture of the underlying abilities or constructs we are attempting to measure. In Part 2 we unpack validity further in relation to actual examples and procedures taken from tests from around the world and provide an evidence-based validity framework for asking questions of any exam or form of assessment. In Part 3 we suggest a number of research activities, which will generate data on whether a test matches up to various criteria in the framework. Lastly, in Part 4, we detail a number of electronic and paper-based resources.

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Language Testing and Assessment: An advanced resource book

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.

This book has three main sections, each made up of approximately ten units:

A: An Introduction section: in which the key terms and concepts are introduced, including introductory activities and reflective tasks, designed to establish key understandings, terminology, techniques of analysis and the skills appropriate to the theme and the discipline.

B: An Extension section: in which selected core readings are introduced (usually edited from the original) from existing books and articles, together with annotations and commentary, where appropriate. Each reading is introduced, annotated and commented on in the context of the whole book, and research/follow-up questions and tasks are added to enable fuller understanding of both theory and practice. In some cases, readings are short and synoptic and incorporated within a more general exposition.

C: An Exploration section: in which further samples and illustrative materials are provided with an emphasis, where appropriate, on more open-ended, studentcentred activities and tasks, designed to support readers and users in undertaking their own locally relevant research projects. Tasks are designed for work in groups or for individuals working on their own.

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Language and the internet

David Crystal investigates the nature of the impact which the Internet is making on language. There is already a widespread popular mythology that the Internet is going to be bad for the future of language – that technospeak will rule, standards be lost, and creativity diminished as globalization imposes sameness. The argument of this book is the reverse: that the Internet is in fact enabling a dramatic expansion to take place in the range and variety of language, and is providing unprecedented opportunities for personal creativity. The Internet has now been around long enough for us to ‘take a view’ about the way in which it is being shaped by and is shaping language and languages, and there is no one better placed than David Crystal to take that view. His book is written to be accessible to anyone who has used the Internet and who has an interest in language issues.

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Language and Politics

In the last two decades, applied linguistics has abandoned the structuralist view of language as a self-contained, neutral system, in favour of a conception of language as political from top to bottom, in its structure as well as its use. This book examines the consequences of that conceptual shift, as it draws together key topics including language choice, linguistic correctness, (self-)censorship and hate speech, the performance of ethnic and national identity in language, gender politics and ‘powerful’ language, rhetoric and propaganda, and changing conceptions of written language, driven in part by technological advances.

This series of single-author volumes published by Edinburgh University Press takes a contemporary view of applied linguistics. The intention is to make provision for the wide range of interests in contemporary applied linguistics which are provided for at Master’s level.

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