Living in a Foreign Language


Book Description

“Not at all the usual actor’s memoir, but a simple toast to eating, drinking and innocent merriment in old Umbria.” —Kirkus Reviews Having sent their last child off to college, Michael Tucker and his wife, the actress Jill Eikenberry, were vacationing in Italy when they happened upon a small cottage nestled in the Umbrian countryside. The three-hundred-and-fifty-year-old rustico sat perched on a hill in the verdant Spoleto Valley amid an olive grove and fruit trees of every kind. For the Tuckers, it was literally love at first sight, and the couple purchased the house—without testing the water pressure or checking for signs of termites. Shedding the vestiges of their American life, Michael and Jill endeavored to learn the language, understand the nuances of Italian culture, and build a home in this new chapter of their lives. Both a celebration of a good marriage and a careful study of the nature of home, Living in a Foreign Language is a gorgeous, organic travelogue written with an epicurean’s delight in detail and a gourmand’s appreciation for all things fine. “The ex-L.A. Law star details his and wife Jill Eikenberry’s move to Italy. Viva la dolce vita!” —People “If you’ve ever dreamed of living in an ancient stone villa set high above the Italian countryside—and who hasn’t?—Living in a Foreign Language is a seduction, a warning, an encouragement, and a guide to making a dream come true.” —Mary Doria Russell, author of The Sparrow




Why You Need a Foreign Language & how to Learn One


Book Description

"The first half of this book examines the commercial, social, and political implications of American monolingualism. The second half of the book explores the techniques and tools that a working professional can use to acqure functional skills in a new language."--Back cover.




Living Languages


Book Description

This title is full of practical and original ideas aimed at teachers and trainee teachers of foreign languages in primary schools. Written by a team of linguists, the book comprises eight chapters and is structured around the integrated classroom, merging language learning with different aspects of the wider curriculum.




How to Learn a Foreign Language


Book Description

In this entertaining and groundbreaking book, Dr. Paul Pimsleur, creator of the renowned Pimsleur Method, the world leader in audio-based language learning, shows how anyone can learn to speak a foreign language. If learning a language in high school left you bruised, with a sense that there was no way you can learn another language, How to Learn a Foreign Language will restore your sense of hope. In simple, straightforward terms, Dr. Pimsleur will help you learn grammar (seamlessly), vocabulary, and how to practice pronunciation (and come out sounding like a native). The key is the simplicity and directness of Pimsleur’s approach to a daunting subject, breaking it down piece by piece, demystifying the process along the way. Dr. Pimsleur draws on his own language learning trials and tribulations offering practical advice for overcoming the obstacles so many of us face. Originally published in 1980, How to Learn a Foreign Language is now available on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Pimsleur’s publication of the first of his first audio courses that embodied the concepts and methods found here. It's a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the mind of this amazing pioneer of language learning.




How Languages Changed My Life


Book Description

How Languages Changed My Life is a collection of stories exploring the importance of languages in shaping the lives of individuals and communities around the world. It brings together writers and musicians, politicians and activists, teachers, students, scientists, comedians, and sportspeople whose experiences are both unique and exemplary. The first-person voices are conversational, intimate and uplifting, but also often very funny and deeply moving. This book is for anyone who loves real-life stories; is interested in languages, culture, and adventure; and believes in global citizenship. It embraces more than forty different languages and offers a kaleidoscope of individual views that collectively make the case for linguistic diversity being as essential to our survival as biodiversity. Irrespective of age and background, whether as first-time learners or professional polyglots, all our storytellers testify to how languages have inspired and empowered them. How Languages Changed My Life is a book for our times, reminding us that what we have in common is always greater than our differences.




Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts


Book Description

This volume highlights the role of language ideologies in the process of negotiation of identities and shows that in different historical and social contexts different identities may be negotiable or non-negotiable.




The Way of the Linguist


Book Description

The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey. It is now a cliché that the world is a smaller place. We think nothing of jumping on a plane to travel to another country or continent. The most exotic locations are now destinations for mass tourism. Small business people are dealing across frontiers and language barriers like never before. The Internet brings different languages and cultures to our finger-tips. English, the hybrid language of an island at the western extremity of Europe seems to have an unrivalled position as an international medium of communication. But historically periods of cultural and economic domination have never lasted forever. Do we not lose something by relying on the wide spread use of English rather than discovering other languages and cultures? As citizens of this shrunken world, would we not be better off if we were able to speak a few languages other than our own? The answer is obviously yes. Certainly Steve Kaufmann thinks so, and in his busy life as a diplomat and businessman he managed to learn to speak nine languages fluently and observe first hand some of the dominant cultures of Europe and Asia. Why do not more people do the same? In his book The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey, Steve offers some answers. Steve feels anyone can learn a language if they want to. He points out some of the obstacles that hold people back. Drawing on his adventures in Europe and Asia, as a student and businessman, he describes the rewards that come from knowing languages. He relates his evolution as a language learner, abroad and back in his native Canada and explains the kind of attitude that will enable others to achieve second language fluency. Many people have taken on the challenge of language learning but have been frustrated by their lack of success. This book offers detailed advice on the kind of study practices that will achieve language breakthroughs. Steve has developed a language learning system available online at: www.thelinguist.com.




Living Languages: An Integrated Approach to Teaching Foreign Languages in Secondary Schools


Book Description

Living Languages is simply bursting with practical and original ideas aimed at teachers and trainee teachers of foreign languages in secondary schools. Written by a team of experienced linguists, this book will inspire and motivate the foreign language classroom and the teachers who work within it. Living Languages comprises eight chapters and is structured around the integrated classroom, merging language learning with different aspects of the wider curriculum such as multimedia, theatre and music, celebrations and festivals, sport, and alternative approaches to teaching languages. A DVD is also included with the book containing additional teaching materials and the associated films and audio recordings which make this a fully developed and effective teaching resource. Twenty-eight real-life case studies and projects are presented, all of which have been tried and tested in the classroom with many having won recent educational awards. Ideas and activities outlined in this unique resource include: Languages and multi-media projects involving different uses of technology such as film-making, Digital Storytelling and subtitling in different languages; Languages and theatre and music including the work of the Thêàtre Sans Frontières with its Marie Curie Science Project; Motivating pupils to learn languages whilst keeping fit including examples from Score in French, The German Orienteering Festival and Handball in Spanish; Continuing Professional Development to inspire secondary language teachers to continue their individual professional development. The chapter contains concrete examples of others’ experiences in this area and includes details of support organisations and practical opportunities. Each project is explored from the teachers’ perspective with practical tips, lesson plans and reflections woven throughout the text such as what to budget, how to organise the pre-event period, how to evaluate the activity and whom to contact for further advice in each case. Activities and examples throughout are given in three languages – French, German and Spanish.




New Developments in Foreign Language Learning


Book Description

It has been estimated that some 60% of today's world population is multilingual. Living in a multilingual world makes language learning essential and the foreign language teaching profession even more valued to guarantee communication in a wide spectrum of languages, thus promoting mobility around the world and ensuring the continuity of the translation industry. This book provides current research and examines new developments in foreign language learning. The first chapter presents illustrations of the latest trends and practices in language learning, demonstrating that technology-enhanced language learning enables innovative foreign language delivery and empowers learners to acquire the chosen language in a more independent yet effective way. Chapter two describes the results of an experiment in building an online platform for learning foreign languages that allows people to teach their native language without being professional instructors. Chapter three studies secondary EFL learners' extracurricular L2 contact and their self-beliefs concerning oral narrative competencies. Chapter four examines how a learner who learns Japanese as a foreign language (FL) at an Australian university develops a positive FL self-concept to overcome her anxiety about speaking the FL during the transition period from secondary school to university and then to a Japanese study abroad. Chapter five argues that the 'under-resourcefulness' of an ELT context is misguided, as it is derived from the conception of what is believed to be 'standard' and not on the concept of adequacy and sufficiency; and hopes to demonstrate that the 'under-resourced' conception of contexts is the result of the inapplicability of Centre-driven methodologies in contexts that are only different and not actually under-resourced per se. Chapter six studies the implementation of the CLIL approach in a foreign language project. The final chapter systematically and critically reviews a variety of factors which influence lexical inferencing strategy use and incidental vocabulary acquisition among foreign language (FL) learners. It concludes with some directions for researchers to consider in the future research.




The Power of Babel


Book Description

There are approximately six thousand languages on Earth today, each a descendant of the tongue first spoken by Homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, linguistics professor John McWhorter reminds us of the variety within the species that speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popular perception, language is not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment. Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its illustrative examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, Creoles, and nonstandard dialects.