Culture and Foreign Language Education


Book Description

The teaching of culture and interculturality is today viewed as an integral part of foreign language education. This book presents insights from recent research on the role of culture in second/foreign and heritage language education. It contains 14 chapters including an introductory chapter that discusses diachronically the evolving notion of culture and how the sociocultural view of culture as a complex and dynamic concept informs language teaching and language learning research. The chapters following the introduction are organised in four parts focusing on: 1) the teacher's role in integrated language and culture learning; 2) the interrelationship between culture, identity, and language learning and use; 3) the effect of culture on learner characteristics which impact language learning processes and outcomes; and 4) curriculum development aimed at fostering language and culture learning. The chapters in Parts 1 to 3 present contributions from current research - either in the form of the authors' original studies or comprehensive reviews of relevant essential research - which bears important implications for curricular practice in foreign language and language teacher education. This close link between research, theory and practice is also maintained in the two chapters in Part 4, which present developmental projects based on well-grounded theoretical frameworks.




Introducing Translation Studies


Book Description

This introductory textbook provides an accessible overview of the key contributions to translation theory. Jeremy Munday explores each theory chapter-by-chapter and tests the different approaches by applying them to texts. The texts discussed are taken from a broad range of languages - English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Punjabi, Portuguese and English translations are provided. A wide variety of text types are analyzed, including a tourist brochure, a children's cookery book, a Harry Potter novel, the Bible, literary reviews and translators' prefaces, film translation, a technical text and a European Parliament speech. Each chapter includes the following features: a table introducing key concepts an introduction outlining the translation theory or theories illustrative texts with translations a chapter summary discussion points and exercises. Including a general introduction, an extensive bibliography, and websites for further information, this is a practical, user-friendly textbook that gives a balanced and comprehensive insight into translation studies.




Project-Based Second and Foreign Language Education


Book Description

Dewey's idea of Project-based Learning (PBL) was introduced into the field of second language education nearly two decades ago as a way to reflect the principles of student-centered teaching (Hedge, 1993). Since then, PBL has also become a popular language and literacy activity at various levels and in various contexts (see Beckett, 1999; Fried-Booth, 2002; Levis & Levis, 2003; Kobayashi, 2003; Luongo- Orlando, 2001; Mohan & Beckett, 2003; Weinstein, 2004). For example, it has been applied to teach various ESL and EFL skills around the world (e.g., Fried-Booth, 2002). More recently, PBL has been heralded as the most appropriate approach to teaching content-based second language education (Bunch, et al., 2001; Stoller, 1997), English for specific purposes (Fried-Booth, 2002), community-based language socialization (Weinstien, 2004), and critical and higher order thinking as well as problem-solving skills urged by the National Research Council (1999). Despite this emphasis, there is a severe shortage of empirical research on PBL and research-based frameworks and models based on sound theoretical guidance in general and second and foreign language education in particular (Thomas, 2000). Also missing from the second and foreign language education literature is systematic discussion of PBL work that brings together representative work, identifying obvious gaps, and guiding the field toward future directions. This, first of its kind, volume bridges these obvious gaps through the original work of international scholars from Canada, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and the US.







Learning Languages, Learning Life Skills


Book Description

This book offers an autobiographical reflexive approach to foreign language education. It offers unique ways of developing vocational language teaching as an integrated holistic approach combining language contents with vocationally relevant topics and the interactive, dialogical processes of working in language classes. It is presented in a "common sense" way and accessible to non-native English readers.




The Neurolinguistic Approach (NLA) for Learning and Teaching Foreign Languages


Book Description

Since its inception in Canada in 1998 as a method for teaching French as a second language in a school setting, the Neurolinguistic Approach to second-language acquisition (NLA) has expanded to several countries and is now also applied to teaching adults. Based on research in the neurosciences, psychology, and sociology, the NLA focuses on providing learners with the conditions necessary to acquire spontaneous communication skills in a classroom setting. By ensuring the independent development of effective communication and implicit competence in the second language, the NLA allows learners to genuinely express themselves in their new language. In this volume, co-developer of the approach Claude Germain outlines the history of the NLA’s development and provides insights into its principles, its teaching and acquisition strategies applied in the classroom, and the results it has achieved. This is an essential book for all second-language teachers, as well as researchers interested in the transmission of second languages.




Communicative Language Teaching


Book Description

An introduction to communicative language teaching for practising classroom teachers.




Languages for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice


Book Description

Languages for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice is a collection of essays which will appeal to teachers of modern languages no matter the level of instruction. The essays highlight the latest developments of Foreign Language Teaching in the Balkan countries, Eastern and Western Europe and the Middle East. The field of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) is one of the richest areas of second language research and practice because increasing globalization and changing technologies spawn new modes of intercultural connection and new occasions for second language use. Languages for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice compasses this burgeoning field by presenting new research and commentary from some of the field’s leading practitioners. This book surveys the approaches and methods in foreign language teaching, such as grammar translation, language evaluation, communication competence, critical thinking skills, communicative language teaching, and the natural approach. Teachers and teachers-in-training will discover in this book a comprehensive survey and analysis of the major and minor teaching methods used around the world. It is addressed to a wide audience that includes Language for Specific Purposes teachers and researchers, although the contents will also be relevant to applied linguists working in other fields. This book contains research studies as well as educational experiences and proposals, presented from different perspectives and backgrounds (both geographical and cultural), all of which are theoretically grounded and with a clear and sound rationale. Readers will find a variety of educational projects and research studies situated in specific educational contexts and in particular geographical locations.




Doing Foreign Language


Book Description

A supplement for ESL Methods courses and K-12, Middle, and Secondary Foreign Language Methods courses. This practical supplement is based on the work of Minnesota's Concordia Language Villages, the oldest and most extensive live-in summer language camp program for elementary and secondary students in the United States. Inspired by the collaboration among the Villages, the National Capital Language Resource Center, the Center for Applied Linguistics, and the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, the authors offer lesson plans and supporting activities that capture the essence of this hugely successful program and translated it into equally successful programs for traditional foreign language classrooms.