The Language Instinct


Book Description

"A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." — New York Times Book Review The classic work on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind In The Language Instinct, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published.




Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education


Book Description

"With articles on Spanglish and Spanish loan words in English as well as Southeast Asian refugees and World Englishes, this encyclopedia has a broad scope that will make it useful in academic and large public libraries serving those involved in teaching and learning in multiple languages. Also available as an ebook." — Booklist The simplest definition of bilingual education is the use of two languages in the teaching of curriculum content in K–12 schools. There is an important difference to keep in mind between bilingual education and the study of foreign languages as school subjects: In bilingual education, two languages are used for instruction, and the goal is academic success in and through the two languages. The traditional model of foreign-language study places the emphasis on the acquisition of the languages themselves. The field of bilingual education is dynamic and even controversial. The two volumes of this comprehensive, first-stop reference work collect and synthesize the knowledge base that has been well researched and accepted in the United States and abroad while also taking note of how this topic affects schools, research centers, legislative bodies, advocacy organizations, and families. The Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education is embedded in several disciplines, including applied linguistics, politics, civil rights, historical events, and of course, classroom instruction. This work is a compendium of information on bilingual education and related topics in the United States with select international contributors providing global insight onto the field. Key Features Explores in a comprehensive, non-technical way the intricacies of this subject from multiple perspectives: its history, policy, classroom practice, instructional design, and research bases Shows connections between bilingual education and related subjects, such as linguistics, education equity issues, socio-cultural diversity, and the nature of demographic change in the United States Documents the history of bilingual education in the last half of the 20th century and summarizes its roots in earlier periods Discusses important legislation and litigation documents Key Themes · Family, Community, and Society · History · Instructional Design · Languages and Linguistics · People and Organizations · Policy Evolution · Social Science Perspectives · Teaching and Learning The Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education is a valuable resource for those who wish to understand the polemics associated with this field as well as its technical details. This will be an excellent addition to any academic library.




The Smart Classroom Management Way


Book Description

The Smart Classroom Management Way is a collection of the very best writing from ten years of Smart Classroom Management (SCM). It isn't, however, simply a random mix of popular articles. It's a comprehensive work that encompasses every principle, theme, and methodology of the SCM approach. The book is laid out across six major areas of classroom management and includes the most pressing issues, problems, and concerns shared by all teachers. The underlying SCM themes of accountability, maturity, independence, personal responsibility, and intrinsic motivation are all there and weave their way throughout the entirety of the book. Together, they form a simple, unique, and sometimes contrarian approach to classroom management that anyone can do. Whether you're an elementary, middle, or high school teacher, The Smart Classroom Management Way will give you the strategies, skills, and know-how to turn any group of students into the motivated, well-behaved class you love teaching.




How I Learnt to Speak in English?


Book Description

A true story as well as techniques and notes of someone who was rejected in her first job because of not being able to communicate in English fluently. Learn how she was appointed as a communication trainer in the same organization after a few months. What did she do? And, how did she do it? This book has her experience, notes, and techniques she followed to learn the language effectively in just a few months. The book is recommended for anyone who is interested in learning English in an easy and independent manner or refreshing their English basics quickly. It is also recommended for those who train on spoken English and want to understand their learners in a better way. It will not only make you learn but also keep you motivated to learn till you complete the book. The author has put special emphasis on learning minimal definitions and focusing on the correct usage of English. The English video game table or the wish list table is one its key features.




The Language Experience Approach and the Science of Literacy Instruction


Book Description

The information contained in this text covers literacy instruction in kindergarten, primary grades, middle school, and secondary school. It gives the background on the developmental aspects of all attributes needed for successful reading. It presents a balanced body of information for instruction between wholistic approaches and traditional approaches for the total literacy curriculum. This book includes the complete developmental aspects of skills necessary for competence in all literacy tasks from birth to adolescent literacy, the need for availability for teachers to assess the progress of all these skills as they are presented in a wholistic fashion on a regular basis, the criteria of how decisions are made for remedial reading instruction, the interface of special education considerations for students experiencing literacy deficits, approaches for adolescent literacy programs, and extensive information on teaching English language learners.




If Only They Didn't Speak English


Book Description

'You see, if only they didn’t speak English in America, then we’d treat it as a foreign country – and probably understand it a lot better’ ‘the sanest man in America’ – Bill Bryson ‘Jon Sopel nails it’ – Emily Maitlis **With a brand new chapter, charting Trump's first year in power** As the BBC’s North America Editor, Jon Sopel has had a pretty busy time of it lately. In the time it’s taken for a reality star to go from laughing stock to leader of the free world, Jon has travelled the length and breadth of the United States, experiencing it from a perspective that most of us could only dream of: he has flown aboard Air Force One, interviewed President Obama and has even been described as ‘a beauty’ by none other than Donald Trump. Through music, film, literature, TV and even through the food we eat and the clothes that we wear we all have a highly developed sense of what America is and through our shared, tangled history we claim a special relationship. But America today feels about as alien a country as you could imagine. It is fearful, angry and impatient for change. In this fascinating, insightful portrait of American life and politics, Jon Sopel sets out to answer our questions about a country that once stood for the grandest of dreams, but which is now mired in a storm of political extremism, racial division and increasingly perverse beliefs.




You Can Speak English But Can You Teach It?


Book Description

English as a second language is taught in many countries, yet many teachers are still teaching a form of English that they themselves would not use. They blind themselves to the fact that what they are teaching foreign students is bad English. Having discovered this fact in many countries, author Maud Robertson Ramsay Nomiyama found the epitome of it in Japan. She says, "When I first reached Japan, I was fearful of the people, and this was mostly due to the aggressive and offensive English spoken by most of the English-speaking Japanese, including the teachers. When I discovered that the foreign teachers employed by the Japanese schools were promoting this type of English, I felt the need to write the book." She previously wrote the book My Doll for primary school students studying English as a second language. "My daughter has a degree in economics from a Japanese university and a master's degree in education (TOEFL majoring in bilingualism), and yet when she explained to people that what they were trying to teach was not, in fact, a correct form of English, she was ignored because that English was written in the book. A book, any book, in English was viewed as a holy grail by people, highly qualified people, who should have known better. I decided that we needed to have it in a book." Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Maud Robertson Ramsay Nomiyama now lives in Osaka, Japan with her Japanese husband. She is a qualified primary school teacher with a Diploma of College of Education (DCE), taught for eight years, and then returned to college to take an Associateship in Education (ACE). Publisher's website: http: //sbprabooks.com/MaudRobertsonRamsayNomiyama Author's website: http: //sin-cos-group.com




Speak English or What?


Book Description

This book presents a study of interpreter-mediated interaction in New York City small claims courts, drawing on audio-recorded arbitration hearings and ethnographic fieldwork. Focusing on the language use of speakers of Haitian Creole, Polish, Russian, or Spanish, the study explores how these litigants make use of their limited proficiency in English, in addition to communicating with the help of professional court interpreters. Drawing on research on courtroom interaction, legal interpreting, and conversational codeswitching, the study explores how the ability of immigrant litigants to participate in these hearings is impacted by institutional language practices and underlying language ideologies, as well as by the approaches of individual arbitrators and interpreters who vary in their willingness to accommodate to litigants and share the burden of communication with them. Litigants are shown to codeswitch between the languages in interactionally meaningful ways that facilitate communication, but such bilingual practices are found to be in conflict with court policies that habitually discourage the use of English and require litigants to act as monolinguals, using only one language throughout the entire proceedings. Moreover, the standard distribution of interpreting modes in the courtroom is shown to disadvantage litigants who rely on the interpreter, as consecutive interpreting causes their narrative testimony to be less coherent and more prone to interruptions, while simultaneous interpreting often leads to incomplete translation of legal arguments or of their opponent's testimony. Consequently, the study raises questions about the relationship between linguistic diversity and inequality, arguing that the legal system inherently privileges speakers of English.




A Study of Attitudes of Dialect Speakers Towards the Speak Mandarin Campaign in Singapore


Book Description

This book makes an original contribution to the fields of sociolinguistics, language planning policy and Chinese language studies. It examines the effectiveness of the Singapore’s Speak Mandarin Campaign in changing the language use of dialect speakers towards Mandarin.Singapore may be only “a small red dot” and barely visible on the world’s map. However, its complex and dynamic linguistic diversity and its quadrilingual educational system make it a unique and fascinating research site for examining deliberate language planning on the part of governmental authorities. 2017 marks the 38th anniversary of the Speak Mandarin Campaign, a focused language-planning policy aimed at changing the deeply entrenched sociolinguistic habits of Chinese Singaporeans who are used to speaking Chinese dialects. This book provides a revealing update on dialect speakers’ attitudes towards the campaign by including discussions and other related issues such as the recent call for the revitalisation of Chinese dialects by younger dialect speakers, Chinese students’ attitude towards learning Mandarin in schools, the encroachment of English in the home environment, the spread and dominance of English in the local linguistic landscape, and the challenges of maintaining Mandarin as a language of use and preference.