Theorizing and Analyzing Agency in Second Language Learning


Book Description

Through several unique perspectives and contexts, this volume contributes to current understanding of agency in second language learning. It includes chapters discussing theoretical, analytical and pedagogical approaches, and will serve as a key reference for researchers of language learning and teaching.




Advances in Interdisciplinary Language Policy


Book Description

This book stems from the joint effort of 25 research teams across Europe, representing a dozen disciplines from the social sciences and humanities, resulting in a radically novel perspective to the challenges of multilingualism in Europe. The various concepts and tools brought to bear on multilingualism are analytically combined in an integrative framework starting from a core insight: in its approach to multilingualism, Europe is pursuing two equally worthy, but non-converging goals, namely, the mobility of citizens across national boundaries (and hence across languages and cultures) and the preservation of Europe’s diversity, which presupposes that each locale nurtures its linguistic and cultural uniqueness, and has the means to include newcomers in its specific linguistic and cultural environment. In this book, scholars from applied linguistics, economics, the education sciences, finance, geography, history, law, political science, philosophy, psychology, sociology and translation studies apply their specific approaches to this common challenge. Without compromising the state-of-the-art analysis proposed in each chapter, particular attention is devoted to ensuring the cross-disciplinary accessibility of concepts and methods, making this book the most deeply interdisciplinary volume on language policy and planning published to date.




Interdisciplinary Research Approaches to Multilingual Education


Book Description

Recently intensified global mobility has reinforced the interest for ethnolinguistic diversity and multilingualism in education and society. Interdisciplinary Research Approaches to Multilingual Education brings together current interdisciplinary perspectives in multilingual and second language education to examine research and language teaching in specific countries, as well as different aspects of multilingual education that include language policies and ICT applications. Containing context-specific practical interventions and relevant theoretical approaches, it considers the contemporary challenges of language policies and practices to inform teacher and curriculum development based on international empirical research. The chapters of this book are centered around the following themes: Educational programs and policies Teaching and learning Linguistic diversity ICT and language learning This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in language education, bilingual education, second/foreign language learning, CALL, and applied linguistics. It will also appeal to educational administrators and those involved with language education policies.




Computational Psycholinguistics


Book Description

Computational Psycholinguistics: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Language investigates the architecture and mechanisms which underlie the human capacity to process language. It is the first such study to integrate modern syntactic theory, cross-linguistic psychological evidence, and modern computational techniques in constructing a model of the human sentence processing mechanism. The monograph follows the rationalist tradition, arguing the central role of modularity and universal grammar in a theory of human linguistic performance. It refines the notion of `modularity of mind', and presents a distributed model of syntactic processing which consists of modules aligned with the various informational `types' associated with modern linguistic theories. By considering psycholinguistic evidence from a range of languages, a small number of processing principles are motivated and are demonstrated to hold universally. It is also argued that the behavior of modules, and the strategies operative within them, can be derived from an overarching `Principle of Incremental Comprehension'. Audience: The book is recommended to all linguists, psycholinguists, computational linguists, and others interested in a unified and interdisciplinary study of the human language faculty.




Crossing Borders, Making Connections


Book Description

This edited volume explores the scope of interdisciplinary linguistics and includes voices from scholars in different disciplines within the social sciences and humanities, as well as different sub-disciplines within linguistics. Chapters within this volume offer a range of perspectives on interdisciplinary studies, represent a connection between different disciplines, or demonstrate an application of interdisciplinarity within linguistics. The volume is divided into three sections: perspectives, connections, and applications. Perspectives The goal of this section is to address more generally the definition(s) of and value of multi-, trans-, and inter-disciplinary work. In what areas and for what purposes is there a need for work that crosses discipline boundaries? What are the challenges of undertaking such work? What opportunities are available? Connections This section features paired chapters written by scholars in different disciplines that discuss the same concept/idea/issue. For example, a discussion of how "assemblage" works in archaeology is paired with a discussion of how "assemblage" can be used to talk about ‘style’ in linguistics. Applications This section can be framed as sample answers to the question: What does interdisciplinarity look like?




The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics


Book Description

This major new survey of sociolinguistics identifies gaps in our existing knowledge base and provides directions for future research.




Interdisciplinary Approaches Toward Enhancing Teacher Education


Book Description

Regardless of the discipline or country, creating quality education is multifaceted. At the center of any schooling practice are the educators, their schools, and the teacher education programs that license them. As the schools and faculties of education strive to provide the best practices to pre-service or in-service teachers, it becomes more critical to increase the quality of teacher education via various means to keep up with the demands of schooling in the 21st century. Interdisciplinary Approaches Toward Enhancing Teacher Education provides an overview of how innovation and research experience can enhance teacher education programs with a focus on competencies, skills, and strategies future teachers will need to cope with while teaching students’ learning with diversity and facing linguistic, social, and environmental challenges. The book particularly investigates the potentiality of educational technology, innovative techniques, and digital storytelling to enhance education and bilingualism in intercultural contexts and multilingual settings. Covering topics that include performance assessment, teacher training, and professional development, and including many practical and diverse examples, this book is intended for TESOL, second or foreign language learning, and CUL programs and teacher-training institutions, as well as teachers, researchers, academicians, and students in interdisciplinary areas that include science, history, geography, language learning, bilingualism, intercultural competencies, classroom interaction, gamification, and educational technology.







Language and Thought


Book Description

This distinguished collection of essays explores the place of natural language in human cognition.




Racialization and Language


Book Description

Drawing on frameworks from applied linguistics and critical discourse analysis, this volume employs a linguistics approach to understanding race and racism in Latin America, with a particular focus on Peru. Building on recent debates in Peru on cultural and biological definitions of race, the book seeks to re-examine the relationship between race and culture not as a dichotomy but as one rooted in and shaped by specific historical moments. Similarly, the volume uses this discussion as a jumping-off point from which to explore notions of identity informed by language as used in local context, rather than as a fixed social category. Offering new perspectives on discursive practices of race and racism in Peru and Latin America, this collection is key reading for students and researchers in sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, anthropology, and Latin American studies.