Developing Interactional Competence in a Japanese Study Abroad Context


Book Description

This book addresses the topic of interactional competence in the area of learning Japanese as a second language. It presents data collected from learners studying abroad in Japan to explain developments in their interactional competence as found in their use of speech styles and co-construction of an utterance.




Ai, Love You?


Book Description

How does making friends, the view of sex, traditional and modern marriages, becoming a resident, and knowing that your children can be kidnapped...legally, connect with that funny little thing called love? Japan is different. You must first appreciate the workings of this foreign and complex society before having a chance at finding love. The Japanese word for love is “ai” which is pronounced similarly to “I” in English. As the book’s title suggests, we sometimes don’t know if we are in love. For Japan lovers, Ai, Love You? is the ultimate insider’s guide to understanding relationships through the Japanese perspective.







Japanese Loanword Phonology


Book Description




Typological Studies on Languages in Thailand and Japan


Book Description

タイ国チュラロンコン大学言語学部と東北大学国際文化研究科附属言語脳認知総合研究センターとの共同研究活動として2010年タイ、バンコクで行われたシンポジウムで発表されたものをまとめたもの。










Contemporary Task-Based Language Teaching in Asia


Book Description

Over the last decade task-based approaches to language learning and teaching (TBLT) have become a global focus of increased levels of research. Governments around the world have turned to TBLT as a potential solution for curricula that lack authentic and meaningful engagement with language learning and are failing to motivate students as a result. This book focuses on Asia, where this shift has been particularly in evidence. TBLT has often been implemented in top-down approaches to curriculum development, which presents a huge range of challenges at the cultural as well as the pedagogic level. Contemporary Task Based Language Teaching in Asia looks at the drivers, stakeholders and obstacles across the region. Some countries have adapted TBLT to deal with the local constraints, others have found it hard to apply and many are still in the process of investigating its implementation in their specific contexts. This collection is important to all involved in language development, from curriculum reform to materials development. It assists from programme evaluation to the setting of assessment standards. The chapters cover all aspects of language education across Asia, from primary to tertiary, private and public education, as well as innovations at local, regional and national levels.




The Pragmatics of Interaction


Book Description

The ten volumes of Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights focus on the most salient topics in the field of pragmatics, thus dividing its wide interdisciplinary spectrum in a transparent and manageable way. While the other volumes select specific philosophical, cognitive, grammatical, social, cultural, variational, or discursive angles, this fourth volume is dedicated to the empirical investigation of the way human beings organize their interaction in natural environments and how they use talk for accomplishing actions and their contexts. Starting from Goffman’s observation that interaction exhibits a structure in its own right that cannot be reduced to the psychological properties of the individual nor to society, it contains a selection of articles documenting the various levels of interactional organization. In addition to treatments of basic concepts such as sequence, participation, prosody and style and some topical articles on phenomena like reported speech and listener response, it also includes overviews of specific traditions (conversation analysis, ethnomethodology) and articles on eminent authors (Goffman, Sacks) who had a formative influence on the field.