Books in the Edinburgh Textbooks in Applied Linguistics series

Provides advanced introductions to the main areas of study in contemporary Applied Linguistics, with a principal focus on the theory and practice of language teaching and language learning and on the processes and problems of language in use.

Language Planning is a resurgent academic discipline, reflecting the importance of language in issues of migration, globalisation, cultural diversity, nation-building, education and ethnic identity. Written as an advanced introduction, this book engages with all these themes but focuses specifically on language planning as it relates to education, addressing such issues as bilingualism and the education of linguistic minority pupils in North America and Europe, the educational and equity implications of the global spread of English, and the choice of media of instruction in post-colonial societies. Contextualising this discussion, the first two chapters describe the emergence and evolution of language planning as an academic discipline, and introduce key concepts in the practice of language planning. The book is wide-ranging in its coverage, with detailed discussion of the context of language policy in a variety of countries and communities across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

This book is written for applied linguists and students on applied linguistics courses, who are familiar with recent developments in the field of SLA.

Language, this book argues, is political from top to bottom, whether considered at the level of an individual speaker's choice of language or style of discourse with others (where interpersonal politics are performed), or at the level of political rhetoric, or indeed all the way up to the formation of national languages. By bringing together this set of topics and highlighting how they are interrelated, the book will function well as a textbook on any applied or sociolinguistic course in which some or all of these various aspects of the politics of language are covered.

This volume is a study of the language of literary texts. It looks at the usefulness of pragmatic theories to the interpretation of literary texts and surveys methods of analysing narrative, with special attention given to narratorial authority and character focalisation. The book includes a description of Grice's Co-operative Principle and its contribution to the interpretation of literary texts, and considers Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory, with particular stress on the valuable insights into irony and varieties of indirect discourse it offers. Bakhtin's theories are introduced, and related to the more explicitly linguistic Relevance Theory. Metaphor, irony and parody are examined primarily as pragmatic phenomena, and there is a strand of sociolinguistic interest particularly in relation to the theories of Labov and Bakhtin.

Highlights the importance of classroom discourse to any second language teacher education programmeReflective practice is central to teacher education and development, yet is something that many teachers struggle with. Can reflective practice be refocused by asking teachers to place classroom interaction and discourse at the centre of their reflections?In this accessible textbook, Steve Walsh explains why it is essential to put an understanding of classroom discourse at the centre of any second language teacher education programme, whether it is a formal programme under the guidance of a teacher educator or a more informal, self-directed programme of teacher development. He argues that in order to improve their professional practice, language teachers need to gain a detailed, up-close understanding of their local context by focusing on the complex relationship between teacher language, classroom interaction and learning. In order to do this he revisits and reconceptualises the notion of reflective practice by giving teachers appropriate tools which allow them to reflect on and improve their professional practice. This thought-provoking book not only stimulates debate on classroom discourse and reflective practice, but also contains practical exercises and advice which will be invaluable to both new and experienced language teachers as well as to researchers in applied linguistics.Task commentaries, a glossary of technical terms and an annotated list of further reading are also included.