Books in the Real Language Series series

Presents an approach to language awareness based upon critical theories of language and language education. This text consists of 13 essays with contributions from both theorists and practitioners on subjects such as language in multicultural education and English as a foreign language.

Challenges the dichotomy of female and male use of language, addressing the political and social consequences of popular beliefs about women's language' and 'men's language' and proposing new ways of looking at language and gender.

Using a range of evidence Janet Holmes examines the distribution and functions of a range of specific verbal politeness strategies in women's and men's speech and discusses the possible reasons for gender differences in this area.

This case study aims to provide an insight into the language use of Afro-Caribbeans in London. It places emphasis on the linguistic background of the community and in particular on young people of the first and second British-born generations.

This text examines the wide range of issues involved in bureaucratic language, illustrating the complex inter-relationships between language, bureaucracy and social control. The authors use real life, varying data in their analysis, taken from institutions in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium.

Aims to make available accurate information on regional variation in the use of the grammatical constructions of English, and to direct readers to those resources where further information on regional variation is available.

This text examines literacy, politics and social change, the ethnography of literacy and literacy in education, and explores a new critical framework.

Examines discourse, power and ideology, by introducing perspectives on the relationship between social structures of power and interaction. This work argues that if a clearer understanding of the relationship between language, discourse and social institutions is to be obtained, the linguistic processes must be examined closely.

Clare Walsh explores the experience of women currently involved in linguistic domains traditionally monopolised by men and considers the impact women have made on the norms in language that govern public sphere discourse (eg in politics, professional occupations and organisations - pressure/lobby groups). Case studies are used throughout.

Exploring how attitudes and cultural assumptions about children and childhood are revealed in contemporary English, this text addresses such questions as: How is concern for children's safety and welfare reflected in the vocabulary and grammar of contemporary English?

Part of a sociolinguistics series about language use in the real world, and about the relationships between language, society and social change. The author argues for an approach that takes linguistic practice to be the primary medium through which social processes operate.