Unity and Diversity in Language Use

by Miller, Kristyan Spelman; Thompson, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780826478740
• ISBN10: 0826478743
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-23
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

The papers in this collection, drawn from the 34th Annual Conference of the British Association for Applied Linguistics, reflect a number of different perspectives within the field of applied linguistics at the start of the twenty-first century. While addressing the theme of unity and diversity, each paper prompts critical reflection on tensions within the discipline between stability and change, consensus and controversy, similarity and variation. The interpretation of language use is broad and varied, taking both macro- and micro-perspectives. Topics addressed range from issues of global communication in a world of shifting demographies and technological advances to analyses of specific contexts of interaction, both professional and personal. Contexts of language use frequently coincide with settings of language acquisition, both within and beyond the language classroom, and this opens up discussion of the focus, scope and appropriateness of research stances in applied linguistics.

Table of Contents

Introduction	v
Kristyan Spelman Miller
Paul Thompson
Beyond the second vs. foreign language dichotomy: The subjective dimensions of language learning	1	(21)
Claire Kramsch
Genre teaching: the struggle for diversity in unity	22	(17)
Julian Edge
Sue Wharton
Organisation in school and university students' persuasive texts	39	(18)
Ann Galloway
Discourse and synchronous computer-mediated communication: uniting speaking and writing?	57	(15)
James Simpson
Methodological issues involved in studying children's interactions with ICT	72	(13)
Julia Gillen
Students' interpretations of teachers' gestures in the language classroom -- what do teachers mean and what do students see?	85	(14)
Daniela Sime
Mapping and assessing medical students' interactional involvement styles with patients	99	(26)
Celia Roberts
Srikant Sarangi
Distinguishing the voices of researchers and the people they research in writing qualitative research	125	(13)
Adrian Holliday
Is it a wood, or are they trees?	138	(14)
Keith Johnson
Children mediating their immigrant parents' learning of L2 English: a focus on verb learning in homework interactions	152	(17)
Pilar Duran
Random association networks: A baseline measure of lexical complexity	169	(14)
Paul Meara
Ellen Schur
Imposed unity, denied diversity: changing attitudes to artifice in language and learning	183	(15)
Guy Cook
Habeas corpus and divide et impera: `Global English' and applied linguistics	198	(23)
Barbara Seidlhofer
Contributors	221