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ENGLISH

Integration Of Theory And Practice In Clil

103,35€ + 10% CARD

 Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has now become a feature of education in Europe from primary school to university level. CLIL programmes are intended to integrate language and content learning in a process of mutual enrichment. Yet there is little consensus as to how this is to be achieved, or how the outcomes of such programmes should be measured. It is evident that a further type of integration is required: that of bringing the practice of CLIL into closer contact with the theory. In this, it is necessary to establish the role played by other fundamental aspects of the learning process, including learner and teacher perspectives, learning strategies, task design and general pedagogical approaches. The first part of this book provides a variety of theoretical approaches to the question of what integration means in CLIL, addressing key skills and competences that are taught and learned in CLIL classrooms, and exploring the role of content and language teachers in achieving an integrated syllabus. The second part takes specific cases and experimental studies conducted at different educational levels and analyses them in the light of theoretical considerations.
ENGLISH

English As A Foreign Language Teacher Education - Current Perspectives And Challenges

168,28€ + 10% CARD

 The field of Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) is mainly concerned with the professional preparation of L2 teachers. In order to improve teaching in the multilingual and multicultural classroom of the 21st century, both pre- and in-service L2 teachers as well as L2 teacher educators must be prepared to meet the new challenges of education under the current circumstances, expanding their roles and responsibilities so as to face the new complex realities of language instruction. This volume explores a number of key dimensions of EFL teacher education. The sixteen chapters discuss a wide variety of issues related to second language pedagogy and SLTE. Topics discussed include the importance of SLA research; competency-based teacher education approach; classroom-based action research; SLTE models; the value and role of practicum experience abroad; the models of pronunciation teaching; multicultural awareness and competence; the influence of teachers' cognitions, emotions and attitudes on their emerging and changing professional identities; the potential of classroom materials and technology; and CLIL and ESP teacher education. English as a foreign language teacher education: Current perspectives and challenges will be of interest to teachers-in-training, teachers, teacher educators and to those educational researchers interested in how L2 teaching is actually learned in professional preparation programmes.
ENGLISH

Rhetoric In Financial Discourse - A Linguistic Analysis Of Ict-Mediated Disclosure Genres

121,90€ + 10% CARD

 Financial disclosure has become a crucial component of corporate communication. Through this process, companies aim to provide information and project an image of trustworthiness in response to on-going ethical concerns in the world of finance. Rhetoric in financial discourse provides new insights into how companies communicate with key stakeholders, not only to boost transparency, but also to attract investment. The book offers an in-depth linguistic analysis of the rhetorical dimension of financial communication. It focuses on two technology-mediated genres which are widely used, yet remain largely unexplored from a rhetorical perspective: earnings presentations and earnings releases. Using an innovative methodological approach, the book shows how corporate speakers and writers use distinctive rhetorical strategies to achieve their professional goals. It includes a practical discussion of how the findings can be exploited to develop state-of-the-art corporate communication courses and to improve the effectiveness of financial disclosure in professional settings. The book contributes to an enhanced understanding of the language of finance, representing a discourse community that involves and impacts the lives of many people around the world. It will be of interest to several communities of practice, including language researchers, discourse analysts, corpus linguists, finance and communication academics, students of business and finance, and professionals of financial communication.
ENGLISH

Refusals In Instructional Contexts And Beyond

144,43€ + 10% CARD

 Little exposure and few opportunities for practice are two main drawbacks for learners in instructional contexts. These problems are intensified when dealing with face-threatening acts such as refusals, as learners are not fully capable of expressing their meanings and miscommunication is a likely by-product. The present volume aims at exploring factors and production of refusals in different instructional settings by means of ten original papers which address key questions dealing with the speech act of refusals. The relevance of the volume lies in the individual contributions which embrace innovative perspectives on refusals in order to provide an excellent contribution to this field of enquiry. The book is an obligatory reading for researchers and students interested in the field of interlanguage pragmatics, who will benefit from the range of educational contexts in which refusals are investigated.
ENGLISH

Discourse And Language Learning Across L2 Instructional Settings

192,13€ + 10% CARD

 Studies on discourse and language learning originated in the field of general education and they focused on first language learning environments. However, since 1980s research on discourse and language learning broadened the scope of investigation to respond to second and foreign language environments. Recently, the emergence of new language learning contexts such as computer mediated communication, multilingual settings or content and language integrated contexts requires further research that focuses on discourse and language learning. From this perspective, the present volume aims to broaden the scope of investigation in foreign language contexts by exploring discourse patterns in the classroom and examining the impact of factors such as gender, explicitness of feedback or L1 use on language learning through discourse. With that aim in mind, this volume will bring together research that investigates discourse in various instructional settings, namely those of primary, secondary and university L2 learning environments, content and language integrated contexts and other new language learning settings. The number and variety of languages involved both as the first language (e.g. English, Finnish, Basque, Spanish, Japanese, French, Italian, Catalan) as well as the target foreign language (e.g. English, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish) makes the volume specially attractive. Additionally, the different approaches adopted by the researchers participating in this volume, such as information processing, sociocultural theory, or conversation analysis, widen the realm of investigation on discourse and language learning. Finally, the strength of the volume also lies in the range of educational settings (primary, secondary and tertiary education) and the worldwide representation of contributors across seven different countries, namely those of Spain, France, Austria, Finland, Germany, Canada, Australia and the United States. The uniqueness of the volume is due to its eclectic and comprehensive nature in tackling instructional discourse. Worldwide outstanding researchers, like Julianne House, Carme Munoz, Ute Smit, Tarja Nikula or Roy Lyster, to quote but a few, adopt different perspectives in this joint contribution that will certainly broaden the scope of research on language learners' discourse.
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Rethinking Academic Writing Pedagogy For The European University

eBook 10%

ENGLISH

Rethinking Academic Writing Pedagogy For The European University

by Ruth Breeze

103,35€ + 10% CARD

 All over Europe, universities are moving over to English as the language of instruction. This development has been accelerated by global forces, and its pedagogical consequences have yet to be fully explored. This book examines this situation from the point of view of students and teachers, focusing particularly on the acquisition of English language writing skills in European university contexts. It takes an academic approach, and is firmly grounded in the bibliography on teaching academic writing to second language users in English-speaking countries, as well as in the bibliography on teaching English in Europe in higher education. In addition to providing sound pedagogical guidelines, it also brings together the most recent critiques of current practice and an overview of the innovative approaches devised in the last ten years. This is a book for all those who are involved in the changing European university scenario: English teachers and writing instructors, lecturers faced with the challenge of teaching their courses in English, university administrators and decision-makers.
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Research On Mother Tongue Education In A Comparative International Perspective

eBook 10%

ENGLISH

Research On Mother Tongue Education In A Comparative International Perspective - Theoretical And Methodological Issues

153,70€ + 10% CARD

 Pioneering in the comparison of standard language teaching in Europe, the International Mother tongue Education Network (IMEN) in the last twenty-five years stimulated experts from more than fifteen European countries to participate in a range of research projects in this field of qualitative educational analyses. The volume "Research on mother tongue education in a comparative international perspective - Theoretical and methodological issues" documents theoretical principals and methodological developments that during the last decades shaped IMEN research and may enlarge the fundaments of comparative qualitative research in language education in a seminal way. The topics of this volume include: * IMEN's aims, points of departure, history and methodology; * research on the professional practical knowledge of MTE-teachers; * innovation, key incident analysis and international triangulation; * positioning in theory and practice. Also included: the IMEN bibliography 1984-2004 which supplies a complete picture of IMEN research activities from the beginning.
ENGLISH

English For Professional And Academic Purposes

136,48€ + 10% CARD

 English in academic and professional settings has received great attention over the last 50 years, as its use has become a key asset for anyone interested in improving his/her chances of communicating internationally. However, it still offers rich opportunities for teachers and researchers working on English in specific settings. The aim of English for Professional and Academic Purposes is to offer an overview of several topics within the field of discourse analysis applied to English in academic and professional domains. The book compiles contributions from different origins, ranging from Japan to the USA and several European countries, and covers English as a native, second, foreign and international language. It also deals with various specialities, including academic writing, business discourse or English for medicine, nursing, maritime industry and science and engineering. This volume is divided into three sections: Discourse Analysis of English for Academic Purposes, Professional English and EPAP Pedagogy, since it was conceived as a contribution to the research on how English is analysed as both the discourse of and for effective communication in academic and professional settings, and how it can be applied to teaching. This manuscript offers some fresh insights for those involved or interested in this field of expertise, in an attempt to shed some light on its latest innovations.
ENGLISH

Entering An Online Support Group On Eating Disorders - A Discourse Analysis

by Wyke Stommel

149,73€ + 10% CARD

 Online support groups are considered highly valuable in addition to traditional health care services, but we know very little about how people actually join such a group. This book offers a microanalysis of an online support group on eating disorders, specifically the communication through textual messages between newcomers and regular members and members' nicknames. The study uses an ethnomethodological and conversation analytical approach to show that members of online support groups treat the group as a community in which their illness-identity is highly relevant. It appears that members invoke community norms regarding legitimacy for newcomers: Newcomers are expected to admit that they are ill, but this is a very difficult step for those who have not yet fully adopted the "sick role" (Parsons, 1951). In the field of eating disorders, it is particularly difficult for people that tend to pro-ana, i.e. the glamorization of eating disorders. The insecurity and anxiety that newcomers display as they enter the online group could probably be relieved when a special entry subforum would be installed in which they can take time and space to actually recognize that they are ill.
ENGLISH

Changing Discursive Trends In The Online Review Genre - A Cross-Linguistic Study Of Blablacar

by Maria De La O Hernandez-Lopez

~~135,15€~~ 121,64€ 10% OFF

 Around twenty years ago, with the digitisation of almost every facet of life, most businesses started including their own review system, so that their products could be rated and reviewed. This was the first wave of online reviews, called online consumer reviews (OCRs). The emergence of the smartphone and the proliferation of social media in the 2010s, however, resulted in a new ecosystem in which peers could share their assets, review other peers and be reviewed. This is the second wave of online reviews, or the emergence of online peer reviews (OPRs). This book explores the three differentiating discursive practices found in BlaBlaCar in Spanish and in English (emotive, relational and metacommunicative) as representative of this new wave. It demonstrates that OPRs have characteristics of their own, and proposes a new definition that captures the latest developments in online reviews in the context of peer collaboration.
ENGLISH

In-Between: Transversal Values In Contemporary Social Discourses And Culture

~~141,78€~~ 127,60€ 10% OFF

 The title concept 'in-between' (metaxu) refers to identity that remains in perpetual disjunction, dispersion and crisis. This book proves that 'in-between' is not an empty space, but a productive mode of creating new qualities, experiences, ideas and representations. The authors of individual chapters interpret selected aspects of metaxu in relevant to contemporary cultural communication areas, i.e. linguistic and more broadly semiotic, and make contemporary discourses the object of exploration. Most of the analyses are based on the Polish-language linguistic context; however, they refer to a universal perspective of culture and communication.
ENGLISH

Interlingual Readings Of Political Discourse - Translation, Interpreting And Contrastive Analysis

~~137,80€~~ 124,02€ 10% OFF

 This volume provides a timely reflection of this growing interdisciplinary field of translation, interpreting and political discourse. It includes very recent work carried out by researchers from a range of countries. The chapters illustrate new trends and perspectives in the interdisciplinary research field, and extends previous research. The volume covers both translation and interpreting modes in monolingual, bilingual and multilingual contexts. It features the convergences and synergies between the two modes, and thus provides new insights on these different modes of language communication. Furthermore, instead of situating translation in politics or politics in translation, the volume treats political discourse and translation/interpreting at equal levels, thus allowing more room for the discussion of the interdisciplinary nature of the field.
ENGLISH

Riches Of Intercultural Communication - Volume 1: Interactive, Contrastive, And Cultural Representational Approaches

165,63€ + 10% CARD

 How do you react to an intercultural situation that you do not understand? There are four options. You wait until it's over. You adjust your behavior and "do as the natives do." You blame the other as strange and stupid. Or you start to wonder by thinking about yourself and the other(s). This last option is called a Rich Point. This book provides an overview of research into intercultural communication. It is not a handbook, but offers nine studies that illustrate the reflection process from different scholarly perspectives. The approaches in this volume are the interaction approach, contrastive approach and cultural representational approach. Volume 2 offers nine additional chapters exemplifying the multilingualism approach and transfer approach including research into intercultural competences. Together, the chapters illustrate the essence of the essentialism and non-essentialism debate regarding diversity and inclusion. Have you ever found yourself in an intercultural situation you did not understand? How did you react? Did you wonder if you could have reacted differently? What have you learnt that could support you in similar future occasions? Test your knowledge of Intercultural Communication with this quiz! link
ENGLISH

Riches Of Intercultural Communication - Volume 2: Multilingual And Intercultural Competences Approaches

159,00€ + 10% CARD

 How do you react to an intercultural situation that you do not understand? There are four options. You wait until it's over. You adjust your behavior and "do as the natives do." You blame the other as strange and stupid. Or you start to wonder by thinking about yourself and the other(s). This last option is called a Rich Point. This book provides an overview of research into intercultural communication. It is not a handbook but offers nine studies that illustrate the reflection process from different scholarly perspectives. The approaches in this volume are the multilingualism approach and transfer approach including research into intercultural competences. Volume 1 offers nine additional chapters exemplifying the interaction approach, contrastive approach, and cultural representational approach. Together, the chapters illustrate the essence of the essentialism and non-essentialism debate regarding diversity and inclusion. Have you ever found yourself in an intercultural situation you did not understand? How did you react? Did you wonder if you could have reacted differently? What have you learnt that could support you in similar future occasions? Test your knowledge of Intercultural Communication with this quiz! link
ENGLISH

Metaphors In Medical Texts

by Geraldine W. Van Rijn-Van Tongeren

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 This book claims that metaphors must be seen as indispensable cognitive and communicative instruments in medical science. Analysis of texts taken from recently published medical handbooks reveals what kind of metaphors are used to structure certain medical concepts and what the functions are of the metaphorical expressions in the texts. Special attention is drawn to the idea that scientific facts do not originate from passive observation of reality. Imaginative thinking and the use of metaphors are required to make the unknown accessible to us. Yet, although metaphors are often a sine qua non for the genesis of a scientific fact, they may also inhibit the development of alternative views. This is due to the fact that metaphors always highlight certain aspects of a phenomenon while other aspects remain obscured. Analysis of the metaphors used in medical texts may reveal exactly which aspects are highlighted and which remain hidden and may thus help to find alternative metaphors (and possibly therapies) when current metaphors are no longer adequate. This book should be of interest not only to linguists, translators and researchers working in the field of intercultural communication, but also to doctors and medical scientists, and those interested in the philosophy of science.
ENGLISH

Forbid/Allow Asymmetry - On The Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Wording Effects In Surveys

by Bregje Holleman

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 Questionnaires are widely used in the social sciences and very often survey data form the basis for governmental and commercial planning or evaluation. Yet the quality of survey data is not attested to, since a large variety of factors in the language-use situation prove to influence the answers unintentionally. The forbid/allow asymmetry is a well-known example of this: when respondents are asked whether something should be forbidden, about 50% may answer 'yes, forbid' - whereas an equivalent question phrased with the verb 'to allow' could well cause up to 75% of the respondents to answer 'no, it should not be allowed'. Which question wording is preferable to measure respondents' true attitudes? Only when we know why the answers differ, can we decide on that. This book is the first to apply a systematic cognitive approach to describe the causes of the forbid/allow asymmetry. The question-answering process is unravelled by a variety of experiments and meta-analytic techniques. Analyses reveal that the difference in question wording does not prompt respondents to retrieve different attitudes. Instead, the asymmetry reflects that the question wording causes the response options to be used differently. Because of the qualifying dimensions in the question text, the meanings of 'yes' and 'no' change, as well as the cognitive distance between them. This study sheds a different light on processes of question-answering and text interpretation. Furthermore, practical advice on questionnaire design and on the interpretation of survey data is given on the basis of these new insights.
ENGLISH

Procedural And Declarative Information In Software Manuals - Effects On Information Use, Performance And Knowledge

by Nicole Ummelen

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 People who use software manuals want to get something done. Procedural information directly supports this goal, but the use of declarative information in manuals has often been under discussion. Current research gives rise to the expectation that manual users tend to skip declarative information most of the time. Also, no effects of declarative information in software manuals have yet been found.In this study, information use and information effects in software manuals are investigated in three experiments, thereby taking different user types, different task types and different information arrangements into account. A new technique was applied: the click&read method. This technique enables the software user to use the manual and carry out software tasks at the same time while information selection and times are recorded automatically in logfiles.For the first time, quantitative data are presented about the amounts of procedural and declarative information that were selected and the times that were spent using these information types. Although procedural information is selected more often and used longer, declarative information appears to be a substantial part of the information selection. Moreover, the results show that using declarative information positively affects performance on future tasks, performance on reasoning tasks and factual knowledge.
ENGLISH

Reader Feedback In Text Design - Validity Of The Plus-Minus Method For The Pretesting Of Public Information Brochures

by Menno De Jong

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 Brochures play a significant role in governmental public information provision. Every year many brochures are distributed to inform, instruct or persuade people. These brochures may benefit from a systematic design process, including applied research such as pretesting. Among communication professionals, the importance of pretesting is practically undisputed. Readers from the target audience are assumed to provide valuable insights into whether a document really works. Organizations therefore increasingly try to include a pretest in the design process of important documents. Various pretest methods have been developed and are being used in practice. However, little is known yet about the merits and restrictions of the available approaches. This book provides a framework for scholarly research into pretesting, and presents a series of studies into the validity of one particular pretest instrument: a combination of the plus-minus method and a semi-structured questionnaire. This is one of the prevailing pretest approaches in the Dutch public information sector. The validity of the pretest instrument is assessed in two complementary ways. First, the question is addressed as to whether a revision on the basis of pretest results actually leads to an improvement in the functional quality of brochures. Second, a study is presented in which text and subject-matter experts judge the importance of pretest results. The pretest instrument appears to yield a large amount and a great variety of reader feedback, which in a subsequent revision may contribute to significant improvements in the effectiveness of brochures.
ENGLISH

Chinese-Dutch Business Negotiations - Insights From Discourse

by Xiangling Li

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 The Chinese are known as an inscrutable people in the West. With the rapid globalisation of world business, China, with its booming economy and as one of the world's largest emerging markets, is attracting increasing numbers of international traders and investors. Various sources have shown that language and culture are, among other factors, two of the major obstacles to successful business collaborations between the Chinese and Westerners. This dissertation aims to help remove these obstacles by offering some insights into the intricate mechanisms of business negotiation between the Chinese and the Dutch.While most of the research concerning Chinese-Western communication has used everyday conversation as the subject of study, this research chooses negotiation, the core of international business, as its subject. Micro-level qualitative discourse analyses are used as the main research method in addition to ethnographic methods such as the questionnaire survey and interview. The main data used are simulated as well as real-life video-taped Chinese-Dutch business negotiations. Questionnaire survey and interview data from real-life Chinese and Dutch negotiators are used as support data. The phenomena recurrently cropping up across the negotiations are examined at a turn-to-turn level to pinpoint places where problems arise that prevent the negotiators from reaching mutual understandings and fulfilling negotiation goals. The deep-rooted cultural concepts underlying the linguistic phenomena prove to be the main trouble sources. The results of this research are relevant for both the academic and business world.
ENGLISH

Children'S Composing - A Study Into The Relationships Between Writing Processes, Text Quality, And Cognitive And Linguistic Skills

by Jose Van Der Hoeven

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 In this volume a relatively new approach to writing process research is attempted; time is included as a very important factor in describing the writing process. The link between the writing process of 12-year old students, the quality of the compositions, and writing skills is investigated in six studies, discussing the importance of genre knowledge, linguistic skills, and cognitive skills in writing. Including linguistic and cognitive skills gives new perspectives on the relationship between the writing process and the resulting composition. The concepts used in these studies are drawn from the fields of both linguistics and cognitive psychology.
ENGLISH

Passive And Perspective

by Louise H. Cornelis

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 The passive construction in Dutch represents a long-standing problem both in linguistics and in written communications. This book proposes a new analysis of the passive in Dutch, integrating insights from theoretical (especially cognitive) linguistics and rhetoric/composition. The point of departure is the observation that the Dutch passive has a demonstrable perspective effect in texts: the passive discourages identification with the agent, and this in fact is the meaning of the Dutch passive construction. This meaning forms the basis for a solution to a number of text problems, including the problem of how to best use the passive in computer manuals. We can also understand the passive's role in specific texts. For example, it becomes clear why policy paper writers use so many passives. Finally, in one of the case studies it is shown why passives were used differently in the NRC Handelsblad, a Rotterdam daily newspaper, and in the Parool, from Amsterdam, when they both reported that Ajax, Amsterdam's football team, became the national soccer champion.
ENGLISH

Discourse Analysis And Evaluation - Functional Approaches

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 Functional approaches to the study of language may not only be used to characterize discourse structures, but also to assess their communicative quality. In fact, discourse analysis and evaluation are conceptually related activities. In this volume the link between analysis and evaluation is explored in seven studies discussing a variety of discourse genres like package inserts, telephone openings, survey interviews, meetings, government brochures and direct mail letters. The analytical concepts used stem from different strands of research into language, including cognitive linguistics, pragmalinguistics, conversational analysis and persuasion research.
ENGLISH

Functional Communication Quality

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 In this volume researchers from American and European universities and institutes present their recent research on 'Functional Communication Quality'.Functional refers to the purposes of the communication process. The relations between these purposes and the best way to describe them, are some of the topics discussed.Communication refers to a complex interactive process. Relevant variables include the speech act of the participants, features of the message, chosen channel, moment, duration, frequency, environment. The participants in this process are individuals and groups as well as organizations and parts of organizations.Quality can be described from several points of view: a technical point of view with efficiency as its goal, an operative point of view which aims for effectiveness or an aesthetic point of view.This volume shows that a multi-perspective approach to Functional Communication Quality (FCQ) is the only way to obtain a better insight into this area of communication studies. The papers are grouped in four different chapters, each dealing with a different perspective on the theme:* FCQ in an organizational context;* FCQ and research methods;* FCQ and text analysis;* FCQ and electronic tools.The book also contains an overview of organizational communication research in France and Spain.This volume will be of interest to a broad audience of researchers and students in the field of organizational communication studies and the field of writing studies, communication consultants and communication managers, professional writers and software engineers.
ENGLISH

Quality Of Technical Documentation

197,43€ + 10% CARD

 User manuals, reference guides, project documentation, equipment specifications and other technical documents are increasingly subjected to high quality standards. However, it is not clear whether research efforts are keeping pace with this increasing importance of documentation quality. This volume includes studies from researchers as well as practitioners, exemplifying three approaches towards document quality: * Product-orientation, with an eye for usability in various manifestations such as tutorials, concept definitions, tools for users of documentation to find information, methods of eliciting user feedback, and cultural differences; * Process-orientation, in which the quality of technical documentation is regarded as an outgrowth of a process involving sub-steps such as storyboarding, pre-testing and use of automation tools in writing and producing documents; * Professional orientation, in which attention is focused on those who create technical documentation. The volume will be of interest to a broad audience of writers, managers and trainers with technical and non-technical backgrounds, such as: quality managers; communication managers; technical communicators; trainers in computer usage; teachers, researchers and students of (technical) communication.
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