This book is a real eye opener for anyone who would equate conjugating verbs and memorizing noun genders with 'learning' a second language. Regan et al. offer a stunning demonstration that effective communication hinges on acquiring the sociolinguistic competence to interpret (and produce) the many choices among variant linguistic structures that native speakers make regularly in their everyday interactions. Exemplifying with the controversial Year Abroad experience, the authors provide a first detailed account of how this is achieved.
The Discourse of Classified Advertising: Exploring the Nature of Linguistic Simplicity (Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics)
Linguists who have studied simplified varieties of a given language, such as pidgins or the language of care-givers, have tended to explain similarities in their structure by the fact that they use the same mechanisms of simplification. Bruthiaux tests this idea by looking at the structure of classified ads in American English, using a body of 800 ads from four categories: automobile sales, apartments for rent, help wanted, and personal ads.
Input for Instructed L2 Learners: The Relevance of Relevance
Added by: Kobojek | Karma: 3.52 | Only for teachers, Linguistics | 13 August 2010
12
Input for Instructed L2 Learners: The Relevance of Relevance
Input for Instructed L2 Learners makes a significant attempt to apply relevance theory (RT), a general theory of human cognition and communication, to verbal input for instructed foreign language learners. As such it is an excellent contribution to the literature on L2 classroom discourse. The book consists of a preface, six chapters, an author and a subject index.
English as spoken in the North of England has a rich social and cultural history; however it has often been neglected by historical linguists, whose research has focused largely on the development of ‘Standard English’.
What is the function of concepts pertaining to meaning in sociolinguistic practice? In this study, the authors argue that we can approach a satisfactory answer by displacing the standard picture of meaning talk as a sort of description with picture that takes seriously the similarity between meaning talk and various types of normative injunction. In their discussion of this approach, they investigate the more general question of the nature of the normative, as well as a range of important topics specific to the philosophy of language, including the work of Quine, Sellars and Wittgenstein.
