Leading researchers in the field of spoken discourse and language teaching offer an empirically informed, issues-based discussion of the present state of research into spoken language. They address the opportunities offered by these emerging insights for language education and, specifically, for TESOL. They ask whether new data and evidence that spoken discourse is a distinctive genre will challenge existing language theories and teaching. A stimulating resource for both researchers and language teachers.

How is technology changing the way we write? In the fast-moving world of email, content is far more important than spelling and punctuation. Is it time to throw away the old rules—or should we hurry to the rescue?
From pen-and-parchment to the email revolution, Naomi S.Baron’s provocative account shows how a surprising variety of factors—not just technology, but also religious beliefs, the law, nationalism, and economics— shape the way we read, write and communicate. Along the way, readers will discover that:
• Long before keyboards and carpal tunnel syndrome, monks grumbled about the ergonomics of the medieval scriptorium.
• In 1902 the Times of London proclaimed of the telephone: ‘An overwhelming majority of the population do not use it and are not likely to use it at all.’
• Many children who seldom spoke to their parents at home now communicate with them through email.
• And much more.
This fascinating, anecdotal foray through the history of language and writing offers a fresh perspective on the impact of the digital age on literacy and education, and on the future of our language.

This volume is the outcome of the author’s observations and puzzlement over seventeen years of teaching English and French as second languages, followed by 30 years of research into the neurolinguistic aspects of bilingualism. It examines, within the framework of a neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism (Paradis, 2004), the crucial and pervasive contributions made by declarative and procedural memory to the appropriation, representation and processing of a second language.

The French administrative language of the European Union is an emerging discourse: it is only fifty years old, and has its origins in the French administrative register of the middle of the twentieth century, but it is also a unique contact situation in which translation has always played a pivotal role. Using the methodology of corpus linguistics, and a specially compiled corpus of texts, covering a range of genres, this book describes the current discourse of EU French from the perspective of phraseology and collocational patterning, and in particular in comparison with its French national counterpart.

Is spelling still important in the age of spellcheckers? Ask Dan Quayle
Part guide to better spelling, part paean to an endangered art, Eyes Before Ease is filled with fascinating trivia, historical asides, astute personal observations, and good-natured humor about why spelling is still important--even with the advent of spellcheckers. Professor Larry Beason argues that spelling is more than just the correct arrangement of letters--it sheds light on the human experience itself. It lets us communicate with other people, it indicates (right or wrong) our intelligence, and also brings us together as a community.
Beason also explains why our particular spelling system is so difficult, how to become a better speller, and why you should never trust a cyborg for the correct spelling of a homophone.