In a series of studies specially written for this volume, Studying Speaking to Inform Second Language Learning offers the applied linguist research on spoken interaction in second and foreign languages and provides insights as to how findings from each of these studies may inform language pedagogy. The volume offers an interweaving of discourse perspectives: speech acts, speech events, interactional analysis, pragmatics, and conversational analysis.

This series brings together titles dealing with a variety of aspects of languageacquisition and processing in situations where a language or languages other than thenative language is involved. Second language is thus interpreted in its broadestpossible sense. The volumes included in the series all offer in their different ways, onthe one hand, exposition and discussion of empirical findings and, on the other, somedegree of theoretical reflection. In this latter connection, no particular theoreticalstance is privileged in the series; nor is any relevant perspective – sociolinguistic,psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, etc. – deemed out of place. The intended readershipof the series includes final-year undergraduates working on second languageacquisition projects, postgraduate students involved in second language acquisitionresearch, and researchers and teachers in general whose interests include a secondlanguage acquisition component.

This series brings together titles dealing with a variety of aspects of languageacquisition and processing in situations where a language or languages other than thenative language is involved. Second language is thus interpreted in its broadestpossible sense. The volumes included in the series all offer in their different ways, onthe one hand, exposition and discussion of empirical findings and, on the other, somedegree of theoretical reflection. In this latter connection, no particular theoreticalstance is privileged in the series; nor is any relevant perspective – sociolinguistic,psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, etc. – deemed out of place. The intended readershipof the series includes final-year undergraduates working on second languageacquisition projects, postgraduate students involved in second language acquisitionresearch, and researchers and teachers in general whose interests include a secondlanguage acquisition component.

This series brings together titles dealing with a variety of aspects of languageacquisition and processing in situations where a language or languages other than thenative language is involved. Second language is thus interpreted in its broadestpossible sense. The volumes included in the series all offer in their different ways, onthe one hand, exposition and discussion of empirical findings and, on the other, somedegree of theoretical reflection. In this latter connection, no particular theoreticalstance is privileged in the series; nor is any relevant perspective – sociolinguistic,psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, etc. – deemed out of place. The intended readershipof the series includes final-year undergraduates working on second languageacquisition projects, postgraduate students involved in second language acquisitionresearch, and researchers and teachers in general whose interests include a secondlanguage acquisition component.

Many of the vocabulary items that foreign language learners encounter involve figurative extensions of meaning. For example, bottleneck, hard-headed and getting a foot in the door all involve figurative extensions of parts of the body. To understand words and expressions such as these, language learners often need to employ figurative thinking. This book examines the nature of figurative thinking, considers its contribution to communicative language ability, and explores the implications for language teaching and learning.