Drawing on both original texts and critical literature, Linguistics in a Colonial World surveys the methods, meanings, and uses of early linguistic projects around the world.

• Explores how early endeavours in linguistics were used to aid in overcoming practical and ideological difficulties of colonial rule
• Traces the uses and effects of colonial linguistic projects in the shaping of identities and communities that were under, or in opposition to, imperial regimes
• Examines enduring influences of colonial linguistics in contemporary thinking about language and cultural difference
• Brings new insight into post-colonial controversies including endangered languages and language rights in the globalized twenty-first century

This book shows how the generative approach to linguistics may be used to understand how languages change. Generative diachronic syntax has developed since the inception of the principles and parameters approach to comparative syntax in the early 1980s: it has become increasingly important in historical linguistics and generative theory, acting as a bridge between them and providing insights to both. Ian Roberts relates work in historical linguistics to contemporary work on universal grammar and historical syntactic variation. He explains how standard questions in historical linguistics - including word-order change, grammaticalization, and reanalysis - can be explored in terms of current generative theory. He examines the nature of the links between syntactic change and first-language acquisition and considers the short and long-term effects of language contact. Professor Roberts provides numerous examples from a range of different languages, guides to further reading, and a comprehensive glossary. This is the ideal textbook introduction for students of syntactic change.

There are many reasons why you might need to learn a foreign language quickly. The author, a U.S. Army Green Beret, often travels to foreign countries on short notice and needs to be able to communicate with military and government officials, many of who do not speak English. He tried all types of schools, classes, books and tapes, but none delivered what he needed when he needed it. So he developed his own method for learning foreign languages. It proved so effective for him and his fellow Green Berets that he decided to share his method with others who need to learn a language quickly. The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast is designed for people who have no interest in learning complicated rules of grammar.

Dynamic Assessment (DA) reconceptualizes classroom interactions by arguing that teaching and assessment should not be distinct undertakings but must be integrated as a single activity that seeks to understand learner abilities by actively supporting their ongoing development. DA is based in the Vygotskian notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which captures the uniquely human potential to exceed our present capabilities by working in cooperation with others whose dialogic interaction mediates us to higher levels of functioning. DA offers a framework for co-constructing a ZPD with learners in order to simultaneously reveal the full range of their abilities and promote development.

This book presents the first in-depth analysis of DA’s application to particular problems of L2 development. It includes detailed discussions of the core theoretical tenets as well as guidelines for implementing DA principles in L2 classrooms. The book will be of interest to language teacher educators, language testers, classroom practitioners, and students and researchers in the areas of SLA, language pedagogy, and assessment.

What Writing Does and How It Does It offers a sophisiticated introduction to multiple methods--each described and illustrated by an expert researcher--of understanding, studying, and analyzing texts and writing practices across a wide-range of set.