`This is a book which places teachers at the heart of inquiry for improvement. The realism, experience and optimism of each of the writers, shines through each page of the text. It is a "can-do" book which combines discussion of principles, practices and contexts with practical examples of exercises - recommended reading for those wishing to reflect upon the challenges and joys of engaging in teacher-led change' Christopher Day, Professor of Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Teacher and School Development (CRSTD), The University of Nottingham

This collection of papers is designed to establish variational pragmatics. This new field is situated at the interface of pragmatics and dialectology and aims at systematically investigating the effect of macro-social pragmatic variation on language in action. As such, it challenges the widespread assumption in the area of pragmatics that language communities are homogeneous and also addresses the current research gap in sociolinguistics for variation on the pragmatic level. The introductory chapter establishes the rationale for studying variational pragmatics as a separate field of inquiry, systematically sketches the broader theoretical framework and presents a framework for further analysis. The papers which follow are located within this framework. They present empirical variational pragmatic research focusing on regional varieties of pluricentric languages. Speech acts and other discourse phenomena are addressed and analysed in a number of regional varieties of Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. The seminal nature of this volume, its empirical orientation and the extensive bibliography make this book of interest to both researchers and students in pragmatics and sociolinguistics.

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Recognition of the need for empirical research and interest in its findings are growing in psychoanalysis. Many psychoanalysts now acknowledge that research is imperative to try to deal with the factors propelling the diminution in status and prestige of the discipline, as well as the number of patients in intensive psychoanalytic treatment. In addition, there is increased pressure to expose and acquaint candidates with analytic research in the course of their education. From Psychoanalytic Narrative to Empirical Single Case Research revivifies the experimental potential of psychoanalysis by focusing a number of structured research methods on a single case study. Drs. Kaechele, Schachter, and Thom, in tandem with the Ulm Psychoanalytic Process Research Study Group, bring their formidable tools and knowledge to bear on Amalia X, a former patient of Dr. Thom's, whose case history is well-documented, preserved and available for formal empirical study.

The chapters in this work all address the significance of the relationship between the aims and methods of language teaching and the contexts in which it takes place. Some do so by considering the implications of this for the ways in which we research language teaching. Others present the results of research and development work, which shows that the various social and cultural forces in the contemporary world are changing the role of language teaching and learning.