In Reflections on Language and Language Learning: In honour of Arthur van Essen, thirty-one leading language scholars and educational linguists in the Netherlands and abroad with whom over the years Professor van Essen, one of the grandees of applied linguistics, has collaborated provide original essays and studies which discuss the most recent insights and trends in the fields of linguistics and foreign language teaching. While interdisciplinary in scope, the volume encompasses theoretical advances in (educational) linguistic thinking

Ethnographic methods are becoming increasingly prevalent in contemporary educational research. Critical Ethnography in Educational Research provides both a technical, theoretical guide to advanced ethnography--focusing on such concepts as primary data collection and system relationships--and a very practical guide for researchers interested in conducting actual studies.

Americans are increasingly alarmed over our nation's educational deficiencies. Though anxieties about schooling are unending, especially with public institutions, these problems are more complex than institutional failure. Expenditures for education have exploded, and far exceed inflation and the rising costs of health care, but academic achievement remains flat. Many students are unable to graduate from high school, let alone obtain a college degree. And if they do make it to college, they are often forced into remedial courses. Why, despite this fiscal extravagance, are educational disappointments so widespread?

This practical, jargon-free, user-friendly guide to the most appropriate use of research instruments provides 'real' examples used in actual projects by practitioners of social and educational research.

The editor and authors in this volume make a convincing case for focusing on advanced foreign language instruction. Importantly, they invite consideration of this focus as an opportunity to re-examine conventional definitions of the target of instruction. In so doing, readers also learn more about the theories highlighted in this volume, and their capacity to enhance our understanding of advancedness and its development within an educational context. This book thus mediates between linguistic and language learning theories and educational practice, modelling the very best of what applied linguistics has to offer.