Corpus linguistics is one of the most exciting approaches to studies in applied linguistics today. From its quantitative beginnings it has grown to become an essential aspect of research methodology in a range of fields, often combining with text analysis, CDA, pragmatics and organizational studies to reveal important new insights about how language works. This volume captures some of the most stimulating and significant developments in the field, including chapters on language teaching, institutional and professional discourse, English as an International Language, translation, forensics and media studies.
Language Learning is a scientific journal dedicated to the understanding of language learning broadly defined. It publishes research articles that systematically apply methods of inquiry from disciplines including psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, educational inquiry, neuroscience, ethnography, sociolinguistics, sociology, and semiotics. It is concerned with fundamental theoretical issues in language learning such as child, second, and foreign language acquisition, language education, bilingualism, literacy, language representation in mind and brain, culture, cognition, pragmatics, and intergroup relations.
Do all children learn language in the same way? Is the apparent `fast' versus `slow' learning rate among children a reflection of the individual child's approach to language acquisition? This volume explores the importance that individual differences have in language acquisition and challenges some widely held theories of linguistic development. Focusing on one- to three-year-old children, Cecilia Shore describes characteristic differences in terms of vocabulary, grammatical and phonological development.
From the Renaissance onwards, European scholars began to collect and study the various languages of the Old and the New Worlds. The recognition of language diversity encouraged them to explain how differences between languages emerged, why languages kept changing, and in what language families they could be classified.
Within the field of second language acquisition, interest in the acquisition of French as a second language has a long-standing tradition, especially in the European context. The aim of this book is to offer a synthesis of current research within this area. It contains contributions from different researchers in the field, including studies on the acquisition of grammar, formulaic language, lexis and pragmatic devices, and covering interlanguage development from beginner level up to very advanced, presumably near-native levels of proficiency.