Lifelong Motivation and Foreign Language Learning
This book traces the motivational dynamics embedded within lifelong foreign language learning trajectories, examining the factors which generate and sustain motivation throughout a learner's life. Embracing a complexity approach, it views motivation as a long-term individual process that evolves along a narrative continuum, developing over the course of life, personal experiences, choices and events. This narrative inquiry delves into the captivating and unique experiences of three exceptionally motivated older adult learners who have embarked on a lifelong foreign language journey and maintained their momentum after 60. It will be relevant to researchers interested in third age language acquisition, L2 motivation and the impact of additional language learning on wellbeing. It also offers pedagogical guidance to optimise language education quality through better appreciation and anticipation of the autonomous third age learning experience.
Natural Language Ontology and Semantic Theory
This Element gives an introduction to the emerging discipline of natural language ontology. Natural language ontology is an area at the interface of semantics, metaphysics, and philosophy of language that is concerned with which kinds of objects are assumed by our best semantic theories. The Element reviews different strategies for identifying a language's ontological commitments. It observes that, while languages share a large number of their ontological commitments (such as to individuals, properties, events, and kinds), they differ in other commitments (for example, to degrees). The Element closes by relating different language and theory-specific ontologies, and by pointing out the merits and challenges of identifying inter-category relations within a single ontology.
Natural Language Ontology and Semantic Theory
This Element gives an introduction to the emerging discipline of natural language ontology. Natural language ontology is an area at the interface of semantics, metaphysics, and philosophy of language that is concerned with which kinds of objects are assumed by our best semantic theories. The Element reviews different strategies for identifying a language's ontological commitments. It observes that, while languages share a large number of their ontological commitments (such as to individuals, properties, events, and kinds), they differ in other commitments (for example, to degrees). The Element closes by relating different language and theory-specific ontologies, and by pointing out the merits and challenges of identifying inter-category relations within a single ontology.
A History of English Spelling
Popularly viewed as eccentric and illogical, dismissed by linguists as fixed and therefore uninteresting, English spelling is the Cinderella of modern linguistics. But it is a complex and fascinating subject. With a rich history of variation, English spelling has much to offer diachronic sociolinguists, while study of its history helps to explain many of today's apparent irregularities. The story of its standardisation, beginning with the advent of the printing press, and the destandardisation currently being witnessed on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, offers new perspectives on how technology drives linguistic change, and reveals fascinating insights into the ways in which variable spelling is being repurposed today.With plenty of exercises, worked examples throughout and a concluding chapter on how to create your own research project, Simon Horobin encourages you to delve into the rich and varied landscape of English spelling.
Critical Thinking for English-Language Learners
Critical Thinking for English-Language Learners is an accessible introduction to critical thinking and the use of informal logic for learners of English.
Studies on Interrogative and Relative Syntax in French and Romance
Friends with Words
The word nerd gift book of the year! With warmth and humor, a popular radio and podcast host shares her love of language, weaving together linguistic history, regional phrases, the hidden poetry in etymologies, new words, and stories from her life and time on the air. Martha Barnette has spent two decades as the co-host of A Way with Words, lauded by Mary Norris in The New Yorker as "a virtual treasure house" and "'Car Talk' for Lexiphiles." Over that time, she's developed a keen sense of what fascinates people about language. They are curious about etymology and revel in slang, are surprised by regional vocabulary and celebrate linguistic diversity. Idioms both puzzle and delight word lovers, and they are eager to share family neologisms and that weird phrase Grandma always used to say. In Friends with Words, Barnette weaves together all these strands in a clear, informative, highly entertaining exploration of language. Chock-full of anecdotes, humorous asides, new words, trivia, and other lexicological delights, Friends with Words also tells Barnette's story--from her Appalachian roots through her study of Ancient Greek, and on to the making of a beloved and enduring show. Friends with Words is an expert, good-humored, joyful read, a perfect gift book.
Games and Gamification in Academic Libraries
Aqu穩 Se Habla
Aqu穩 se habla serves to envision a more just and equitable Spanish language education that centers language learning as a deeply personal, local, and lifelong practice. Organized around long-standing tension points within and outside the field, this volume features a unique set of contributors whose diverse perspectives help to deconstruct disciplinary boundaries and elevate the knowledge and lived experiences of U.S. Spanish speakers. With chapters that include a variety of formats and dialogues between authors, this invaluable resource is collectively crafted by and for students, researchers, educators, and community partners.
So Much Secret Labor
How a passion for translation fueled the development of a great American poetSo Much Secret Labor is a window into the work of the great American poet, James Wright (1927-1980), whose love of languages and quest for the "true imagination" helped transform American poetry. The book draws on memoir, archival research, interviews, letters, and previous unpublished journal excerpts, presenting a scrupulous and intimate reading of Wright's work and the translations he insisted were as redemptive in his life as they were crucial to his poetics. At its center is a selection of Wright's translations, both from German and Spanish: poems by Trakl, Rilke, Heine, Vallejo, Lorca, and Neruda, among others, including draft versions discovered among his collected papers that have never been published. It also provides an important assessment of the little known formative influence of German poetry on Wright's own poems. Wright's literary relationship with another great mid-century American poet, Robert Bly, is featured here in a portfolio of unpublished letters, typescripts and holographs. These tell the story of their ardent friendship and earliest translation collaborations, and situates them in the history of the emergence of poetry of the "true imagination" that they were beginning to explore at that time.
Story Thinking and the Real-world Applications of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing
In the 21st century, the rapid advance of technology and the existential threat of climate breakdown mean the real world increasingly resembles something out of fiction, filled with ambiguity and uncertainty. Such challenges need imaginative, creative solutions. To find them, teams of experts must pool their knowledge, make new connections, and forge paths forward. In Story Thinking, award-winning authors Helen Marshall, Kim Wilkins, and Lisa Bennett show how the principles of science fiction and fantasy writing - which speculate about and imagine different futures, people, and worlds - can enrich research in such areas as government policy, technology innovation, and healthcare within universities and various industries. When transferred to research, story thinking as a method can help to build teams with a shared sense of purpose, offer new patterns of thought for improvisation, rapid perspective shifts, worldbuilding, pleasure and playfulness. Split into two parts - conceptualizing story thinking and story thinking as it has been employed in the field - Marshall, Wilkins and Bennett bring together theories of creativity from business, psychology, futures studies, gaming, and medicine among others, with 4 key practices from SFF storytelling - envisioning, engaging, inhabiting, and empathizing. They then provide practical tools for collaborative problem solving alongside case studies of their own successful applications of Story Thinking in various fields, including defense innovation and future scenario modelling with world governments; developing empathy and enhancing well-being in medical education; designing gaming and simulation tools for researchers; and futureproofing digital identity technologies with the UNHCR, the agency responsible for protecting and aiding refugees Showing how writing can be adapted for new and exciting contexts, Story Thinking bridges the gap between the humanities and outside fields and lays the foundations for more creative approaches that more deeply engage in the process of making a better future.
Endangered Language Varieties in Italy and the Balkans
The contributions to this volume can be traced back to the talks given at the conference "Safeguarding the multiplicity of languages in Europe: Linguistic varieties and minorities at risk in Italy and the Balkans. Linguistic sustainability and policies", which took place at the Villa Vigoni in March 2018. These texts, from the fields of (socio-)linguistics, cultural studies and literary studies, aim to examine language(s) policy and the protection of alloglossia within the framework of pan-European, national and regional measures. They also reflect upon the future prospects and consequences of these measures. The entries deal with the following issues: minority language policies in Europe: the revitalisation of languages and perspectives for the future; linguistic landscapes and how minority languages "survive"; and contact linguistics and multilingualism as phenomena in minority languages. Amongst other things, the volume shows how centuries-old relationships between both southern European peninsulas are reflected in minority languages, as can be seen in the southern Slavic, Albanian, Greek and Balkan Romance varieties in Italy, but also in the various Romance varieties in the Balkans. Furthermore, varieties of German in Italy will also be discussed.
Sing Me Back Home
Set on the Italian island of Sardinia, Sing Me Back Home explores language and culture through songwriting as an ethnographic method. Based on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork writing songs with Sardinian musicians, artisans, shepherds, poets, and language activists, Kristina Jacobsen asks, how are Sardinian lives and language ideologies narrated against the backdrop of American music?The book shows how Sardinian musicians sing their own history between the lines, in songs, in stories about songs, in the recording studio, and in the "stage patter" performed between songs during performances. It reveals how Sardinian songs become a site of transduction where, through the process of songwriting, recording, and performance, the energy from one genre of music and lingua-culture is harnessed to signal another one much closer to home.Sing Me Back Home is accompanied by an album of original songs written and recorded in the field, with links to songs in each chapter. It includes songwriting prompts and lyrics, a glossary of key terms, tables to break down theoretical concepts, and photographs from the field. Drawing on work from critical collaborative research, auto-ethnography, public anthropology, arts-based research, and ethnographic poetry, this sensory ethnography offers new ways for us to hear culture through stories and songs.
The Discursive Construction of Migrant Identities
This edited volume explores how migrant identities are created and constructed in discourse both by migrants themselves and by others. The contributors reveal how migrant identities are discursively constructed by those with lived experiences of mobility and those who view themselves as part of the 'host' population. This dual focus responds to a lack of previous research examining migration representation from both perspectives. Readers will discover how the discursive constructions of migrant identities in different domains relate to one another. The case studies include a broad range of text types from film, government documents and narrative accounts to newspapers and Twitter. They also cover a wide range of contexts including Argentina, Australia, Italy, Romania, and UK, making this is a more comprehensive account of the framing of migration than has been previously accomplished. The chapters all follow the same structure to help the reader learn how to investigate migration discourses using qualitative and quantitative (critical) discourse analytic approaches.
The Rhetoric of Judging Well
Known as the "swing justice," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy provided the key vote determining which way the Supreme Court would decide on some of the most controversial cases in US history. Though criticized for his unpredictable rulings, Kennedy also gained a reputation for his opinion writing and, more so, for his legal rhetoric.This book examines Justice Kennedy's legacy through the lenses of rhetoric, linguistics, and constitutional law. Essays analyze Kennedy's opinion writing in landmark cases such as Romer v. Evans, Obergefell v. Hodges, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Using the Justice's rhetoric as an entry point into his legal philosophy, this volume reveals Kennedy as a justice with contradictions and blind spots--especially on race, women's rights, and immigration--but also as a man of empathy deeply committed to American citizenship.A sophisticated assessment of Justice Kennedy's jurisprudence, this book provides new insight into Kennedy's legacy on the Court and into the role that rhetoric plays in judging and in communicating judgment.In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Ashutosh Bhagwat, Elizabeth C. Britt, Martin Camper, Michael Gagarin, James A. Gardner, Eugene Garver, Leslie Gielow Jacobs, Sean Patrick O'Rourke, Susan E. Provenzano, Clarke Rountree, Leticia M. Saucedo, Darien Shanske, Kathryn Stanchi, and Rebecca E. Zietlow.
Securing the Prize
How presidential metaphors have shaped US discourse on the Persian Gulf From the 1970s to the 1990s American presidents and their advisers introduced four metaphors into foreign-policy discourse that taught Americans to view the Persian Gulf as a vulnerable region and site of US responsibility on the world stage. In Securing the Prize: Presidential Metaphor and US Intervention in the Persian Gulf, Randall Fowler argues that, for half a century, metaphor has been central to defining America's role in the Middle East. Metaphors served as shorthand for presidents to promote their policies, filtering through the judgments of officials, journalists, experts, and critics to mediate American perceptions of the Gulf War. Tracing the use of security metaphors from President Richard Nixon to President George W. Bush, Fowler revises mainstream understandings regarding the origins of the War on Terror and explains the disconnect between skeptical public attitudes toward US involvement in the Gulf War and the heavy American military footprint in the region.
Learn American Sign Language, Second Edition
Master American Sign Language (ASL) with this updated edition of the best-selling guide featuring thousands of photographs of signing Deaf actors. ASL is a vibrant, easy-to-learn language that is used by approximately half a million people each day. With this updated edition of Learn American Sign Language, you can learn how to communicate existing, new, and updated signs in ASL. This new edition features: Learn 1000 signs, including signs for school, the workplace, around the house, out and about, food and drink, nature, emotions, small talk, and more. Includes new signs from the past 10 years and slang that is more reflective of our current cultureUnlock the storytelling possibilities of ASL with classifiers, easy ways to modify signs that can turn "fishing" into "catching a big fish" and "walking" into "walking with a group."Find out how to make sentences with signs, use the proper facial expressions with your signs, and other vital tipsOrganized by theme and with an index at the back, this easy-to-use and accessible reference boasts a layflat format that leaves your hands free for practice. Become an effective ASL communicator and storyteller with Learn American Sign Language the definitive guide to ASL.
Learn Black American Sign Language
Discover the fascinating history and current use of Black American Sign Language, then bring it to life with your hands following photo-illustrated instruction. Deaf history has been told primarily from a white-centered lens, pushing Black Deaf history into the background. However, today, Black signers are telling the hidden stories of Black Deaf people and celebrating their language, exposing their dialect to millions across the world. Learn Black American Sign Language shares the often overlooked details of its history. The book provides: An introduction to Black ASL and the importance of understanding BASLThe history of BASL, from its origins in school segregation policies to its development among Black students, families, and communitiesBASL today, its continual existence, and the influence of African American Vernacular English (AAVE)Over 200 BASL signs, each accompanied with full-color photographs And more! Within the phrases and words in this guide, the author includes state and regional variations and Home signs. Home signs consist of signs learned specifically among a family or region that is not a part of the greater BASL dialect. Because much was lost in the years when BASL was not taught in schools, Black Deaf families had to fill in the holes with Home signs. Franklin originates from a region in South Carolina, and that is where the Home signs in the book derive from. Other BASL variations are from states including Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Alabama. In recent years, Black TikTok creators brought attention to BASL when they advocated for more accessibility on the app, where they face additional discrimination due to their skin color. The hashtag #deaftiktok attracted more than 840 million views. Since then, BASL social media influencers and TikTok stars have begun to educate the public about BASL and its importance within the Deaf community and to Black signers. With more and more people becoming interested in learning Black American Sign Language, now is the perfect time to pick it up. Learn Black American Sign Language is an accessible and interactive introduction to the dialect and its rich history and culture.