Learning English: Development and Diversity (English Language)
By Neil Mercer
* Publisher:Routledge
* Number Of Pages:360
* Publication Date:1996-12-26
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0415131219
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780415131216
Product Description:
This book examines the processes of language acquisition in English, as well as what it means to learn English in different parts of the world. It will be of particular interest to all students of English in Education and Applied Linguistics.
Summary: Relevant information
Rating: 5
This text has interesting and relevant information not only for ESOL teachers but for all instructors who work with a diverse population.
Discourse and Grammar in Australian Languages (Studies in Language Companion Series)
By Ilana Mushin, Brett Baker
Grammatical Relations: The Evidence against Their Necessity and Universality
By Bhat D. N. S.
* Publisher:Routledge
* Publication Date:1991-09-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0203413652
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780203413654
Grammatical Relations
Grammatical relations and the closely related notion of transitivity are central to almost all models of linguistic theory. If languages are discovered in which neither of these play such a role it will be necessary to reconsider some of the most basic assumptions of these theories. This book examines in detail the grammars of two different Indian languages, Kannada and Manipuri, and shows that grammatical relations are neither necessary nor universal.
Languages such as English seem to require grammatical relations like subject and object. Professor Bhat argues that this is due to the fact that the representations of semantic and pragmatic relations in these languages are not distinct. In Kannada they are distinct, and for this reason Kannada does not need grammatical relations when its clause structure is described. Having disposed of the claim that grammatical relations are necessary, Professor Bhat then turns to their universality. It has been argued that even though such relations are not needed in all languages, the basis of these relations—transitivity—can be used in all languages to describe clause structures. Professor Bhat argues that in the case of Manipuri, it is not transitivity but volitionality that plays a central role in the structuring of clauses. In consequence, transitivity cannot adequately describe the language, and grammatical relations cannot even be postulated as abstract entities.
The importance of grammatical relations in linguistic theory makes this provocative hypothesis of interest to all linguistic theorists. Many theorists will find their approach addressed, as Professor Bhat has examined grammatical relations from the point of view of several linguistic theories. In addition, logicians and philosophers will find fascinating a re-interpretation of the concept of ‘subject’, and scholars working on Indian languages will find invaluable the new examinations of the two languages which form the core of this study.
D.N.S.Bhat is a Professor and UGC Research Scientist at the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, India. His publications include Sound Change, Pronominalization, Referents of Noun Phrases, Identification, and An Introduction to Linguistics.
Lasting Change in Foreign Language Education: A Historical Case for Change in National Policy (Contemporary Language Education)
By John L. Watzke
* Publisher:Praeger Publishers
* Number Of Pages:240
* Publication Date:2003-03-30
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0897898001
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780897898003
Product Description:
This book serves as a summative history and a resource for the continued study, discussion, and development of K-12 foreign language education policy. The author includes a comprehensive database of historical education statistics and national and state education law, and suggests concise policy implications to address historical precedence and the greater mission of general education.
Summary: Comprehensive Contribution to the Professional Literature
Rating: 5
I used this book throughout my graduate studies and finally picked up my own copy. It is amazing how resilient historical trends in foreign language education have remained - something that is repeatedly brought up in contemporary reports. The final chapter on future sustainiblity of growth in foreign language education is particularly informative. You will find all the data you will ever need for your own research in the comprehensive appendices. I continue to reference this book in my own work.
Summary: Great for Research!
Rating: 5
I have used this book for course papers and research on disseratation topics. It provides a lot of background on foreign language in US educational history and a huge number of references. If you want to place foreign language studies in history, plus get accurate and detailed documentation - this is your one source.
Summary: A seminal text in the field of Foreign Language Education
Rating: 5
Dr. Watzke has made a valuable contribution to the field of Foreign Language Education. This book is a must read for serious scholars and practioners of foreign language education. Dr. Watzke has set the bar for scholarship in the Foreign Language field.
Lines of Power: Limits of Language
Lines of Power: Limits of Language
By Gunnar Olsson
* Publisher:University of Minnesota Press
* Number Of Pages:144
* Publication Date:1992-03
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0816619492
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780816619498
The Quality of Literature: Linguistic studies in literary evaluation (Linguistic Approaches to Literature)
By Willie van Peer
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Company
* Number Of Pages:243
* Publication Date:2008-03-19
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:9027233365
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9789027233363
Product Description:
Evaluation is central to literary studies and has led to an impressive list of publications on the status and history of the canon. Yet, it is remarkable how little attention has been given to the role of textual properties in evaluative processes. Most of the chapters in "The Quality of Literature" redress this issue by dealing with texts or genres ranging from classical antiquity, via Renaissance to twentieth century. They provide a rich textual and historical panorama of how critical debate over literary quality has influenced our modes of thinking and feeling about literature, and how they continue to shape the current literary landscape. Four theoretical chapters reflect on the general state of literary evaluation while the introduction weaves the different threads together aiming at further conceptual clarification. This book thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the problems that are at the heart of past and present debates over literary quality.
Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing: 6th International Conference, CICLing 2005, Mexico City, Mexico, February 13-19, 2005, Proceedings ... Computer Science and General Issues)
By Alexander Gelbukh
* Publisher:Springer
* Number Of Pages:829
* Publication Date:2005-03-24
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:3540245235
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9783540245230
Product Description:
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing, CICLing 2005, held in Mexico City, Mexico in February 2005.
The 53 revised full papers and 35 revised short papers presented together with 4 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 151 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on computational linguistics forum; semantics and discourse; parsing and syntactic disambiguation; morphology; anaphora and conference; word sense disambiguation; lexical resources; natural language generation; machine translation; speech and natural language interfaces; language documentation; information extraction, information retrieval; question answering; summarization; text classification, categorization, and clustering; named entity recognition; language identification; and spelling and style checking.
The Viability Of The Rhetorical Tradition
By Richard Graff, Arthur E. Walzer, Janet Atwill
* Publisher:State University of New York Press
* Number Of Pages:203
* Publication Date:2005-03-17
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0791462854
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780791462850
Product Description:
The Viability of the Rhetorical Tradition reconsiders the relationship between rhetorical theory, practice, and pedagogy. Continuing the line of questioning begun in the 1980s, contributors examine the duality of a rhetorical canon in determining if past practice can make us more (or less) able to address contemporary concerns. Also examined is the role of tradition as a limiting or inspiring force, rhetoric as a discipline, rhetoric's contribution to interest in civic education and citizenship, and the possibilities digital media offer to scholars of rhetoric.
The Comment Clause in English: Syntactic Origins and Pragmatic Development (Studies in English Language)
By Laurel J. Brinton
* Publisher:Cambridge University Press
* Number Of Pages:298
* Publication Date:2008-12-28
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0521886732
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780521886734
Product Description:
Although English comment clauses such as I think and you know have been widely studied, this book constitutes the first full-length diachronic treatment, focusing on comment clauses formed with common verbs of perception and cognition in a variety of syntactic forms. It understands comment clauses as causal pragmatic markers that undergo grammaticalisation, and acquire pragmatic and politeness functions and subjective and intersubjective meanings. To date, the prevailing view of their syntactic development, which is extrapolated from synchronic studies, is that they originate in matrix clauses which become syntactically indeterminate and are reanalysed as parenthetical. In this corpus-based study, Laurel J. Brinton shows that the historical data do not bear out this view, and proposes a more varied and complex conception of the development of comment clauses. Researchers and students of the English language and historical linguistics will certainly consider Brinton's findings to be of great interest.
Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language (Advances in Consciousness Research, 42)
By Maksim I. Stamenov, Vittorio Gallese
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Co
* Number Of Pages:390
* Publication Date:2002-12
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:1588112152
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9781588112156
Summary: Decision making neurons, an early conference
Rating: 5
The book brings together selected contributions to the symposium a *Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language" (July 5-8, 2000 in Germany). The aim of the symposium was to discuss the status of so called 'mirror neurons' and their potential consequences on our understanding of the brain evolution, social intelligence, behavioral role identification and theory of mind.
It is hard to overestimate the importance of this discovery. First of all, it provides a new model of cognition which is based on neuro-biology rather than intellectual speculation on our private sense of 'existence'. Currently, it is widely believed that such specifically human activities as language and the use of tools depend on wide scale developments and re-organization of neural functioning. These hypothesized neural features involve cascading networks of neural circuits with the highest level of unification, effectively engaging 'the brain as a whole.' It is important to note the 'source' of cognition according to this model. Cognition is the final outcome of analysis initiated by reception of sensory data. By accumulating many small decisions, the 'whole' emerges. This cognitive entity (a thought, perhaps) ends up producing responses (actions). Action is thus the end product of analysis. In terms of pop psychology, network enough computers and cognition will eventually emerge.
The discovery of mirror neurons by Rizzolatti and Arbib provide a strong argument against the 'cognition requires the whole brain' theory. The properties of mirror neurons seem to suggest instead that the so-called 'motor functions' of the nervous system are more complex than we have expected. Instead of building the brain from a single neural cell type, there seem to be at least 3 nerve types:
1) Motor neuron which stimulate muscle contraction,
2) Communication neurons which link motor neurons to the brain
3) Mirror neurons which, for lack of a better term, make decisions.
Yes, mirror neurons demonstrate single cell decision making abilities. Not only do mirror neurons, on an individual level, demonstrate an ability to control and execute action, they also demonstrate the ability to maintain an internal representation and compare that representation to sensory input. This is the antithesis of the 'whole brain' theory. It posits cognition exists at the cellular level. In this view, action-control and action-representation are both capacities of individual mirror neuron. Cognition precedes sensation. It exists of and for itself. Cognition seeks sensation rather then being the product of sensation.
Think about it.
I apologize for going into such broad speculations and ignoring specifics on the book in question. Be assured the above is my attempt to summarize important concepts raised by various articles.
The book is organized into 4 sections. Of the 4, only the first specifically addresses 'mirror neuron' research. The four sections are:
1) Current mirror neuron research.
2) Neurology papers that shed light on areas of interest to mirror neuron research.
3) Evolution papers that seek to use insights gained by mirror-neuron research
4) Computational models based on mirror-neuron models
The articles are uneven in quality. Keep in mind the timing of the conference. The year was 2000, prior to the 2004 reports that mirror neuron disfunction was implicated in autism. Some of the articles (Birten) understand the paradigm shift and anticipate the link, others miss the point.
Saying, Seeing, and Acting: The Psychological Semantics of Spatial Prepositions
By Kenny R. Coventry, S. C. Garrod
* Publisher:Taylor & Francis, Inc.
* Publication Date:2004-02-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0203641523
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780203641521
Contents: Introduction to the domain -- Saying : spatial prepositions and lexical semantics -- Grounding language in perception : from "saying" to "seeing and acting" -- Experimental evidence for the functional geometric framework 1. The so-called topological prepositions -- Experimental evidence for the functional geometric framework 2. Which way up is up? : the projective prepositions -- Experimental evidence for the functional geometric framework 3. Other prepositions : proximity, coincidence and being between -- Putting it all together -- Cross-linguistic and developmental implications -- Extensions, links, and conclusions -- The functional geometric framework and embodiment.
The Language of Advertising: Written Texts (Intertext)
By Angela Goddard
* Publisher:Routledge
* Number Of Pages:144
* Publication Date:2002-07-05
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0415278031
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780415278034
Review
'A very useful selection of example texts. Provok the student to pursue the social and cultural through attention to language' - Language and Literature 'The second edition of The Language of Advertising is a really useful update of a good text. The author presents interesting material in a very clear, lively, and concise manner, and includes a range of engaging exercises.' - Anne Cronin, Lancaster University
The Intertext series has been specifically designed to meet the needs of contemporary English Language Studies. The core book, Working with Texts, is the foundation text which provides an introduction to language analysis. It is complemented by a range of 'satellite' titles which provide students with hands-on practical experience of textual analysis through special topics. They can be used individually or in conjunction with Working with Texts.
Drawing on literary and linguistic theory for analysis of texts, The Language of Advertising covers all aspects of advertising language, from the interrelation of language, image and layout to the discourse between 'reader' and advertisement.
The second edition has been substantially rewritten to incorporate recent developments in the field. Features include:
* a range of new advertisements, from Orange to Young Person's Railcard
* new material on internet advertising and its influence on paper texts
* new material on advertising designed to be seen 'on the move'
* new activities to support student-directed study
* updated Further Reading sections and a list of URLs for students to visit.
The Politics of Second Language Writing: In Search of the Promised Land (Second Language Writing)
By Paul Kei Matsuda
* Publisher:Parlor Press
* Number Of Pages:320
* Publication Date:2006-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:193255937X
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9781932559378
Product Description:
The POLITICS OF SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING: IN SEARCH OF THE PROMISED LAND is the first edited collection to present a sustained discussion of classroom practices in larger contexts of institutional politics and policies. Contributors focus on the policies on assessment, placement, credit, class size, course content, instructional practices, teacher preparation, and teacher support. They examine politics in terms of the relationships and interaction between second language writing professionals and colleagues at the program, department, school, college, and university levels and beyond. Contributors also explore-through critical reflections and situated descriptions of their teaching practices in larger institutional contexts-how these policies and politics affect pedagogical practices. Readers will learn why classroom practices are not neutral, pragmatic space but ideologically saturated sites of negotiation. Contributors include Danling Fu, Marylou Matoush, Kerry Enright Villalva, Ilona Leki, Ryuko Kubota, Kimberly Abels, Angela M. Dadak, Jessica Williams, Wei Zhu, Guillaume Gentil, Kevin Eric DePew, Xiaoye You, Deborah Crusan, Sara Cushing Weigle, Jessie Moore Kapper, Christine Norris, Christine Tardy, Stephanie Vandrick, and Barbara Kroll. Paul Kei Matsuda is associate professor of English and Director of Composition at the University of New Hampshire. Christina Ortmeier-Hooper is a Ph.D. candidate in Composition Studies at the University of New Hampshire, where she teaches first-year composition, ESL, advanced composition, and teacher education courses. Xiaoye You is assistant professor of English at The Pennsylvania State University, where he teaches courses in rhetoric, writing, and the teaching of writing.
The Language of Websites (Intertext Series)
By Mark Boardman
* Publisher:Routledge
* Number Of Pages:112
* Publication Date:2004-12-03
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0415328543
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780415328548
* Binding:Paperback
Product Description:
The Intertext series has been specifically designed to meet the needs of contemporary English Language Studies. Working with Texts: a core introduction to language analysis (second edition 2001) is the foundation text, which is complemented by a range of 'satellite' titles. These provide students with hands-on practical experience of textual analysis through special topics, and can be used individually or in conjunction with Working with Texts.
The Language of Websites:
*explores the ways in which websites use and present language
*covers many different types of web-based interaction, from buying online and auction sites, to search engines, email links and chatrooms
*considers the structures of language online, such as audience interaction and how hypertext alters narrative structure
* features a full glossary.
The Language of Speech and Writing (Intertext)
By Ronald Carter
* Publisher:Routledge
* Number Of Pages:120
* Publication Date:2001-06-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0415231671
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780415231671
* Binding:Paperback
Product Description:
This accessible satellite textbook in the Routledge Intertext series is unique in offering students hands-on practical experience of textual analysis focused on speech and writing. Written in a clear, user-friendly style, it combines practical activities with texts, accompanied by commentaries and suggestions for further study. It can be used individually or in conjunction with the series core textbook Working with Texts. Designed for beginning undergraduate students, this book analyzes the processes involved in writing and speaking; highlights the differences between these two modes of communication; explores written texts, including legal documents, literary discourse, recipes, instruction manuals; explores spoken texts, including telephone conversations, interviews, television programs, intimate talk; explores mixed-mode texts, including email, advertisements, election publicity, written conversations, non-interactive speech; compares and contrasts spoken and written texts on the same topics.
Eyes Before Ease: The Unsolved Mysteries and Secret Histories of Spelling
By Larry Beason
* Publisher:McGraw-Hill
* Number Of Pages:240
* Publication Date:2006-07-24
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0071459545
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780071459549
Product Description:
Is spelling still important in the age of spellcheckers? Ask Dan Quayle
Part guide to better spelling, part paean to an endangered art, Eyes Before Ease is filled with fascinating trivia, historical asides, astute personal observations, and good-natured humor about why spelling is still important--even with the advent of spellcheckers. Professor Larry Beason argues that spelling is more than just the correct arrangement of letters--it sheds light on the human experience itself. It lets us communicate with other people, it indicates (right or wrong) our intelligence, and also brings us together as a community.
Beason also explains why our particular spelling system is so difficult, how to become a better speller, and why you should never trust a cyborg for the correct spelling of a homophone.
From the Back Cover
To err is human, but to spell correctly is better
In the age of automatic spell-checking, abbreviated text messaging, and on-the-fly Internet chatting is spelling still important? In this spirited and compelling book, award-winning English professor Larry Beason answers with a resounding yes.
In our electronic age, spelling is more important than ever. It's what makes us human, allowing us to communicate and come together in social groups. Even the smartest gorilla can't spell orthographobia. True, neither can some of the smartest humans. But to err is human and the English language is notoriously difficult. Why do we use the silent e? Why can't we spell fish g-h-o-t-i? Why does English have to be so complicated and chaotic? As Beason reveals, there is a method to the madness--and understanding it can help you go on to be a better speller.
In school, business, and daily life, people who spell better are more successful across the board. But they don't bother studying the dictionary because spelling is not about memorization. It's about grasping the underlying meaning of words. Such knowledge not only expands vocabulary, it also expands the mind, leading to fresh ideas, creativity, and new opportunities. Yet even some of our brightest thinkers have railed against the vagaries of English. From Noah Webster's campaign to spell thumb without the b to Teddy Roosevelt's assault on envelope to the proposed reforms of today's Simplified Spelling Society, people have long tried to make spelling easier. Most of their attempts have failed. In Eyes Before Ease, Larry Beason makes spelling accessible and understandable--without simplification.
Using intelligence, humor, and a little good-natured prodding, Beason untwists the complicated story of the English language, showing you the secrets behind prefixes and suffixes, the cryptic logic of silent letters, and the embedded prejudices that lurk inside some of our most common words. Eschewing the traditional textbook rules of grammar school, he offers ten "conventions," easy-to-follow guidelines to improve your spelling by differentiating between the endings -ible and -able, knowing when to double consonants, understanding a handful of Greek and Latin morphemes, and more.
When you finish reading this entertaining book, you'll not only be able to spell orthographobia, you'll understand what it means--and you may even overcome your fear of spelling.
"To reap the full fruits that life offers, you'll want to read Larry Beason's insightful and passionate case for spelling wisely and well."
--Richard Lederer, coauthor of Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Punctuation
No matter how much money is thrown at the problem, the Spelling Revolution will not occur in our lifetime nor in that of our children's children. We might as well initiate a fund drive to change the way the sun rises. Our imperfect system of spelling is so entrenched within our history, culture, and economy that it will not be seriously altered except through the normal channels of slow linguistic change--the ongoing, unpredictable development of language, which is just as likely to lead to greater complexity as to greater simplicity.--from Eyes Before Ease
Summary: Fascinating and Fun.
Rating: 5
I actually liked this better than Eats, Shoots, and Leaves--that author's snarky British tone didn't work for me, and her book's filled with mistakes. Beeson knows his subject inside and out, and if you love writing, and words, and their meaning, you'll highly enjoy this book. I've read just about every book out there like this, and Beeson has come up with some fresh, fascinating observations. His new rules for proper spelling are smart and practical. I learned quite a bit from this book, and I didn't think I would.
Summary: Eyes Before Ease
Rating: 4
This is a book in the vein of Lynne Truss' "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," only about spelling rather punctuation, and written with a slightly more serious tone. "Eyes Before Ease's" main themes are why spelling matters, how spelling in the English language became so goofy (a fair amount of blame seems to fall to the French, while we can thank the Viking invasions for it having gotten a lot simpler than it might've otherwise ended up) and, finally, what you can do to try to improve your own spelling skills.
"Eyes Before Ease" is particularly strong in its how-spelling-got-so-goofy section. Beason delivers an interesting and admirably brisk history of the English language, explaining how each step along the road that the English language traveled (from the Angles and Saxons through the Viking invasions and the Norman Conquest on to the modern era) has left its footprint in the way we spell words.
His concluding chapters on how to improve your spelling abilities could be very useful to students, teachers, copy editors and -- perhaps most of all -- anyone considering competing in a spelling bee!
The author, I think, might have make a little bit of a misstep by opening his book with a section arguing why spelling still matters, even in the age of the computer spell checker. It's definitely an argument worth making, but it seems like most of his potential readers are going to already think spelling is important -- otherwise it's unlikely they would even be picking up and starting a book devoted to the topic of spelling. So it feels rather like he's preaching to the choir. It might have been more savvy to have cast the material as "arguments you can use to convince others that spelling is important." But that's a pretty minor nit to pick about an otherwise fine book.
Deliberate Conflict: Argument, Political Theory, and Composition Classes
By Patricia Roberts-Miller PhD
* Publisher:Southern Illinois University Press
* Number Of Pages:280
* Publication Date:2004-06-09
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0809325667
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780809325665
Product Description:
In Deliberate Conflict: Argument, Political Theory, and Composition Classes, Patricia Roberts-Miller argues that much current discourse about argument pedagogy is hampered by fundamental unspoken disagreements over what democratic public discourse should look like. The book’s pivotal question is: In what kind of public discourse do we want our students to engage? To answer this, the text provides a taxonomy, discussion, and evaluation of political theories underpinning democratic discourse, highlighting the relationship between various models of the public sphere and rhetorical theory.
Roberts-Miller seeks to diffuse student antagonism toward argumentation by increasing instructors’ awareness of different models of democracy in argument pedagogy. She provides a range of theories, discussing the major features and rhetorical applicability of the liberal, the interest-based, the communitarian, and the deliberative models of the public domain.
Deliberate Conflict cogently advocates reintegrating instruction in argumentation into the composition curriculum. By linking effective argumentation in the public sphere with the ability to affect social change, Roberts-Miller pushes compositionists beyond a simplistic Aristotelian conception of how argumentation works and offers a means by which to prepare students for active participation in public discourse.
Summary: How does your political theory inform how you teach writing?
Rating: 4
Roberts-Miller inventories several approaches to teaching writing--liberal philosophy, social constructivism, post-structuralism, communitarianism, and deliberative democracy--and describes how these positions relate to what we do in the composition classroom. While James Berlin creates a taxonomy of rhetorics associated with epistemologies, Roberts-Miller is more interested in how these epistemologies undergird political theories, which then inform the assignments we give our students and the rules we deploy when running discussions in our classrooms.
The book is light on practical exploration of lesson planning or discussions--you have to be very interested in rhetorics and models of the public sphere and democracy, but she does an excellent job laying out the connections between epistemologies and political theories, and she offers a compelling case for the deliberative democracy/rhetoric model she elaborates upon in the final 2 chapters.
Deliberate Conflict: Argument, Political Theory, and Composition Classes
By Patricia Roberts-Miller PhD
* Publisher:Southern Illinois University Press
* Number Of Pages:280
* Publication Date:2004-06-09
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0809325667
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780809325665
Product Description:
In Deliberate Conflict: Argument, Political Theory, and Composition Classes, Patricia Roberts-Miller argues that much current discourse about argument pedagogy is hampered by fundamental unspoken disagreements over what democratic public discourse should look like. The book’s pivotal question is: In what kind of public discourse do we want our students to engage? To answer this, the text provides a taxonomy, discussion, and evaluation of political theories underpinning democratic discourse, highlighting the relationship between various models of the public sphere and rhetorical theory.
Roberts-Miller seeks to diffuse student antagonism toward argumentation by increasing instructors’ awareness of different models of democracy in argument pedagogy. She provides a range of theories, discussing the major features and rhetorical applicability of the liberal, the interest-based, the communitarian, and the deliberative models of the public domain.
Deliberate Conflict cogently advocates reintegrating instruction in argumentation into the composition curriculum. By linking effective argumentation in the public sphere with the ability to affect social change, Roberts-Miller pushes compositionists beyond a simplistic Aristotelian conception of how argumentation works and offers a means by which to prepare students for active participation in public discourse.
Summary: How does your political theory inform how you teach writing?
Rating: 4
Roberts-Miller inventories several approaches to teaching writing--liberal philosophy, social constructivism, post-structuralism, communitarianism, and deliberative democracy--and describes how these positions relate to what we do in the composition classroom. While James Berlin creates a taxonomy of rhetorics associated with epistemologies, Roberts-Miller is more interested in how these epistemologies undergird political theories, which then inform the assignments we give our students and the rules we deploy when running discussions in our classrooms.
The book is light on practical exploration of lesson planning or discussions--you have to be very interested in rhetorics and models of the public sphere and democracy, but she does an excellent job laying out the connections between epistemologies and political theories, and she offers a compelling case for the deliberative democracy/rhetoric model she elaborates upon in the final 2 chapters.
Dialogue and Critical Discourse: Language, Culture, Critical Theory
By Michael Macovski
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:288
* Publication Date:1997-08-07
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0195070631
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780195070637
Product Description:
This interdisciplinary volume of collected, mostly unpublished essays demonstrates how Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogic meaning--and its subsequent elaborations--have influenced a wide range of critical discourses. With essays by Michael Holquist, Jerome J. McGann, John Searle, Deborah Tannen, Gary Saul Morson, Caryl Emerson, Shirley Brice Heath, Don H. Bialostosky, Paul Friedrich, Timothy Austin, John Farrell, Rachel May, and Michael Macovski, the collection explores dialogue not only as an exchange among intratextual voices, but as an extratextual interplay of historical influences, oral forms, and cultural heuristics as well. Such approaches extend the implications of dialogue beyond the boundaries of literary theory, to anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, and cultural studies. The essays address such issues as the establishment and exercise of political power, the relation between conversational and literary discourse, the historical development of the essay, and the idea of literature as social action. Taken together, the essays argue for a redefinition of literary meaning--one that is communal, interactive, and vocatively created. They demonstrate that literary meaning is not rendered by a single narrator, nor even by a solitary author--but is incrementally exchanged and constructed.
Table of Contents
Contributors
Introduction / Textual Voices, Vocative Texts: Dialogue, Linguistics, and Critical Discourse3
1Narrative Transmission: Shifting Gears in Shelley's "Ozymandias"29
2The Power of Speech: Dialogue as History in the Russian Primary Chronicle47
3Crossroads to Community: Jude the Obscure and the Chronotype of Wessex65
4Dialogue in Lyric Narrative79
5Dialogics of the Lyric: A Symposium on Wordsworth's "Westminster Bridge" and "Beauteous Evening"101
6Involvement as Dialogue: Linguistic Theory and the Relation between Conversational and Literary Discourse137
7"The Bard I Quote From": Byron, Bakhtin, and the Appropriation of Voices158
8Marxism, Romanticism, and Postmodernism: An American Case History174
9The Essay in English: Readers and Writers in Dialogue195
10Bakhtin and Beautiful Science: The Paradox of Cultural Relativity Revisited215
11Conversation as Dialogue237
12Extracts from a Heteroglossary256
Language and Social Identity
By Richard K. Blot
* Publisher:Praeger Publishers
* Number Of Pages:320
* Publication Date:2003-12-30
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0897897838
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780897897839
Product Description:
Whenever we open our mouths to speak, we provide those who hear us, chosen interlocuters or mere bystanders, with a wealth of data, linguistic clues others use to position us within a specific social strata. Our particular uses of language mark us geographically, ethnically, by age or sex, and, especially in stratified societies, according to class or caste. This collection of papers by researchers in cultural and linguistic anthropology examine these concepts as well as many others.