Claire Kramsch – författare

Claire Kramsch and Lihua Zhang use an ecological approach and a complexity thought model to examine the identities, experiences, and practices of foreign language teachers as native or non-native speakers, multilingual instructors, and professional educators. What is their sense of legitimacy? How do they bridge the historical and cultural gaps between them and their students? What stories do they share in the classroom? Which do they not share? How do they view their ethical responsibility?

This text brings together well-known scholars in two relatively distinct fields (language acquisition and language socialization) and from a variety of orientations within applied linguistics - psycho and sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, educational linguistics - to describe language development from a relational perspective. The notion of ecology offers a convenient metaphor for the complex variational processes that take place within individuals and between individuals and their social and cultural environment, as they attempt to learn the language of the other. The theme of ecology affords a fresh look into phenomena not encompassed by language acquisition or language socialization research alone. It puts into question traditional ways of looking at time, space, subjectivity, identity in the acquisition of another language and its use in a variety of social contexts. For language teachers and educators, this book attempts to eschew traditional dichotomies such as language acquisition vs. language use, and to capture the complex and holistic nature of language learning and teaching.

Language Acquisition and Language Socialization brings together well-known scholars in two relatively distinct fields - language acquisition and language socialization - and from a variety of orientations within applied linguistics (psycholinguistics, socioloinguistics, anthropological linguistics, educational linguistics) to describe language development from a relational perspective. The notion of ecology offer a convenient metaphor for the complex variational processes that take place within individuals, and between individuals and their social and cultural environment, as they attempt to learn the language of the Other. The chapters are a response to the three main questions discussed inthe Introduction: What conceptual models best capture the ecological nature of language learning? What research approaches are most likely to illuminate the relationship between language and social structure? How is educational success defined for language acquisition and language socialization? For researchers, the main strength of the book will be its empirical and phenomenological base, and the variety of methods used.The theme of ecology affords a fresh look in to phenomena not encompassed by the language acquisition or languge socialization research alone.It puts in to question traditional ways of looking at time, space, subjectivity and identity in the acquisition of another langauge and its use in a variety of social contexts. For language teachers and educators, this book avoids the traditional dichotomies such as language acquisition vs. language use, and captures the complex and holistic nature of language learning and teaching. Claire Kramsch is Professor of German and Foreign Language Acquisition, University of California, Berkeley.

This collection explores the critical decolonial practices of applied linguistics researchers from Latin America and the Latin American diaspora, shedding light on the processes of epistemological decolonization and moving from a monolingual to a multilingual stance. The volume brings together participants from an AILA 2021 symposium, in which researchers reflected on applied linguistics in Latin America, and on the ways in which it brought concerns around social justice, the legacy of coloniality, and the role of monolingual English in education to the fore. Each chapter is composed of four parts: an autobiographical section written both in Spanish or Portuguese and in English followed by a reflection on the epistemological differences between versions; a discussion in English of the research project; a critical reflection on the epistemic practices and critical pedagogies enacted in the project; and the author(s)’ understanding of the concept of decolonization and recommendations for further decolonizing the monolingual mindset of language teachers and learners. At once linguistic, epistemological, and political, the collection aims to diversify the concept of decoloniality itself and showcase other ways in which decolonial thought can be implemented in language education. This book will be of interest to scholars in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and language education.

This collection explores the critical decolonial practices of applied linguistics researchers from Latin America and the Latin American diaspora, shedding light on the processes of epistemological decolonization and moving from a monolingual to a multilingual stance. The volume brings together participants from an AILA 2021 symposium, in which researchers reflected on applied linguistics in Latin America, and on the ways in which it brought concerns around social justice, the legacy of coloniality, and the role of monolingual English in education to the fore. Each chapter is composed of four parts: an autobiographical section written both in Spanish or Portuguese and in English followed by a reflection on the epistemological differences between versions; a discussion in English of the research project; a critical reflection on the epistemic practices and critical pedagogies enacted in the project; and the author(s)’ understanding of the concept of decolonization and recommendations for further decolonizing the monolingual mindset of language teachers and learners. At once linguistic, epistemological, and political, the collection aims to diversify the concept of decoloniality itself and showcase other ways in which decolonial thought can be implemented in language education. This book will be of interest to scholars in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and language education.

Language is not simply a tool for communication - symbolic power struggles underlie any speech act, discourse move, or verbal interaction, be it in face-to-face conversations, online tweets or political debates. This book provides a clear and accessible introduction to the topic of language and power from an applied linguistics perspective. It is clearly split into three sections: the power of symbolic representation, the power of symbolic action and the power to create symbolic reality. It draws upon a wide range of existing work by philosophers, sociolinguists, sociologists and applied linguists, and includes current real-world examples, to provide a fresh insight into a topic that is of particular significance and interest in the current political climate and in our increasingly digital age. The book shows the workings of language as symbolic power in educational, social, cultural and political settings and discusses ways to respond to and even resist symbolic violence.