Ruth Wajnryb – författare

Stories are a wonderful way of helping students to learn and acquire language. This book is packed full of fun activities using different narrative genres such as soap opera, urban myth and newspaper reporting, as well as advice on how to use stories in the classroom. The material is particularly suitable for teachers of adults and young adults. The book will help teachers to teach students the conventions of different narrative genres, enable students to work with stories to achieve language-learning objectives, and build a sense of community in the classroom.

This book provides a range of tasks which guide the user through the process of observing, analysing, and reflecting, and which develop the skills of observation. It contains a bank of 35 structured tasks which are grouped into seven areas of focus: the learner, the language, the learning process, the lesson, teaching skills and strategies, classroom management, and materials and resources. It is suitable for teachers, trainee teachers, teacher trainers and others involved in school-based teacher support, teacher development and trainer training. It has a comprehensive introduction to the tasks and a rationale covering the theoretical issues involved and places the responsibility for professional growth in the hands of the teacher.

Does a word mean what it says? Sometimes - but not always. Everyone thinks that meaning is contained within words - like sardines in a tin, or milk in a bottle. After all, words are nice stable things that you can look up in a dictionary aren't they? But dictionaries only take us so far... If you eavesdropped on a teenage conversation, rushing to a dictionary - with its definitions frozen in time - wouldn't help much. Who's using a word and to whom, in what context, for what purpose - all these influence the meaning of the language we use. The word's origins and history (its 'genetics') also help. Try teaching yourself another language from a phrasebook and you'll soon learn that you can be correct, in the formal sense, but still way behind the times in reality. In this book Wajnryb considers these and other questions to explore how and why our language works the way it does.

Does a word mean what it says? Sometimes - but not always. Everyone thinks that meaning is contained within words - like sardines in a tin, or milk in a bottle. After all, words are nice stable things that you can look up in a dictionary aren't they? But dictionaries only take us so far... If you eavesdropped on a teenage conversation, rushing to a dictionary - with its definitions frozen in time - wouldn't help much. Who's using a word and to whom, in what context, for what purpose - all these influence the meaning of the language we use. The word's origins and history (its 'genetics') also help. Try teaching yourself another language from a phrasebook and you'll soon learn that you can be correct, in the formal sense, but still way behind the times in reality. In this book Wajnryb considers these and other questions to explore how and why our language works the way it does.