British Studies in Applied Linguistics – serie

The papers in this volume, selected through peer-review from the presentations at the 2002 annual conference of the British Association for Applied Linguistics in Cardiff, demonstrate the strides applied linguists have taken, in 'pure' or 'impure' form, since the classic volume of Corder's Introducing Applied Linguistics speculated about the discipline's possible frontiers. Foundational questions of the following kind form the backbone of the volume: 'Is applied linguistics applied enough?'; 'Can applied linguists go where no linguists have been before?'; 'Do applied linguists belong to one community of practice or do they constitute a community of communities?'; 'On a cost-benefit scale, how can applied linguists gain communality across interdisciplinary initiatives while not losing their disciplinary autonomy?'. With a judicious combination of empirical, theoretical and policy-oriented studies, the volume takes a close, hard look at the present and future challenges.This is summed up in a call to arms for applied linguistics to become more practically relevant and reflexively grounded not only in addressing real world problems, but also in doing so collaboratively in a sustained way with practitioners involved. Srikant Sarangi is Director of the Communication Research Centre, Centre for Language and Communication at Cardiff University. Theo van Leeuwen is based at the Centre for Language and Communication, Cardiff University.

A collection of papers on crossing boundaries, whether psychologal or physical, by eminent applied linguists. Language across Boundaries is a selection of papers from the millennium conference of the British Association of Applied Linguistics. The thirteen papers are written by applied linguists, from Britain, mainland Europe, the USA, Australia and Singapore, working in a variety of sub-disciplines of the field. The 'boundaries' of the title have been widely interpreted and the book reflects a spectrum of research, ranging from work on the linguistic repercussions of individual and group identity boundaries to work dealing with ways of crossing national and cultural boundaries through language learning and language mediation in the form of translation. Included in the volumes are the plenary papers given by Jennifer Coates, well known for her work on language and gender, on the expression of alternative masculinities; and by Bencie Woll, holder of the first chair of Sign Language and Deaf Studies in the UK, on the insights to be gained from sign language in exploring language, culture and identity.Janet Cotterill is Lecturer in Language and Communication in the Centre for Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University, and Director of the Forensic Linguistics Research Group. Anne Ife is Principal Lecturer in Spanish and Applied Linguistics and Director of Postgraduate Studies (Humanities and Arts) at Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge.

The papers in this collection, drawn from the 34th Annual Conference of the British Association for Applied Lunguistics, reflect a number of different perspecitves within the field of applied linguistics at the start of the twenty-first century. While addressing the theme of unity and diversity, each paper prompts critical reflection on tensions within the descipline between stability and change, consensus and controversy, similiarity and variation. The interpretation of languge use is broad and varied, taking both macro- and micro-perspectives. Topics address range from issues of global communication in a world of shifting demographics and technological advances to analyses of specific contexts of interaction, both professional and personal. Contexts of language use frequently coincide with settings of language acquisition, both within and beyond the language classroom, and this opens up discussion of the focus, scope and appropriateness of research stances in applied linguistics and practices in language pedagogy.Furthermore, variation is considered from a number of social-cultural, gender-related, linguistic and discourse perspectives, calling into question terminology, definitions and the nature of evidence at the heart of applied linguistics theory and practice.Kristyan Spelman Miller is a lecturer in Applied Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at the University of Reading. Paul Thompson is a Research Fellow in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at the University of Reading.

The papers in this collection, drawn from the 34th Annual Conference of the British Association for Applied Linguistics, reflect a number of different perspectives within the field of applied linguistics at the start of the twenty-first century. While addressing the theme of unity and diversity, each paper prompts critical reflection on tensions within the discipline between stability and change, consensus and controversy, similarity and variation. The interpretation of language use is broad and varied, taking both macro- and micro-perspectives. Topics addressed range from issues of global communication in a world of shifting demographies and technological advances to analyses of specific contexts of interaction, both professional and personal. Contexts of language use frequently coincide with settings of language acquisition, both within and beyond the language classroom, and this opens up discussion of the focus, scope and appropriateness of research stances in applied linguistics and practices in language pedagogy. Futhermore, variation is considered from a number of social-cultural, gender-related, linguistic and discourse perspectives, calling into question terminology, definitions and the nature of evidence at the heart of applied linguistic theory and practice.

The papers in this volume demonstrate the strides applied linguists have taken, in ''pure'' or ''impure'' form, since the classic volume of Corder''s Introducing Applied Linguistics speculated about the discipline''s possible frontiers. With a judicious combination of empirical, theoretical and policy-oriented studies, the volume takes a close, hard look at the present and future challenges.