Utrecht Studies in Language and Communication – serie

Tones are the most challenging aspect of learning Chinese pronunciation for adult learners and traditional research mostly attributes tonal errors to interference from learners’ native languages. In Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones, Hang Zhang offers a series of cross-linguistic studies to argue that there are factors influencing tone acquisition that extend beyond the transfer of structures from learners’ first languages, and beyond characteristics extracted from Chinese. These factors include universal phonetic and phonological constraints as well as pedagogical issues. By examining non-native Chinese tone productions made by speakers of non-tonal languages (English, Japanese, and Korean), this book brings together theory and practice and uses the theoretical insights to provide concrete suggestions for teachers and learners of Chinese.

In Grounding in Chinese Written Narrative Discourse Wendan Li offers a comprehensive and innovative account of how Mandarin Chinese, as a language without extensive morphological marking, highlights (or foregrounds) major events of a narrative and demotes (or backgrounds) other supporting descriptions. Qualitative and quantitative methods in the analysis and examinations of authentic written text provide extensive evidence to demonstrate that various types of morpho-syntactic devices are used in a wide range of structural units in Chinese to mark the distinction between foregrounding and backgrounding. The analysis paves the way for future studies to systematically approach grounding-related issues. The typological viewpoint adopted in the chapters serves well readers from both the Chinese tradition and other languages in discourse analysis.

Pragmatic Issues in Specialized Communicative Contexts, edited by Francesca Bianchi and Sara Gesuato, illustrates how interactants systematically and effectively employ micro and macro linguistic resources and textual strategies to engage in communicative practices in such specific contexts as healthcare services, TV interpreting, film dialogue, TED talks, archaeology academic communication, student-teacher communication, and multilingual classrooms. Each contribution presents a pedagogical slant, reporting on or suggesting didactic approaches to, or applications of, pragmatic aspects of communication in SL, FL and LSP learning contexts. The topics covered and the issues addressed are all directly relevant to applied pragmatics, that is, pragmatically oriented linguistic analysis that accounts for interpersonal-transactional issues in real-life situated communication.

In Dynamics of Teaching and Learning Modern Hebrew as an Additional Language Yona Gilead presents original research into classroom interactional practices by offering a thick description of a successful beginner-level Modern Hebrew program at an Australian university. The book charts and theorizes the cohort’s teacher and students’ trajectory of using Hebrew as the main means of instructing and acquiring the language, and highlights seven key features which contribute to students’ learning. The book’s research-based findings and analysis of classroom dynamics contribute to theorizing the currently largely praxis-based discipline of L2 Modern Hebrew instruction, hence providing a stronger theoretical understanding of how and why students can be assisted in their language learning.This original research provides a template for renewed L2 Hebrew research.

The papers in this volume study the relationship between language use and the concept of the “tourist gaze” through a range of communicative practices from different cultures and languages. From a pragmatic perspective, the authors investigate how language constantly adapts to contextual constraints which affect tourism discourse as a strategic meaning-making process that turns insignificant places into desirable tourist destinations. The case studies draw on both, in situ interactions with visitors, such as guided tours and counter information, old and new mediatized genres, i.e. guide books, travelogues, print advertising as well as TV-commercials, service web-sites and apps. Despite the diversity of data, one of the common findings in the volume is that staging the sensory ‘lived’ tourist experience is the lynchpin of all communicative practices. Hence, the use of tourism language reveals itself as the mirror of how ‘people on the move’ continuously enact as ‘tourists’ and ‘places’ are constructed as must-see ‘sights’.

This book is a study of around seven hours of naturally occurring video data, recorded by the author in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. Drawing on the methodology of Conversation Analysis, Gazin analyses instructional sequences of interaction during driving lessons. The temporal constraints of mobility make the driving lessons a rich setting for the investigation of sequence organisation and action constitution. The author identifies different types of actions that compose the unfolding driving and instructing activity, and their turn-constructional features (e.g. different verb forms for specific instructions). The analyses thereby offer insights that inform fundamental concepts like multiactivity and multimodality. The investigations in this book contribute to an increased understanding of the mechanisms of human interaction in general and in mobile settings more specifically.

The present volume, edited by Patricia Salazar-Campillo and Victòria Codina-Espurz, is a timely contribution to the field of interlanguage pragmatics. The nine chapters presented here expand the scope of research to date by including different contexts (i.e., formal instruction, stay-abroad, and online) and age groups which have received less attention (for example, young learners and adolescents). Whereas the speech act of requesting is the one that has been most explored in the field of interlanguage pragmatics, as attested by several chapters in the present volume, disagreements and directives are also tackled. This book embraces research addressing both elicited and naturally-occurring data in studies which deal with pragmatic use, development, and awareness.

The Logic of Narratives is a linguistic study of narrative discourse that contextualizes the ‘logical’ rather than the ‘stylistic’ aspect of narratives within the range of current issues in the interdisciplinary study of narratives being conducted in linguistics, philosophy, literature, cognitive science, and Artificial Intelligence. The book quantitatively analyzes naturally occurring narratives randomly selected from the British National Corpus (BNC) as well as James Joyce’s (1882-1941) The Dead (1914) and Fredrik Backman’s (1981-) A Man Called Ove (2012). Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) formalization (Kamp and Reyle, 1993) is employed and enriched with the representations and interpretations of perspective/point of view, genre differences, coherence relations, and episodes, which are called in the book Perspectival DRT (PDRT).

How do you react to an intercultural situation that you do not understand? There are four options. You wait until it's over. You adjust your behavior and “do as the natives do.” You blame the other as strange and stupid. Or you start to wonder by thinking about yourself and the other(s). This last option is called a Rich Point. This book provides an overview of research into intercultural communication. It is not a handbook but offers nine studies that illustrate the reflection process from different scholarly perspectives. The approaches in this volume are the multilingualism approach and transfer approach including research into intercultural competences. Volume 1 offers nine additional chapters exemplifying the interaction approach, contrastive approach, and cultural representational approach. Together, the chapters illustrate the essence of the essentialism and non-essentialism debate regarding diversity and inclusion.Have you ever found yourself in an intercultural situation you did not understand? How did you react? Did you wonder if you could have reacted differently? What have you learnt that could support you in similar future occasions? Test your knowledge of Intercultural Communication with this quiz!link

How do you react to an intercultural situation that you do not understand? There are four options. You wait until it’s over. You adjust your behaviorand “do as the natives do.” You blame the other as strange and stupid. Or you start to wonder by thinking about yourself and the other(s). This last option is called a Rich Point. This book provides an overview of research into intercultural communication. It is not a handbook, but offers nine studies that illustrate the reflection process from different scholarly perspectives. The approaches in this volume are the interaction approach, contrastive approach and cultural representational approach.Volume 2 offers nine additional chapters exemplifying the multilingualism approach and transfer approach including research into intercultural competences. Together, the chapters illustrate the essence of the essentialism and non-essentialism debate regarding diversity and inclusion.Have you ever found yourself in an intercultural situation you did not understand? How did you react? Did you wonder if you could have reacted differently? What have you learnt that could support you in similar future occasions? Test your knowledge of Intercultural Communication with this quiz!link

This volume provides a timely reflection of this growing interdisciplinary field of translation, interpreting and political discourse. It includes very recent work carried out by researchers from a range of countries. The chapters illustrate new trends and perspectives in the interdisciplinary research field, and extends previous research. The volume covers both translation and interpreting modes in monolingual, bilingual and multilingual contexts. It features the convergences and synergies between the two modes, and thus provides new insights on these different modes of language communication. Furthermore, instead of situating translation in politics or politics in translation, the volume treats political discourse and translation/interpreting at equal levels, thus allowing more room for the discussion of the interdisciplinary nature of the field.

The title concept ‘in-between’ (metaxu) refers to identity that remains in perpetual disjunction, dispersion and crisis. This book proves that ‘in-between’ is not an empty space, but a productive mode of creating new qualities, experiences, ideas and representations.The authors of individual chapters interpret selected aspects of metaxu in relevant to contemporary cultural communication areas, i.e. linguistic and more broadly semiotic, and make contemporary discourses the object of exploration. Most of the analyses are based on the Polish-language linguistic context; however, they refer to a universal perspective of culture and communication.

Online support groups are considered highly valuable in addition to traditional health care services, but we know very little about how people actually join such a group. This book offers a microanalysis of an online support group on eating disorders, specifically the communication through textual messages between newcomers and regular members and members’ nicknames. The study uses an ethnomethodological and conversation analytical approach to show that members of online support groups treat the group as a community in which their illness-identity is highly relevant. It appears that members invoke community norms regarding legitimacy for newcomers: Newcomers are expected to admit that they are ill, but this is a very difficult step for those who have not yet fully adopted the “sick role” (Parsons, 1951). In the field of eating disorders, it is particularly difficult for people that tend to pro-ana, i.e. the glamorization of eating disorders. The insecurity and anxiety that newcomers display as they enter the online group could probably be relieved when a special entry subforum would be installed in which they can take time and space to actually recognize that they are ill.

English in academic and professional settings has received great attention over the last 50 years, as its use has become a key asset for anyone interested in improving his/her chances of communicating internationally. However, it still offers rich opportunities for teachers and researchers working on English in specific settings. The aim of English for Professional and Academic Purposes is to offer an overview of several topics within the field of discourse analysis applied to English in academic and professional domains. The book compiles contributions from different origins, ranging from Japan to the USA and several European countries, and covers English as a native, second, foreign and international language. It also deals with various specialities, including academic writing, business discourse or English for medicine, nursing, maritime industry and science and engineering. This volume is divided into three sections: Discourse Analysis of English for Academic Purposes, Professional English and EPAP Pedagogy, since it was conceived as a contribution to the research on how English is analysed as both the discourse of and for effective communication in academic and professional settings, and how it can be applied to teaching. This manuscript offers some fresh insights for those involved or interested in this field of expertise, in an attempt to shed some light on its latest innovations.

Studies on discourse and language learning originated in the field of general education and they focused on first language learning environments. However, since 1980s research on discourse and language learning broadened the scope of investigation to respond to second and foreign language environments. Recently, the emergence of new language learning contexts such as computer mediated communication, multilingual settings or content and language integrated contexts requires further research that focuses on discourse and language learning. From this perspective, the present volume aims to broaden the scope of investigation in foreign language contexts by exploring discourse patterns in the classroom and examining the impact of factors such as gender, explicitness of feedback or L1 use on language learning through discourse.With that aim in mind, this volume will bring together research that investigates discourse in various instructional settings, namely those of primary, secondary and university L2 learning environments, content and language integrated contexts and other new language learning settings. The number and variety of languages involved both as the first language (e.g. English, Finnish, Basque, Spanish, Japanese, French, Italian, Catalan) as well as the target foreign language (e.g. English, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish) makes the volume specially attractive. Additionally, the different approaches adopted by the researchers participating in this volume, such as information processing, sociocultural theory, or conversation analysis, widen the realm of investigation on discourse and language learning. Finally, the strength of the volume also lies in the range of educational settings (primary, secondary and tertiary education) and the worldwide representation of contributors across seven different countries, namely those of Spain, France, Austria, Finland, Germany, Canada, Australia and the United States.The uniqueness of the volume is due to its eclectic and comprehensive nature in tackling instructional discourse. Worldwide outstanding researchers, like Julianne House, Carme Muñoz, Ute Smit, Tarja Nikula or Roy Lyster, to quote but a few, adopt different perspectives in this joint contribution that will certainly broaden the scope of research on language learners’ discourse.

Little exposure and few opportunities for practice are two main drawbacks for learners in instructional contexts. These problems are intensified when dealing with face-threatening acts such as refusals, as learners are not fully capable of expressing their meanings and miscommunication is a likely by-product. The present volume aims at exploring factors and production of refusals in different instructional settings by means of ten original papers which address key questions dealing with the speech act of refusals. The relevance of the volume lies in the individual contributions which embrace innovative perspectives on refusals in order to provide an excellent contribution to this field of enquiry. The book is an obligatory reading for researchers and students interested in the field of interlanguage pragmatics, who will benefit from the range of educational contexts in which refusals are investigated.

Financial disclosure has become a crucial component of corporate communication. Through this process, companies aim to provide information and project an image of trustworthiness in response to on-going ethical concerns in the world of finance. Rhetoric in financial discourse provides new insights into how companies communicate with key stakeholders, not only to boost transparency, but also to attract investment. The book offers an in-depth linguistic analysis of the rhetorical dimension of financial communication. It focuses on two technology-mediated genres which are widely used, yet remain largely unexplored from a rhetorical perspective: earnings presentations and earnings releases. Using an innovative methodological approach, the book shows how corporate speakers and writers use distinctive rhetorical strategies to achieve their professional goals. It includes a practical discussion of how the findings can be exploited to develop state-of-the-art corporate communication courses and to improve the effectiveness of financial disclosure in professional settings. The book contributes to an enhanced understanding of the language of finance, representing a discourse community that involves and impacts the lives of many people around the world. It will be of interest to several communities of practice, including language researchers, discourse analysts, corpus linguists, finance and communication academics, students of business and finance, and professionals of financial communication.

The field of Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) is mainly concerned with the professional preparation of L2 teachers. In order to improve teaching in the multilingual and multicultural classroom of the 21st century, both pre- and in-service L2 teachers as well as L2 teacher educators must be prepared to meet the new challenges of education under the current circumstances, expanding their roles and responsibilities so as to face the new complex realities of language instruction.This volume explores a number of key dimensions of EFL teacher education. The sixteen chapters discuss a wide variety of issues related to second language pedagogy and SLTE. Topics discussed include the importance of SLA research; competency-based teacher education approach; classroom-based action research; SLTE models; the value and role of practicum experience abroad; the models of pronunciation teaching; multicultural awareness and competence; the influence of teachers’ cognitions, emotions and attitudes on their emerging and changing professional identities; the potential of classroom materials and technology; and CLIL and ESP teacher education.English as a foreign language teacher education: Current perspectives and challenges will be of interest to teachers-in-training, teachers, teacher educators and to those educational researchers interested in how L2 teaching is actually learned in professional preparation programmes.