Bakhtinian Perspectives On Language And Culture

In this multi-disciplinary volume, comprising the work of several established scholars from different countries, central concepts associated with the work of the Bakhtin Circle are interrogated in relation to intellectual history, language theory and an understanding of new media. The book will prove an important resource for those interested in the ideas of the Bakhtin Circle, but also for those attempting to develop a coherent theoretical approach to language in use and problems of meaning production in new media.

This volume is the first to explore links between the Russian linguist Mikhail Bakhtin's theoretical insights about language and practical concerns with second and foreign language learning and teaching. Situated within a strong conceptual framework and drawing from a rich empirical base, it reflects recent scholarship in applied linguistics that has begun to move away from formalist views of language as universal, autonomous linguistic systems, and toward an understanding of language as dynamic collections of cultural resources. According to Bakhtin, the study of language is concerned with the dialogue existing between linguistic elements and the uses to which they are put in response to the conditions of the moment. Such a view of language has significant implications for current understandings of second- and foreign-language learning. The contributors draw on some of Bakhtin's more significant concepts, such as dialogue, utterance, heteroglossia, voice, and addressivity to examine real world contexts of language learning. The chapters address a range of contexts including elementary- and university-level English as a second language and foreign language classrooms and adult learning situations outside the formal classroom. The text is arranged in two parts. Part I, "Contexts of Language Learning and Teaching," contains seven chapters that report on investigations into specific contexts of language learning and teaching. The chapters in Part II, "Implications for Theory and Practice," present broader discussions on second and foreign language learning using Bakhtin's ideas as a springboard for thinking. This is a groundbreaking volume for scholars in applied linguistics, language education, and language studies with an interest in second and foreign language learning; for teacher educators; and for teachers of languages from elementary to university levels. It is highly relevant as a text for graduate-level courses in applied linguistics and second- and foreign-language education.

This 2004 book represents a multidisciplinary collaboration that highlights the significance of Mikhail Bakhtin's theories to modern scholarship in the field of language and literacy. Book chapters examine such important questions as: What resources do students bring from their home/community environments that help them become literate in school? What knowledge do teachers need in order to meet the literacy needs of varied students? How can teacher educators and professional development programs better understand teachers' needs and help them to become better prepared to teach diverse literacy learners? What challenges lie ahead for literacy learners in the coming century? Chapters are contributed by scholars who write from varied disciplinary perspectives. In addition, other scholarly voices enter into a Bakhtinian dialogue with these scholars about their ideas. These 'other voices' help our readers push the boundaries of current thinking on Bakhtinian theory and make this book a model of heteroglossia and dialogic intertexuality.

During the last 30 years, the Russian thinker M. M. Bakhtin has achieved great international recognition for his work with - among other subjects - literary theory and philosophy of language, and inspiration from his research is to be seen in almost all fields of the human sciences. However, Bakhtin's authorship focused primarily on one particular phenomenon: the novel. In this book, the world's leading Bakhtin scholars discuss Bakhtin's special understanding of the novel, both in relation to the status the novel occupies in the existing theoretical and philosophical debate, and in the historical context in which it was created. Articles such as Michael Holquist's Why is God's Name a Pun - Bakhtin's Theory of the Novel and Theo-Philology and Derek Littlewood's Epic and Novel in Magic Realism have been revised and augmented for the publication.

Occupying a still evolving but clearly established place in twentieth-century intellectual history, the great Russian thinker Mikhail Bakhtin is best characterized as philosopher of dialogue or human communication. Within Bakhtin's rich body of thought are numerous insights that promise fruition in fields that include linguistics and semiotics, literary theory and poetics. From their linked perspectives The Thought of Mikhail Bakhtin approaches its subject, concentrating on problems of language and literature.

In this book, Wolff-Michael Roth takes a 38-minute conversation in one science classroom as an occasion for analyzing learning and development from a perspective by and large inspired by the works of Mikhail Bakhtin but also influenced by Lev Vygotsky and 20th century European phenomenology and American pragmatism. He throws a new and very different light on the nature and use of language in science classroom, and its transformation. In so doing, he not only exposes the weaknesses of existing theoretical frameworks, including radical and social constructivism, but also exhibits problems in his own previous thinking about knowing and learning in science classrooms. The book particularly addresses issues normally out of the light of sight of science education research, including the material bodily principle, double-voicedness, laughter, coarse language, swearing, the carnal and carnivalistic aspects of life, code-switching, and the role of vernacular in the transformation of scientific language. The author suggests that only a unit of analysis that begins with the fullness of life, singular, unique, and once-occurrent Being, allows an understanding of learning and development, emotion and motivation, that is, knowing science in its relation to the human condition writ large. In this, the book provides responses to questions that conceptual change research, for example, is unable to answer, for example, the learning paradox, the impossibility to eradicate misconceptions, and the resistance of teachers to take a conceptual change position.

Occupying a still evolving but clearly established place in twentieth-century intellectual history, the great Russian thinker Mikhail Bakhtin is best characterized as philosopher of dialogue or human communication. Within Bakhtin's rich body of thought are numerous insights that promise fruition in fields that include linguistics and semiotics, literary theory and poetics. From their linked perspectives The Thought of Mikhail Bakhtin approaches its subject, concentrating on problems of language and literature.

This book analyses an intercultural project undertaken by French and English 14-year-olds based on an exchange of materials created by the pupils and focused on the topic of law and order. The project was based on a view of learning as a dialogic process interacting with others. A first language and home culture is acquired through such interaction. This project sought to realise this dialogic process in a more meaningful way than is often the case in foreign language classrooms.