Languages For Specific Purposes

Languages for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice is a collection of essays which will appeal to teachers of modern languages no matter the level of instruction. The essays highlight the latest developments of Foreign Language Teaching in the Balkan countries, Eastern and Western Europe and the Middle East. The field of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) is one of the richest areas of second language research and practice because increasing globalization and changing technologies spawn new modes of intercultural connection and new occasions for second language use. Languages for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice compasses this burgeoning field by presenting new research and commentary from some of the field’s leading practitioners. This book surveys the approaches and methods in foreign language teaching, such as grammar translation, language evaluation, communication competence, critical thinking skills, communicative language teaching, and the natural approach. Teachers and teachers-in-training will discover in this book a comprehensive survey and analysis of the major and minor teaching methods used around the world. It is addressed to a wide audience that includes Language for Specific Purposes teachers and researchers, although the contents will also be relevant to applied linguists working in other fields. This book contains research studies as well as educational experiences and proposals, presented from different perspectives and backgrounds (both geographical and cultural), all of which are theoretically grounded and with a clear and sound rationale. Readers will find a variety of educational projects and research studies situated in specific educational contexts and in particular geographical locations.

This book fully explicates current trends and best practices in LSP, surveying the field with critical insightful commentary and analyses. Covering course areas such as planning, implementation, assessment, pedagogy, classroom management, professional development and research, it is indispensable for teachers, researchers, students.

This book is the first to examine implementation of tests for specific purposes.

Explores the direct relation of modern CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) to aspects of natural language processing for theoretical and practical applications, and worldwide demand for formal language education and training that focuses on restricted or specialized professional domains. Unique in its broad-based, state-of-the-art, coverage of current knowledge and research in the interrelated fields of computer-based learning and teaching and processing of specialized linguistic domains. The articles in this book offer insights on or analyses of the current state and future directions of many recent key concepts regarding the application of computers to natural languages, such as: authenticity, personalization, normalization, evaluation. Other articles present fundamental research on major techniques, strategies and methodologies that are currently the focus of international language research projects, both of a theoretical and an applied nature.

This handbook gives an overview of language for special purposes (LSP) in scientific, professional and other contexts, with particular focus on teaching and training. It provides insights into research paradigms, theories and methods while also highlighting the practical use of LSPs in concrete discourse situations. The volume is transdisciplinary oriented with a firm basis in the language sciences, including terminology, knowledge transfer, multilingual and cross-cultural exchange.

In the United States today there is lively discussion, both among educators and employers, about the best way to prepare students with high-level language and cross-cultural communication proficiency that will serve them both professionally and personally in the global environment of the twenty-first century. At the same time, courses in business language and medical language have become more popular among students. Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), which encompasses these kinds of courses, responds to this discussion and provides curricular models for language programs that build practical language skills specific to a profession or field. Contributions in the book reinforce those models with national survey results, demonstrating the demand for and benefits of LSP instruction. With ten original research-based chapters, this volume will be of interest to high school and university language educators, program directors, linguists, and anyone looking to design LSP courses or programs in any world language.

This volume focuses on how far the policies, principles and practices of foreign language teaching and learning are, or can be, informed by theoretical considerations and empirical findings from the linguistic disciplines. Part I deals with the nature of foreign language learning in general, while Part II explores issues arising from linguistic, socio-political, cultural and cognitive perspectives. Part III and IV then consider the different factors that have to be taken into account in designing the foreign language subject and the various approaches to pedagogy that have been proposed. Part V finally addresses questions concerning assessment of learner proficiency and the evaluation of courses designed to promote it. Key features: provides a state-of-the-art description of different areas in the context of foreign language communication and learning presents a critical appraisal of the relevance of the field offers solutions to everyday language-related problems with contributions from renowned experts

This volume brings together work by both well-known scholars and emerging researchers in the various areas of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), such as political, legal, medical, and business discourse. The volume is divided into three parts in order to align rather than separate three different but related aspects of LSP: namely, translation, linguistic research, and domain specific communication on the web. Underlying all the contributions here is the growing awareness of the ever-increasing multiformity of specialised communication and the ever-wider social implications of the communicative situations in which it is embedded, especially where it involves the need to move across languages, cultures and modes, as in translation and interpreting. The contributions consistently bear witness to the need to review received notions, pose new questions, and explore fresh perspectives. The picture that emerges is one of extreme complexity, in which researchers into specifically linguistic aspects of LSPs and their translation across languages and media declare their awareness of the pressing need to come to terms with a wide range of social, pragmatic, intercultural and political factors, above and beyond socio-technical knowledge of the domains under investigation.