Books
Ellis, Rod, Language teaching research and language pedagogy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2012. Pp. xiii+387. ISBN 978-1-4443-3610-8 (pbk).
This book bridges the relationship between research, teachers and learners and examines current research on the second language classroom and the implications of this research for both the teaching and learning of foreign languages. It offers illuminating insights into the important relationship between research and teaching, and the inherent complexities of the teaching and learning of foreign languages in classroom settings.
Porte, Graeme (ed.), Replication research in applied linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. xv+286. ISBN 978-11-076-7152-2 (pbk).
A replication study repeats, exactly or approximately, a previous study to discover if its findings are reliable and/or can be generalised to other participants and circumstances. It is accepted practice in many disciplines that quantitative research studies should be replicated in order to test their robustness and generalisability. This edited volume brings together a number of experts who argue in favour of a more central role for replication research in second language acquisition and applied linguistics. The book provides a theoretical argument to support this view, as well as practical examples and model replication studies. It includes practical advice on how best to carry out replication research, covering issues such as how to choose suitable studies to replicate and how to set up, execute and write up the research ready for presentation to a journal.
Gramley, Stephan, The history of English: An introduction. London: Routledge, 2011. Pp. xxv+414. ISBN 978-0-415-56640-7 (pbk).
This volume provides a chronological analysis of the linguistic, social, and cultural development of the English language from before its establishment in Britain around the year 450 to the present. Each chapter represents a new stage in the development of the language from Old English through Middle English to Modern Global English, all illustrated with a rich and diverse selection of primary texts showing changes in the language resulting from contact, conquest and domination, and the expansion of English around the world. The book goes beyond the usual focus on English in the UK and the USA to include the wider global course of the language during and following the Early Modern English period. This perspective therefore also includes a historical review of English in its pidgin and creole varieties and as a native and/or second language in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Australasia.
Demetriou, Eroulla & Ruiz Mas, José, Get thee to a playhouse: An introduction to Elizabethan and Shakespearean drama for young students of literature. Jaén: Universidad de Jaén, 2009. Pp. 233. ISBN 978-84-8439-461-7 (pbk).
This book invites young university students of English drama to view the world of the Elizabethan and Shakespearean stage from a thorough but nonetheless dynamic and playful perspective. Texts are made accessible to the novice student of English literature by adapting and simplifying them so as to make them understandable, enjoyable and, at the same time, easy enough to perform should students wish to do so. The book offers a large number of activities which promote individual and group practice in the four skills. Key grammatical issues are revised in a discreet way within the literary activities proposed.
