Discourse in English Language Education

Discourse in English Language Education introduces students to the major concepts and questions in Discourse Studies and their applications to language education. Each chapter draws on key research to examine critically a particular approach in the field, providing a review of important literature, examples to illustrate the principal issues concerned and an outline of the implications for their application to pedagogy.

Features include:

• coverage of a broad range of approaches in the field, including Systemic Functional Linguistics and Register, Speech Acts, the Cooperative Principle and Politeness, Conversation Analysis, Genre Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics
• analysis of a wide range of discourse examples that include casual conversation, newspapers, fiction, radio, classrooms, blogs and real-life learner texts
• a selection of illustrations and tables carefully chosen to enhance students' understanding of different concepts and approaches
• stimulating discussion questions at the end of each chapter, specially designed to foster critical thinking, reflection and engagement with the topics covered.

Engaging, accessible and comprehensive, Discourse in English Language Education richly demonstrates how Discourse Studies can inform the teaching of English and other languages, both as a foreign language and in the mother tongue.

It will be essential reading for upper undergraduates and postgraduates with interests in Applied Linguistics, TESOL and Language Education.

John Flowerdew is Professor in the English Department, City University of Hong Kong.