Language Acts and Worldmaking: How and Why the Languages We Use Shape Our World and Our Lives

Written by researchers with real-life experience working with languages, Language Acts and Worldmaking acknowledges the history and current realities of language teaching and learning. It boldly sug­gests ways forward for reform and policy, setting languages at the heart of a consciously trans­formative set of goals. The book encourages engagement with leading practitioners and re­searchers to stimulate readers’ curiosity about how the languages we use affect how we think and feel about ourselves, other people, and the world around us.

About the Language Acts and Worldmaking series:
This series delves into the most relevant and important topics around language learning, teaching and policy, some of which have never been addressed in academic texts before, covering seven themes within seven different volumes with contributors from universities across the UK, US and rest of world. 

Ana Aguiar de Medeiros is Director of the Modern Language Centre at King’s College London. In 2017 she was elected Vice-Chair of the UK Association of University Language Communities (AULC). Ana co-leads the research strand ‘Language Transitions’ with Debra Kelly as a member of the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking at King’s College.

Debra Kelly is Professor Emerita in Modern Languages, School of Humanities, University of Westminster, London. In 2005 she received the award of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques from the French Government in rec­ognition of her services to French language, literature and culture. She is also Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London working with the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking in King’s Art and Humanities Research Institute and co-leads the research strand ‘Language Transitions’ with Ana de Medeiros.