Language and Culture (BAAL 7)

These papers from the 24th Annual Meeting of BAAL (University of Durham, September 1991), have been selected for the diversity of perspective which they offer on the theme of language and culture, and on the way in which they reflect current thinking on the interdependence of language use and situational context.

Linda Thompson was a primary school teacher for many years before becoming a teacher educator. She is currently Senior Lecturer at the University of Durham, UK, on leave to the Department of English Language & Literature at the National University of Singapore. Her main research interests are in the field of young children learning language(s). Books include: The Teaching of Poetry: European Perspectives (Cassell, 1996) and Children Talking: The Development of Pragmatic Competence (Multilingual Matters, 1997).

Michael Byram is Professor Emeritus at Durham University, England. Having studied languages at Cambridge University, he taught French and  German in school and adult education and then did teacher education at Durham. He was adviser to the Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe and then on the expert group which produced the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture. His research has included the education of minorities, foreign language teaching and intercultural competence, and more recently on how the PhD is experienced and assessed in a range of different countries.