Language, Learning and Teaching: Irish Research Perspectives

This book showcases recent work carried out by members of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics (IRAAL). By focusing on the relationship between language and its users within the micro context of Ireland, the contributors generate insights which promise to open up future avenues for Applied Linguistics research, both in Ireland and beyond.
The collection addresses two main themes within the field of Applied Linguistics: language learning and teaching, and the study of language and its discourses in context. In order to ensure that the volume is relevant to as wide an audience as is possible, it is not theoretically focused; rather, each chapter deals with a specific real world issue in context. The book provides an account of language problems that have arisen given the increasingly multilingual nature of Ireland, examines the current status of the Irish language and explores the potential for new technologies to enhance language learning and teaching.

Fiona Farr lectures in English language teaching at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Her research interests include spoken language corpora and their applications, foreign language teacher education, discourse analysis and language variety. She is the author of The Discourse of Teaching Practice Feedback: A Corpus-Based Investigation of Spoken and Written Modes (2010).
Máiréad Moriarty lectures in Linguistics at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Her research interests revolve around the broad theme of multilingualism. She is particularly interested in the nature of the relationship between minority languages and aspects of the media, popular culture and tourism. She is a member of the Peripheral Multi lingualism research project, which is funded by the Finnish Academy (2011-2014), under the direction of Professor Sari Pietikäinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.