Multifunctionality in English: Corpora, Language and Academic Literacy Pedagogy

This edited volume provides detailed analyses of multifunctional forms in English and offers hands-on approaches exemplifying relevant implications and useful applications to language and literacy educators in TESOL, ESL/EFL/EAL and research students in applied linguistics and education.

The chapters cover: The multifunctionality of utterances in spoken and multimodal corpora, the multifunctionality of linguistic creativity in different genres, multifunctional pronouns in hard and soft sciences, and professional discourse in the university and secondary school contexts. The volume also offers a comparison of the multifunctionality of verbs between ESL textbooks, native written and spoken English corpora, and between ESL and L1 university students in writing a particular genre; comparisons of the multifunctionality of discourse markers between different registers and between L1 and L2 English speakers, as well as multifunctional metadiscourse markers in different disciplines and paradigms.

With detailed analysis of authentic corpus data representing different varieties of English, specialized use in different contexts and disciplines, and practical teaching and learning applications, the volume bridges theory and practice, providing a creatively designed resource for students, educators and researchers looking to understand multifunctional forms in English.

Zihan Yin has lectured in Applied Linguistics, TESOL, Linguistics, Education, ESL/EAP and academic literacies at universities in Australia, New Zealand and China. Her publications appeared in the Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Discourse Studies and RELC Journal.

Elaine Vine lectured in Applied Linguistics, TESOL and Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, until her retirement in 2013. She is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow in that School.