Unity and Diversity in Language Use

The papers in this collection, drawn from the 34th Annual Conference of the British Association for Applied Lunguistics, reflect a number of different perspecitves within the field of applied linguistics at the start of the twenty-first century. While addressing the theme of unity and diversity, each paper prompts critical reflection on tensions within the descipline between stability and change, consensus and controversy, similiarity and variation. The interpretation of languge use is broad and varied, taking both macro- and micro-perspectives. Topics address range from issues of global communication in a world of shifting demographics and technological advances to analyses of specific contexts of interaction, both professional and personal. Contexts of language use frequently coincide with settings of language acquisition, both within and beyond the language classroom, and this opens up discussion of the focus, scope and appropriateness of research stances in applied linguistics and practices in language pedagogy.Furthermore, variation is considered from a number of social-cultural, gender-related, linguistic and discourse perspectives, calling into question terminology, definitions and the nature of evidence at the heart of applied linguistics theory and practice. Kristyan Spelman Miller is a lecturer in Applied Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at the University of Reading. Paul Thompson is a Research Fellow in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at the University of Reading.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. Beyond the second vs. foreign language dichotomy: The subjective dimensions of language learning; Claire Kramsch; 2. Genre teaching: the struggle for diversity in unity; Julian Edge and Sue Wharton; 3. Organisation in school and university students' persuasive texts; Ann Galloway; 4. Discourse and synchronous computer-mediated communication: uniting speaking and writing? James Simpson; 5. Methodological issues involved in studying children's interactions with ICT; Julia Gillen; 6. Students' interpretations of teachers' gestures in the language classroom - what do teachers mean and what do students see? Daniela Sime; 7. Mapping and assessing medical students' interactional involvement styles with patients; Celia Roberts and Srikant Sarangi; 8. Distinguishing the voices of researchers and the people they research in writing qualitative research; Adrian Holliday; 9. Is it a wood or are they trees? Keith Johnson; 10. Children mediating their immigrant parents' learning of L2 English: a focus on verb learning in homework interactions; Pilar Duran; 11. Random association networks: A baseline measure of lexical complexity; Paula Meara and Ellen Schur; 12. Imposed unity, denied diversity: changing attitudes to artifice in language and learning; Guy Cook; 13. Habeas corpus and divide et impera: 'Global English' and applied linguistics; Barbara Seidlhofer