Pop Culture in Language Education

Valentin Werner is Assistant Professor at the department of English and Historical Linguistics of the University of Bamberg, Germany. Friederike Tegge is a Research Associate at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa/Massey University and an English teacher at Te Herenga Waka/Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

• Introduction1 Learning languages through pop culture/learning pop culture through language educationValentin Werner & Friederike TeggePart I: The language of pop culture and language skills areas2 Teen talk in TV series as a model of linguistic innovation and emotional languageSilvia Bruti3 Swear/taboo words in US TV series: Combining corpus linguistics with selected insights from screenwriters and learners Monika Bednarek4 Exploring the vocabulary of rap lyrics Friederike Tegge & Averil Coxhead5 Teaching grammar through pop culture Valentin WernerPart II: Pop culture and classroom practice6 Going beyond the surface with pop culture: Using humorous cartoon series to explore social issues in the foreign language classroomJohn Rucynski7 Political comics and cartoons in language education: Suggestions for Arabic as a Foreign Language in classrooms in the USA Sadam Issa8 Eco-songs in foreign language educationTheresa Summer9 Learning through sharing: Enhancing critical engagement with pop culture content using social media in a second language contextAnne Peirson-Smith & Lindsay Miller10 Foreign language students, pop culture, and university degree thesis projects Joe TrottaPart III: Beyond the classroom11 Pop culture in teaching Chinese as an additional language: Theory, research, and practiceRaymond Pai & Patricia A. Duff12 "Watch out! Behind you is the enemy!" An exploratory study into the relationship between extramural English and productive vocabulary knowledgeLieven Bollansée, Eva Puimège & Elke Peters13 Levelling up comprehensible input and vocabulary learning: The lexical profile of videogamesMichael P. H. Rodgers & Julian Heidt 14 Pedagogically mediating engagement in the wild: Trajectories of fandom-based curricular innovationShannon Sauro & Steven L. ThornePart IV: Sociocultural and culture-critical considerations15 Teaching "authenticity" of media and pop culture textsAndrew Moody16 The new normal: English language learning, pop culture, and the politics of investmentAwad Ibrahim17 The use of K-Pop culture in a critical EAP classroom Hyeyoung Jung & Graham V. Crookes

"This volume convincingly shows why pop culture must have a firm place in foreign language education- You cannot teach a language without teaching its (popular) culture."Maria Eisenmann, Professor of English Didactics, University of Würzburg, Germany “The prevalence of and widespread access to multilingual popular cultural artifacts make them a very real part of our everyday lives, and interacting with pop culture requires skills to manage and negotiate meanings. Decoding the language of popular culture is a fruitful exercise for all consumers, but foreign language students in particular may have the most to gain from such an endeavor. Pop Culture in Foreign Language Education not only acknowledges popular cultural capital but also definitively establishes the educational value of popular cultural materials. The range and diversity of artifacts included in the analyses and the inclusion of chapters which take turns highlighting methodology, application, and theory contribute to a multi-purpose volume that appeals to students and teachers alike.”Kristy Beers Fägersten, Professor of English Linguistics, Södertörn University, Sweden."On the whole, Pop culture in language education is a pleasant and useful read. As a comprehensive volume that includes a range of pop culture artifacts and offers insights into their features and potential use in language classrooms, it can be a practical resource book for language educators and relevant stakeholders."Duy Van Vu, International Journal of Applied Linguistics