Unity and Diversity in Language Use

Kristyan Spelman Miller is a lecturer in Applied Linguistics. Paul Thompson is a Research Fellow, both in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at the University of Reading.

• 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

"This collection of 13 papers from the annual meeting of the British Association of Applied Linguistics held in 2001 covers a broad range of topics, including doctor-patient communications, students' interpretations of teachers/ gestures, and measuring the lexical complexity of texts. A theme that runs throughout the collection and foreshadows an area of much current interest is the notion of voice and identity."—H. Douglas Adamson, University of Arizona, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Vol. 30:1, March 2008