This book is a good companion for teachers and learners of the English grammar. It gives the opportunity for teachers to journey with their students in the teaching and learning of grammar, especially in a non-native English speaking context. It encourages an understanding of grammar through the use of a metalanguage. Learners no longer have to depend on the ‘it feels right’ defense but can confidently support grammar usage with sound explanation. ESL learners from the secondary school level to tertiary level as well as learners who are preparing to be English teachers will find the aspects and depth of the contents covered in this book useful. The book inculcates the practice of ‘awareness, analysis and explanation’ which helps learners to tap into the many grammar guides and resources available.

This research collection presents a critical review of the materials used for learning English around the world. The first section includes a discussion of materials for specific learners and purposes, such as young learners, self-study, academic writing and general proficiency. The second section presents a detailed study of the materials used in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa and Australia, and critically evaluates their effectiveness in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. Taking both the teacher's and the learner's needs into consideration, the book makes a positive contribution to the future of research in materials development, and has practical applications. This comprehensive, critical analysis of materials in use around the world will be useful for academics researching materials development and applied linguistics and for students on post-graduate applied linguistics and ELT courses.

"A tool box overflowing with ideas that will help every staff developer craft a school culture hospitable to adult and student learning." —Roland S. Barth, Author, Lessons Learned "The book speaks to many audiences, including instructional coaches, PLC leaders, action researchers and group leaders, and university professors working with action researchers and PLCs." —Gail Ritchie, Coleader, Teacher Researcher Network Fairfax County Public Schools, VA "A terrific resource for connecting teacher networks and action research to create powerful professional development opportunities. This book is a joy to read." —Ellen Meyers, Senior Vice President Teachers Network Powerful tools for facilitating teachers′ professional development and optimizing school improvement efforts! Professional learning communities (PLCs) and action research are popular and proven frameworks for professional development. While both can greatly improve teaching and learning, few resources have combined the two practices into one coherent approach. The Reflective Educator′s Guide to Professional Development provides educators with strategies, activities, and tools to develop inquiry-oriented PLCs. Nationally known school reform experts Nancy Fichtman Dana and Diane Yendol-Hoppey cover the ten essential elements of a healthy PLC, provide case studies of actual inquiry-based PLCs, and present lessons learned to help good coaches become great coaches. With this step-by-step guide, readers will be able to: Organize, assess, and maintain high-functioning, inquiry-oriented PLCs Facilitate the development of study questions Establish the trust and collective commitment necessary for successful action research Enable PLC members to develop, analyze, and share research results Lead successful renewal and reform efforts By combining two powerful training practices, coaches, workshop leaders, and staff developers can ensure continuous, robust school-based professional development.

Demonstrates the principles involved in planning and designing an effective syllabus. This book examines important concepts, such as needs analysis, goal-setting, and content specification, and serves as a useful introduction for teachers who want to gain an understanding of syllabus design in order to modify the syllabuses with which they work.

This groundbreaking volume explores the languages of South and Southeast Asia, which differ significantly from Indo-European languages in their grammar, lexicon and spoken forms. This book raises new questions in psycholinguistics and enables readers to re-evaluate previous models in light of new research.

These conference proceedings explore the design of pedagogical intervention and learning cultures, the inclusion of socio-emotional support in teaching and policy, transforming technology to support the social fabric of our institutions, and challenging established beliefs about learning. They clarify the complex challenges involved in employing social learning in education and higher education institutions to foster greater understanding and insights, while also avoiding the pitfalls that come with rolling out the concept of “redesigning learning”. The Taylor’s Teaching and Learning Conference has been held at Taylor’s University, Malaysia, since 2006.

Assessing Grammar provides essential reading for teachers who need to evaluate their students' grammar.

Learning by design guide.

Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Change focuses on the influence of sociocultural terms on the forms of languages. The selection first underscores the sociocultural dimensions of language change and language evolution and speech style. Discussions focus on the relation of speech style and language evolution, linguistic evidence of language evolution, autonomy of code and style, language contact phenomena, and extension of the concept of language. The book then takes a look at speech and social prestige in the Belizian speech community; Japanese numeral classifiers; and speculations on the growth of ethnobotanical nomenclature. Topics include appearance of varietal names, differentiation and formation of specific names, six universal categories of ethnobotanical nomenclature, salience of speech, and prestige, social success, and language. The publication elaborates on color categorization in West Futunese; creolization and syntactic change in New Guinea Tok Pisin; relexification processes in Philippine Creole Spanish; and the historical and sociocultural aspects of the distribution of linguistic variants in highland Chiapas, Mexico. The selection is a valuable source of data for language experts and researchers interested in the sociocultural dimensions of language change.

The two-volume set LNCS 7066 and LNCS 7067 constitutes the proceedings of the Second International Visual Informatics Conference, IVIC 2011, held in Selangor, Malaysia, during November 9-11, 2011. The 71 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in these proceedings. They are organized in topical sections named computer vision and simulation; virtual image processing and engineering; visual computing; and visualisation and social computing. In addition the first volume contains two keynote speeches in full paper length, and one keynote abstract.