In this book, writers from a range of academic disciplines examine a wide variety of text and discourse: from everyday conversation to the literary canon.

In "Using English," writers from a range of academic discipline examine a wide variety of texts and discourses including: everyday conversation, English in the workplace, English and Rhetoric, literary practices, English and popular culture, language and literature. Highly interdisciplinary in approach, this second in a series of four book provides a coherent introduction to the way in which language is shaped and used in practice. Contributors include: Mike Baynham, Guy Cook, Lizbeth Goodman, Janet Maybin, Robin Mercer, Jane Miller and Neil Mercer.

Using English provides an invaluable introduction to the study of English for students of language and linguistics. It examines the way in which the English language is used today in different contexts and in many parts of the world, by both native and non-native speakers. Issues of language use in speech and writing, in work and play, and in persuading and informing are explored and illustrated with data and readings from around the English-using world. The reader is introduced to the adaptations and variations in English language use and to debates relating to how these are perceived and evaluated by different groups of users. For this second edition, key material from the earlier bestselling book, Using English: From Conversation to Canon, has been reorganized and updated, and entirely new material has been introduced. This new content is based on recent research in the field, as well as on contemporary thinking about how speakers and writers use the English language to accomplish a huge range of purposes in a variety of linguistic and cultural settings. Drawing on The Open University's wide experience of writing accessible and innovative texts, this book: explains basic concepts, easily located through a comprehensive index, includes contributions by experts in the field, such as Mike Baynham, Adrian Beard, Guy Cook, Sharon Goodman, Almut Koester, Janet Maybin and Neil Mercer, contains a range of source material and commissioned readings to supplement chapters.

`What the book does extremely well is do describe the way things are in terms of the requirements of the Framework for Teaching English, the curriculum and the new specifications - and for this reason it is likely to be most useful to those contemplating English tech9ng in the maintained sector from outside - returnees, aspiring NQTs or those in the independent sector′ - Times Educational Supplement `Instead of taking us yet again on a tour through the four modalities of English, this book′s tri-partite structure takes a refreshingly different approach by offering thought-provoking argument grounded in classroom practicality′ - Nick McGuinn, University of York Students′ comments on Teaching Secondary English: `The book is written in clear, digestible terms, offering many practical ideas for teaching the key skills and the wide range of material encountered in the English classroom. .. It is the kind of book which can be dipped into, which is particularly useful for people who spend most of their time planning lessons!′ `Teaching Secondary English is a must for student teachers and NQTs. It is a clear, comprehensive and practical guidebook dealing not solely with theory and pedagogy, but with the very real issues facing new teachers today′ ` It is clear that Teaching Secondary English, unlike so many textbooks on the subject, is written by someone with recent classroom experience and this helps the reader to trust and respect the advice it purports. I certainly feel it is grounded in practicalities not "pie in the sky" theory that will not work in most `real′ classrooms!′ This book enables English teachers to implement change and rise to new challenges, while remaining true to an ethically and socially just position which provides the rationale for their vocation. The author describes and evaluates recent changes to English teaching brought about by initiatives such as the Literacy Strategy, the new `A′ levels and the requirement to focus on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Examples of innovative teaching and learning strategies are provided throughout. The author helps teachers to foster keen readers, writers and communicators. He shows how they can enable their students to acquire skills and knowledge, as well as to recognize the value of aesthetic experience, emotional literacy and spiritual and moral response to literature in their own lives and in their communities. This book is essential reading for PGCE students as well as practising teachers and all those involved in English in education.

Words and Minds takes a lively and accessible look at the evolution of language and how we use language in joint activities.

"This study explores the language of canon law, the legal order of the Roman Catholic Church. It seeks to bring the language of canon law into the law and language debate and in doing so better understand how the Roman Catholic Church communicates as a legal institution. It ex-amines the function of canon law language in ecclesiastical communications. It studies the character of canonical language, the grammar and terminology of canon law, and how it makes use of linguistic tricks and techniques to create its typical sound. It discusses the com-prehension difficulties that arise out of ambiguities in the law, out of transfer problems be-tween legal and common language, and out of canon law's confusing mix of legal, doctrinal, and moral norms. It reviews the potential consequences of a plain language agenda in the church. This includes an evaluation of whether dead Latin is the appropriate language for a global and cross-cultural legal order such as canon law, and a discussion of how to improve multi-language communication. It takes a closer look at ecclesiastical interpretation theory. It examines forensic language, the language of ecclesiastical tribunals, in its problematic shifting between orality and textuality"--

The Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor presents the first ever comprehensive, in-depth treatment of all the sub-fields of the linguistics of humor, broadly conceived as the intersection of the study of language and humor. The reader will find a thorough historical, terminological, and theoretical introduction to the field, as well as detailed treatments of the various approaches to language and humor. Deliberately comprehensive and wide-ranging, the handbook includes chapter-long treatments on the traditional topics covered by language and humor (e.g., teasing, laughter, irony, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, the major linguistic theories of humor, translation) but also cutting-edge treatments of internet humor, cognitive linguistics, relevance theoretic, and corpus-assisted models of language and humor. Some chapters, such as the variationist sociolinguistcs, stylistics, and politeness are the first-ever syntheses of that particular subfield. Clusters of related chapters, such as conversation analysis, discourse analysis and corpus-assisted analysis allow multiple perspectives on complex trans-disciplinary phenomena. This handbook is an indispensable reference work for all researchers interested in the interplay of language and humor, within linguistics, broadly conceived, but also in neighboring disciplines such as literary studies, psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. The authors are among the most distinguished scholars in their fields.

Through using spoken language, people are able to think creatively and productively together. This ability to ‘interthink’ is an important product of our evolutionary history that is just as important for our survival today. Many kinds of work activity depend on the success of groups or teams finding joint solutions to problems. Creative achievement is rarely the product of solitary endeavour, but of people working within a collective enterprise. Written in an accessible and jargon-free style, Interthinking: putting talk to work explores the growing body of work on how people think creatively and productively together. Challenging purely individualistic accounts of human evolution and cognition, its internationally acclaimed authors provide analyses of real-life examples of collective thinking in everyday settings including workplaces, schools, rehearsal spaces and online environments. The authors use socio-cultural psychology to explain the processes involved in interthinking, to explore its creative power, but also to understand why collective thinking isn’t always productive or successful. With this knowledge we can maximise the constructive benefits of our ability to interthink, and understand the best ways in which we can help young people to develop, nurture and value that capability. This book will be of great interest to academic researchers, postgraduates and undergraduates on Education and Psychology courses and to practicing teachers. It will also appeal to anyone with an interest in language, creativity and the role of psychology in everyday life.

In this provocative interpretation of the history of English, the contributors emphasise the diversity of English throughout its history and the changing social meanings of different varieties of English.