Handbook of Foreign Language Communication

This volume focuses on how far the policies, principles and practices of foreign language teaching and learning are, or can be, informed by the theoretical considerations and findings of empirical research that emerge from the linguistic disciplines. Following the general introduction to this book, the first three parts deal with linguistic, socio-political, cultural and psycholinguistic factors that must have a bearing on the planning of foreign language education in general. The following three parts focus more on how applied linguistic considerations enter into matters of practical pedagogy, emphasizing issues of the design of foreign language teaching, of underlying approaches, and of the evaluation of the outcomes. The final part then considers in the light of the discussion of the preceding chapters, what role applied linguistics has in the education of future teachers. Key features: provides a state-of-the-art description of different areas in the context of foreign language communication and learning presents a critical appraisal of the relevance of the field offers solutionsto everyday language-related problems with contributions from renowned experts