Spoken English, TESOL and Applied Linguistics

A collection of cutting-edge studies on spoken language and applied linguistics provided by leading scholars in the field, this volume combines lively, and at times challenging, theoretical debates with discussion of a more classroom-based nature. It takes the reader through questions of international English, ideology and attitudes to the spoken form, issues of prosody and conversational norms, spoken language in the ELT classroom and key questions in assessing the spoken form: To what extent do new data regarding the nature of spoken discourse challenge existing language theories, models or paradigms? Is a 'paradigm-shift' taking place due to the weight of evidence that spoken discourse is a distinctive form in its own right, or will this evidence be absorbed into existing models and theories? Can the insights of current research on spoken language easily be accommodated into existing language teaching, whether at the level of pedagogic grammars, or methods/approaches, or do they present challenges that break new ground? Will current research on spoken forms have an impact on the assessment of speaking? What weight should be given to the phonetic and paralinguistic meaning-bearing elements of the spoken form, either in language description or in the curriculum?