Georgetown Scholars Examine Language Learning in New Book

(I-Newswire) April 26, 2005 - For the first time, perspectives from cognitive linguistics, language acquisition, discourse analysis and linguistic anthropology have come together in an attempt to broaden the reach of linguistics research. The theoretical and physical gaps between scholars in the field have previously stood in the way of interdisciplinary efforts. Language in Use aims to encourage a future in collaborative research.



The text examines language processing and first language learning and illuminates the insights that discourse and usage-based models provide in issues of second language learning. Using a variety of methodologies, it examines how speakers employ various discourse-level resources to structure interaction and create meaning. Finally, Language in Use addresses issues of language use and its effects on the development of social identity. This area of study, known as sociolinguistics, explores the ways in which language conveys social messages about who we are, where we come from and who we associate with. The text demonstrates the influence these social messages can have on relationship development at both an individual and global level.



This volume consists of a selection of papers from the 2003 Georgetown University Roundtable on Language and Linguistics (GURT). The featured essays were selected by peer review from more than 120 presentations and five plenary addresses. More than two dozen contributors joined forces to create this text, the editors of which include Andrea Tyler, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University; Mari Takada, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Linguistics; Yiyoung Kim, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Linguistics; and Diana Marinova, graduate student in the Department of Linguistics.



"The aim of GURT 2003 was to bring together research from various perspectives that emphasize the shared notions that the properties of language and the process of language learning crucially involve how language is used in context and how these patterns relate to cognition more generally," wrote Andrea Tyler, chair of GURT 2003.



The Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University includes 17 regular faculty members organized into four concentrations, including Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, Sociolinguistics and Theoretical Linguistics. Linguistics faculty and students frequently present at the conferences of the American Association for Anthropology, the American Association for Applied Linguistics, New Ways of Analyzing Variation, the North East Linguistics Society and the Linguistic Society of America. They publish in such journals as Applied Linguistics, Foreign Language Annals, Journal of Phonetics, Journal of Pragmatics, Language, Language in Society, Language Variation and Chance, Linguistics and Philosophy, Natural Language Semantics, Studies in Second Language Acquisition and TESOL Quarterly. In addition, the department sponsors the annual Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, which was established in 1950.


About Georgetown University

Georgetown University is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll. Georgetown today is a major student-centered, international, research university offering respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs on its three campuses. For more information about Georgetown University, visit www.georgetown.edu.

Contact: Emilie Moghadam
202-687-4328
em284@georgetown.edu

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