Publisher's Synopsis
The study of context has been gaining popularity in recent years, either in linguistics itself or in many other interdisciplinary subjects such as semantics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis as well. However, context theories are not formed overnight. They involve a long process of development, during which comparative linguistics, structural linguistics and transformational-generative linguistics all contributed to the theoretical foundations of context theories. When we introduce context theories to the field of discourse analysis, we must take into consideration not only the discourse itself, but also the context in which the discourse takes place. Discourse analysis and pragmatics are relevant to language teaching and language learning since they represent two related discourse worlds that characterize human communication. The first represents intended meaning transmitted within context, and is, therefore, concerned with sequential relationships in production; and the other explains the interpreted meaning resulting from linguistic processing and social interaction, all the while taking into account a variety of contextual factors, at the receptive end. Language teaching needs to focus on both strategies of message construction to facilitate learner production of the communicative intent and strategies of interpretation, in order to ensure some ability on the learner's part to process inferentially the speaker/writer's intent. The volume is intended to help language teachers become knowledgeable about discourse analysis. The book encourages teachers and material developers to use natural spoken and written discourse in their textbooks, teaching materials, and classroom activities. This volume aims to give teachers and other practitioners in the field of language teaching a better understanding of how the general theory of communication, and discourse analysis in particular, can and should relate to language teaching. Featuring internationally renowned academics and practitioners, this volume provides a snapshot of the field of applied linguistics, and illustrates how linguistics is engaging with the idea of 'context'.
