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The difficulties dyslexic students experience in the English mainstream classroom and present to their English teacher are examined in detail in this book.
What do a member of the royal family, Olympic rowing champion, comedienne, retired construction worker, a job seeker, a parent, a prisoner and a vet have in common? They are among the many people who have shared their personal stories about what dyslexia means to them. Not every contributor is dyslexic but they have all been sufficiently affected by dyslexia to write their story. With a foreword by Formula 1 champion Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, this is a collection of over 100 moving, poignant, sad, shocking, funny, instructive and illuminating stories. They describe the powerful impact of dyslexia on individuals, families, relationships, professionals and support staff. They give a fascinating insight into how dyslexic people are treated in a wide range of different day to day settings, including job centres, adult literacy classes, education and workplaces. Dyslexia and Us was originally published by Edinburgh Libraries, demonstrating close partnership work with Dyslexia Scotland that has developed over a number of years.
This book addresses the various challenges facing university foreign language teaching in non-anglophone countries in the era of educational globalization. Growing student mobility, net-based cross-border university education, and universities opening subsidiaries in other countries force university teachers to offer their teaching in English rather than in their mother tongue, and universities to equip their staff members with the necessary foreign language competencies. As a reflection of societal and institutional globalization processes, dedicated language teachers strive to adjust teaching methods to new student identities, the availability of advanced learning technologies, and social media enabling multiple forms of cross-border contact. Thus, understanding the situation of contemporary university language teaching requires a consideration of macro-level social changes, institutional policies, as well as developments in classroom practice. The point of departure is the case of Denmark. The problems addressed and the remedies offered, however, apply to all non-anglophone universities with the ambition to stay competitive in the global market of university education. The book includes contributions from foreign and second language teaching specialists representing a broad spectrum of Danish universities and years of sustained scholarly effort to improve the standard of university language teaching and the political recognition of the importance of advanced foreign language skills.
In this highly readable and thought-provoking book, Delia Chiaro explores the pragmatics of word play, using frameworks normally adopted in descriptive linguistics. Using examples from personally recorded conversations, she examines the structure of jokes, quips, riddles and asides. Chiaro explores degrees of conformity to and deviation from established conventions; the `tellability' of jokes, and the interpretative role of the listener; the creative use of puns, word play and discourse. The emphasis in her analysis is on sociocultural contexts for the production and reception of jokes, and she examines the extent to which jokes are both universal in their appeal, and specific to a particular culture.
The broad aim of this lively and engaging book is to examine relationships between the linguistic patterns, the stylistic functions, and the social and cultural contexts of humour. The material used in illustration is of corresponding breadth: schoolyard jokes, graffiti, aphorisms, advertisements, arguments, anecdotes, puns, parodies, passages of comic fiction, all come under Dr Nash's scrutiny.
Annette Dolan has endeavoured to inject a very colourful and eventful life into this story, whilst being a dyslexic. Trials and tribulations are many, both in her personal relationships and the challenges faced when seeking employment. Her survival instinct is to be greatly admired and she presents a role model to those who are suffering the same learning difficulties. Dolan allows us to follow her life story and share the complex hurdles that she has had to overcome. Rejection and failure at many of the opportunities that she saw as her vocation, from menial tasks to cleaning, only served to fuel her extraordinary persistence that she would, in time, succeed. Now a very successful business woman, born from true grit and determination, she has evolved several successful businesses. Along with her personal struggle, Dolan enjoys her children and husband and integrates them with her role in business.
Oliver Reed may not have been Britain's biggest film star - for a period in the early 70s he came within a hairsbreadth of replacing Sean Connery as James Bond - but he is an august member of that small band of people, like George Best and Eric Morecambe, who transcended their chosen medium, became too big for it even, and grew into cultural icons. For the first time Reed's close family has agreed to collaborate on a project about the man himself. The result is a fascinating new insight into a man seen by many as merely a brawling, boozing hellraiser. And yet he was so much more than this. For behind that image, which all too often he played up to in public, was a vastly complex individual, a man of deep passions and loyalty but also deep-rooted vulnerability and insecurities. Why was a proud, patriotic, intelligent, successful and erudite man so obsessed about proving himself to others, time and time again? Although the Reed myth is of Homeric proportions, he remains a national treasure and somewhat peculiar icon. Praise for other books by Robert Sellers: Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed: 'So wonderfully captures the wanton belligerence of both binging and stardom you almost feel the guys themselves are telling the tales.' GQ. Vic Armstrong: The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman: 'This is the best and most original behind-the-scenes book I have read in years, gripping and revealing.' Roger Lewis, Daily Mail. Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down: '...a rollicking good read... Sellers has done well to capture a vivid snapshot of this exciting time.' Lynn Barber, Sunday Times.
Here is a guide to the student, that inherently useless proportion of the population that nonetheless requires a vast amount of government funding and acts as though it has the right to an opinion, just because it is 'educated'. Whether you are one, have been one or would cross the road to avoid one, read on to find out more about this fascinating species! Topics covered range from Student Spotting and Tips For Blending in as a Student, through Student Issues, to Breeds of Students.
""Dr Cosgrove's book is one that you will want to share with others. This is an enjoyable, funny, satirical novel with a serious social commentary. Many of the characters and situations are instantly recognisable from my forty years of educational experience but it carries a message wider than the context of education. Beneath the antics of the seemingly mad Dr Erfert is the questions it raises about the awareness of mental health issues within schools and other areas of society.""- PF Lupton BA, Dip.RE., Retired teacher. DescriptionThis book is meant to be a satirical novel based on the author's forty years of experience in teacher training and inspection. Its fundamental principle is that much of what goes on in education is so bizarre as to be like the old story of the emperor's new clothes. There is an elaborate game played by two sets of players. Some genuinely believe in the absurdities and some see through them but it is not in their interest to break rank. So long as everyone plays by the rules of this silly game the emperor has clothes. But when one young Yorkshireman of sturdy common sense tries to make people believe that much of what goes on is nonsense he comes up against both sets of protagonists. The novel is partly a story of how he is defeated by the system and ultimately has to accept and embrace it. Many of the things John Cosgrove recounts in this novel have actually happened but they are wrapped around the bizarre antics of a 'mad' principal. The serious question on which the reader must decide for him or herself is whether Dr Erfert is mad or whether the madness lies in the society that tolerates and promotes him and other so-called educational experts. This is an interesting and thought provoking novel which raises questions for the whole of society. About the AuthorDr John Cosgrove, BA, MA, MEd, PhD, DASE, PGCE, CELTA has forty years experience of the education system working in a variety of fields from schools to universities. He has been involved with teacher training for over thirty years and has held senior positions in the university sector including that of Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Reading University. He has been the chief external examiner at Reading University for teacher-training courses. He has been on the Rochdale Education Committee and its successors for over 20 years and has held the chairmanship or vice-chairmanship of four governing bodies as well as of many university level committees. He is particularly well known for his contribution to Catholic education mainly in the Salford Diocese and was once invited to be an occasional historical consultant to a congregation in Rome. He has taken part in 80 OFSTED inspections specialising in History, Religious Education and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural aspects. He has written academic theses and has had a few articles accepted by newspapers (Times Educational Supplement) or journals (The Month) but this is his first novel. He has a children's novel based on the Civil War, almost ready and has ideas for more work on Dr Erfert's career as the emperor of education. He also has a plan for a non-fiction academic book on the principles of history teaching for student teachers and for teachers having an OFSTED inspection. He has now retired from full time work.
In this exhilarating and often hilarious book, David Crystal examines why we devote so much time and energy to language games, how professionals make a career of them, and how young children instinctively take to them. Crystal makes a simple argument-that since playing with language is so natural, a natural way to learn language is to play with it-while he discusses puns, crosswords, lipograms, comic alphabets, rhymes, funny voices taken from dialect and popular culture, limericks, anagrams, scat singing, and much more.
