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"If you are not already a Steven Pinker addict, this book will make you one." -- Jared Diamond In Words and Rules, Steven Pinker explores profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple phenomenon -- regular and irregular verbs -- and examining it from every angle. With humor and verve, he covers an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities, from the history of languages to how to simulate languages on computers to major ideas in the history of Western philosophy. Through it all, Pinker presents a single, powerful idea: that language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules. The idea extends beyond language and offers insight into the very nature of the human mind. This is a sparkling, eye-opening, and utterly original book by one of the world's leading cognitive scientists.
"English is so illogical!" It is generally believed that English is a language of exceptions. For many, learning to spell and read is frustrating. For some, it is impossible... especially for the 29% of Americans who are functionally illiterate. But what if the problem is not the language itself, but the rules we were taught? What if we could see the complexity of English as a powerful tool rather than a hindrance? --Denise Eide Uncovering the Logic of English challenges the notion that English is illogical by systematically explaining English spelling and answering questions like "Why is there a silent final E in have, large, and house?" and "Why is discussion spelled with -sion rather than -tion?" With easy-to-read examples and anecdotes, this book describes: - the phonograms and spelling rules which explain 98% of English words - how English words are formed and how this knowledge can revolutionize vocabulary development - how understanding the reasons behind English spelling prevents students from needing to guess The author's inspiring commentary makes a compelling case that understanding the logic of English could transform literacy education and help solve America's literacy crisis. Thorough and filled with the latest linguistic and reading research, Uncovering the Logic of English demonstrates why this systematic approach should be as foundational to our education as 1+1=2.
"Words Their Way" is a hands-on, developmentally driven approach to word study that illustrates how to integrate and teach children phonics, vocabulary, and spelling skills. This fifth edition features updated activities, expanded coverage of English learners, and emphasis on progress monitoring.
This handbook comprises an in-depth presentation of the state of the art in word-formation. The five volumes contain 207 articles written by leading international scholars. The XVI chapters of the handbook provide the reader, in both general articles and individual studies, with a wide variety of perspectives: word-formation as a linguistic discipline (history of science, theoretical concepts), units and processes in word-formation, rules and restrictions, semantics and pragmatics, foreign word-formation, language planning and purism, historical word-formation, word-formation in language acquisition and aphasia, word-formation and language use, tools in word-formation research. The final chapter comprises 74 portraits of word-formation in the individual languages of Europe and offers an innovative perspective. These portraits afford the first overview of this kind and will prove useful for future typological research. This handbook will provide an essential reference for both advanced students and researchers in word-formation and related fields within linguistics.
For British spellings focusing on KS2 curriculum requirements. This colourful, fun book is ideal for kids (including dyslexics) who are struggling with spelling and phonics by systematically focusing on areas that other spelling books and schemes ignore: improving visual memory, using memory tricks, noticing letter patterns, knowing spelling rules & exceptions, building words with prefixes and suffixes, understanding the history of spelling and why spelling is the way it is. Using a combination of well-known, proven literacy techniques and spelling strategies, this book will help kids learn, remember, and improve their spellings while reinforcing and building: * spelling knowledge, * confidence, * love of spelling and writing. The book is a great resource for teachers and tutors, too, because it explains why these "tricky" spellings are the way they are, including the rules and history of them - so you can answer those awkward questions about them. The book also provides some great ideas for exercises, group work, and games in the classroom. Reviews/feedbackGraham J Spooner of The Sensible Tuition CompanyI enjoyed reading through the first little section actually with the 'tricks and tips' for how to develop your spelling. This is exactly the sort of thing that my students are asking me for advice on regularly - and there are a lot of things in here that I know will be directly useable in lessons. I like the gap filling exercises - again, something like this makes the book a GREAT resource for a tutor or teacher as we could lift/adapt these exercises for 1:1 work. I like the way you've really opened up the material with the word lists. Again (speaking from the perspective of a private tutor) I think this is particularly useful as a resource to test a student's understanding (perhaps bringing these words into a game of hangman or other gap fill exercises). The grammar bits were quite memorable, I like your no-nonsense approach and voice that you have here. It's just useful stuff delivered without unnecessary padding but still accessible! I think that overall the book definitely fills a 'gap' by getting students actually looking at words, decoding them and building their intuition about how they are made, remade and deconstructed. It's also got a nice balance in its content in that it is accessible to a student at 10-11, but also useful for a tutor to adapt and create exercises from without much stress. I really like the use of colour throughout. I also really enjoyed the history bits too (e.g. about Latin roots of words) - very interesting. From Jessica and Roman McA.My son didn't lose concentration and worked for 20 mins without one single complaint. He really liked the word searches. He said writing sentences and drawing pictures was fun. He also liked filling in the missing letters, which I think is a brilliant way of really taking in the sequence of the letters. Roman scored really well on the tests, which is pretty good considering he hates spelling!
This book describes an approach to lexis and grammar based on the concept of phraseology and of language patterning arising from work on large corpora. The notion of 'pattern' as a systematic way of dealing with the interface between lexis and grammar was used in Collins Cobuild English Dictionary (1995) and in the two books in the Collins Cobuild Grammar Patterns series (1996; 1998). This volume describes the research that led to these publications, and explores the theoretical and practical implications of the research. The first chapter sets the work in the context of work on phraseology. The next two chapters give several examples of patterns and how they are identified. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss and exemplify the association of pattern and meaning. Chapters 6, 7 and 8 relate the concept of pattern to traditional approaches to grammar and to discourse. Chapter 9 summarizes the book and adds to the theoretical discussion, as well as indicating the applications of this approach to language teaching. The volume is intended to contribute to the current debate concerning how corpora challenge existing linguistic theories, and as such will be of interest to researchers in the fields of grammar, lexis, discourse and corpus linguistics. It is written in an accessible style, however, and will be equally suitable for students taking courses in those areas.
The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary is the ideal dictionary for advanced EFL/ESL learners. Easy to use and with a great CD-ROM - the perfect learner's dictionary for exam success. First published as the Cambridge International Dictionary of English, this new edition has been completely updated and redesigned. - References to over 170,000 words, phrases and examples explained in clear and natural English - All the important new words that have come into the language (e.g. dirty bomb, lairy, 9/11, clickable) - Over 200 'Common Learner Error' notes, based on the Cambridge Learner Corpus from Cambridge ESOL exams Plus, on the CD-ROM: - SMART thesaurus - lets you find all the words with the same meaning - QUICKfind - automatically looks up words while you are working on-screen - SUPERwrite - tools for advanced writing, giving help with grammar and collocation - Hear and practise all the words.
