Learning Chinese

The series Trends in Applied Linguistics aims to meet the challenges of the rapidly growing field of applied linguistics. Applied linguistics is understood, in a broad sense, by focusing on the application of theoretical linguistics to current problems arising in different contexts of human society. Given the interdisciplinary character of applied linguistics, the series includes cognitive, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic and educational perspectives.

The series covers the following topics, among others:

• Second language acquisition and the acquisition of additional languages
• Bilingual and multilingual education
• Language planning and language policy
• Literacy skills
• Second/foreign language pedagogy
• Translation and interpretation
• Language for specific purposes
• Discourse analysis
• Language testing and assessment
• Child language
• Language and gender
• Pragmatics and rhetorics
• Corpus analysis
• Critical pedagogies
• Research methodology in applied linguistics

To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Natalie Fecher.

The series Trends in Applied Linguistics meets the challenges of the rapidly growing field of applied linguistics. In a very broad sense, applied linguistics is understoodby focusing on the application of theoretical linguistics to current problems arising in different contexts of human society. Given the interdisciplinary character of applied linguistics, the series includes cognitive, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic and educational perspectives.

The following topicsare included in the series:

• Second language acquisition and the acquisition of additional languages
• Bilingual and multilingual education
• Language planning and language policy
• Literacy skills
• Second/foreign language pedagogy
• Translation and interpretation
• Language for specific purposes
• Discourse analysis
• Language testing and assessment
• Child language
• Language and gender
• Pragmatics and rhetorics
• Corpus analysis
• Critical pedagogies
• Research methodology in applied linguistics
• Language and technology
  

The acquisition of Mandarin Chinese, one of the most important and widely spoken languages in the world today, is the focus of this innovative study. It describes the rise of Chinese as a global language and the many challenges and opportunities associated with learning it. The collaborative, multiple-case study and cross-case analysis is presented from three distinct but complementary theoretical and analytic perspectives: linguistic, sociocultural, and narrative. The book reveals fascinating dimensions of Chinese language learning based on vivid first-person accounts (with autobiographical narratives included in the book) of adults negotiating not only their own and others' language and literacy learning, but also their identities, communities, and trajectories as users of Chinese.