Linguistics is a fresh and contemporary introductory textbook for all students of linguistics and language studies. Firmly based around taught courses and catering directly to student needs, it addresses all of the topics that a student will need in their initial and subsequent study of language.

With key terms, further reading, questions at the end of each chapter, exercises and key paragraphs in stand-out boxes, this is a firmly pedagogic text that takes difficult concepts and explains them in an easily understandable way, with examples taken from a range of languages across the world. Global in its scope and comprehensive in its coverage, this is the textbook of choice for linguistics students.

Are you looking for a well-balanced and informative introductory text? The book will make it clear to students what it means to say that linguistics is thee science of language.
M.A.K. Halliday

The text does a good job of explaining and demystifying difficult terms and concepts, and contains exercises designed to sharpen exam technique. It also has a very good supporting companion website with videos, questions, diagrams and other extra material.

Imprint: Continuum
Pub. date: 15 Jan 2009
ISBN: 9781847063670
408 Pages, paperback
£21.99

In March, Mishmumkin raised an issue of great significance to those of us who are looking for that dream TEFL job or are considering starting out in the profession: ‘If I’ve done my research correctly I should know a great deal about my potential employer before the interview. I’m curious what those who do the hiring wish their candidates asked about.’

So, what are recruiters expecting from their prospective employees at the interview? The forum members shared their wealth of experience in offering the following words of great wisdom. Here’s what those in the position to hire feel you should be asking your future employer at that interview:

Ask what you NEED to know

First and foremost, there is a consensus that you really need to ask what’s important to you as the employee: don’t assume that the person interviewing you knows what your priorities are. MELEE notes that, ‘mostly I’m just listening to see what they ask me. That will tell me what’s important to them (the students, the curriculum, resources, housing, benefits, vacation time, etc.). I do the interviews individually, but then report back to a panel – that conversation always includes letting the others know what questions were asked by the candidate.’ When applying for a job it’s easy to forget that, while it’s a one of event for you as the potential employee, the person doing the hiring is having the same interaction many, many times and, as noted earlier, is probably under time constraints. Therefore they are likely to try to get what they need from the encounter, leaving you to ask the questions you personally need answering. Justin Trullinger exemplifies the kind of things that he, from experience, feels teachers should ask at the interview:

‘I do the hiring at the organisation where I work. It’s not that I have a list of questions I want you to ask, because I don’t know what’s important to you but I feel very strongly that you SHOULD ask about whatever is. Some of the worst problems I’ve had with teachers have had to do with things that were important to them that they didn’t find out about beforehand, or didn’t ask for more details.’

Some examples:

1 Clothing:

Teachers placed in elementary schools through us wear uniforms. They are told about this before hiring, and asked if they are okay with it. Depending on the school, these uniforms vary – some are very smart suit looking things, but some, especially at lower income schools, are sweatsuits with school logos. One teacher, very appearance conscious, was so horrified by wearing a sweatsuit that she was unable to continue, and we had to negotiate special permission for her to wear her own clothes. This made all the parents think she was the principal. It was a mess. Personally, I don’t care what I wear, and would love to have a uniform, any uniform that meant I wouldn’t have to shop for clothes, or try to figure out what color tie goes with things…but to her, it was an issue. She should have asked.

2 Costs of living:

Some things are very cheap in Ecuador. Some are more expensive. Computers are first world prices or higher. Having read online that the cost of living in Ecuador is low (in terms of rent and food, it is) one teacher decided rather than bringing a computer, to buy one here. But here, lap tops are high end luxury without much selection. He should have asked.

3 Housing:

We don’t provide housing – but many of our teachers share apartments with each other – which is clearly stated in our pre-interview literature. This is because Ecuadorian apartments are mostly large family or multifamily units, and it would be hard to afford one on your own. A teacher who doesn’t like to share simply assumed that he could find his own, and anticipated finding an apartment for the same cost as a room in a shared unit. Not a chance. Then he complains that it’s hard to make ends meet…should have asked.

4 Teaching conditions:

Our teachers are expected to use text books, but not to spend the whole course using only textbooks. They also have to be creative and come up with their own supplementary activities and materials. Payment for this is included in their hourly rate – they are not paid for extra hours for doing it. This is standard enough that I didn’t make an issue of it, though again, it says in the package that “teaching hours are paid for at $X per hour, and that this rate includes preparation…” Again, if this is a problem, ask, let’s talk beforehand. Likewise, if you have any financial obligations outside of the country, like student loan payments, it would be good to ask about how feasible that is…

To that list I’d certainly want to add medical insurance and, if you’re thinking about staying in a country for an extended period of time, you might also want to look into their policies regarding work permits and social security contributions. Those of you who’re new to teaching may find it hard to believe but some of us end up staying for good. It would be a shame to find out several years down the line that you’ve been living illegally and that you’re presence in a country is no longer welcome, or that what could have become a reasonable state pension to supplement your retirement doesn’t exist as your employers never registered you. Ask!

Post-interview questions

Of course, sometimes as the interviewee, you’re going to feel overwhelmed by the situation. A natural consequence of this is forgetting to ask the questions that you really need answering, as Emma notes, ‘I’ve found in interviews that the interviewer has told me so much information about the school and teaching methods that I really can’t think of anything when asked if I have questions. To ask about obvious stuff like salary when I haven’t been offered a job seems presumptuous.’ This issue of asking about salary is something that I’ll return to later. Emma also asked the following question on the forum:

‘How do you feel about teachers coming back and asking questions before accepting the post?’

MELEE replied thus, reiterating the need to be time conscious, ‘I think it’s great. I’d rather teachers ask only 2 or 3 of the most important questions in the interview, but that’s because we interview over the phone and I’m under pressure to try to keep the calls around 30 minutes. I welcome additional questions by email, no matter how many. The sooner the better because really I’m using those questions to decide whether or not I’m going to make you an offer.’ Something I’ve always done at the end of an interview is ask the interviewer if I can make additional contact after our meeting, primarily because I experience the kind of information overload that Emma mentions. As MELEE quite clearly states, this is beneficial to both parties.

Time (not) to talk money

Now onto the issue that’s almost always at the bottom line, salary. Gordon shares his thoughts on the matter:

‘Prospective applicants should not ask about salary until they are offered the job. On the other hand, applicants should have a pretty good idea of the salary at this point anyways. I won’t apply for a job unless I have a decent idea of the salary range, in many cases it would be a waste of everyone’s time. I hate it when jobs don’t give the salary in the ad or at least the salary range.’ It’s not impossible these days to get a fairly good idea of what you can expect to earn in a particular country or even at a certain school. Asking questions at the ELT World Forums is one good way to learn such information. Sherri adds, ‘I don’t see why the salary should be such a big secret. I always tell the applicants what they can expect to make. I usually tell them over the phone before we schedule the interview. There is a pay scale so it is easy to figure out. All teachers have a copy of the pay scale once hired. If it looks like the interview is going well, I tell them how often they will be paid and when they can expect their first pay check. This is especially important for people who are relocating for a job.’ I also chipped in with a recommendation which has always seen me right in the past:

‘I think it’s appropriate for the interviewee to raise the issue, such as, ‘I’m sure once you’ve made your decision about hiring me, we can talk in more detail about the salary and benefits package you offer.’ This lets the interviewer know that while this isn’t your only motivation for wanting the job, it is something that they expect to be informed about in detail at some point.’

Gordon summarises the issue perfectly when he states, ‘I think one doesn’t want to appear as though money is the most important factor in the job decision, whereas we all know that it is.’ I would make it clear that you will want to have a clear idea about the kind of money you’ll be earning without making that the sole purpose for you having turned up for the interview.

How can you prepare for the interview?

What can you do before the interview? Gordon again offers advice:

‘Before an interview, I write a list of things (housing, resources, etc) that I want answered before deciding to take a job. Then, during the interview I take copious notes, and if the interview hasn’t answered my questions, I ask them at the question time. Although, just thinking about it now, I haven’t had a face to face interview for years now, so its easy to have my little list and notebook. Not sure how that would go down in a face to face interview.’

While Gordon may not have tried this in a face to face interview, this is a tactic that I myself have used and find that it has been received well. If you’ve taken the time to sit down and make a note of what you need to know from this potential employer, it gives the impression that you’re serious about wanting the job.

Another thing that makes a good impression is showing that you’ve given some thought about how you’ll fit in to the school. Sherri exemplifies, ‘I must admit, I like it when people ask about the students. I like it when they ask about the work atmosphere, but how the teachers work together, if they share and support each other. I like it if they show an interest in our program and show that they at least looked at our website.’ For the interview I had for my present job, I printed off the school’s entire website, annotated the points that interested me and highlighted other information I wanted to ask about. While there was no way for me to get through more than one or two points that I’d noted, it gave the impression that I’d really thought about why I wanted to work here, and was told as much later.

Don’t waste their time

Let’s now briefly assume you’ve been offered a job. Having noted earlier that recruiters appreciate you asking questions that will help you decide if you’re going to take the position, think about whether or not you’re realistically thinking of taking the position before making secondary contact. MELEE explains: ‘If I make the offer, then you hit me with questions that lead me to believe that this is not the best position for you, then you’ve wasted my time because I need to give you adequate time before I offer it to someone else rather than you.’ Think, at some point it could be you who misses out on an interview because someone was wasting the recruiter’s time mulling over an offer they didn’t intend to take.

One thing you also really need to do is prioritise what you need to ask. The interviewer will want to make a decision about you just as much as you want to decide if you want the job. One sure way to put off the person deciding whether or not to hire you will be asking questions to which you could easily find the answers elsewhere. Think about this: what would you rather know about, the number of hours you could expect to work in an average week or the colour of the tiles in the bathroom of the apartment you’ll be sharing? Prioritise what you need to learn about the school. Yaramaz explains this issue, referring to a recent incident in her efforts to recruit teachers:

‘We just recently recruiting for next term and have had an interesting time poring over applications. One woman included a jpeg list of over 100 questions for us to answer– not even in word or PDF format! How can we even begin to answer 147 questions on a jpeg??? And most were really pointless questions that could be googled or asked in the interview, like “Do you have a photocopier?’ and ‘what is the climate of your city?’ Aaaaagh!’

Aaaaaagh indeed. Imagine how you would feel if you received such a list of questions at a time when you’ve got to interview numerous people. How much priority would you give to someone who asked questions to which they could so easily find the answers themselves? I’ll conclude by returning to the advice of Justin Trullinger: ‘It isn’t a question of what you should ask – but ask everything that YOU need to know. I may not know what’s important to you, but it’s important that you ask about what you need to know. Do not assume! Whatever you need to know in order to make an adequate decision, you’ll need to ask.’

About the Author

If you liked this, read more great articles at the free ELT World journal. Keep up to date with the latest TEFL news at ELT World News.

by David Vincent

‘How well will you be provided for should you need urgent medical treatment?’ I asked on the ELT World forums. Here are the responses of forum members from around the world:

Many of you seemed to have a pretty good idea of what would happen should you find yourself in trouble. ‘Yes’, exclaimed EFL Geek emphatically finding himself among the vast majority (71 votes – 83%) of you who are covered in some way should you need medical treatment. Only 15% (13 votes) of you stated that you weren’t covered. All I can say about the 2% (2 votes) who didn’t know if they were covered is that it must be nice to live in blissful ignorance! Several forum members explained the state health system where they are. Emma notes the situation in Greece:

‘In Greece, although your employer has to pay your contributions over to the National Health Service, I’m not sure how good it is and most people have a top-up insurance, even though it is in the EU.’

MELEE, in Mixteca, describes how things are in Mexico:

‘Mexico has national health, not the greatest, but if I had 3rd degree burns over 70% of my body, they’d treat me. Whether or not I’m close enough to a hospital that could handle that terrible of an accident is another story.’

Lozwich explains the situation when covered by private insurance in Bogota, Colombia, in comparison to Spain:

‘I’ve been lucky (?) enough to have had two surgeries here in Boggy, both completely paid for by my insurance. I think they even paid for the rental of my crutches, and they definitely paid for some slightly radical treatment I had. I gave myself a second degree burn when I lived in Spain, and the “treatment” I received at the local hospital was awful. I got better treatment and follow up physio advice (I damaged tendons in my hand through the burn) from a couple of pals who work for the NHS in London. I think burns are not very well understood by many medical professionals, and think there’s plenty of room for improvement on that front all over the world.’

Denise further discusses private health insurance, this time in relation to what one might find in the Gulf:

‘I’ve only had minor issues and routine checks, but they’ve been nearly fully covered. I just pay 2 rials, which is about $5, and get way more drugs than I need for free. Typically, the doc says, “I’m giving you this pill to take three times a day, and this pill to take once a day, and this pill to take only if you’re feeling really, really bad, and this other pill that you shouldn’t take at all.” Once you get into the system for the private hospital in Muscat, you get good care nearly fully covered. You just need a referral to get in for that first visit.’

The graphic, while reassuring, doesn’t of course tell the whole story. Dmb notes, for example, that while his insurance ‘also pays %80 of medicine. If I die however, I am only worth 15 grand ($).’ Further research into whether or not we consider our coverage adequate may well feature in a later edition of the journal. Yaramaz, another resident of Ataturkburg, Turkey, describes her situation: we don’t always appreciate medical coverage until we need it: ‘Yes – but only since last September in my current job. Last spring, several teachers (including myself) were involved in a car accident on the way back from a company class. The owner of our school arranged ambulances to a private hospital and paid out of pocket for all tests and treatments and hospital stays and follow ups (one teacher had a double fractured pelvis). As a result of this accident, they added full private insurance to our new contracts – I haven’t used mine yet, but am glad to have it. Public hospitals here are not very reassuring.’

A good point: if you’re going to have to rely on what you can get from the state when faced with a medical emergency, be sure to find out what exactly that is likely to mean. Also, find out if your employer is going to support you or cut corners if they possibly can. Glenski exemplifies with a case from Japan:

‘Health insurance co-payments are required by law in Japan. Just be careful about how your employer operates. If he counts only the hours you are in the classroom and it’s less than 29 per week, he can legally call you part-time when he reports you to the tax authorities and therefore avoid making the co-payments.’

Let’s round off with some very sound advice from Fat Chris in Japan, advice that will make more sense to you once you get into your thirties:

‘If a job wouldn’t offer me health insurance, then I wouldn’t be likely to take that job. That said, if I am choosing between two jobs with Job A offering more money and a “lesser” health insurance policy and Job B offering less money and a more comprehensive health insurance policy, I may be more likely to take Job B. Having an adequate health insurance policy can’t be emphasized enough. I am currently covered with life insurance thrown in as well.’

So, if you’re accepting a job as a teacher, whether for the first time or not, think about how well you’re covered in a medical emergency.

About the Author

If you liked this, read more great articles at the free ELT World journal. Keep up to date with the latest TEFL news at ELT World News. Want to learn more about teaching, here’s a great FAQ.

By David Vincent

If life weren’t tough enough anyway, the miserable fact is that job burnout is increasingly common in the contemporary, stress filled workplace. As teachers of English, I feel we’re prone to this more than just about any other group of professionals.

While some job stress can, naturally, be regarded as a normal occurrence, how can we really know when we’ve lost the ability to control the root causes of that stress, or when they’re leading to a more serious condition, job burnout?

Job burnout, though a serious problem, is a natural response to stress in the workplace, leaving us feeling powerless, frustrated, fatigued, drained and even without hope. Never the less, it’s important to realise that, in teaching English as in any profession, job burnout doesn’t happen overnight; it’s important to recognise the early signs and act before the problem becomes serious. Here are a few questions you really might like to ask yourself:

• Do you often find yourself dreading going to work in the morning?
• Do you regularly feel fatigued and lacking in energy at work?
• Are you easily bored at work?
• Do work activities you once found enjoyable now feel like drudgery?
• Do you feel depressed on a Sunday (assuming that your job affords you some form of weekend), thinking about Monday and the coming week?
• Have you become more cynical or bitter about your job / boss / place of work?
• Do you find yourself easily annoyed or irritated by your co-workers?
• Are non-work relationships (marital, family, friendships) affected by your feelings about work?
• Do you find yourself envious of individuals who are happy in their work?

Think about this: Do you now care less than you used to about doing a good job? If you answered yes to half or more of the above, the chances are you’re suffering from some degree of job burnout. Unfortunately, for many who reach the burnout stage, the steps out of it can be really difficult, especially as burned out individuals often feel as though there’s no hope.

The fatigue and despair we associate with burnout can make it hard to actively seek solutions. Also, it often leads to feelings of isolation, leaving people feeling alone in their predicament. The difficulties in dealing with full-scale job burnout are why it’s important to recognise the early signs and take action, a good starting point being to recognise the factors that could be leading to burnout.

Theories about job burnout say tedious and boring jobs appear to be one source. Another is facing a job that’s beyond your ability to do it well. Lack of recognition for the work you do can be another serious source of job stress. As teachers of English, it’s easy to see how these symptoms manifest themselves in our everyday lives.

Although it can be difficult for those faced with burnout, it’s not impossible to recover from. If someone is experiencing burnout, the first step is to address the causes of work dissatisfaction, in other words the what, when and why of burnout:

What?

Have you been able to face changes in the organisation, the demands of the job, your boss, or the industry? These changes happen often, did you realise the effect that they had on you?

When?

Was there some pivotal event that changed the way you view your job; a new boss, other teachers, or responsibilities? Again, these things happen regularly. Did they have a major effect on you?

Why?

Have you yourself changed? Are your interests or values pertaining to work now different than they were before? Has the school’s mission changed? Are your abilities and skills not being utilized?

Identifying the what, when and why of burnout can help to start you on the road to exploring options to manage the sources of your stress. Sometimes simple things, such as talking to a boss about making changes to your job responsibilities, can make a difference.

Sometimes more serious measures may, however, be necessary, such as changing jobs or even changing your career field, as daunting as that may sound. Most importantly, job burnout is a reaction to work stress. Methods of handling stress can be identified and encouraged. While career counselors specialise in helping people with such issues, they are extremely hard to find when you’re in a foreign country, if they exist at all. Job burnout is therefore a common problem among TEFL teachers, but one from which we can recover and, in the end, learn more about our needs in relation to work.

There are practical methods we can employ to combat the condition, regardless of our situation. Here are some things we can do:

Take care of our bodies

Eating right, sleeping well, doing exercise and seeing a doctor if we feel burned out. If we can take care of our physical health, it will reduce our burnout.

Do our favorite things

Make a schedule for spoiling ourselves over the course of a day, week or month. Reading favourite books or doing our hobbies is the same as recharging the batteries after going through a difficult period.

Set yourself realistic targets

Making targets for our lives will give us a genuine sense of purpose. We should make personal targets over the short and long term and set up a plan to achieve the targets. Learning and reaching new targets will ease our burnout.

Talk with friends and colleagues

Communicate with others who will listen and understand us, but not judge. Talking with others like that will ease our emotions and we are practicing healthy communication. We must be sure to let our emotions out in healthy and productive ways.

Understand our strengths and weaknesses

Knowing our strengths and weaknesses can help us to learn better ways to deal with day-to-day stress. We can avoid stress once we recognize the cause.

Enhance our relationships

Getting closer to our partners, children, friends and other people we can count on will really help restore our energy. It can ease our burnout, as we will not feel underappreciated.

About the Author

If you liked this, read more great articles at the free ELT World journal. Keep up to date with the latest TEFL news at ELT World News. Want to learn more about teaching, here’s a great FAQ.

Do you know your QROPS? The chances are, if you’ve ever worked in the UK, knowing about this scheme will have some economic impact on you. We all know how bad TEFL teachers are at planning for the future, but you really should be thinking about a pension. First, back to basics: what is a pension? Basically, it’s a regular source of tax-free income for you to live on when you reach the age of retirement. As contributions towards your pension fund during your working life also receive tax relief, it’s much more tax-efficient than other methods of saving. In the UK, the government department responsible for managing and administering state pensions and other pensions-related benefits is The Pension Service, which is part of the Department of Work and Pensions. Now, here’s something you may not know about: if you’re an international worker who has worked in the UK at some time in the past, you were probably a part of a UK personal or state pension.

The issue of UK pensions is often raised on the ELT world forums. Here’s some good news. Since April, 2006 it has been possible to move what had previously been a Frozen UK Pension from a taxed environment into an tax-free offshore environment. This has been made possible via the scheme known as QROPS (the Qualified Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme). Basically, you can now gain access to your frozen UK pension money. The Lost UK Pension website has been set up to help you understand the QROPS scheme and how you can gain access to your lost UK Pension money. There is plenty of information on QROPS and available experts who can help you find out how you can unlock your lost UK pension.

The recent appearance of online colleges and university programs has undoubtedly provided fantastic opportunities for many people to earn college degrees who would not otherwise be able to obtain such qualifications. For many people, college or university tuition fees can prove to be prohibitively expensive. The one main advantage of an online degrees program, therefore, is that it costs much less.

Additionally, most online MBA degrees programs give you the option of paying per course, making it possible to earn your degree at a pace you can afford. Furthermore, due to the fact you are learning from home, there is no accommodation cost to pay, and, as all of your reading material is on the web, so there’s no need to buy those pricey textbooks.

EarnMyDegree.com is site whose goal is to match people’s educational goals with their personal goals. This site can help if you want to search for a degree by subject, level, online school, or if you just wish to study at a nearby college campus. EarnMyDegree.com features hundreds of online business degrees programs across numerous accredited online colleges as well as traditional schools.

A further benefit of earning qualifications such as online business degrees through online programs is that you can do it at your own pace. As teachers of English, we are busy professionals and, in many cases, busy parents who can earn degrees while also attending to our day to day lives. With the help of EarnMyDegree.com, teachers can study whenever it’s most convenient for, in the evening, on weekends, even during between classes.

Thinking about the courses at EarnMyDegree.com, it’s clear that as long as you have computer access from your location, you can study there. This therefore allows for a level of freedom and a flexibility that’s simply not possible when earning a degree on campus at a traditional bricks and mortar university.

Other benefits of earning a degree through one of the many online college and university programs features on EarnMyDegree.com are numerous. Many people, even us English teachers, are stuck in careers we don’t like, or are unable to be promoted within our organisation, because they lack a college degree. Employers value employees with college degrees for good reason: college graduates tend to be more thoughtful, more creative and more diligent than other employees.

Finally, online degrees programs enable students to think critically and creatively, and to be able to analyse information in an intelligent way; skills which can prove invaluable in the modern work environment. Not only do job chances improve with online colleges and university degrees, but you can expect to earn more money as well.

Over on the ever popular ELT World forums, I’ve set up a new forum especially for the ladies among us. I’m hoping this will grow into a useful resource for all females teaching English around the world.

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Click here for the ELT World Women’s Forum.

Linguistics: An Introduction
William McGregor

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Synopsis

A fresh and contemporary introductory textbook for all students of linguistics and language studies.

Description

Linguistics is a fresh and contemporary introductory textbook for all students of linguistics and language studies. Firmly based around taught courses and catering to student needs: it addresses all the topics that a student will need in their initial and subsequent study of language. With key terms, further reading, questions at the end of each chapter, exercises and key paragraphs in stand-out boxes, this is a firmly pedagogic text that takes difficult concepts and explain them in an easy to understand way, with examples taken from a range of languages across the world. Global in its scope and comprehensive in its coverage, this is the textbook of choice for linguistics students.

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Table Of Contents

1. Introduction
I. Language: System and Structure
2. Sounds of Language: Phonetics and Phonology
3. Structures of Words: Morphology
4. Lexicon
5. Structure of Sentences: Syntax
6. Meaning: Semantics and Pragmatics
II. Language: A Human Phenomenon
7. Sociolinguistics: Language in its Social Context
8. Psycholinguistics: Language, the Mind, and the Brain
9. Language Acquisition
10. Language in its Biological Context
III. Language: Uniformity and Diversity
11. Unity and Diversity in Language Structure
12. Language Change
13. Languages of the World
Glossary
References/Bibliography
Language Index
Name Index
Subject Index

About the author

Professor William McGregor is at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Reviews

“At last – an introduction to the study of language that is neither theory-neutral nor generative, but one that is cognitivist and functional. It highlights the links of linguistics with psychology, neuroscience and biological evolutionary theory. In addition it is engaging, pedagogically well thought through, lucidly written and nicely presented. The perfect book for beginners!”

Dr Eva Eppler, Senior Lecturer in English Language & Linguistics, Roehampton University, UK

‘’William McGregor’s new textbook is an excellent introduction to linguistics. It is clear, precise and readable, comprehensible and comprehensive, and it is eminently usable as both a core course text as well as a reference work. It also does not neglect the extensions and applications of linguistics in the real world. This book is likely to become the benchmark for linguistics texts in the next few years.’’

Peter Stockwell, Professor of Literary Linguistics, University of Nottingham, UK.

“In this introductory text McGregor offers a clear and well-constructed account of core concepts, leading students to explore linguistic diversity with an impressive range of languages and examples, particularly in the later chapters of the book. A reflective student or independent reader with a fascination for the subject will find a wealth of material relevant to basic puzzles about language and more than ample guidance for further study.”

Dr Michael Lumsden, Department of Modern Languages, The University of Hull

“William McGregor has produced a textbook which unfolds the study of language in a refreshing and lively way, positions the subject in relation to adjacent disciplines, and gives the beginning student a general view of the complexity and diversity of the world’s languages.”

Dr David Cram, University of Oxford, UK.

“This book is a superb introduction to linguistics, and cannot fail to entice students to read it. It covers not only the traditional core areas in linguistics of phonetics, phonology, morphology, the lexicon, syntax and semantics, but also highly topical and contemporary areas such as the evolution of language in its biological context, language change, the language and society interface, and how language is acquired, not to be overlooked in any solid modern textbook.

Each chapter is very clearly set out, providing its structure and the objectives to be met at the very start while a concise summary of all the essential facts covered is given at the end, combined with a set of challenging questions and ideas for further reading. An extremely useful glossary of linguistic terms is also to be found at the end of the book. In fact, it is much more astutely organised than other comparable introductory textbooks on the market.

Linguistics: an introduction presents a refreshing new approach to explaining the basic facts about human languages and will undoubtedly prove to be indispensable at university level. Another bonus is that it is completely technically up-to-date with its inclusion of website information and further sets of questions and thus can felicitously cater for today’s enterprising student-internaut.

In short, the book is a gem written by a consummate master of the art and discipline of linguistics, a scholar who has already notched up several decades of experience in empirical research in the field as well as in teaching at university level.”

Hilary M. Chappell, Chair Professor in Linguistic Typology of East Asia, Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l’AsieOrientale, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France

Linguistics: An Introduction
William McGregor
Publication Date: 15th Jan, 2009

ISBN: 1847063675
ISBN13: 9781847063670

A Critical Introduction to Phonetics
by Ken Lodge

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Synopsis

A new stance on the presentation of basic phonetic skills for students of linguistics, using examples drawn from a wide-range of languages.

Description

Critical Introductions to Linguistics present core areas of the subject from refreshing new perspectives. This book takes a new stance on the presentation of basic phonetic skills for students of linguistics. Using examples drawn from a wide-range of languages Ken Lodge introduces the key aspects of phonetics, examining the difference between speech and writing, the physiology of speech production, basic and detailed articulation, and acoustic phonetics.

This book contains a practical guide to transcriptions from sound recordings, as well as a section on applications of phonetics to fields of study such as language variation and accent. A Critical Introduction to Phonetics provides comprehensive coverage of all the key areas of the field, and contains chapter summaries to help the reader navigate the text. Critical thinking is prompted throughout, and this text should therefore be essential reading for students on introductory phonetics courses both at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

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Table Of Contents

Preface

1. Why phonetics?
2. Articulation
3. The articulators in combination
4. Transcription
5. Segmentation
6. Prosodic features
7. Continuous speech
8. Varieties of English
9. Acoustic phonetics
Glossary
References
Index

About the author

Ken Lodge is Reader in Linguistics and Phonetics at the University of East Anglia.

Reviews

“Lodge uses his practical classroom experience to provide safe guidance, and his theoretical perspective to provide a phonetically more accurate non-segmental foundation to phonetics. I particularly like the extensive introductions to continuous speech, prosody, resonance and segmentation, which will be of interest to phonologists and more advanced students of phonetics as well as beginners” – Professor Jim Scobbie, Speech Science Research Centre, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK.

A Critical Introduction to Phonetics by Ken Lodge
Publication Date: 10th Jan, 2009

ISBN: 0826488749
ISBN13: 9780826488749

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