Politics and Identities in Language Teaching and Learning: Voices in Higher Education from the UK and Beyond

(Paperback)

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This volume examines the politics of language teaching and learning, providing a critical appraisal of the institutional, political and professional issues around language teaching and learning. It specifically focuses on how these issues have shaped recent provision at universities, using the UK as a case study, revealing consequences relevant for language departments around the world. By exploring the interface between language policies and strategies and the ways in which these impact the experiences of learning and teaching, this book highlights the complexities at play in language education at tertiary level.

Like all the volumes in the Language Acts and Worldmaking series, the overall aim is two-fold: to challenge widely-held views about language learning as a neutral instrument of globalisation and to innovate and transform language research, teaching and learning, together with Modern Languages as an academic discipline, by foregrounding its unique form of cognition and critical engagement.

Specific aims are to:

propose new ways of bridging the gaps between those who teach and research languages and those who learn and use them in everyday contexts from the professional to the personal

put research into the hands of wider audiences

share a philosophy, policy and practice of language teaching and learning which turns research into action

provide the research, experience and data to enable informed debates on current issues and attitudes in language learning, teaching and research

share knowledge across and within all levels and experiences of language learning and teaching

showcase exciting new work that derives from different types of community activity and is of practical relevance to its audiences

disseminate new research in languages that engages with diverse communities of language practitioners.

Author Bio

Mara Fuertes Gutierrez is Head of Spanish at The Open University. She has conducted extensive research in the areas of Spanish Language Teaching and Historiography of Linguistics. She particularly investigates the interpretation and implementation of linguistic theories into language teaching, and, in connection to this, how language teachers' identities, background and cognition impact on their practices.

Inma Alvarez is Senior Lecturer in Spanish at The Open University. She has published on a range of topics including language teaching pedagogies, language teacher identity and language teacher education. She is currently Director of Postgraduate Research Studies in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies and current research focuses on issues regarding inclusion and diversity at postgraduate level.