Language Teaching Forum

A series of one-hour talks + discussion

• Guest speakers all experts in their fields
• State-of-the-art topics in language study, language learning and language teaching
• Of relevance to postgraduates (MEd TESOL, MSc Language Teaching, MSc Education Language, MSc Applied Linguistics, PhD and EdD) and staff with an interest in language teaching

• for all postgraduates (MEd TESOL, MSc in Language Teaching, MSc in Applied Linguistics, PhD, Ed D) and staff with an interest in language teaching;

First lecture in the series

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November 5^th 2.30pm    Patersons Land G21

Brona Murphy (TESOL, University of Edinburgh)

‘I just don’t really kinda want to go there’: hedging and practical application in the classroom’I just don’t really kinda want to go there’: hedging and practical application in the classroom

This paper examines hedging in a 90,000-word spoken corpus of Irish English. The study examines this linguistic phenomenon by using quantitative and qualitative corpus-based tools and methodologies such as relative frequency lists, concordances as well as details of formulaic strings including significant clusters. The study highlights how insights into the form and functional diversity of hedging in this spoken corpus can inform teaching and classroom materials.

A series of one-hour talks + discussion

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· for all postgraduates (MEd TESOL, MSc in Language Teaching, MSc in Applied Linguistics, PhD, Ed D) and staff with an interest in language teaching;

BAAL in Edinburgh

The date for submission of abstracts for the BAAL conference has now passed, and soon the timetable of events will be published. The conference is on 6-8 September 2007. This would be a great opportunity for graduates of TESOL to come back to Edinburgh! We could have a reunion!

See the website for more information about the conference: http://www.baal.org.uk/conf2007/index.htm

If you’d like more information about the conference, or presenting a paper, get in touch with Joan Cutting joan.cutting@education.ed.ac.uk.

If you’d like to let us know that you’re coming (to arrange a social event), get in touch with Ruby Rennie: ruby.rennie@education.ed.ac.uk

Aberdeen’s the place to be!

The next IATEFL conference will be in Aberdeen, from 18th to 22nd April. It promises to be a great event, with speakers and delegates from all over the world. It is very likely that at least a few people will be graduates from MEd/MA TESOL – do you want to meet up at some point if you are here for the conference?

Let us know and we can arrange something!

BAAL conference

The next BAAL conference will be in Edinburgh, in September 2007. This would be a great opportunity for graduates of TESOL to come back to Edinburgh! We could have a reunion! The call for papers is already out – see the website for more information: http://www.baal.org.uk/conf2007/index.htm

If you’d like more information about the conference, or presenting a paper, get in touch with Joan Cutting joan.cutting@education.ed.ac.uk.

If you’d like to let us know that you’re coming (to arrange a social event), get in touch with Ruby Rennie: ruby.rennie@education.ed.ac.uk

Publishing opportunity

This message was sent out on a circular mailing from BAAL. It looks like the kind of paper that could be written from a TESOL dissertation that replicates previous research:

Now entering its 40th year, Language Teaching is a quarterly, professional, peer-reviewed journal which is dedicated to providing a number of resources to its international readership of researchers and practitioners in L2 education at all levels of instruction. Each regular issue of the journal contains commissioned state-of-the-art reviews and surveys about various aspects of L2 learning, acquisition and teaching as well as comparative book reviews thematically linked to these reviews.

We are pleased to announce that, for the first time in a journal in our field, a new section will publish exclusively academic studies which replicate a previous sound study: we invite submissions of previously unpublished articles based on literal, approximate or constructive replication of a previous study or studies. In keeping with the survey characteristics of Language Teaching we also encourage submissions of meta-analyses which attempt to combine or synthesise a series of comparable research replications. Papers can be based on a broad range of topics.The details of this permanent Call for Papers can be found in the Instructions for Contributors at:  http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayMoreInfo?jid=LTA&type=ifc