Book contents
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
Summary
Over the past thirty years, research in linguistics has led to a deeper understanding of language, and linguists have developed better analytic tools for describing the structure of words, phrases, and discourses – better theories of grammar. The scientific study of language, linguistics, has provided us with greater understanding of how languages are acquired, how they develop over time and space, what it means to be bilingual, how languages are similar to each other, and what accounts for their differences, among many other aspects of this uniquely human phenomenon. Nevertheless, the advances of linguistic science have remained largely confined to the academy, and many of us who teach linguistics still find that our students know very little about language. This lack of knowledge of language is unfortunate but not surprising; though some teacher education programs include courses on linguistics, linguistics is not comprehensively integrated into teacher education, and is thus largely absent in the K-12 curriculum. The chapters in the book show, however, that this tide is starting to turn; linguists are becoming more and more active in K-12 education in a variety of productive ways. You will also see from the chapters in this book that there is no “right” way to integrate linguistics into K-12 education. If we do have one message, it is that we linguists can't do this alone; we need to collaborate with practicing teachers and work in partnership toward the common goal of improving language education.
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- Linguistics at SchoolLanguage Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, pp. 1 - 6Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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