Bøker utgitt av Peter Lang AG

More than any other European language English has been shaped by its contacts with other languages such as Celtic, Latin, Scandinavian and French. This is true not only of the vocabulary, but also of morphology and even phonology and syntax. But also the contact between different varieties of English played an important role, especially in the shaping of the Englishes outside England. The papers contained in this volume deal with such contacts from various points of views. Major topics are: the restructuring of lexical fields by borrowing processes in Old, Middle and Early Modern English, the influence of Scandinavian on the morphology, the influence of Latin on English syntax, the development of Middle English verse meter under Italian influence, the origin of spelling conventions, the role of code-switching and language mixing for the development of the language, and the role of language contact in general in Central Europe.

This book presents an analysis of the transition process with particular emphasis on the agricultural sector in Vietnam. Focusing on the ethnic minority of the Black Thai in the mountainous regions of Northern Vietnam, the impact of the rural reform process on their livelihood is examined. The analytical tool used in this work is a stochastic frontier analysis model, whose parameters are estimated by a regression analysis. Although the transition process in general has had a positive impact on the livelihood of the population, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened during the last ten years. Imperative measures are the introduction of technical innovations in the agricultural sector and their promotion through governmental as well as national and international non-governmental organisations.

This publication describes the usage of languages in the multilingual society of Ethiopia. It is based on empirical studies conducted in nine states of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1997 and 1998. A research team of German and Ethiopian scholars surveyed about 3,500 high school students from 35 Ethiopian towns regarding their language behaviour. The data on the distribution of mother tongues and second languages are published here for the first time and are representative for a typical Ethiopian town. These data outline the development of multilingualism over three generations (students/parents/grandparents) and elucidate factors which promote the spread of multilingualism. The frame for the representation and explanation of the data is an adapted model of the social network theory.

The study investigates interactions between 29 tandem partners from a German and a North American university, who met twice a week in a text-based online environment that allowed them to communicate with each other in real time via a computer keyboard. The analysis focuses on learners¿ codeswitching, negotiation of meaning, error correction, and the use of specific spellings and punctuation. The data suggest that most partners complied with the principle of reciprocity and that the non-threatening atmosphere of the MOO encouraged them to test their hypotheses about their L2. Moreover, the analysis revealed a noticeable increase in learners¿ awareness of the target language. All students frequently engaged in negotiation of meaning, but there was a conspicuous absence of corrective feedback.

Can learner autonomy as a pedagogical approach improve the quality of foreign language learning? How can this approach be constructed so that it empowers foreign language learners to increase their learning independence and create the conditions for continuing progress? This book seeks to contribute to a longstanding and yet ongoing debate around questions such as these. It has been written by teacher trainers from several different European countries for foreign language teacher trainers and for teachers in training. The authors are committed to building a theoretical framework for the development of learner autonomy as well as working out its practical implications for foreign language teaching. The first three chapters of the book aim to help trainers and teachers understand the theory which is relevant to learner autonomy and the principles which support it. The last three chapters present practical ways of fostering learner autonomy in order to facilitate intercultural competence as well as develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills in a foreign language.