Challenging Boundaries in Language Education is an edited volume which brings together 15 chapters by 22 scholars who work in applied linguistics, teacher education, and other related fields. By bringing together these perspectives, the volume aims to critically examine the way language teaching and learning has been conceptualised. The book was published in 2019 as part of Springer’s Second Language Learning and Teaching series.
In this page you can read about the contents of the book, and also take an insider’s look at the process of writing it.
Contents
The volume consists of 13 chapters, flanked by an introductory and concluding comments by the editor. The substantive chapters are organised in three parts, corresponding to three broad thematic axes, along which TESOL can be re-imagined.
Introduction
- Conceptualizing and Problematizing Boundaries in Language Education (Achilleas Kostoulas)
Rethinking
Language Education Theory
The first part of the volume comprises four chapters that invite readers to reflect on the informing theory of TESOL and its links to practice.
- A Journey Through the Landscapes of Language Education (Janez Skela)
- Repositioning Language Education Theory (Achilleas Kostoulas)
- An Ecological Perspective for Critical Action in Applied Linguistics (Juup Stelma & Richard Fay)
- Space and Time for Understanding(s): The Recursive Cycle of Language Education and Classroom Enquiry (Anna Costantino)
Reshaping
Language Education Practice
The second part of the volume consists of four chapters which problematise the disconnects between language education and other aspects of the curriculum.
- Challenging Curricular Boundaries and Identities Through CLIL (Katerina Vourdanou)
- Beyond the Garrison: Global Education and Teaching (Canadian) Literature in the EFL Classroom (Jürgen Wehrmann)
- Building a Model Engine for Language Learning with Tertiary Engineering Students (Dietmar Tatzl)
- Across Languages and Cultures: Modelling Teaching and Learning with Intercomprehension (Claudia Mewald)
Redefining
Language Teachers and Learners
The third part of the collection brings together five chapters that look into the changing anthropogeography of language education, and examine how the disruption of geographical borders is reshaping language teaching and learning.
- Thinking Outside the Box: The Impact of Globalization on English Language Teachers in Austria (Alia Moser & Petra Kletzenbauer)
- Third-Age University Teachers in Language Education: Navigating the Boundaries of Work-Life Balance and Retirement (Sonja Babić & Kyle Talbot)
- Study Abroad: L2 Self-efficacy and Engagement in Intercultural Interactions (Gianna Hessel)
- Schools as Linguistic Space: Multilingual Realities at Schools in Vienna and Brno (Lena Schwarzl, Eva Vetter & Miroslav Janik)
- Beyond Conventional Borders of Second Language Teachers’ Education: A Digital, Interdisciplinary, and Critical Postgraduate Curriculum (Roula Kitsiou, Maria Papadopoulou, George Androulakis, Roula Tsolakidou & Eleni Skourtou)
Conclusion
Boundaries Crossed, and New Frontiers: Ongoing Theoretical, Empirical, and Pedagogical Issues in Language Education (Achilleas Kostoulas)
Making of the book
Working with the authors of the chapters has been a privilege for me, and producing the book was an invaluable learning experience. You can find out more about this process and about the chapters that make up the collection by reading the following posts.
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Language Education at an Age of Uncertainty
Challenging Boundaries in Language Education is a book written for a time of uncertainty. In this post, I outline the main characteristics of what I define as the ‘post-certainty condition’ in language education, and discuss its implications.
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Language teaching and learning beyond mainstream populations
These three chapters in ‘Challenging Boundaries in Language Education’ discuss how we might understand and empower populations at the ‘fringe’ of language education theory and practice. Whether it is by capitalising on the linguistic resources of multilingual students, reflecting on the experiences of study abroad students or understanding the challenges of third age language educators,…
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Extending English Language Teaching Theory
Challenging Boundaries in Language Education, the book I am editing, invites readers to rethink how languages are taught. These four chapters that have just been included in the collection map out the theory of langauge education, and show some ways in which it can be extended.
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Disrupting Geographical Borders in Language Education
The three next chapters in Challenging Boundaries in Language Education, problematise how the changing composition of language classroom impacts the professional roles and identities of teachers. These chapters look into superdiverse urban settings, explore the identity construction of teachers, and describe a teacher education programme that prepares language educators to help refugee-background learners.
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Transgressing Curricular Borderlines in Language Education
The first chapters of the Challenging Boundaries in Language Education have been submitted. The focus of both these contributions, by Katerina Vourdanou and Dietmar Tatzl, is on combining language education with other curricular objectives.
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Challenging Boundaries in Language Education
A few days ago, I signed the contract for a forthcoming volume which I am editing. The new book, entitled Challenging Boundaries in Language Education, will be published by Springer within the Second Language Learning and Teaching series, and we are aiming for a publication date towards the end of 2019. Read about all about…