Languages

Rodnaya rech', an introductory textbook for heritage learners, addresses the unique needs of students who have at least Intermediate-level listening and speaking skills on the ACTFL scale but who have underdeveloped or nonexistent literacy skills. With an emphasis on conceptual understanding of vocabulary and grammar, Rodnaya rech' builds students' literacy skills and teaches them to strategically use the linguistic intuition they have gained as heritage speakers...

Despite the status of Arabic as a global language and the high demand to learn it, the field of Arabic second language acquisition remains underinvestigated. Second language acquisition findings are crucial for informing and advancing the field of Arabic foreign language pedagogy including Arabic language teaching, testing, and syllabus design. Arabic Second Language Learning and Effects of Input, Transfer, and Typology provides...

From 1942 to 1945, a small, influential group of media figures willingly volunteered their services to form the Writers' War Board (WWB), accepting requests from government agencies to create propaganda. Members included mystery writer Rex Stout, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck, novelist and sports writer Paul Gallico, Book-of-the-Month Club editor and popular radio host Clifton Fadiman, and Broadway lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. The WWB mobilized thousands...

The Georgetown Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic is a modernized language resource for learning and studying Moroccan Arabic that updates the pioneering Arabic dialect dictionary published by Georgetown University Press over fifty years ago. Students, teachers, and scholars of Arabic will welcome this upgraded resource, which includes key Moroccan words, to grow their vocabulary and learn more about Moroccan Arabic language and culture. Created using the...

At the turn of the twentieth century, American journalists transmitted news across the country by telegraph. But what happened when these stories weren't true? In Bad News Travels Fast, Patrick C. File examines a series of libel cases by a handful of plaintiffs—including socialites, businessmen, and Annie Oakley—who sued newspapers across the country for republishing false newswire reports. Through these cases, File demonstrates how law and...

On July 28, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson established the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders to investigate the causes of unrest in urban black communities during the 1960s. Chaired by Illinois governor Otto Kerner Jr., the commission ominously warned, "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal." And it aimed its sharpest criticism at the mainstream media, concluding: "The...

Pham Xuan An was one of the twentieth century's greatest spies. While working as a correspondent for Time during the Vietnam War, he sent intelligence reports—written in invisible ink or hidden inside spring rolls in film canisters—to Ho Chi Minh and his generals in North Vietnam. Only after Saigon fell in 1975 did An's colleagues learn that the affable raconteur in their midst, acclaimed as "dean of the Vietnamese press corps," was actually a general in the North...

There seems to be widespread agreement that—when it comes to the writing skills of college students—we are in the midst of a crisis. In Why They Can’t Write, John Warner, who taught writing at the college level for two decades, argues that the problem isn’t caused by a lack of rigor, or smartphones, or some generational character defect. Instead, he asserts, we’re teaching writing wrong. Warner blames this on decades of educational reform rooted in...

Community-based Language Learning offers a new framework for world language educators interested in integrating community-based language learning (CBLL) into their teaching and curricula. CBLL connects academic learning objectives with experiential learning, ranging from reciprocal partnerships with the community (e.g., community engagement, service learning) to one-directional learning situations such as community service and site visits. This resource prepares...

The SENĆOŦEN language historically has been spoken on the Saanich Peninsula of southern Vancouver Island and islands in the Strait of Georgia, today divided by the US-Canada border. SENĆOŦEN—also known as Saanich—is now the first language of fewer than ten people, as English has replaced it in everyday use. However, because of revitalization efforts that began in the 1970s with David Elliott Sr., who developed a unique SENĆOŦEN writing system, a large and growing number of people are...

Comme on dit, a comprehensive first year French textbook program, engages students in the learning process from day one using an inductive methodology centered around guided observation and rule discovery. Together with students' communicative needs and an analysis of their most pervasive transfer errors from English, the everyday speech patterns of 100 native speakers — culled from 150 hours of unscripted recordings — form the linguistic backbone...

Comme on dit's companion website includes all homework exercises, enabling students to practice vocabulary, grammar, listening, and speaking. It capitalizes on technology to enrich the experience of students and teachers and improve learning outcomes. Following the sequence of the textbook, the website gives students their homework on a convenient and easy-to-use platform. Automatically graded and teacher-graded exercises provide students...

"Fotitch has done a service to teachers and students of Medieval Spanish in offering a ready source of materials which are scattered in many places, all in a pleasing form." - Hispania "This book is a convenient chrestomathy, well presented, and beautifully printed. Fotich brings together, for students who wish to begin the study of Old Spanish, an excellent choice of texts, succinctly annotated and reproduced from the best sources." - Bulletin Hispanique Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages...

Why Hebrew, here and now? What is its value for contemporary Americans? In What We Talk about When We Talk about Hebrew (and What It Means to Americans) scholars, writers, and translators tackle a series of urgent questions that arise from the changing status of Hebrew in the United States. To what extent is that status affected by evolving Jewish identities and shifting attitudes toward Israel and Zionism? Will Hebrew programs survive...