Topic
Teaching English Grammar or English Grammars? Contrasting the grammar of spoken and written university registers
Time: May 18 (Fri) 2:00pm-3:30pm
Venue: 中科院研究生院外语系
Biodata
Douglas Biber is Regents' Professor of English (Applied Linguistics) at Northern Arizona University. His research efforts have focused on corpus linguistics, English grammar, and register variation (in English and cross-linguistic; synchronic and diachronic). His publications include books published with Cambridge University Press (1988, 1995, 1998), Oxford University Press (1994), John Benjamins (2002, 2006), and the co-authored Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) and Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English (2002).
Summary
This talk introduces the notion of register, illustrated through case studies of four spoken and written registers from American universities: classroom teaching and office hours versus textbooks and course syllabi. The goals are to develop awareness of the different grammars used in spoken and written registers, and to describe some of the major linguistic characteristics of American university registers. The central premise of the talk is that there are many different grammars of English, when we consider the language from the perspective of use. That is, each register tends to use different grammatical structures and resources, associated with the functional needs of the register. These differences are often dramatic, and thus have important implications for language teaching.
Teaching English Grammar or English Grammars? Contrasting the grammar of spoken and written university registers
Time: May 18 (Fri) 2:00pm-3:30pm
Venue: 中科院研究生院外语系
Biodata
Douglas Biber is Regents' Professor of English (Applied Linguistics) at Northern Arizona University. His research efforts have focused on corpus linguistics, English grammar, and register variation (in English and cross-linguistic; synchronic and diachronic). His publications include books published with Cambridge University Press (1988, 1995, 1998), Oxford University Press (1994), John Benjamins (2002, 2006), and the co-authored Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) and Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English (2002).
Summary
This talk introduces the notion of register, illustrated through case studies of four spoken and written registers from American universities: classroom teaching and office hours versus textbooks and course syllabi. The goals are to develop awareness of the different grammars used in spoken and written registers, and to describe some of the major linguistic characteristics of American university registers. The central premise of the talk is that there are many different grammars of English, when we consider the language from the perspective of use. That is, each register tends to use different grammatical structures and resources, associated with the functional needs of the register. These differences are often dramatic, and thus have important implications for language teaching.
